When a documentary filmmaker, working in the style that I do, suggests that there has been a shooting ratio of 40 hours to every one hour of finished film, that doesn't mean that the other 39 are bad.
Ken BurnsRead
The way I work, the interview never becomes larger than the person being interviewed.
Interpretation
The interview process should focus on the subject rather than the interviewer’s agenda.
Ken Burns emphasizes the importance of prioritizing the individual being interviewed in a conversation, suggesting that the true essence of an interview lies in exploring and highlighting their personality, stories, and experiences. By doing so, the interview becomes a platform for the interviewee to shine rather than a stage for the interviewer’s dominance, fostering a more genuine and meaningful dialogue.
In practice
In a journalism class discussing ethical interview techniques.
When a documentary filmmaker, working in the style that I do, suggests that there has been a shooting ratio of 40 hours to every one hour of finished film, that doesn't mean that the other 39 are bad.
I record all of my music with authentic instruments in a studio before we start editing, doing many, many versions. The music shapes the film as we edit so it has an organic relationship to the content.
Good history is a question of survival. Without any past, we will deprive ourselves of the defining impression of our being.
It is the great arrogance of the present to forget the intelligence of the past
In most films music is brought in at the end, after the picture is more or less locked, to amplify the emotions the filmmaker wants you to feel.
Jazz is a very accurate, curiously accurate accompaniment to 20th century America.
News networks giving a greater voice to viewers because the social web is so popular are like a chef on the Titanic who, seeing the looming iceberg and fleeing customers, figures ice is the future and starts making snow cones.
There are times when sorrow seems to me to be the only truth.
People who exploit others come to spend an enormous amount of energy wondering about and justifying that exploitation.
No social system will bring us happiness, health and prosperity unless it is inspired by something greater than materialism.
Nothing in our lives is a mere insignificant detail to God.
We say that slavery has vanished from European civilization, but this is not true. Slavery still exists, but now it applies only to women and its name is prostitution.
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