History in the Making:

The Influence of Ken Burns on the Production of the Historical

Documentary

By

Drew Sagona

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ABSTRACTThis thesis explores the influence of the Ken Burns Effect on current historical

documentaries utilizing Marshall McLuhan’s Medium Theory, and the ways current historical

documentaries are building on audience engagement tactics. An iconic film analysis was

conducted in which the five most recent influential historical documentaries were analyzed

according to the elements of the Ken Burns Effect. From the analysis, the following six themes

emerged: Domination by Unreliable Narration, Continued Use of Burnsian Style Sound Effects,

Burnsian Image Movement to Highlight Emotion, Transition from Character voiceover to Actual

Recorded Dialogue, Supporting Footage to Support Narration, and New Techniques of

Engagement. The discussion of these themes reveals that although the Ken Burns Effect has a

major influence on current historical documentaries, documentarians’ ability to build on prior

techniques of engagement in adapting to new audiences will determine the future of the historical

documentary.

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INTRODUCTIONFrom renowned works such as The American Experience on PBS and National

Geographic’s 24 Hours after Hiroshima, historical documentaries have played a major role in the

retelling of historical events which not only shaped the nation, but the world (Shelton, 2001). In

1990, the historical documentary genre achieved a milestone in its history when Ken Burns’ The

Civil War became the most watched documentary in television engaging an audience of more

than 14 million viewers during its debut (Dubois, 1991; Hinckley, 2014).

During its lifetime, The Civil War has been seen by over 40 million people, and is still

the most watched documentary in PBS history (Drew, 2004; Dubois, 1991). Burns’ success as a

filmmaker has been studied by many researchers, particularly the elements found in The Civil

War (Dubois, 1991; Henderson, 1991; Tibbetts, 1994). These included the use of narration,

sound effects, character voiceover, and moving images to engagingly tell the story, dubbed the

Ken Burns Effect (Henderson, 1991). Their studies have concluded that Burns’ work was a

milestone because it created a new form of audience engagement which would be influential in

other documentarians’ storytelling techniques.

However, there are those scholars who argue that Burns’ techniques used in The Civil

War cannot be considered a new phenomenon that is influencing current historical

documentaries because these techniques had been used by a prior documentary from 1970 called

The World at War (Chapman, 2011). Subsequently, few scholars have studied whether current

historical documentaries are being influenced not only in terms of the engaging characteristics of

the Burns Effect, but also the ways other documentarians are building upon the engaging

characteristics Burns established in The Civil War (Rock & Smith, 2014).

With both of these issues currently at hand, it was evident that a study needed to be

performed to test the influence of Burnsian technique on current historical documentaries. This

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thesis sought to understand how Burns’ techniques found in The Civil War (The Ken Burns

Effect) have influenced historical documentaries within the last two years. Subsequently, the

researcher asked the following question:

RQ: How have the engaging techniques of the Ken Burns Effect influenced

historical documentaries within the last two years?

For the purposes of this study, a historical documentary reviews a prior historical event

in an engaging manner to help individuals see how it affects their lives today. While prior

studies have been invaluable to understanding the elements Ken Burns used in The Civil War,

they failed to look at them in terms of Marshall McLuhan’s Medium Theory. McLuhan argued

that the key to successfully using the medium of television is audience engagement (McLuhan,

1964). Without engagement, the message cannot be clearly communicated to the audience

(McLuhan, 1964).

Understanding the influence that Burns has on current historical documentaries is of

vital importance to communication scholars because historical documentary filmmaking plays a

major role in communicating the importance of past events to the public. As will be discussed

further, historical documentaries are a primary means by which both students and the public seek

to learn about history (Petersen, 2001; Rosenthal, 1988). For those who have never heard of Ken

Burns, knowing the role Burns has played in inspiring other documentarians will help them to

see just how much the work of Ken Burns affects their lives on an everyday basis. Therefore,

with these concepts in mind, it is of great importance to look at prior research on The Civil War

through the perspective of audience engagement found in Marshall McLuhan’s Medium Theory.

To explore this phenomenon in greater depth, the researcher will delve into a literature

review which situates this study within the context of prior research on The Civil War and

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McLuhan’s Medium Theory; define the method of iconic film analysis and how it tested the

study’s research question; and finally conclude with a discussion of the results and the

implications for the Communication field.

