Digital BW, The Print

On 3/26/02 petegorsky@... wrote:

>For what it's worth, I've done a lot of work for Ken Burns on his films 
>for the last 12 years.  Most of the shots that you see in his films which 
>there is complicated camera movement within a still photo are done from 
>4x5" transparencies that I make of the original photos.  These are 
>typically shot in archives, museums libraries and private collections.  
>Those transparencies are then shot onto movie film using an animation 
>stand that has a computer-controlled motorized lens and track, often at a 
>place called The Frame Shop in Boston.  Ken can say "give me a ten-count 
>zoom into General Lee's face, and then a twelve-count pan to the horse's 
>tail", and they will make the lens go where it should.  There hasn't been 
>any digital work involved until very recently; they are now using an Avid 
>system for editing.  

I've made 13 documentary films for British TV (as producer and/or
director), most of which used rostrum camera moves of the kind you're
talking about. See my entry in the IMDB for details. I used to do them at
Ken Morse like everyone else in London. 

Then in 1997 a colleague of mine set out to make a series about the Boer
war. Since there was no opportunity to bring back the family photos of
the families they interviewed out in south africa, I designed a portable
system which allowed them to scan the photographs on location and archive
them onto (then) zip disks. It was very simple, a powerbook and Umax
scanner and zip drive all packed into a hard shell case. They came back
with more than a thousand photographs scanned onto zips. These were then
acquired into Avid for the rough cut, and for the fine cut our graphics
department did the moves in Adobe After Effects. Some complicated stuff
we did by printing the stuff out and taking it down to Ken.

I used the exact same system myself for PENNIES FROM BEVAN, a 75'
documentary which was the last film I made for British TV. It worked
beautifully.

-- 
John Brownlow

http://www.pinkheadedbug.com