Tag:documentary
The “Ken Burns Effect” is a distinctive technique in documentary filmmaking. But what is it? How did it become so well known, and who is Ken Burns?
Ken Burns, born on July 29, 1953, in Brooklyn, New York, is an acclaimed American filmmaker. In his career, he has been nominated for two Oscars and won five Emmys. He is known for his distinctive style of documentary filmmaking. His work has significantly impacted the genre, bringing history to life through a unique narrative and visual storytelling blend. Burns’s documentaries have covered a wide range of American history topics, earning him numerous awards and a place as one of the most influential documentarians of our time.
Early Life
Burns grew up in a family that valued education and the arts. His mother, Lyla Smith Burns, a biotechnician, and his father, Robert Kyle Burns, an anthropology professor, instilled in him a deep appreciation for history and storytelling. However, his childhood was also marked by tragedy. His mother died of breast cancer when he was just 11 years old. This event deeply affected him and later influenced his work.
Burns attended Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he studied under documentary filmmaker Jerome Liebling. Liebling’s emphasis on the power of the image and the importance of storytelling had a lasting impact on Burns. While at Hampshire College, Burns developed his distinctive style, using archival photographs, period music, and first-person narration.
Ken Burns effect
The “Ken Burns Effect” is a distinctive technique in documentary filmmaking. Due to its extensive use in Ken Burns’ work, it has become synonymous with his name. The technique involves panning and zooming on still photographs, creating a sense of movement and narrative flow within a static image. It allows filmmakers to bring photographs to life, making them more engaging and visually dynamic for the audience.
Ken Burns popularised this technique with his landmark documentary series “The Civil War” (1990). Burns was faced with the challenge of depicting historical events where moving footage was scarce or non-existent. To overcome this, Burns and his team innovated by using existing photographs in a new and captivating way. This method was not entirely new but had never been utilised so effectively and extensively in a documentary series of this scale.
While Burns popularised this technique, it has since been widely adopted in various forms of media, including documentaries, educational videos, and even corporate presentations. Many video editing software programs now include built-in tools labelled as the “Ken Burns Effect,” thus making it accessible to many users.
Exploration of American History through Documentaries
The Civil War
One of Burns’ most notable works is “The Civil War,” a nine-part series that took over five years to complete and aired on PBS in 1990. This groundbreaking documentary used more than 16,000 archival photographs, paintings, and newspaper images to tell the story of the American Civil War. Narrated by historian David McCullough and featuring voices of Morgan Freeman and Sam Waterston, “The Civil War” received critical acclaim and brought Burns widespread recognition. The series not only won numerous awards, including two Emmy Awards, but also drew an audience of 40 million viewers. This makes it one of the most-watched programs in the history of public television.
Baseball
Following the success of “The Civil War,” Burns continued to explore American history through a series of ambitious projects. His documentary “Baseball” (1994) is a comprehensive look at the sport’s history and its impact on American culture. Structured in nine episodes, or “innings,” it covers the evolution of baseball from its early days to the contemporary era. Like his other works, “Baseball” combines extensive research, rare footage, and compelling narration, making it not just a sports documentary but a broader reflection on American society.
Jazz
In 2001, Burns released “Jazz,” a ten-part series that chronicles the history of jazz music from its roots in blues and ragtime to its place in modern culture. The series highlights key figures in jazz, such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Miles Davis. It explores how the music evolved alongside significant social and cultural changes in America. “Jazz” was praised for its depth and breadth and its ability to convey the essence of the music and its creators.
The Vietnam War
In 2017, Burns co-directed “The Vietnam War” with longtime collaborator Lynn Novick. This ten-part, 18-hour documentary offers a comprehensive and unflinching look at one of American history’s most controversial and consequential events. It features testimony from nearly 100 witnesses, including many Americans who fought in the war and Vietnamese soldiers and civilians from both sides.
The series was lauded for its balanced and thorough approach, as well as for its emotional depth.
Beyond his documentaries, Burns has contributed significantly to the public understanding of history. He is known for his rigorous research and dedication to authenticity, often spending years on a single project. This meticulous approach ensures that his documentaries are informative, engaging, and thought-provoking. Burns’ work is characterised by a deep empathy for his subjects and a commitment to exploring the complexities of American history.