LITERATURE REVIEWThe influence of Ken Burns’ engaging production techniques (The Ken Burns Effect) on

current historical documentaries spans a wide variety of topics. To better understand these topics,

it is necessary to look at prior research that has been conducted on both Ken Burns’ techniques

and audience engagement in regards to the historical documentary genre. While there has been

research that has specifically studied Ken Burns’ style, as well as the use of audience

engagement in other genres of documentary filmmaking, a study has not yet been conducted that

focuses specifically on Marshall McLuhan’s Medium Theory, and the ways that current

historical documentaries (those utilizing engaging storytelling techniques in presenting past

events) are being influenced by the Ken Burns Effect.

Studies have been conducted on engaging production techniques like narration and

storytelling, but these studies have focused on engagement from a general sense rather than using

the engaging techniques of the Ken Burns Effect as a lens for examining current historical

documentaries’ techniques of audience engagement. The fact that The Civil War is still the most

watched documentary in PBS history, along with Burns’ prominence as a historical documentary

producer for The Roosevelts (Hinckley, 2014; Steinburg, 2014) and Cancer: The Emperor of all

Maladies (Ruston, 2014) is of particular interest to both communication scholars and historical

documentarians in understanding not only how Ken Burns affected the historical documentary

genre, but also the ways in which documentarians are building upon the style of audience

engagement that he established in The Civil War.

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Medium Theory

To examine current historical documentaries using Ken Burns’ engaging production

techniques established in The Civil War, a brief history of Marshall McLuhan’s Medium Theory

is fundamental. From its origins in the early 1960s, the idea of Medium Theory was that the

medium affects the way that message is received (McLuhan, 1964). McLuhan was particularly

interested in how television, as a medium, affected an individual’s understanding of information

(McLuhan, 1964). To study the effects television had, McLuhan conducted an experiment in

which he presented a lecture using three media (television, radio, and print) to four groups of

college students (McLuhan, 1964). His results showed that the students who watched the lecture

on television retained the most information (McLuhan, 1964). McLuhan (1964) concluded that

it is not so much the message which affects our perceptions of a particular issue or event, but

rather the medium on which the information is presented (p. 9). He believed that television’s

success as medium stemmed from its ability to engage the audience (McLuhan, 1964).

Physiological research supports McLuhan’s Theory. Michael, Keller, Carpenter, and

Just’s (2001) study of brain responses to visual or auditory means showed brain wave patterns

were higher with a visual rather than auditory medium, solidifying McLuhan’s belief in the

visual medium being the most engaging.

McLuhan’s (1966) historical research on playwrights and artists showed that audience

engagement was critical in presenting information to an audience (as cited in McLuhan &

Staines, 2003). In theater for example, the dominant trend, prior to the renaissance, had been to

use prose in the dialogue (McLuhan, 1966). However, this detached the audience from the

characters and the overall story (McLuhan, 1966). Therefore, playwrights moved toward a new

form of writing in an attempt to make the audience feel as if they were right in the midst of the

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action on stage (McLuhan, 1966). The new style of writing, called poetic drama, created a more

engaging play that allowed the audience to think, feel, and empathize with the characters and

their situations (McLuhan, 1966). Consequently, the television industry began to take on these

same ideals of audience engagement (McLuhan, 1964). Yet, the concept of audience

engagement was not originally considered important in the early days of the Historical

Documentary.

Origins of the Historical Documentary (World War I)

The early forms of the historical documentary were not very engaging. Originally

developed in the 1920s, the historical documentary came from the newsreels of World War I.

During this period, the invention of the camera made it possible to record events directly from

the frontline, thus enabling the audience to visually see battles and events (Isenburg, 1981).

Recording events from the battlefield by camera would help to inform the general public on the

severity of the war, and hopefully cause them to take drastic measures to end the atrocities

(Isenburg, 1981). However, these early newsreels were setup with simulated explosions and

staged fights and shown to audiences as the “real thing” (Isenburg, 1981). According to

Isenburg (1981), these early newsreels were only for profit rather than informing the public (p.

64). As a result, the public wanted a new type of film where they could observe events in their

natural setting: the newsreel documentary (Isenburg, 1981).

Although early documentaries captured wartime events during the actual battles, they

lacked a major important element in trying to engage the audience in their subject matter: they

had no narrator to help the audience understand what was going on (Isenburg, 1981). Despite

this drawback, this flaw helped documentary makers of the time to understand that the key to

informing the audience was getting them to empathize with the material (Isenburg, 1981). This

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created a shift in thinking of the newsreel documentary as more than just an informational piece

as a new war and era dawned.

