William McDonald Named Chair of the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media at UCLA

William McDonald has been appointed chair of the Department of Film, Television and Digital Media at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television. He will begin his new position on July 1, dean Teri Schwartz announced Wednesday.

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McDonald succeeds film producer and professor Barbara Boyle, who, Schwartz said “has successfully served as our FTVDM chair for nine years with great distinction, outstanding leadership and groundbreaking initiatives.”

McDonald is currently FTVDM vice-chair of undergraduate studies and head of cinematography. He inaugurated the Cinematographer in Residence program and alliance with Kodak and enlisted Dante Spinotti, Vilmos Zsigmond, Roger Deakins, Laszlo Kovacs, Conrad Hall and Dean Cundey to serve as Cinematographers in Residence. 

He also serving as vice chair for production at TFT from 1998-2003, helping to convert UCLA’s post-production facilities from analog to digital technology.

“While he has very tall shoes to fill in Barbara Boyle’s long and illustrious time as chair, Bill’s vision, talent, experiences and collaborative spirit position him perfectly to take the reigns of this outstanding department and build upon the excellence of the department’s programs,” Schwartz said.