Steve Carver

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Steve Carver , also Steven Carver , (born April 5, 1945 in Brooklyn , New York ) is an American photographer , film director and film producer . He was best known in the 1970s and 1980s through films such as Capone , Der raging Charlie , Der Gigant , McQuade, der Wolf or River of Death - River of Horror .

life and career

Steve Carver, born in Brooklyn in 1945, began experimenting with a camera at the age of eight. After attending the High School of Music & Arts in Manhattan, where he received an education in art and music, he studied graphics and illustration at the University at Buffalo in New York with the help of a Regents scholarship . He took courses in photography and learned different techniques there. After further studies at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Carver took, thanks to another scholarship, a degree in classical arts with a focus on photography and film at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. After graduating with a Master of Fine Arts , Carver first worked as a freelance portrait photographer and photojournalist. In addition to later teaching activities at Florissant Valley College and the Metropolitan Education Council in the Arts in St. Louis, he repeatedly contributed as a photographer to well-known photo magazines such as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch , ABC-TV's Wide World of Sports , the Architectural Digest , the National Geographic or Time-Life magazine . He later also worked as a permanent photographer for United Press International .

After an invitation from the American Film Institute in Beverly Hills, California, he relocated to Los Angeles and for the next 25 years turned mainly to filmmaking. Through an apprenticeship program at the Directors Guild of America (DGA), Carver studied screenwriting, film directing and editing with George Stevens Jr. and the Czech filmmaker Frantisek Daniel and developed his craft initially as an assistant director and later as a director. In 1971 he directed and produced the short film The Tell-Tale Heart . Under the supervision of producer Roger Corman , Carver made his directorial debut in the cinema in 1974 with the crime comedy Love Bad Mama, starring Angie Dickinson , William Shatner and Tom Skerritt . Carver's next film, the Mafia biography Capone with the cast of Ben Gazzara , Susan Blakely and Harry Guardino , was also a Roger Corman production. After the Warren Oates film The Mandingos' Slave Hell in 1976, he directed the 1979 action comedy The Mad Charlie with David Carradine and Christopher Lee . It was the third and final film to be produced by Roger Corman. In the early 1980s, Steve Carver directed the two Chuck Norris action films The Giant and McQuade, the Wolf . From the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, Carver still directed half a dozen action films. During this time he worked with actors such as Gregory Harrison , Gary Busey and Michael Dudikoff . In 1996, the thriller The Wolves with Darren Dalton and Raimund Harmstorf was his last directorial work.

After filming was finished and he returned to Los Angeles from Russia, he was offered a partnership in a business; with his passion for photography rekindled in Russia, Carver decided to take a break from the film business and focused his attention on a company called The Darkroom in Venice Beach. As a technician, teacher and photographer, he subsequently managed this photo studio himself for five years. The Darkroom gained some popularity as a photography studio, attracting a core group of photography artists and serious students. In the interaction with restorers, scientists, private collectors, archivists and curators, Carver endeavors as a photographer with his work on a photo archive collection to preserve historical prints and negatives. In 2011 Steve Carver was awarded the CAP's Fellowships for Artists .

Filmography (selection)

As a director

  • 1971: The Tell-Tale Heart (short film)
  • 1974: The Arena
  • 1974: Love Bad Mama (Big Bad Mama)
  • 1975: Capone
  • 1976: The slave hell of the Mandingos (Drum)
  • 1979: The mad Charlie (Fast Charlie ... the Moonbeam Rider)
  • 1979: Six Men of Steel (Steel)
  • 1980: Angel City (TV movie) with Philip Leacock
  • 1981: The Gigant (An Eye for an Eye)
  • 1983: McQuade, the Wolf (Lone Wolf McQuade)
  • 1986: Daring Dogs (Oceans of Fire) (TV movie)
  • 1986: Jocks
  • 1988: Bullet Proof (Bulletproof)
  • 1989: River of Death - River of horror (River of Death)
  • 1993: Secret Force (Dead Center)
  • 1996: The Wolves (The Wolves)

As a producer

  • 1971: The Tell-Tale Heart (short film)
  • 1983: McQuade, the Wolf (Lone Wolf McQuade)

literature

  • Steve Carver. In: Fred Olen Ray The New Poverty Row: Independent Filmmakers as Distributors. , McFarland, 1991, p. 209

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Steve Carver. In: Jerry Roberts Encyclopedia of Television Film Directors. , Scarecrow Press, 2009, p. 77
  2. ↑ Steve Carver. In: David Walker, Andrew J. Rausch, Chris Watson Reflections on Blaxploitation: Actors and Directors Speak. , Scarecrow Press, 2009, p. 24
  3. ↑ CAP artist fellowships for Steve Carver
personal data
SURNAME Carver, Steve
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Carver, Steven (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American photographer, film director, and film producer
DATE OF BIRTH April 5, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn , New York , USA