Ken Burns has been credited with devising the “smooth moves on stills” tv effect that has permeated his various award-winning productions. But, for history’s sake, I’d like to claim that this effect was developed simultaneously across the country by “multi-image” slideshow makers.
As I’ve written here previously, and in my book “The Videobiz: A Practical Guide for Video Startups,” slide makers using two or more projectors and the capability to transition smoothly between each image pushed the envelope to imitate motion. This and a great soundtrack often convinced audiences they saw “movies.”
The slide shows often used historical stills mixed with original photography. The historical images were shot manually on a camera stand — cranking the camera up and down to frame the picture — then, automatically, using programmable copy-stands manufactured by Marron-Carroll and others.
The smart director would ask the camera operator to shoot three or four shots in a row, “pushing in” to the picture (or pulling out), panning left, right, or diagonally. Combining these sequences with dissolves or cuts between the pictures simulated a sequence that added visual interest to an otherwise static medium. Below is a short excerpt from such a show we produced in 1977 for Cleaver-Brooks.
Eventually, this became second nature and became part of the language in “multi-image” slideshows. It was a phenomenon I used to call “spontaneous combustion” — the fact that many people working along similar paths would develop similar techniques and solutions to keep progressing along those paths. In other words, we in Milwaukee weren’t the only ones doing this.
Enter Video
In early 1978, we were asked to produce an opening “module” (as we used to call them) tracing the credit union movement’s history for the Credit Union Executives Society based in Madison, Wisconsin. This was our fourth or fifth assignment from them, having produced multi-screen slideshows for their annual marketing meeting the last few years.
Feeling bored, I suggested we do the opening module in a video instead of slides. Video projectors were rare back then, but we had successfully used video projection for advertising awards shows. That way, we could show commercials that had been produced on video in their native format, rather than transferring them to film, which wasn’t cheap.
Renting the projector wasn’t cheap either, but the one giant projector manufacturer that could do the job was willing to cut us a break on the $9000 rental cost to expose it to an audience of advertising pros. Yes, $9000. This massive behemoth, which stood five feet by four feet, had to be transported by train or truck. Travel time: two weeks.
So we worked out a deal with the manufacturer, got the client’s approval, and started to produce the video opener. We rented a video camera, and borrowed a Sony u-Matic editing system from the owner of the local Milwaukee Sub Sandwich Shop, “Suburpia”. Why exactly he had such gear I still do not know. But it had come up in conversation at a bar, so I took advantage of that.
Soon we had hundreds of great black-and-white photographs detailing the credit union movement’s history. What would we do with them to make this opener visually attractive?
I had already developed a rather quick-paced edit style in slide shows, so I wanted to keep doing that, only with video. We had no graphics or special effects capability other than quick cuts, so whatever we wanted to do would have to be done in-camera. No problem. Photographer (now videographer) Linda Barton and I arranged our pictures chronologically, including shots of United States events to give them a universal flavor. Then, we choreographed pans, zooms, pullouts, and tilt-ups — anything we could do with camera movement and the zoom lens — and shot the historical video section of the video sequentially in camera. Live video was shot in a more traditional style, but still allowing for long, medium, and wide shot cutaway basics.
Editing was then done to a soundtrack assembled — for the first time — as part of the edit. (I had done most of our soundtracks up to that time, so this was a natural extension for me.)
When it was all said and done, we had a video. We created some special title effects at a local “real” editing studio — it took all of an hour at most — and inserted those into the opening and closing of the video.
Perfecting the Technique
Six months later, we were working on our first documentary — the life story of Eugene O’Neill, in concert with the Milwaukee Rep. By this time, we had film editing equipment, and one of my partners, Rob Riordan, did similar magic using stills shot in a faux “rehearsal” by my other partner Ric Sorgel. It turned out beautifully, and that short segment is shown below.