Shooting on a “Dateline NBC” story had wrapped for the day, and in Buffalo, NY cameraman Vince Gancie was all set to lead the crew to a restaurant famous for inventing the city’s iconic spicy chicken wings.

Then Gancie remembered another thing that Buffalo was famous for: Niagara Falls, where the glorious backdrop and late afternoon sun would provide the perfect opportunity to break in his new, state-of-the-art High-Definition camera.

“Vince proceeded to shoot what seemed like every drop of water coming off the Falls,” remembers John Greco, a former producer on “Dateline NBC” and Vince’s boss on the shoot. “This was April in Buffalo, and we were all freezing! ‘Niagara Falls will still be here in the morning,’ we yelled, but to no avail. Frozen feet and rumbling stomachs were no match for Vince getting the ultimate ‘beauty shot.’ But that was why we hired him in the first place.”

That was Vince Gancie. The award-winning film and video cameraman, network news Director of Photography (DP) and documentarian, whose zest for life blended seamlessly with a perfectionist’s devotion to his craft, succumbed to a heart attack on Aug. 16, two days after his 68th birthday.

He and Greco, with whom Gancie remained friends, were working on an editing project at the time he was stricken.

Gancie, of Bethesda, is survived by a daughter, Magdalena (Lena) and son, Luca; by sisters Patrice Gancie and Rosalie Gancie and several nieces and nephews. A brother, Michael Gancie, predeceased him. His marriage to Joan Roskosh ended in divorce.

Vincent Michael Gancie was born Aug 14, 1953 in Brooklyn, NY, the son of Joseph J. and Ruth May (Peters) Gancie. The family re-located to Wheaton, MD in 1956.

Vince graduated from Good Counsel High School in Olney, MD and American University.

His professional resume was as varied as it was distinguished. 

By the early 80s, Vince’s talent for capturing (and lighting) the essence of a story earned him the role of senior camera op at a video staffing and production house in DC. With his accomplished eye and determination not to miss a shot, he parlayed freelance gigs through that into time as a staff shooter with Metromedia’s first stab at national news. (Vince was already well-versed in the craziness of White House travel, from his Dad’s DC/Moscow hotline support trips and the endless supply of memorabilia Joe Gancie had stashed in the family basement.) 

But Vince was always a freelancer at heart with a drive to be his own boss,  even when it meant the endless extra hours he put into a the details of a shoot or later into editing meant only lost sleep if not more billable hours. 

He proved indispensible to networks and producers, so much so that he was able to turn those Datelline gigs with NBC into an unheard-of private production office inside the network’s DC bureau. Vince was always proud of that office and the work he did there. It didn’t hurt, he figured, that it also scored him permanent access to the discount code for NBC’s Hertz account.  

At “Dateline NBC,” where Gancie worked during the 1990s and 2000s, he was principal cameraman on dozens of stories over the years highlighting the crash-worthiness, and lack of it, of vehicles being tested by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

Beginning in 1991, Vince was director of photography for a decades-long, multi-part documentary series on former President and World War II commander Dwight D. Eisenhower. The series, whose hosts included Colin Powell and John Chancellor, aired on the Discovery Channel and later the Disney and History channels. Vince shot most of the 125 interviews around the world for the series.

Other notable work included a documentary on the “Navajo Code Talkers,” Native American troops who, during World War II, developed a code for battlefield radio communication based on the Navajo language that the Japanese couldn’t crack.

Vince was co-executive producer and director of photography on the film “The Cave of the Glowing Skulls,” for the Archeology Channel. This required shooting in subterranean light thrown off by calcite fragments in bones stored in a Native ossuary in Honduras. After squeezing through tight cave openings, Gancie and his crew filmed archeologists as they explored the hidden tomb, and captured images as stunning as they were eerie.

For the Library of Congress, Vince ran the camera for ten one-hour shows on the status of public libraries around the world. The series focused on libraries in Russia and Czechoslovakia and on librarians who were leading a bookmobile tour through rural Virginia.

In 1998, Vince shared a Capital Region Emmy Award for writing for “WRC at 50: A Washington Family Album.”

