Gottfried Wilhelm "Billy" Bitzer (April 21, 1872 – April 29, 1944) was a pioneering American cinematographer notable for his close association with D. W. Griffith. In 2003, a survey conducted by the International Cinematographers Guild named him one of the ten most influential cinematographers in history. Bitzer, it is said, "developed camera techniques that set the standard for all future motion pictures."
Total trailers found: 273
28 January 1909
Antonine, a worthless, good-for-nothing scoundrel, demands money of his cousin Galora, an energetic, provident husband and father.
24 January 1910
An old colonel is proud as a peacock: his son leads a group of volunteers in the American Civil War. Untill one day his son returns home as a deserter.
02 August 1914
Thwarted by his despotic uncle from continuing his love affair, a young man's thoughts turn dark as he dwells on ways to deal with his uncle.
04 September 1916
The story of a poor young woman, separated by prejudice from her husband and baby, is interwoven with tales of intolerance from throughout history.
06 November 1911
Union soldiers march off to battle amid cheering crowds. After the battle turns against the Union Army, one soldier runs away, hiding in his girlfriend's house.
09 September 1912
The physician's death orphans his two adolescent daughters. Their older brother is able to convert some of the doctor's small estate to cash.
23 May 1910
Ramona, residing on her wealthy Spanish adoptive mother's rancho in California, falls in love with the Indian Alessandro.
02 September 1909
The Count sets out to make a private room for him and his Countess, built in such a way no one can see, hear, and most importantly, disturb them.
31 October 1912
A man recognizes the thief who had previously robbed him as one of the men involved in an unrelated mob shootout.
25 January 1909
A pair of young ladies cause trouble at the cinema with their lavish hats.
15 February 1909
An upper class drawing room. A gentleman breaks the curtain pole and goes in search of a replacement, but he stops into a pub first.
03 September 1920
A naive country girl is tricked into a sham marriage by a wealthy womanizer, then must rebuild her life despite the taint of having borne a child out of wedlock.
13 May 1919
The love story of an abused English girl and a Chinese Buddhist in a time when London was a brutal and harsh place to live.
16 January 1911
A Confederate officer is called off to war. He leaves his wife and daughter in the care of George, his faithful Negro servant.
25 September 1910
A young girl living in Salem attracts the attentions of The Puritan. After he's brushed off by the girl, he becomes furious and desiring revenge, declares to a council of elders that the girl and her mother are witches.
13 December 1909
On a whim, a greedy tycoon decides to corner the world market in wheat. This doubles the price of bread, forcing grain producers into charity lines and others further into poverty.
08 February 1915
Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine.
13 June 1910
During the Civil War, a father living in a border state leaves to join the Union Army. After he leaves, Confederate troops forage on his property, where a soldier encounters one of his daughters.
05 June 1905
The camera platform was on the front of a New York subway train following another train on the same track.
19 December 1912
The story of the massacre of an Indian village, and the ensuing retaliation.
11 August 1918
Jim Young of Youngstown, Pennsylvania, reads of the German war atrocities and decides to enlist in the British army, thus becoming a forerunner of the American forces that are subsequently to leave for the battlefields of Europe.
23 March 1911
A young woman takes over her sick father's role as telegraph operator at a railway station, and has to deal with a team intent on train robbery.
08 March 1914
Griffith adapts the story of the Apocryphal Book of Judith to the screen. During the siege of the Jewish city of Bethulia by the Assyrian tyrant Holofernes, a widow named Judith forms a plan to stop the war as her people suffer in starvation, nearly ready to surrender.
21 January 1909
Mr. Jones, since his last escapade, had made strenuous efforts to amend the reputation he had gained in the eyes of the ladies of the Temperance League.
05 December 1912
To fulfill a dying mother's bequest for her daughter, the town pastor purchases the daughter a stylish hat, and gossip spreads through the town.
27 August 1911
A poor girl is secretly in love with a wealthy young planter.
18 August 1919
After the relatively low box office takings of 'Intolerance', D. W. Griffith would revisit his epic film three years later by releasing two of the film's interlocking stories as standalone features, with some new additional footage.
21 August 1920
A man murders his wife's lover and escapes with his daughter to the South Pacific. A detective pursues him, joined by a young man who eventually falls in love with the daughter.
20 November 1911
Thieves decide to steal the money an old miser has hidden away. He refuses to open the safe for them, so they threaten to kill a little girl who lives in his building.