The Move toward Audience Engagement (World War II)

With the dawn of the 1930s, new additions were added to the newsreel including

narration, scoring, and dubbing which helped to increase the effectiveness of the messages

presented (Isenburg, 1981). This new technology changed the format of the newsreels in the

theater from just a footage reel to now having a narrator talk about the events the audience was

seeing on the screen (Isenburg, 1981). This new style of documentary filmmaking came about

through the influence of British filmmaker John Grierson who founded the Empire Marketing

Board (EMB) and General Post Office (GPO) Film Unit in the late 1920s (Shelton, 2001; Fox,

2005). However, the newsreels of World War II were not able to get the audience to empathize

with the material because the narration was expressionless and emotionless (Isenburg, 1981).

The end of World War II saw a change in the mindset of documentary filmmakers to

modern documentary thought. During the late 1940s, historical documentarians sought new ways

of bringing the plainly formatted newsreel to life by incorporating the footage into a piece which

would go above and beyond what newsreel style documentaries had done. According to Bazin

(2001), Frank Capra’s documentary Why We Fight was the first film to incorporate newsreel

footage edited together in such a way that it told a complete story (p. 61). The narrator’s role

changed from an expressionless and emotionless passive teller of events to one who was now

central to bringing life to the story on the screen (Bazin, 2001). The narrator became an

engaging storyteller and educator (Bazin, 2001). Instead of merely observing and recording

events for news purposes, historical documentarians moved to telling about how past wartime

events affect the lives of individuals today (Isenburg, 1981).

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The historical documentary was no longer just about presenting facts. It sought instead to

help the audience to understand the overall story in engaging way. Rock and Smith’s (2014)

investigative analysis of An Inconvenient Truth, Frost/Nixon, and Unlocking the Mystery of Life

confirmed this new mindset that it is not so much about presenting facts, but about getting the

audience to connect with the material. The focus then became not so much on the facts

themselves, but the integral experience the audience has with the characters (Rock & Smith,

2014). This integral experience combined with the purpose of educating the audience on past

events was the foundation on which Ken Burns’ The Civil War was established.

Ken Burns’ The Civil War

Ken Burns’ The Civil War set a new bar for engagement in the historical documentary

subgenre. In an interview by radio host David Thelan (1994), Burns explained the essence of his

technique - his belief that for a historical documentary to be successful the story must be the

central theme, not merely the facts (p. 1040). The story must also be told in an engaging manner

or the audience will lose interest in what they are seeing (Thelan, 1994). Burns’ style of

interactive storytelling caused the viewers to show more concern with the topic of the film

(Lancioni, 2008). According to Bell (2011), Burns was able to hook his audience by using the

narrative form that historians have used for centuries (p. 9). Thus, The Civil War stayed true to

the main presentation of history used by historians: storytelling (Bell, 2011).

To explore the elements that constitute Burns’ technique, other studies found several

production techniques that Burns used to put the audience in the middle of the action (Dubois,

1991; Petersen, 2001; Henderson, 1991). The first technique, voiceover work of specific

historical figures by famous actors and actresses, enabled the viewer to see the war through the

words of the people who experienced it and connect to their innermost emotions (Dubois, 1991).

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The second technique, the use of sound effects combined with photographs from the battlefield,

created the sensation of being on the battlefield with the soldiers (Dubois, 1991; Henderson,

1991).

However, what was most noted about Burns’ technique of storytelling in The Civil War

was the third technique: the movement of images across the screen (Tibbetts, 1994). Burns’ use

of zooming and panning photos allowed for the audience to see the detail of facial expressions,

clothing, etc. (Tibbetts, 1994; Sewell et al, 2009). This tactic caused the audience to visualize

events through the eyes of these individuals and imagine how they would have reacted to each

individual event portrayed (Tibbetts, 1994). Burns used this method to get the audience to view

the pictures they might have seen elsewhere, such as in a book, from more of an emotional

perspective rather than just simply as a picture (Tibbetts, 1994; Higashi, 1998). These images

created suspense throughout the story and caused the audience to wonder what will happen next

(Tibbetts, 1994). Each of these audience engagement tactics collectively used to tell a story

came to be known as the Ken Burns Effect.

