William Gazecki
Encyclopedia
William Gazecki is a documentary filmmaker and former sound mixer
best known for his Academy Award-nominated and News & Documentary Emmy Award winning film WACO: The Rules of Engagement (1997). The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival
, was awarded the International Documentary Association
's Distinguished Documentary Achievement Award, and won awards at both the Melbourne International Film Festival
and the Vancouver International Film Festival
.
Early documentary projects include the 5-part Lessons in Technical Remote Viewing
, produced in 1998 for self-proclaimed "PsySpy" and former Army Intelligence
maverick Major Ed Dames. Prior to that, his The Natural Solutions, produced with Susan Stafford
for PBS broadcast in 1993, impacted then-pending legislation attempting to limit public access to vitamin
s and health food supplements. He followed WACO: The Rules of Engagement with the feature-length documentary Reckless Indifference (2000), produced with Chip Rosenbloom
, about a convicted felon
named Brandon Hein
. Reckless Indifference won a Golden Satellite Award from the International Press Academy
, and was broadcast extensively on the Starz Channel.
Gazecki's Crop Circles: Quest for Truth, released theatrically in 2002, is an examination of the mysterious, worldwide crop circle
phenomenon. The film won Best Documentary at the Thomas Edison Film Festival, and was broadcast on the SciFi Channel
. His next release, Invisible Ballots (2004), produced for Libertarian stalwart G. Edward Griffin
and featuring noted activist Bev Harris
, presented a critical examination of the issues surrounding electronic voting
technology. Around this time he co-produced radio and TV spots for longtime friend Aaron Russo
in Aaron's bid to be elected Governor of Nevada. He also spent close to a year shooting the multipart educational series Energy From the Vacuum featuring Tom Bearden and John Bedini
.
He has partnered with LeVar Burton
on a series for PBS entitled The Science of Peace, and in 2006 completed Future by Design, a feature-length profile of Jacque Fresco
, known for The Venus Project
and The Zeitgeist Movement
. In 2007, he was completing Behind the Masks: The Story of the Screen Actors Guild, a 4-part, 5-hour documentary mini-series for the SAG Foundation
. In 2008 William was asked to help complete the environmental documentary Vanishing of the Bees
, which concerns the unexplained collapse of millions of beehives throughout the world. That year he also had the unique opportunity to shoot reclusive record producer Phil Spector
for a documentary on the late John Lennon
. In December 2009 he began work on the filmic biography of world-renowned vaudeville impressaria Sophie Tucker
, the Last of the Red Hot Mamas.
William's early days began in a music recording studio with Liberace
and Andy Williams
. Following that was a recording and touring stint with classic rocker Joe Cocker
(Luxury You Can Afford
), aided by Sax-man Bobby Keys
and Woodstock producer Michael Lang. During this period he also worked with Pure Prairie League
(Takin' the Stage), Jesse Colin Young
(American Dreams), The Cate Brothers
(The Cate Brothers Band), Nick Gilder
(You Know Who You Are
), Richie Furay
(Dance a Little Light), and Jackie De Shannon (You're the Only Dancer
), as well as a brief stint with record producer Richard Perry
on the Leo Sayer
album Endless Flight
. The height of his music recording career was collaborating with one of the great record producers of all-time, Paul A. Rothchild
, who William considers his most memorable and respected mentor. Together, Rothchild and Gazecki completed The Rose
(with Bette Midler
), and two albums for The Doors
(Alive She Cried and Greatest Hits, Volume II). They also produced actress/singer Katey Sagal
's earliest solo recordings.
Gazecki came to documentary filmmaking in 1991 after a multiple Emmy Award
career in post-production sound mixing for film and television on such productions as The Rose
, Dune
, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Hill Street Blues
, St. Elsewhere
(for which he was a co-recipient of an Emmy Award
for sound mixing in 1986), Moonlighting
, thirtysomething, and In the Heat of the Night
. Gazecki also received awards for sound mixing from both the Cinema Audio Society
(CAS) and the Motion Picture Sound Editors
society (MPSE), and several Gold and Platinum
albums.
