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Ken L. Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American documentary filmmaker.
Burns is particularly well known for his style in documentary material, making use of original prints and photographs, and has produced several acclaimed historical and biographical documentaries for TV and film. Among his most notable productions were miniseries on the American Civil War (The Civil War, 1990), baseball (Baseball, 1994), and jazz (Jazz, 2001).
For his documentaries, Burns has been nominated for two Academy Awards and seven Emmy Awards. He won two Emmy Awards for The Civil War and one for Baseball.
He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Hampshire College.
Ken Burns Effect
In his documentaries, Ken Burns often gives life to still photographs by slowly zooming-in on subjects of interest and panning from one subject to another. For example, in a photograph of a baseball team, he might slowly pan across the faces of the players and come to a rest on the player the narrator is discussing.
The effect can be used as a transition between clips as well. For example, to segue from one person in the story to another, he might open a clip with a close-up of one person in a photo, then zoom out so that another person in the photo becomes visible.
This technique came to be known as the Ken Burns Effect and has become a staple of documentaries, slide shows, presentations, and even screen savers. In film editing, non-linear editing systems such as iMovie (from Apple Computer) often include an effect or transition called Ken Burns Effect, with which a still image may be incorporated into a film using this kind of slow pan and zoom. It is also seen in screensavers that slowly pan and zoom through a slide show of digital photographs on a computer's hard disk.
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