Several studies confirmed that Burns’ engaging presentation of the events and people of

the war caused individuals to understand the events of the war in terms of their own lives (Drew,

2004; Cripps, 2001; Levin, 2010; Gary, 2002). From a survey study of historical books on the

Civil War from the Journal of Southern History since the 1970s, Drew (2004) revealed a

significant increase in the sale of books on Civil War topics after the film’s release. At the time,

Operation Desert Storm had become a major war in itself looming across the sea (Drew, 2004).

According to Drew (2004), the renewed interest in books on war, particularly the Civil War, was

attributed to the film’s way of making the events of the 1860s pertinent to the events of the 1990s

“because it was about individual human beings whose faces we could see, whose words we could

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hear, as they confronted war’s challenges” (p. 380). In addition, the film incited wave after wave

of visits to Civil War battlefield sites by over 14 million people who had seen the film (Cripps,

2004), and teachers used it in their classrooms with other supplemental history resources to give

students the maximum benefit of appreciating history and relating it to their own lives (Gary,

2002; Levin, 2010).

The film also renewed an interest in how American history affects the lives of individuals

today. Harlan (2003) found that because of Burns’ ability to make historical figures and events

personable, students did not go back to historical journals once they had graduated. Similarly,

Petersen’s (2001) content analysis of war films shown on each of the major British television

networks for VE Day saw that the historical documentary plays a major part in the way

audiences, particularly students, view historical topics. In both cases, students instead sought out

documentaries and autobiographies to increase their knowledge on different historical topics to

understand how these events shaped society (Harlan, 2003; Petersen, 2001; Rosenthal, 1988).

People who had never had interest in history before were profoundly affected by The

Civil War (Cripps, 2001). Almost immediately after the film’s release, a flow of letters arrived

from audience members telling Burns how The Civil War had reignited their interest in history

(Cripps, 2001).

Despite all the evidence presented by scholars regarding the engaging methods of

storytelling that Burns used to bring past events to life for audiences, there are those who

disagreed that he brought these characteristics to the historical documentary. Chapman (2011)

argued that The World at War in 1970 was the first historical documentary to use the engaging

characteristics of storytelling such as sound effects, narration, moving images and character

voiceover (p. 247).

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Current studies on historical documentary film noted some ways that documentarians are

thinking of new ways to engage the audience. Wiener (2007) observed from the 2007

documentary film Atomic Café that rather than using an omniscient narrator (one person to talk

throughout the film), the film used an unreliable narrator, which combined the soundbites from

different individuals who were interviewed to help tell the story. Toplin (1996) in a similar

fashion observed generally that good storytelling influenced the production of one of PBS’s

successful documentary series The American Experience. Although these current studies have

researched the engaging production techniques like narration and storytelling in modern

documentaries to see whether the techniques are changing, they have not examined these

documentaries using all the characteristics of the Ken Burns Effect. Accordingly it is important

to ask the following question:

RQ: How have the engaging techniques of the Ken Burns Effect influenced

historical documentaries within the last two years?

Since the Ken Burns Effect encompasses the use of narration, character actors, sound

effects, and moving images together to tell a story, the following sub-questions were used as a

guideline to see how these four elements are used in current historical documentaries:

RQ1. How is narration being used to tell the story in an engaging way?

RQ2. If there are character actors, how do they contribute to engaging the audience

in the story?

RQ3. In what ways are sound effects used throughout the film?

RQ4. When the movement of images occurs, how are they used in conjunction with

the other elements of narration, character actors, and sound effects?

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METHODOLOGY

The main focus of this study was to advance knowledge on how the Ken Burns Effect is

influencing audience engagement tactics used in current historical documentaries. Through the

method of iconic film analysis, developed by Aumont and Marie (2004), the researcher exposed

various new techniques of audience engagement in historical documentaries. Iconic film

analysis is used to look at how iconic parts of a film, such as narration and image movement,

contribute meaning to the overall story in a motion picture, and compare how they are used from

on film to another (Aumont & Marie, 2004). The goal of an iconic film analysis is to investigate

the ways the production techniques used in one film are influencing other films in order to

identify trends.

Several scholars have used iconic film analysis in other talking picture genres the field of

communication such as Brent (2004), Marshall (2009), and Quart (1982) in film; Weaver,

Ferguson, Wilbourn, and Salmanson (2014) in television; and Telotte (2015) in documentary

film. This method was ideal for examining the five current historical documentaries in the study

because it enabled the researcher to see how historical documentarians are building on the

foundation of the Ken Burns Effect established in The Civil War.

