Exposure: Ken Burns
Ken Burns was born in Brooklyn and raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He enrolled at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, in 1971 with, as he puts its, “a naïve notion of preparing for a career as a narrative filmmaker in the tradition of John Ford or Alfred Hitchcock.” Jerome Liebling and Elaine Mayes were among his mentors on the faculty. They were both still photographers who focused on socially relevant issues.
“(Jerome and Elaine) taught me that there can be more drama in documentaries than in fiction filmmaking,” Burns says. “I also learned to use the camera to look under the surface, and find the meanings and symbolic importance of the images we recorded.”
In 1975, Burns and several classmates, including Buddy Squires, organized Florentine Films. They lived on the edge of poverty, working freelance for the BBC, an Italian TV network, and some industrial film producers.
Brooklyn Bridge was the first of 22 nonfiction films produced under the Florentine Films banner. Subsequent subjects have ranged from Thomas Jefferson and Huey Long biopics to the histories of the Civil War, World War II, baseball and jazz music.
The documentaries produced by Burns and his colleagues form a “living history” of America and Americans that is preserved (on film) for future generations. The nonfiction master’s most recent venture is The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, a 12-hour documentary that premiered on PBS in late September in six two-hour segments.
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ICG November 2009
FEATURES
A CHRISTMAS CAROL
DP Robert Presley
By Carolyn Giardina
THE BLIND SIDE
DP Alar Kivilo, ASC, CSC
By Margot Carmichael Lester
DANCING WITH THE STARS
By Ted Elrick
THE NATIONAL PARKS: AMERICA’S BEST IDEA
DP Buddy Squires
THE SEPTEMBER DIARIES
By Bob Richman
EXPOSURE: Ken Burns
DEEP FOCUS: Paul Goldsmith, ASC
FLASH FRAME: August Thurmer
GEAR GUIDE: Documentary Focus
Ghosts in the Machine
Robert Presley and Robert Zemeckis Employ Leading Edge 3D and Motion Capture Technology to Re-imagine Dickens’ Enduring Holiday Tale. By Carolyn Giardina
Digging Down Deep…
October 30, 2009 by editor
Filed under Web Exclusive
Cinematographers Antonio Rossi and Ben Bloodwell talk about Dirt! The Movie - a different kind of documentary about a very different kind of a subject. By Phillip Williams
ICG October 2009
FEATURES
SURROGATES
DP Oliver Wood
By Kevin H. Martin
INSIDE THE DI SUITE
Stefan Sonnefeld, David Cole, Milton Adamou
By Debra Kaufman
NURSE JACKIE
DP Vanja Cernjul
By Nic Gardner
BIG DOOR WEBISODES
By Kevin H. Martin
TAPELESS WORKFLOW
By Carolyn Giardina
EXPOSURE: Greg Kennel
DEEP FOCUS: Dean Semler, ASC, ACS
FLASH FRAME: Louis Rothenberg & Andrew Rowlands
GEAR GUIDE: Workflow
Being There
Cinematographer Oliver Wood finds his more “perfect self” for Surrogates, a graphic-novel inspired, future-thriller starring Bruce Willis and Radha Mitchell. By Kevin H. Martin
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Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
October 2, 2009 by editor
Filed under Web Exclusive
Cinematographer Hisham Abed goes in search of a Secret Girlfriend for a new Comedy Central reality series. By Andrew Takeuchi
