Everyone does the “Ken Burns,” so why not try the “Jack Cole Effect?”

For our Sunday post, I’m going wildly off-topic, but it’s been a long week and we need a study break. We’ll be back with the usual shortcuts and endless lecturing tomorrow.

In the FCP editing world, the term “Ken Burns Effect” has become ubiquitous for the description of the technique of presenting still photo content powerfully by using motion and zooms. Not to take away from the man’s obvious genius (and the linked article is great, by the way), but effective and evocative use of stills has a long history.

One particularly good example dating to 1974 is the Rockford Files opening sequence. This masterpiece was designed by Jack Cole and scored by Peter Carpenter and Mike Post. Although the opening shot is actually live film footage that pans, tilts and zooms across Rockford’s desk and his famous answering machine (and is ironically a still life), the entire remainder of the piece is composed of well chosen photos that establish the character and setting for the show. The techniques used in the piece, especially the “step photography” sequences are quite effective and worth making a note of for your own compositions.

Perhaps we should call the fast-moving step-photography still sequence the “Jack Cole effect?”

You can watch this classic here, but there will be an ad or two (the price of doing this legally) and then a couple of preview shots before we see the sequence (which starts about a minute in). Savor the goodness:

Did you notice the shot of the Camero with motion blur that moved across the screen?  He did a similar move with a shot of Jim at the wheel.  I also love the shots of him standing on the street with the pedestrians in motion blur around him.  Very nice work.  And remember, in those days, doing the “Jack Cole” was not so easy as laying a few keyframes and tweaking a bezier handle or two.

It should be noted that this particular episode of “The Rockford Files” was edited by Buford F. (Bud) Hayes.  And yeah, he built a timeline the old-fashioned linear way too, so a big salute to all those guys who made it look easy because they were masters of their craft.

Reference for Jack Cole as creator: “Considering David Chase: Essays on The Rockford Files, Northern Exposure and The Sopranos” by Thomas Fahy (page 19).