Sample

Documentary film is an extremely large genre of filmmaking with many different

subgenres (Shelton, 2001). Ken Burns’ The Civil War is categorized as a historical

documentary. Historical documentaries look at a past event to help the audience see how it

affects their lives today. Accordingly, it was necessary to use the historical documentary

subgenre in this study. From this subgenre the following most recent influential historical

documentaries from 2014-2015 were chosen: Last Days in Vietnam (2014), A Meaningful

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Victory (2015), Red Army (2014), Korengal (2014), and Being Evel (2015). Each were pulled

using a purposive sample from a list of only Emmy award winning and Oscar winning historical

documentaries from the 2014-2015 year on the International Movie Database and the

Oscar/Emmy websites which showcase only the most well-done documentaries of this subgenre.

A purposive sample is extremely useful when the researcher is interested in a specific

group of artifacts in a population and wants to investigate these artifacts in more depth. Since

the researcher was interested in understanding how the Ken Burns Effect is influencing historical

documentaries within the last two years, a purposive sample allowed the researcher to focus on

the most influential historical documentaries produced from this specific time frame out of the

entire historical documentary subgenre.

Procedure

The researcher adhered to the procedure of iconic film analysis which consisted of

examining each of the four characteristics of the Ken Burns Effect drawn from the prior

literature: narration, sound effects, character voiceover, and image movement. Both Ken Burns’

The Civil War and The World at War were viewed prior to examining the five documentaries

selected for the study in order to be able to clearly recognize Ken Burns’ techniques as opposed

to the techniques of a pre-Burns historical documentary. The researcher then created a rubric

containing each of these characteristics which was used to explore the ways these elements were

used in each of the five documentaries selected for analysis (see Appendix A). It should be made

clear that the researcher was interested in knowing how the principles of audience engagement in

a visual medium as laid out by Marshall McLuhan were used in historical documentaries within

the last two years.

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After the first viewing of the five documentaries to understand their content, the

researcher initiated the steps of iconic film analysis laid out by Aumont and Marie (2004). This

analysis was based on the aforementioned four engagement characteristics of the Ken Burns

Effect found in the literature review. Each documentary was then viewed and contained its own

separate coding sheets.

The first step was to look for any element of the Ken Burns Effect in each documentary.

This required the researcher to write out specific details on the attached rubric under the

recognized technique using the secondary research questions to examine each characteristic of

the Ken Burns Effect. For narration and character voiceover, the volume, vocal inflection, and

dramatic pause of the speakers were analyzed to determine how their part lent to the overall

presentation. Sound effects were inspected as to whether they were used in conjunction with a

photograph or if they were simply used by themselves telling the story engagingly. When images

were seen, the researcher noted what was in the photograph and the stances of the figures (i.e. if

they had their back turned or were facing head on). Character voiceover, if it was used, was

noted as to what context it was used in (i.e. with a photograph or a narrative scene). During this

process, any pre-Burnsian methods were noted in detail under the appropriate heading of the

rubric as well, and separated by a subheading labeled ‘Pre-Burns’ to make it easier for the

researcher to organize the data when writing the results and discussion section of the thesis. If

any new characteristics of engagement beyond the four characteristics of the Ken Burns Effect

were seen during the viewing, they were listed under a heading on the rubric labeled ‘Other’.

To ensure reliability, before sorting the findings, the researcher watched each

documentary a second time to make sure that no Burnsian or pre-Burnsian techniques mentioned

in the rubric were omitted during prior viewings.

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The second step of iconic film analysis applied in this study was to organize the data

collected on each documentary into groups according to what was found on the Ken Burns

Effect, pre-Burns techniques, and new engagement characteristics. The goal of this step was to

examine the different variations of the Ken Burns Effect, if applicable pre-Burnsian techniques

of engagement that are still being used, and new methods of engagement found within each

documentary. After sorting the findings under the heading of the Ken Burns Effect, Pre-Burns

techniques, and new engagement characteristics, the following results were apparent. This

completed iconic film analysis formed the basis for the results and discussion section of this

thesis.

RESULTS

Six themes emerged from the iconic film analysis conducted on the influence of the Ken

Burns Effect on the five most recent influential historical documentaries. These themes

included: Domination by Unreliable Narration, Continued Use of Burnsian Style Sound Effects,

Burnsian Image Movement to Highlight Emotion, Transition from Character voiceover to Actual

Recorded Dialogue, Supporting Footage to Support Narration, and New Techniques of

Engagement.

