Shoot First

This compelling memoir shares with the reader a unique perspective seen through the camera lens. The title of the book refers not only to being competitive in the field but to a mindset necessary for job survival: act now, react later. For 29 years (1968 to 1997), Hank Schoepp covered the news for KPIX, the CBS affiliate in San Francisco. There were events he documented in the camera and witnessed firsthand which commanded regional, national and worldwide attention. Among these: getting tear-gassed during student protest and rioting at U.C. Berkeley; Patricia Hearst’s kidnapping from start to finish; searching for a vanishing school bus, its driver and 26 children in Chowchilla, California; traveling to Guyana after a mass suicide of over 900 people in Jonestown; rushing to the murder scene of a San Francisco mayor and supervisor; accounting for the devastation of the Bay Area’s Loma Prieta Earthquake, and narrowly escaping flames of the Oakland Hills Firestorm. Many books have been written by and about broadcast journalists with interesting things to say. And yet few have spoken on behalf of those who perform on the other side of the camera lens. Finally, that voice is heard loud and clear with SHOOT FIRST: Code of the News Cameraman.

Hank Schoepp’s memoir spans 29 years (1968-1997), a significant period in television news history. While on assignment for KPIX/CBS 5 in San Francisco, he captured events through the lens of his camera which commanded regional, national and worldwide attention as well. Getting the pictures and bringing them back in time to air on the news often posed challenges, and Schoepp vividly recalls them with the stories behind the stories. A few among the many include tear gas attacks during student protests and rioting at U.C. Berkeley; the kidnapping saga of Patricia Hearst; the search for a vanishing school bus, driver and 26 children in Chowchilla, California; the aftermath of a mass suicide of over 900 people in Jonestown, Guyana; and rushing to the city hall murder scene of a San Francisco mayor and supervisor. But there is more to this story than yesterday’s headline news, and more than meets the eye of the cameraman who shot it first and thought about it later. Filling in the years between are all the other interesting people, places and things that happen on a newscast. Here again, the reader peers into the lens of a camera to focus on subjects of every stripe: from celebrity to man-on-the-street, to hero and heroine, criminal, victim, even animal, though not necessarily in that order of importance. And, looking beyond the lens is the more intimate view of family members and of how the news touched their lives as well. Many books have been written by and about broadcast journalists with interesting things to say. And yet few have spoken on behalf of those who perform on the other side of the camera lens. Finally, that voice is heard loud and clear with SHOOT FIRST: Code of the News Cameraman.

Before he became a news cameraman Hank Schoepp was a photographer's mate in the United States Navy and an animation cameraman at Walt Disney Studios. Ultimately, his career path, as originally planned in the film industry, took a different turn. Instead of being the member of a camera crew telling a fictional story through images over time, he found himself on his own, telling true stories every day while shooting the news for television. The author is blessed in abundance by his family of five children and seven grandchildren. Having retired from the video firing line, he now lives with his wife Drue in Las Vegas, following the news on television like most everyone else: as spectator rather than participant.