Burns’ influence extends beyond the screen.
Honours
He has received numerous honours, including the National Humanities Medal and honorary degrees from several universities. His documentaries are frequently used as educational tools in schools and universities, helping to teach American history in a dynamic and accessible way. Burns’ ability to bring history to life has inspired a new generation of filmmakers and historians.
Despite his many accolades, Burns remains deeply committed to his craft. He continues to explore new subjects and push the boundaries of documentary filmmaking. His recent projects include documentaries on the Roosevelts, country music, and the American National Parks.
Enduring Power of Storytelling
Ken Burns’ contribution to documentary filmmaking and historical storytelling is immense. Through his innovative techniques and unwavering dedication to authenticity, he has changed how we view history and has brought the past into vivid focus for millions of people. His work reminds us of the importance of understanding our history and the enduring power of storytelling to connect us to our collective heritage.
Jack London was undeniably a man of many talents. Born into a working-class household, he is best known for his novels, Call of the Wild and White Fang. By the time Jack passed away 40 years later, he had lived an extraordinarily full life many times over. Jack London was a seaman, an oyster pirate, a hobo riding the rails across America, a prospector on the Klondike, a journalist and a war correspondent reporting the Russo-Japanese War in 1903. His widely read books made him a famous and wealthy man. Like many others, I read and loved his books and the films they spawned. However, his largely unknown skills as a documentary photographer piqued my interest.
Early Life
Jack London was born John Griffith Chaney, on January 12, 1876, in San Francisco, California. Jack’s mother, Flora Wellman, was a spiritualist and his biological father was an astrologist who left town when Flora fell pregnant. Flora then married John London, a widowed, disabled civil war veteran, the same year as Jack’s birth. The family’s economic circumstances were always dire and to help support the family, Jack had held several jobs by age ten.
At thirteen, he left school and worked odd jobs, turning most of his pay over to his parents. Then, with the help of a loan of $300 from a family friend, he purchased a fourteen-foot skiff, the Razzle Dazzle. Jack used the skiff to poach oysters, selling them to local restaurants and saloons. The criminals he fell in with nicknamed him “The Prince of the Oyster Pirates”. He, in turn, called them “the booze fighters”. Unfortunately, they also introduced him to heavy drinking. This led to a lifelong addiction to alcohol.
A Vagabond Life
By the time Jack was fifteen, he worked eighteen hours a day in a cannery enduring appalling conditions for ten cents an hour to support his family. At age sixteen, Jack joined the California Fish Patrol. Then, in 1893, on his seventeenth birthday, Jack signed aboard the Sophia Sutherland, a three-masted schooner, as an able-bodied seaman. Onboard, he headed to the Pacific Northwest and Japan for a seal-hunting expedition.
Off the coast of Japan, the ship ran into a typhoon so fierce each man could only tolerate a one hour turn at the wheel. Fortunately, the ship survived the storm and returned to San Francisco six months later. Jack regarded the voyage as a seminal turning point in his life. Finally, he had returned home a man.
The Hobo Life
Back on land, he was broke again after handing over his wages to his mother. In 1894 Jack was travelling as a hobo across America’s rail tracks. In Niagra Falls, he was arrested for vagrancy and sentenced to 30 days gaol. According to Jack, those 30 days were so degrading it made him decide to return to education and resume writing.
After a brief stint at a jute mill, followed by a power plant, he enrolled and completed high school. Jack then attended the University of California, where he embraced socialism. The San Francisco Examiner printed a speech he wrote and profiled him as a “boy socialist”. However, he left university after one semester due to lack of funds. Jack travelled with his sister’s husband to the Alaskan Klondike for the gold rush of 1897.
Courtesy of Alaska State Library, Winter & Pond Collection
The Writer Emerges
“It was in the Klondike,” London said, “that I found myself. There nobody talks. Everybody thinks. There you get your perspective. I got mine.”