Theme 1: Domination by Unreliable Narration

Contrary to Burnsian omniscient narration, unreliable narration has become the driving

force in current historical documentaries, seen in four of the five documentaries. With this style

of narration a common theme which emerged was to use the interviewee’s last sentence or

phrase as a segue way to the next interviewee in continuing the story. For example, in Last Days

in Vietnam, when California State Representative Pete Mcclusky referred to Congress’s refusal

to aid in the evacuation of Saigon he ended by saying, “And Kissinger knew this.” The scene

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then cuts from Mcclusky’s interview to Kissinger who started off with saying, “We knew we

were not going to get the 722 million to aid in the evacuation.” In Korengal, Specialist Miguel

Cortez talked about missing the gun fights in the Korengal valley and ended by saying, “We miss

the fire fights in Restrepo or in the Korengal, period.” The film immediately cuts to Sergeant

Josh McDonough who said, “I think a lot of us kind of miss that adrenaline.” This style of

narration, supported by Wiener’s (2007) study of Atomic Café, allows the narration to flow more

smoothly, and shows that documentarians are finding a better, more engaging way of narrating

the story: where the audience hears the whole story from those who experienced it.

In addition to the use of transitional phrases, the unreliable narrators used pauses

throughout their narration. In Red Army, Journalist Vladmir Pozner started in the middle of the

film by stating, “There was a lot of dissolutionment going on in the Soviet Union.” He then

paused at this point for a few seconds and then continued by saying, “For over 70 years, the

Soviet Union was a closed society and the iron curtain was a reality.” Similarly, sports reporter

Doug Wilson in referring to Evel Knievel’s crash at Wembley Stadium in Being Evel said, “It

was almost ghostly.” He paused. Then he began again, “His motorcycle tumbling was ghostly.”

He paused. He finished with, “Then it landed on top of him.” These momentary pauses in the

narrator’s speech give the audience time to meditate on the narrator’s words, in turn allowing

them to feel the emotion in the pictures or footage before the narrator continues.

Theme 2: Continued Use of Burnsian Style Sound Effects

Sound effects in current historical documentaries are still following the style used by

Burns. Four of the five documentaries used sound effects in conjunction with narration, footage,

and pictures to help the audience picture the scene. For example, in Being Evel, one of the

interviewees talked about a riot during Evel’s Grand Canyon stunt. He says, “When the beer was

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all gone, (cuts to footage of the beer stands) they overturned the semis.” The film then cuts to a

photo of the semi-trucks with beer and then to a photo of the rioters with a sound effect of a bin

being overturned. In Korengal, the soldiers described going out on patrol. As they described the

walk down the mountain and the fear of being ambushed, heartbeat sound effects were brought

in which increased in volume as they referred to their nerves increasing. Using sound effects in

this manner solidifies the concept of creating a sensation for the audience of being in the midst of

the action (Dubois, 1991; Henderson, 1991; Petersen, 2001).

Sound effects were also used to add realism to certain scenes. These types of sound

effects were stand-alone sound effects and were not used in combination with footage or pictures

to set a scene. In Being Evel, the sound of a clicking projector added realism when a set of

photos were cut in a sequence of Evel’s Grand Canyon stunt rocket crashing on takeoff. Red

Army used these types of sound effects in a similar fashion when a poster of boys marching in a

parade was shown and animated soviet airplanes with engine sound effects were flying in the

background on the poster.

Theme 3: Emphasis on Burnsian Image Movement to Highlight Emotion

The Burnsian technique of image movement is still highly used by current historical

documentaries, being a constant trend in all five documentaries. When image movement was

used, it revealed details of the individual’s emotions from their facial gestures. For example, in

Last Days in Vietnam, when Kissinger talked about President Ford addressing Congress about

the Can Toh bombing he said, “When President Ford went before Congress, he had two major

concerns.” As he said this, a photo was panned from left to right revealing a shot of Ford in

profile view with his hand to his mouth and thumb to his chin with a look of concern on his face.

Being Evel used the same technique by zooming in on a head on photo of Evel with a fearful

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look when the interviewee said, “He became psycho and schizophrenic.” The movement of

images in this way provides the viewer with a way to visualize the emotion emanating from the

character being referred to.