In 2005 William became a member of the Directors Guild of America
(DGA), and immediately began serving on the Documentary Selection Committee which determines the recipient of the DGA Documentary Award. In 2009 he was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
(AMPAS), and serves on a similar Screening Committee to select the nominees for the Oscar for Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking. William currently resides in San Francisco with offices at the Zaentz Media Center in Berkeley.
WILLIAM GAZECKI—THE FILMS
Audio mixing (film and television)
Audio mixing for film and television is a process during the post-production stage of a moving image program by which a multitude of recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels...
best known for his Academy Award-nominated and News & Documentary Emmy Award winning film WACO: The Rules of Engagement (1997). The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
, was awarded the International Documentary Association
International Documentary Association
International Documentary Association , founded in 1982, is a non-profit organization promoting documentary film, video and new media, to support the efforts of documentary filmmaking and video production makers around the world and to increase public appreciation and demand for the art of the...
's Distinguished Documentary Achievement Award, and won awards at both the Melbourne International Film Festival
Melbourne International Film Festival
The Melbourne International Film Festival is an acclaimed annual film festival held over three weeks in Melbourne, Australia. It was founded in 1951, making it one of the oldest in the World....
and the Vancouver International Film Festival
Vancouver International Film Festival
The Vancouver International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for two weeks in late September and early October...
.
Early documentary projects include the 5-part Lessons in Technical Remote Viewing
Remote viewing
Remote viewing is the practice of seeking impressions about a distant or unseen target using paranormal means, in particular, extra-sensory perception or "sensing with mind"...
, produced in 1998 for self-proclaimed "PsySpy" and former Army Intelligence
Military Intelligence Corps (United States Army)
In the United States Armed Forces, Military Intelligence refers specifically to the intelligence components of the United States Army...
maverick Major Ed Dames. Prior to that, his The Natural Solutions, produced with Susan Stafford
Susan Stafford
Susan Stafford was the original hostess of the game show Wheel of Fortune from January 6, 1975 until she left on October 22, 1982...
for PBS broadcast in 1993, impacted then-pending legislation attempting to limit public access to vitamin
Vitamin
A vitamin is an organic compound required as a nutrient in tiny amounts by an organism. In other words, an organic chemical compound is called a vitamin when it cannot be synthesized in sufficient quantities by an organism, and must be obtained from the diet. Thus, the term is conditional both on...
s and health food supplements. He followed WACO: The Rules of Engagement with the feature-length documentary Reckless Indifference (2000), produced with Chip Rosenbloom
Chip Rosenbloom
Dale "Chip" Rosenbloom, the son of Carroll Rosenbloom and Georgia Frontiere, is part owner of the St. Louis Rams alongside his sister Lucia Rodriguez, which they inherited from their mother...
, about a convicted felon
Felony
A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...
named Brandon Hein
Brandon Hein
Brandon Wade Hein was sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole for his involvement in the 1995 stabbing murder of 16 year-old Jimmy Farris, the son of an LAPD police officer....
. Reckless Indifference won a Golden Satellite Award from the International Press Academy
International Press Academy
The International Press Academy is a large and diverse association of professional entertainment journalists, representing both domestic and foreign markets in print, television, radio, cable and new media outlets. The academy was founded in 1996 by Mirjana Van Blaricom...
, and was broadcast extensively on the Starz Channel.
Gazecki's Crop Circles: Quest for Truth, released theatrically in 2002, is an examination of the mysterious, worldwide crop circle
Crop circle
A crop circle is a sizable pattern created by the flattening of a crop such as wheat, barley, rye, maize, or rapeseed. Crop circles are also referred to as crop formations, because they are not always circular in shape. While the exact date crop circles began to appear is unknown, the documented...
phenomenon. The film won Best Documentary at the Thomas Edison Film Festival, and was broadcast on the SciFi Channel
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
. His next release, Invisible Ballots (2004), produced for Libertarian stalwart G. Edward Griffin
G. Edward Griffin
G. Edward Griffin is an American film producer, author, and political lecturer. He is perhaps best known as the author of The Creature from Jekyll Island , a critique of much modern economic theory and practice, specifically the Federal Reserve System.Starting as a child actor, he became a radio...
and featuring noted activist Bev Harris
Bev Harris
Bev Harris is an American writer, activist, and founder of Black Box Voting Inc., a national nonpartisan, nonprofit elections watchdog group. She helped popularize the term Black Box Voting, while authoring a book of that title....