In the field, Vince became known for technical innovations that enhanced a story’s impact. For the “Dateline” auto crash shoots at the IIHS, for instance, Vince rigged a protective tubing used for underwater photography to a small tubular camera that could withstand a high-speed collision, embedding the improvised rig in the crash barrier. Vince’s innovation enabled producers to add dramatic front-end crash footage to their stories.  He made sure to share his knowledge with others, founding and directing the Santa Fe International Workshops for videographers and directors of photography in Hollywood and around the world, bringing together current and future top talent to learn first the intricacies of filming in the then-new "high definition" world and later on being on the cusp of 3D filming just as that was becoming the most sought-after skill for DP's.  

Vince became famous among colleagues for his willingness to embrace the job’s physical challenges. A regular collaborator recalls the then 50-something Gancie lugging a heavy HD camera and other equipment along the path the code talkers took. "With only an audio tech for help, he made it from the top of Mount Suribachi to the volcanic ash beach where the Marines hit the shore. " Vince did the same thing through the jungles of four other Pacific Islands to get the right picture to fit the storyline….”

Gancie used careful observation to teach himself how to perform interviews to accompany the pictures he shot. Coworkers recall that, relying on only brief guidance, Gancie-filmed  interviews always produced exactly what they wanted in content and in quality.

Gancie’s professionalism extended to the many volunteer jobs he undertook, right up to the end of his life. This summer, Vince offered to do a quick free edit of a video that the nonprofit Urban Health Media Project needed to post. For weeks thereafter, the UHMP’s co-founder Jayne O’Donnell says, Vince continued to send fresh ideas and revisions to that first edit.

He also spent countless hours at a greatly reduced rate helping on a shoot with an LGBTQ+ UHMP high school student working on a video of a young trans woman who was homeless. Gancie then worked with producer Greco to make sure it met his exacting standards.

Vince was especially known for his affection for and pride in his two children - and to any of their many friends whom he adopted as “honorary Gancies.” Like Vince’s many adult friends and colleagues, they were wild about his abilities as a chef, especially when it came to Italian specialties.

Typically for Vince, he volunteered to coach Luca’s and Lena’s middle school basketball teams, even though he had never played the game. He taught video production at Holy Trinity School in Georgetown, which both Gancie children attended, volunteering to film the school’s annual Christmas pageant long after his children had graduated. At Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Bethesda, where Lena was a student, Vince volunteered so frequently that sometimes Lena would learn that he was on campus only after a fellow student had seen him.

“He was always the funniest person in the room, and made friends wherever he went,” Lena remembers. “He knew the name of every person in our local grocery stores. In high school, I would have girls come up to me in the hallways saying, ‘Did you know your dad is here?’ even if I knew for a fact I had never introduced them.”

At Stone Ridge, too, Vince continued to contribute his skills, filming and editing videos of sporting events, theater productions and school advertising, even after Lena had graduated. He was especially proud of a video he produced using testimonials from distinguished alumnae Cokie Roberts and Katie Ledecky to raise funds for a new artificial turf playfield.

Vince took his role as a father seriously, chaperoning field trips, driving his kids to “the middle of nowhere” for games and concerts, and flying across the country with Luca and Lena to visit colleges.

Vince was serious about being a dad, but his sometimes sarcastic humor ensured that his children would never take themselves -- or him -- too seriously. As Lena began college, Vince flew to Seattle to spend one day helping her move in. While he was there, the school asked parents to write their children encouraging letters, to be opened once the new students had completed the first semester.

Lena’s roommate’s letter was long and emotional, nearly moving her and Lena to tears. Then, Lena opened Vince’s note. “Don’t come home stupid,” it simply read.

There was no doubt about who had written that. Lena laughed out loud.

Son Luca recalls that his father’s sense of humor was the key to his sunny personality. “Dad was the funniest, smartest, and kindest person I knew,” Luca Gancie says. “No matter where he went, he had friends and always had the best jokes for any situation.

“He instilled in me the importance of not taking life too seriously and never forgetting to smile. He taught me just how big the world is and I hope one day to follow in his footsteps and travel just like he did. I attribute the person I am today to him, and I will strive to live a life that he would be proud of."

A scholarship fund has been set up to help Lena and Luca complete their college degrees. Donations will be gratefully accepted at: https://everloved.com/life-of…

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