Jack London, Smithsonian Institute
While on the Klondike, he became severely malnourished. He lost several of his front teeth to scurvy, and his failing health forced him to return home. While Jack didn’t strike it lucky on the Klondike, he had brought back a wealth of raw material for his books. Returning to California in 1898, he learned his step-father, John London, had died. The death of his stepfather brought about the decision to dedicate himself to professional writing to support his mother. Drawing on his Klondike experiences, he began writing about Alaska’s bleak, frozen landscape.
Courtesy of Eagle Historical Society
I brought nothing back from the Klondike but my scurvy,” London declared. He netted just four dollars and fifty cents’ worth of gold dust.
Jack London, The New Yorker
By 1899 his stories attracted several major magazines. The publication of these stories gave him a secure, middle-class life. In 1900 he married and had two daughters. The Call of the Wild was published in 1903, and at 27, he became a huge celebrity. His rugged good looks, youthful vitality, travels, and political activism made him the darling of political reporters and gossip columnists alike.
Jack London- war correspondent
A skilled photographer, Jack’s subjects included the homeless in Londons East End Slums to the refugees of the Russo-Japanese war. He was a fearless photojournalist and was arrested by the Japanese secret police twice for taking photographs of Japanese forces.
Jack wrote an eyewitness account of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire. He returned two weeks later with his camera to document the city in ruins. 1914 he covered the U.S. invasion of Veracruz during the Mexican revolution for the Hearst newspapers.
People Of The Abyss
In 1902 Jack visited London as he wanted to expose, in his words, the “underside of imperialism”. To pass unnoticed among the working poor, he disguised himself as an American sailor who had lost his ship. Jack lived among them, photographing the conditions of their everyday life. His experiences and photographs of living in Londons East End and the Whitechapel district, sometimes sleeping on the streets, at other times in workhouses were documented in his book “The People of the Abyss” (still available on Amazon)
“Of all my books, the one I love most is The People of the Abyss. No other work of mine contains as much of my heart.”
Jack London
A 1909 report of the Poor Law Commission found that one-third of the East End’s 900,000 strong population lived in conditions of extreme poverty. The report also detailed the squalor of conditions in these areas, with an average of 25 houses sharing one lavatory and fresh-water tap between them. One response to a dire lack of sanitation in London’s poorest areas was the provision of communal washhouses for bathing and clothes-washing; an average of 60,000 people each week used the 50 such bathhouses which existed across the city in 1910
Rare Historical Photos
ever the adventurer
Jack London’s marriage collapsed in 1904 when his wife discovered he was having an affair with Charmain Kittredge, who became the second Mrs London. He continued writing short stories and articles and published The Sea Wolf and White Fang. At thirty, he became the highest-paid writer in the country. Jack began designing a 45-foot sailboat he named the Snark after the Lewis Carroll Poem.
In 1907 Jack and Charmain sailed to Hawaii and the South Seas with a small crew. They followed this by driving a four-horse wagon on a 1500-mile trip through Oregon in 1911. The following year in 1912, they sailed from Baltimore around Cape Horn to Seattle as passengers aboard the square-rigged sailing bark Dirigo.
Ill health
Due to the effects of amoebic dysentery he had caught in Mexico and his heavy drinking, Jack had been in ill health for some time. In 1913 Jack underwent an appendectomy, and doctors discovered his seriously diseased kidneys. However, he ignored doctors’ warnings against a high protein diet, insisting on raw fish and near-raw duck meals. In addition, he continued to smoke 60 Russian cigarettes a day and continued to drink heavily.
The Final Years
In the last two years of his life, Jack endured recurring bouts of dysentery, kidney stones, gastric disorders and rheumatism and his doctors prescribed morphine for the pain. Jack and his wife made two extended trips to Hawaii for Jack to rest and recover. However, on November 22, 1916, Jack London died of uremic poisoning from kidney failure and a probable stroke. In 18 years, he had written 50 books, 20 of them novels, and taken thousands of photographs, most of which remained unpublished until 2010.
Although she was often bedridden following repeated strokes, Charmian lived another forty years. She died in 1955, at the age of 83. Her ashes rest beside Jack’s under the rock that marks their grave near Glen Ellen, California, at Jack London State Historic Park.
I would rather be ashes than dust! I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot. I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
Jack London
Note: all photojournalist images used in this post were taken by Jack London