Bob Heiber Collection
Inclusive Dates
1972 – 1979
Bulk Dates
1972 – 1979
Abstract
The Bob Heiber Collection is made up of student films, 16mm industrial films and 35mm filmstrips produced at Pilot Productions in Evanston, Illinois from 1976 until 1979. For all of the films in the collection, Bob was the film editor and sound mixer. In the later films he was also the director. These films are representative of the kinds of corporate sponsored films made to demonstrate new products or techniques. With the introduction of video technologies at the end of the 1970s much of this work was taken “in-house” to corporate communication departments and 16mm film production for corporate films rapidly declined.
In the Bob Heiber Collection, locations range from constructions sites all around the United States as well as scenes filmed around the Chicagoland area.
In the Bob Heiber Collection, locations range from constructions sites all around the United States as well as scenes filmed around the Chicagoland area.
Collection Items
To request more information about the items in this collection, please contact the archive at
info@chicagofilmarchives.org.
Items with Viewable Media
Collection Identifier
C.2017-05
Extent of Collection
9 reels of 16mm film totaling 4300 feet, 1 3/4" Umatic tape, 2 35mm film strips, 2 audio cassettes and 1 folder of production stills and paper ephemera.
Language Of Materials
English
Custodial History
The collection was housed in Heiber's home in Calabasa, CA, until it was gifted to CFA in 2017.
Related Collections
Access Restrictions
This collection is open to on-site access. Appointments must be made with Chicago Film Archives. Due to the fragile nature of the films, only video copies will be provided for on-site viewing.
Creators
Heiber, Bob
(was source of)
Robert J. (Bob) Heiber was born in Cleveland, Ohio and attended Purdue University receiving a BA in Radio-TV-Film in 1973. After exhausting the relatively few film production opportunities in Northern Ohio, Bob went to Chicago, Illinois looking for film production work. The Chicago area, at that time, had many well-known studios that made corporate films for sales and training as well as educational film production companies. By December 1973, Bob was working at Pilot Productions, in Evanston, Illinois; a long established full service corporate film company. Bob started as a production assistant and quickly learned voice and location recording, sound editing and mixing and advanced editorial skills including conforming camera original film. By 1977, Bob added directing duties to his work at Pilot. Bob left Pilot in mid-1979 to pursue career opportunities in Los Angeles. In LA, he was the manager of Technical Operations at Warner Hollywood Studios, before joining Chace Productions as General Manager in 1990. He became president of Chace in 1992 and continued his career there until 2014.
Bob is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and he received the Silver Light Award from the Association of Moving Image Archivists in 2014 for career achievement. He is currently the President of the Board of The Rick Chace Foundation, which produces educational programs on the history of sound in motion pictures along with the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
Robert J. (Bob) Heiber was born in Cleveland, Ohio and attended Purdue University receiving a BA in Radio-TV-Film in 1973. After exhausting the relatively few film production opportunities in Northern Ohio, Bob went to Chicago, Illinois looking for film production work. The Chicago area, at that time, had many well-known studios that made corporate films for sales and training as well as educational film production companies. By December 1973, Bob was working at Pilot Productions, in Evanston, Illinois; a long established full service corporate film company. Bob started as a production assistant and quickly learned voice and location recording, sound editing and mixing and advanced editorial skills including conforming camera original film. By 1977, Bob added directing duties to his work at Pilot. Bob left Pilot in mid-1979 to pursue career opportunities in Los Angeles. In LA, he was the manager of Technical Operations at Warner Hollywood Studios, before joining Chace Productions as General Manager in 1990. He became president of Chace in 1992 and continued his career there until 2014.
Bob is a member of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences and he received the Silver Light Award from the Association of Moving Image Archivists in 2014 for career achievement. He is currently the President of the Board of The Rick Chace Foundation, which produces educational programs on the history of sound in motion pictures along with the UCLA Film and Television Archive.