26 January 1919
John Logan leaves his parents and sweetheart in bucolic Happy Valley to make his fortune in the city.
14 January 1909
Oh, the woe of simultaneous birthdays, as were Mr. and Mrs. Hardlucks', and both being of a generous nature, were seized with an insatiable desire to make on this anniversary of their nativity suitable gifts, each to the other, Hardluck has a watch, but no fob.
20 December 1909
The children of a household attempt to capture Santa, but they catch something else entirely.
07 November 1910
Two Johns, a Confederate and an Union soldier, leave their families to go to the front. After a skirmish they end up separated from their respective sides, the Union soldier shoots the Confederate, but he has to escape and look for refuge in the house of his enemy.
26 July 1911
A wagon train heading west across the great desert runs out of water, and is attacked by Indians. One man -- their last hope -- is sent out to find water.
20 March 1911
Harry wants to marry Dolly, a showgirl, but only on the condition that she can win over his disapproving father.
26 February 1912
Set in a tenement, a lonely confirmed bachelor occupies a room across the hall from a dour spinster. Children run amok in the hallways playing pranks on the two.
21 June 1913
A young couple struggle to get ahead, the wife always assuaging the troubles of her melancholy husband.
16 December 1912
In this latter day Cain and Abel story, a jealous brother strikes down his sibling just as a young burglar is about to enter the house.
29 April 1912
A young woman's peaceful existence is shattered when she is abducted by the crew of a boat of smugglers, who then also turn against their captain.
09 August 1909
Two lovers elope and expect to be pursued by her father. But the clever father has tricked them into running off, and celebrates their wedding when they return home.
15 August 1910
A wealthy, callous moneylender finds a terrifying way to learn about money's limitations.
14 July 1908
On a warm and sunny summer's day, a mother and father take their young daughter Dollie on a riverside outing.
11 March 1918
A group of youngsters grow up and love in a peaceful French village. But war intrudes and peace is shattered.
17 July 1910
An experiment goes wrong and blinds a newly married chemist. The chemist's wife does not want to take on the burden of caring for the blind chemist, and her younger sister take her place.
01 May 1904
Billy Bitzer filmed 21 short actualities inside the Pittsburgh Westinghouse Works in April and May of 1904.
29 September 1912
It's love at first sight for the Boy, but obstacles-- namely shyness, and the temerity of other suitors-- place themselves in the way of his love.
01 June 1914
A dramatic comparison between the mating habits of animals and the way humans choose their own partners.
30 April 1904
Almost 200 women file by a device on the wall from which they take their time checks. A man runs half-way across the screen at the end of the film.
22 December 1918
A lost film. Leo Peret has a small quiet tobacco shop in Greenwich Village. Edward Livingston, a wealthy young clubman and man-about-town, comes in frequently ostensibly to buy cigarettes but in reality to talk to the daughter Jeannette, and he is soon in love with the little shop girl.
05 May 1910
In this story set at a seaside fishing village and inspired by a Charles Kingsley poem, a young couple's happy life is turned about by an accident.
01 May 1906
Footage shot not long after the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco is edited together so that more than one scene and more than one vantage are included.
02 January 2021
A documentary that details the process of restoring 270 of the 520 lost films of pioneering director Georges Méliès, all orchestrated by a Franco-American collaboration between Lobster Films, the National Film Center, and the Library of Congress.
28 March 1912
A train-station telegraphist warns the next station of approaching bandits.
19 December 1910
Short drama about the commandment "honour your father and your mother".
21 May 1923
A wealthy young Southern aristocrat, Joseph, graduates from a seminary and, before he takes charge of his assigned parish, decides to go out and see what "the real world" is all about.
04 December 1908
The central figure is an old miser, a Harpagon of sorts, who, like Frosine, stashes his ill-gotten money in a secret cellar.
18 January 1911
Continuing where His Trust (1911) leaves off, George takes care of his deceased master's daughter after her mother's death.
11 August 1934
In this short film, an elderly cameraman and his camera reminisce about their days shooting silent films and news stories.
26 June 1912
Nora, the waif, is forced to attend school. She warms to her teacher for the way that he defends her against the taunts of some of the students, but when she's made to wear a dunce cap, she flees the schoolhouse in shame.
21 July 1919
After the relatively low box office takings of 'Intolerance', D. W. Griffith would revisit his epic film three years later by releasing two of the film's interlocking stories as standalone features, with some new additional footage.