Theme 4: Transition from Character voiceover to Actual Recorded Dialogue

Unlike image movement and sound effects, the Burnsian method of using actors to voice

figures was non-existent in current historical documentaries. Rather, the trend was to use actual

footage or audio recordings from famous individuals in the documentary. Footage of President

Gerald Ford at a press conference stating the U.S.’s decision was used in Last Days in Vietnam

when he received the news that North Vietnam violated the Paris Agreement. Reporter packages

in Korengal from NBC News highlighted the extreme danger by showing the remoteness of the

location and witnessing the destruction of the Restrepo outpost. Using actual recordings and

footage of prominent individuals in the story seems to be more effective than an actor re-

enacting their voices, because it allows the audience to hear exactly what they said, the way they

said it, unlike Burns’ method where the audience can only imagine how it was said.

Theme 5: Supporting Footage to Support Narration

A common theme which emerged in all five documentaries was the Pre-Burnsian

technique of using footage which supported what the narrators/interviewees were referring to.

When Colonel Tim Harrington in Last Days in Vietnam talked about the arrival of refugees at the

Saigon airport, he referred to a certain man’s family who was helped onto the plane: “One man

who was colonel in the Vietnamese army who had wanted to stay and fight…had a wife and

eight kids.” The footage was brought in over the narration which showed a shot of the mother

and her children on the plane. This same method of using accompanying footage was seen in

Red Army, Korengal, and A Meaningful Victory. The use of actual footage echoes the idea found

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in the prior literature of making past events relatable because the viewer can see individuals’

faces, hear the words they speak, and see the emotions they feel as they confront the challenges

they face (Drew 2004). By placing this footage in the context with the narration of the events in

the order they happen, documentarians contribute to viewer engagement by keeping them

oriented throughout the story.

Theme 6: New Techniques of Engagement

While the combination of both Burnsian and Pre-Burnsian techniques was highly noted in

all five documentaries, the researcher was most interested in how current historical

documentaries are building on the techniques of the Ken Burns Effect. The results from the

iconic film analysis revealed that current historical documentaries are building on the audience

engagement tactics of the Ken Burns Effect in a variety of ways.

Current historical documentaries employed new effects to the image movement

established in the Ken Burns Effect. Instead of simply using a picture to illustrate the scene,

affects were added to the picture to make it more engaging. In A Meaningful Victory, rather than

using a picture of a line of cannons on the battlefield, an effect was added to the picture which

made smoke rise out of the cannons, and a cannonball come flying at the screen when it fired.

The addition of transitions from one photo to the other was also utilized, such as in Being Evel

when pictures of Evel’s cars and possessions were outlined with a neon light effect before they

were brought on the screen.

With the advent of 3D technology, documentaries are now able to recreate scenes in ways

that were impossible when The Civil War was produced. In Last Days in Vietnam, A Meaningful

Victory, and Red Army, 3D maps and cities were animated with moving vehicles, animated lines

to illustrate the movement of players or troops, and sound effects to add realism to the scene.

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Engagement tactics were also witnessed in new interviewing techniques in each of the

five documentaries. Rather than being framed in a bust shot, the interviewees were framed with

the chin and forehead filling the upper and lower corners of the frame against a black or blurred

background. This way the viewer was constantly aware of the emotions emanating from the

slightest facial gestures. The blurred or darkened background helped in engagement by placing

the attention on the interviewee and not the background. During emotional portions of the film,

the camera used slow zooms, both in and out, to reveal the interviewee as a whole, tilt ups from

their hands to their face, or pans from a foreground object to where they were positioned. When

Slava Fetisov in Red Army talked about the first Olympic Games the Soviet team played, the

announcer’s audio was cut in while Fetisov sat in his chair with a concerned, solemn look,

implying that he remembered what occurred. When the U.S. win was announced, the camera

zoomed out from Fetisov to reveal a sad look on his face. To put emphasis on certain phrases

that the interviewee used, a quick cut from a wide shot to a close up of them was used. As in the

case of Red Army and Korengal, the interviewer’s questions were recorded to make the interview

feel more conversational and put the answer in context for the viewer.

The most interesting new tactic used by documentarians was the use of broadcast

journalism tactics in helping to tell the story. This tactic was seen in the latest war documentary,

Korengal, in which a group of journalists decided, at the risk of their own lives, to let the camera

operator become a soldier. Using this method, the camera operator let the camera roll and

whatever was caught on camera while they were out on patrol, in a gun fight, or talking to the

Korengalese was used. In the gun fights, the camera operator ran and ducked just like a soldier

would. Men were killed on camera, bombs exploded around the base, and bullets whizzed by the

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camera. Thus, this style put the viewer in the midst of the action to witness the horror of war and

to see war from a first-hand account.

