NOTHING in Bill Gaston`s resume says anything about movies, about how often he watches them, about how much he loves them. The resume says he has lived in Toronto and Deep Cove, British Columbia, and now lives in Fredericton. He teaches English at the University of New Brunswick, and previously published one other novel (Tall Lives) and two books of short stories (Deep Cove Stories, North of Jesus` Beans). But it`s a feel for movies -- and I say this admiringly as someone who watches a lot of movies and interprets much of the world in terms of film - that informs and gives character (characters, too) and texture and plot twists to Gaston`s intriguing new novel. It`s through the eyes of the cameraman of the title that we view the events of the novel. That`s appropriate. But it`s another character, a film director, who calls most of the shots in the plot. That makes sense too. The story is set in the present, but as the cameraman traces his life over the previous quarter-century he`s in his early 40s - - as it has intertwined with the directors, the tale doubles back in time, to the distant past, to the more recent past, to just last week. Gaston handles all this juggling of time with terrific technique, never losing the narrative thread, quickening the action with each shift. The cameraman and the director Francis and Koz, respectively - have known one another since high-school days in Vancouvcr. KOZ is the brilliant, iconoclastic one; Francis is smart but more of a follower. He follows Koz- into film, from student movies to docurnentaries to features, Koz directing, Francis handling the cinematography. Koz goes all the way to the Oscars, to Hollywood, to fame and fortune. Francis trails somewhere in his wake. And to complicate matters, there`s a shared woman, an actress named Bev Boomershine (no kidding). Koz marries her and has a child with her. Francis loves her and sometimes sleeps with her. The next confounding matter is that the great Koz seems to play fast and loose with the truth. He has apparently concocted elaborate fibs about his past, his motivations, about many things. And that mind-set brings the three central characters and the book`s plot to the crunch event: Koz may have rigged a film shoot to show him killing an actress (not Boomershine) on camera. Worse for Francis, it was he, the faithful friend and cameraman, who focused the lens on the fatal event. So, is Koz a murderer? Is Francis an accessory? What`s going on here? These are the mysteries that carry the story along. But Gaston is of course up to many other things in the novel. Hes examining love, sex, and friendship from various odd and sometimes funny perspectives. And to a large extent the Gaston angle on things, in both the technical and aesthetic senses, owes much to watching a lot of movies. The movie stuff takes over the book in the best of ways. Francis thinks like a cameraman at all times, on the job and off. He sees people and events in zooms and close-ups, and it`s this approach that lets us into his character. Koz is quintessentially the director, arranging the other characters` lives in terms of film. He sets the scenes, writes the script, turns his friends into actors. Francis, in particular, loses his way. Is he for real or is he for Koz`s movie? Gaston SEX, LIES, AND FILM STOCK by Jack Batten THE CAMERAMAN by Bill Gaston Macmillan, 282 pages, $24.95 cloth (ISBN 0 7715 9024 5) NOTHING in Bill Gaston`s resume says anything about movies, about how often he watches them, about how much he loves them. The resume says he has lived in Toronto and Deep Cove, British Columbia, and now lives in Fredericton. He teaches English at the University of New Brunswick, and previously published one other novel (Tall Lives) and two books of short stories (Deep Cove Stories, North of Jesus` Beans). But it`s a feel for movies -- and I say this admiringly as someone who watches a lot of movies and interprets much of the world in terms of film -- that informs and gives character (characters, too) and texture and plot twists to Gaston`s intriguing new novel. It`s through the eyes of the cameraman of the title that we view the events of the novel. That`s appropriate. But it`s another character, a film director, who calls most of the shots in the plot. That makes sense too. The story is set in the present, but as the cameraman traces his life over the previous quarter-century -- he`s in his early 40s -- as it has intertwined with the director`s, the tale doubles back in time, to the distant past, to the more recent past, to just last week. Gaston handles all this juggling of time with terrific technique, never losing the narrative thread, quickening the action with each shift. The cameraman and the director Francis and Koz, respectively -- have known one another since high-school days in Vancouver. Koz is the brilliant, iconoclastic one-, Francis is smart but more of a follower. He follows Koz into film, from student movies to documentaries to features, Koz directing, Francis handling the cinetnatography. Koz goes all the way to the Oscars, to Hollywood, to fame and fortune. Francis trails somewhere in his wake. And to complicate matters, there`s a shared woman, an actress named Bev Boomershine (no kidding). Koz marries her and has a child with her. Francis loves her and sometimes sleeps with her. The next confounding matter is that the great Koz seems to play fast and loose with the truth. He has apparently concocted elaborate fibs about his past, his motivations, about many things. And that mind-set brings the three central characters and the book`s plot to the crunch event: Koz may have rigged a film shoot to show him killing an actress (not Boomershine) on camera. Worse for Francis, it was he, the faithful friend and cameraman, who focused the lens on the fatal event. So, is Koz a murderer? Is Francis an accessory? What`s going on here? These are the mysteries that carry the story along. But Gaston is of course up to many other things in the novel. He`s examining love, sex, and friendship from various odd and sometimes funny perspectives. And to a large extent the Gaston angle on things, in both the technical and aesthetic senses, owes much to watching a lot of movies. The movie stuff takes over the book in the best of ways. Francis thinks like a cameraman at all times, on the job and off. He sees people and events in zooms and close-ups, and it`s this approach that lets us into his character. Koz is quintessentially the director, arranging the other characters` lives in terms of film. He sets the scenes, writes the script, turns his friends into actors. Francis, in particular, loses his way. Is he for real or is he for Koz`s movie? Gaston leaves the question, along with the other questions about the "murder," up for grabs until the end of the book. It`s a fascinating exercise. Come to think of it, The Cameraman would make a great movie about movies. Call it sex, lies, and film stock.