, presented a critical examination of the issues surrounding electronic voting
Electronic voting
Electronic voting is a term encompassing several different types of voting, embracing both electronic means of casting a vote and electronic means of counting votes....
technology. Around this time he co-produced radio and TV spots for longtime friend Aaron Russo
Aaron Russo
Aaron Russo was an American entertainment businessman, movie producer and director, and political activist. He was best-known for producing such blockbuster movies as Trading Places, Wise Guys, and The Rose...
in Aaron's bid to be elected Governor of Nevada. He also spent close to a year shooting the multipart educational series Energy From the Vacuum featuring Tom Bearden and John Bedini
John Bedini
John Bedini of the Bedini Electronics company is an electrical engineer. He created B.A.S.E., an audio signal processor; and he has filed patents for a number of audio technologies...
.
He has partnered with LeVar Burton
LeVar Burton
Levardis Robert Martyn Burton, Jr. , professionally known as LeVar Burton, is an American actor, director, producer and author who first came to prominence portraying Kunta Kinte in the 1977 award-winning ABC television miniseries Roots, based on the novel by Alex Haley...
on a series for PBS entitled The Science of Peace, and in 2006 completed Future by Design, a feature-length profile of Jacque Fresco
Jacque Fresco
Jacque Fresco , is a self-educated structural designer, philosopher of science, concept artist, educator, and futurist. His interests span a wide range of disciplines including several in philosophy, science, and engineering...
, known for The Venus Project
The Venus Project
The Venus Project is an organization that advocates the futurist visions of the American Jacque Fresco, with the aim of improving society with a global sustainable social design that it calls a "resource-based economy"...
and The Zeitgeist Movement
The Zeitgeist Movement
The Zeitgeist Movement was founded in 2008 by Peter Joseph. The movement advocates the replacement of current civilization with a money-free and cybernated "resource-based economy". The Zeitgeist Movement and the Venus Project promote replacing human labour with automation, government will be...
. In 2007, he was completing Behind the Masks: The Story of the Screen Actors Guild, a 4-part, 5-hour documentary mini-series for the SAG Foundation
Screen Actors Guild
The Screen Actors Guild is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide...
. In 2008 William was asked to help complete the environmental documentary Vanishing of the Bees
Vanishing of the Bees
Vanishing of the Bees is a 2009 documentary film by Hive Mentality Films & Hipfuel films, directed by George Langworthy and Maryam Henein and released in the United Kingdom on October 9. The story centers around the sudden disappearance of honey bees from beehives around the world, caused by the...
, which concerns the unexplained collapse of millions of beehives throughout the world. That year he also had the unique opportunity to shoot reclusive record producer Phil Spector
Phil Spector
Phillip Harvey "Phil" Spector is an American record producer and songwriter, later known for his conviction in the murder of actress Lana Clarkson....
for a documentary on the late John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
. In December 2009 he began work on the filmic biography of world-renowned vaudeville impressaria Sophie Tucker
Sophie Tucker
Sophie Tucker was a Russian/Ukrainian-born American singer and actress. Known for her stentorian delivery of comical and risqué songs, she was one of the most popular entertainers in America during the first half of the 20th century...
, the Last of the Red Hot Mamas.
William's early days began in a music recording studio with Liberace
Liberace
Wladziu Valentino Liberace , best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist.In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned...
and Andy Williams
Andy Williams
Howard Andrew "Andy" Williams is an American singer who has recorded 18 Gold- and three Platinum-certified albums. He hosted The Andy Williams Show, a TV variety show, from 1962 to 1971, as well as numerous television specials, and owns his own theater, the Moon River Theatre in Branson, Missouri,...
