Digital BW, The Print

Yeah, I am a fan.  Thanks for the link to the website. I will check it out.

A bit about the technology: 

The use of the stills and motion is called "motion table" or "motion graphics."  

The motion table comes from using a stationary camera above a table surface that moves....sometimes with computer control (mine has a small joystick).  The more sophisticated units also allow "zooming" at the same time as panning around the surface.  This gives a dynamic appearance to the still photo.  

Some of this stuff is very elaborate and very expensive.  Some is not.  

Mine cost about $1,000 and I considered it a bargain. 

Steadman 

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: rrotz75 
  To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Tuesday, March 26, 2002 7:31 PM
  Subject: [Digital BW] Ken Burns style Documentaries.


  Any other fan's of the Ken Burns type of documentaries?  Take for 
  instance of having a set of wonderful photos from a recent visit to 
  Vietnam, digitizing them and making a documentary type film with 
  subtle "camera" moves and a wonderful story.  

  Has anyone heard of an Indie DVD video magazine called SubstanceTV?  
  They do photographic, Ken Burns style of documentaries is the only 
  way I can describe it, is there a common term for this type of 
  production?  Anyway, they are a publication that delivers on DVD and 
  for instance they do photo essays that are set to interview SB's and 
  commentary.  I was fascinated by how it is presented and was 
  wondering how relevent this type of photo essay/film-umentary is.  If 
  I'm not very descriptive, I apologize.  You can see the format I'm 
  trying to describe at:
  http://substance.tv



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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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.  

Stephen Petegorsky



Stephen Petegorsky
petegorsky@...
www.spphoto.com

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