Bill Saulnier

Basic Info:

Player: LordStonefish

Position: Anomaly Photography and Film Specialist.

Demeanor: Reserved

Nature: A quiet man who is a keen observer of human behavior and who constantly frames the world around him like a shot. Enthusiastic and driven with his work. Crafty and not above cheating to get the shots he wants and always carries a gun to provide some semblance of intimidation towards those who threaten his work. Most people find him quiet, helpful, and humble in everyday interactions, although he craves adventures to document.

Description: A tall, somewhat plain man of French descent with a long face and mournful eyes. His skin is weathered from fieldwork and his dapper, somewhat eccentric choices of clothes hide many scars. He tries to keep his brown hair neat and well-kept when around other people but often fails. Likes a Stetson or else a deerstalker hat for work.

Stats:

Health
  • Physical Health: 7
  • Mental Health: 7
Attributes
  • Physical Defense: 2
  • Mental Defense: 5
  • Perception: 6
  • Agility: 3
  • Strength: 1
Skills
  • Persuasion: 3
  • Bluff: 2
  • Ranged: 2
  • Survival: 4
  • Science: 2
  • Sneak: 3
  • Engineering: 4
Specialties
  • Photographer's Eye: 5. Years of quickly setting up shots has given Bill experience picking the fine details out of the background, and an ability to intuit if something is unsusual or dosen't fit into the "image" as it were. A careful eye for movement means things that are fleeting often don't escape Bill. In addition, experience in World War II has given Bill an eye for the microexpressions in others, and the details of the face pop out as much as those in the landscape.
  • "Shoot first, then ask forgiveness": 3. Has experience convincing suspicious authority figures of the necessity of his work by any means necessary. Can sneak his equipment into sensitive areas to film or photograph things they won't let him see.
  • Camera maintainence: 4. Has proficiency at developing film, editing film, and camera repair and he can quickly do so with the most minimal of equipment. This means he has a natural tendency towards chemistry and mechanical maintainence, and is able to understand certain machines, or at least intuit how they work. In addition, Bill is able to easily identify certain chemical formulas without having to extensively test them in a lab.

Gear:

  • Smith & Wesson pistol
  • Camera (in bag)
  • Tripod (in bag)
  • 35 mm Film stock for photography (in bag)
  • 16 mm Film stock for movies (in bag)
  • Small handheld film camera (in bag)
  • Lenses (in bag)
  • Wallet
Equipment:

None.

Possessions:

  • Editing machine
  • Darkroom equipment and chemicals for private use
  • Projector
  • Matches
  • Hats
  • Spare suits
  • Deck of cards
  • Several novels (between 3-7, rotating)
  • Additional lenses
  • 35 mm Film camera for special uses

Personal History:

William Saulnier was born in 1920 in Los Angeles, California to a father employed in the motion picture industry. From a young age he displayed a keen interest in the technical aspects of movies and showed a natural talent for photography. He avidly read photography magazines, attended camera club meetings, and went to photography and art exhibits, and often practiced his craft on family vacations to remote wilderness areas where he developed the stamina required to work in these sorts of environments as well as a taste for adventure.

As a young man, he began to work as a camera operator for Columbia Pictures while still only a teenager, practicing his craft on the set of many low-budget movies released by the studios while observing the quirks and kinks that defined many of his hardy, crusty craftsmen. But then came World War II. Only 20 years old, he enlisted in the Navy in 1940, and put his skills to use as a member of the Office of Strategic Services, serving as a newsreel and documentary cameraman under veteran film director John Ford. Saulnier put his skills to use as a cinematographer and served in both the Atlantic and Pacific, filming footage of the Battle of Midway and the Omaha Beach landing on D-Day, both under Ford. Towards the end of the war, the Navy recognized his services as a cameraman and sent him to Italy to help struggling Army director John Huston make The Battle of San Pietro.

Following the war, Saulnier continued his services as a newsreel cameraman and director and was able to use his military skills to worm himself and his crew into dangerous situations to help document dangerous situations. But however, he found that he had been changed by the war, and gradually found himself drifting away from the newsreel business and into directing nature documentaries and photographing small towns and their inhabitants in Central America, South America, Europe, and North Africa. While these movies never made much money, those who saw them praised the skill involved. It was during one of these shoots, in Mexico, that he was able to capture some of the first footage of SCP-[REDACTED] and the Foundation recognized both his skill and military training and recruited him to be one of the first people to head a Photography Department.

Languages

  • English
  • French
  • Italian

Miscellaneous:

  • Has worked with or under several great Hollywood directors
  • Once smuggled rare footage of a jaguar out of Venezuela by pretending to be a dentist, hiding the film in his suitcase
  • Is consistently paranoid on a low-level that someone is coming to destroy his work.

XP: 0

Name of Source/Purchase XP Change Date
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License