. Following that was a recording and touring stint with classic rocker Joe Cocker
Joe Cocker
John Robert "Joe" Cocker, OBE is an English rock and blues musician, composer and actor, who came to popularity in the 1960s, and is most known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic arm movements while performing, and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles...
(Luxury You Can Afford
Luxury You Can Afford
Luxury You Can Afford is the seventh studio album by Joe Cocker, released in 1978 on Asylum Records, his only release for that label.-Track listing:# "Fun Time" - 2:39# "Watching the River Flow" - 3:16...
), aided by Sax-man Bobby Keys
Bobby Keys
Bobby Keys is an American saxophone player, and has performed with other musicians as a member of one of the notable horn sections of the 1970s. He appears on albums by The Rolling Stones, The Who, Harry Nilsson, Delaney Bramlett, George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, Eric Clapton and Joe...
and Woodstock producer Michael Lang. During this period he also worked with Pure Prairie League
Pure Prairie League
Pure Prairie League, sometimes abbreviated PPL, is an American country-rock band whose roots began between 1964 and 1969 in Waverly, Ohio with Craig Fuller, George Powell, Tom McGrail, Jim Caughlan and John David Call. In 1970 McGrail named the band after a 19th century temperance union mentioned...
(Takin' the Stage), Jesse Colin Young
Jesse Colin Young
Jesse Colin Young is an American singer / songwriter / folksinger and a founding member of the group The Youngbloods.-Early life:...
(American Dreams), The Cate Brothers
Cate Brothers
The Cate Brothers are the singer-songwriter-musician duo of Earl and Ernie Cate, twin brothers from Fayetteville, Arkansas, who in the mid 1960s became performers of southern soul music at clubs and dances throughout the regional South of the United States. Both brothers are singers, with Earl on...
(The Cate Brothers Band), Nick Gilder
Nick Gilder
Nicholas George "Nick" Gilder , is an English-Canadian musician who first came to prominence as the frontman for the glam rock band Sweeney Todd. He later had a successful solo career as a singer as well as a songwriter.-Biography:...
(You Know Who You Are
You Know Who You Are
You Know Who You Are is the first solo album by Nick Gilder, released in 1977 on Chrysalis Records.-Side A:# "All Across the Nation " – 4:08# "Backstreet Noise" – 3:03# "Rated X" – 3:06# "Poor Boy" – 3:00# "Genevieve" – 3:23...
), Richie Furay
Richie Furay
Richie Furay is an American singer, songwriter, and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame member who is best known for forming the bands Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Neil Young, Bruce Palmer, and Dewey Martin, and Poco with Jim Messina, Rusty Young, George Grantham and Randy Meisner...
(Dance a Little Light), and Jackie De Shannon (You're the Only Dancer
You're the Only Dancer
You're the Only Dancer is an LP album by Jackie DeShannon, released by Amherst Records as catalog number AMH-1010 in 1977.-Track listing:...
), as well as a brief stint with record producer Richard Perry
Richard Perry
Richard Perry is an American music producer. Perry began as a performer in his adolescence, but shifted gears after graduating college and rose through the late 1960s and early 1970s to become a highly successful and popular record producer with over a dozen gold records to his credit by 1982...
on the Leo Sayer
Leo Sayer
Leo Sayer is a British singer-songwriter, musician, and entertainer whose singing career has spanned four decades. Sayer became a naturalised Australian citizen in 2009. Sayer was a top singles and album act on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1970s...
album Endless Flight
Endless Flight
-Track listing:# "Hold On To My Love" # "You Make Me Feel Like Dancing" # "Reflections" # "When I Need You"...
. The height of his music recording career was collaborating with one of the great record producers of all-time, Paul A. Rothchild
Paul A. Rothchild
Paul A. Rothchild was a prominent American record producer of the late 1960s and 1970s.-Early years:Born in Brooklyn, New York, Rothchild grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey and graduated from Teaneck High School in 1953....
, who William considers his most memorable and respected mentor. Together, Rothchild and Gazecki completed The Rose
The Rose (soundtrack)
The Rose is the soundtrack to the feature film of the same name starring Bette Midler which was released in 1980. Midler performs all the songs on the album, with the exception of the instrumental "Camellia"...
(with Bette Midler
Bette Midler
Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...
), and two albums for The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
(Alive She Cried and Greatest Hits, Volume II). They also produced actress/singer Katey Sagal
Katey Sagal
Catherine Louise "Katey" Sagal is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She first achieved widespread fame as Peggy Bundy on the long-running Fox comedy series Married.....
's earliest solo recordings.
Gazecki came to documentary filmmaking in 1991 after a multiple Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
career in post-production sound mixing for film and television on such productions as The Rose
The Rose (film)
The Rose is a 1979 American musical drama film which tells the story of a self-destructive 1960s rock star who struggles to cope with the constant pressures of her career and the demands of her ruthless business manager...
, Dune
Dune (film)
Dune is a 1984 science fiction film written and directed by David Lynch, based on the 1965 Frank Herbert novel of the same name. The film stars Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Atreides, and includes an ensemble of well-known American and European actors in supporting roles. It was filmed at the Churubusco...
, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues is an American serial police drama that was first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. Chronicling the lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city, the show received critical acclaim and its production innovations ...
, St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere
St. Elsewhere is an American medical drama television series that originally ran on NBC from October 26, 1982 to May 25, 1988. The series is set at fictional St. Eligius, a decaying urban teaching hospital in Boston's South End neighborhood...
(for which he was a co-recipient of an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
for sound mixing in 1986), Moonlighting
Moonlighting (TV series)
Moonlighting is an American television series that aired on ABC from March 3, 1985, to May 14, 1989. The network aired a total of 66 episodes...
, thirtysomething, and In the Heat of the Night
In the Heat of the Night (TV series)
In the Heat of the Night is a television series based on the motion picture and novel of the same name. It was broadcast on NBC from 1988 until 1992, and then on CBS until 1995...
. Gazecki also received awards for sound mixing from both the Cinema Audio Society
Cinema Audio Society Awards
Cinema Audio Society Awards or The C.A.S. Awards is an annual awards ceremony honoring Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing. The awards are presented by the Cinema Audio Society and began in 1994.It hands out awards for three categories:*Feature films...
(CAS) and the Motion Picture Sound Editors
Motion Picture Sound Editors
Founded in 1953, Motion Picture Sound Editors is an honorary society of motion picture sound editors. The society's goals are to educate others about and increase the recognition of the sound editors, show the artistic merit of the soundtracks, and improve the professional relationship of its...
society (MPSE), and several Gold and Platinum
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
albums.
In 2005 William became a member of the Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America is an entertainment labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...
(DGA), and immediately began serving on the Documentary Selection Committee which determines the recipient of the DGA Documentary Award. In 2009 he was invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
(AMPAS), and serves on a similar Screening Committee to select the nominees for the Oscar for Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking. William currently resides in San Francisco with offices at the Zaentz Media Center in Berkeley.
External links
WILLIAM GAZECKI—THE PERSON- Official website William's Official Website
- Official Facebook Fan Page William's Official Facebook Fan Page
- Official YouTube Channel William's YouTube Channel
- Official IMDb Page William's IMDb Page
- MySpace Page William's MySpace Page
WILLIAM GAZECKI—THE FILMS
- Official movie website WACO: The Rules of Engagement
- Official movie website Reckless Indifference
- Official movie website Crop Circles: Quest for Truth
- Official movie website Invisible Ballots
- Official movie website Future by Design
- Official movie website Show Me the Way
- Official movie website Vanishing of the Bees
- Netflix Page William's Netflix Page
- Amazon.com Page William's Amazon.com Page