DISCUSSION

Based on the evidence from this study, the Ken Burns Effect has majorly influenced

current historical documentaries. Yet, its influence cannot stand alone. What makes a historical

documentary effective is the way all the techniques, Pre-Burnsian, Burnsian, and New work

together to tell the story in way which creates an integral experience for the audience (Rock &

Smith, 2014). Consequently, this study reveals that Burns’ method of storytelling is not the only

way to engage the audience in the material.

When The World at War debuted in 1970, it was considered the most engaging

documentary of its time because it built upon the forms of engagement used up to that point, and

brought its own style to the subgenre through more engaging narration, some sound effects, and

some image movement (Chapman, 2011). Ken Burns’ The Civil War, released in 1990, further

built on the principles established in The World at War by bringing a newer form of audience

engagement to the historical documentary subgenre: the use of sound effects, moving images,

narration, and character voiceover to create a scene (Dubois, 1991; Henderson, 1991; Tibbetts,

1994). Therefore, audience engagement is not merely about which style has more influence, but

rather that engagement in the historical documentary is a progression of how documentarians

build on each other’s work in new and engaging ways.

The results also indicate that new techniques that build on the Ken Burns Effect, such as

image movement, transitions, and special effects on pictures, are needed because audiences

constantly require new ways to keep their attention. As stated in the literature review, Isenburg’s

(1981) study of the origins of the historical documentary found that as the historical documentary

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progressed, documentarians were constantly seeking new ways to engage the changing

audiences.

Marshall McLuhan’s Medium Theory explains both of these findings. According to

Medium Theory, the medium on which the information is presented affects the viewer’s

perceptions of a particular issue or event rather than the message (McLuhan, 1964). Therefore,

as the audience changes so does the need for the medium to find newer methods of engagement

(McLuhan, 1964). McLuhan’s study of his student’s responses to the three media, radio,

television, and print, revealed that radio and print failed to engage the audience because they

could not find more engaging means to tell the story (McLuhan, 1964). Thus, television was

found to be the most engaging because it constantly sought new ways to engage its audience

(McLuhan, 1964). If historical documentaries cannot find newer techniques to engage their

audience and still tell their story accurately, their influence as media will cease to exist.

Importance to the Communication Field

The influence of the Ken Burns effect is of vital importance to the field of

Communication. Since historical documentaries are a primary form of media that the public uses

to increase their knowledge on past events (Rosenthal, 1988), documentarians’ can use the

knowledge from this study to find their own ways to build on Ken Burns work, and the work of

prior documentarians in the area of audience engagement. There are individuals who have never

heard of Ken Burns or have never seen The Civil War, but watch historical programming. This

study can be useful in showing them how many of the techniques they see in historical television

have been influenced by Burns.

The study also illustrates that modern works in historical documentary filmmaking

cannot exist without the foundation laid by prior documentaries. Thus, the concept that Ken

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Burns was the originator of the modern style of historical documentary filmmaking seen today

can be rejected. Rather, he, like others before him, built on the principles established by his

predecessors and in turn brought his own style to the subgenre.

Most importantly, Communication professionals are better able to understand that

historical documentaries progress in terms of engagement tactics to fit new audiences. The

Communication field is all about finding a way to get the audience to listen to the message.

Therefore, the information from this study can be used help make other Communication

disciplines better when it comes to finding new methods to pull their audiences into their

message.

Limitations

As this study was done using Marshall McLuhan’s Medium Theory to see how the

elements of the Ken Burns Effect are influencing historical documentaries within the last two

years, it does not by any means claim to cover every possible area of study regarding Ken Burns’

influence. The researcher did not look at other genres of documentary filmmaking during the

study because The Civil War is classified as a historical documentary, and the researcher was

only interested in this subgenre. The study only took into account the most recent influential

historical documentaries since these were the biggest documentaries in the subgenre within this

time period. The researcher also did not look at other elements in the study which were not part

of the Ken Burns Effect. These included such things as music and lighting techniques. To have

done this would have created extraneous variables in the research which the study was not

designed to test.

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Suggestions for Future Research

Based on the findings in this study, future researchers should consider looking at how

Ken Burns is adapting his style of filmmaking to account for newer audiences. Using focus

group methodology, the study would look at Burns’ latest documentaries, The Roosevelts, Jackie

Robinson, and Cancer: The Emperor of all Maladies. The participants would then watch each

documentary, and finally give their thoughts on what they found engaging and why.

Documentarians could benefit from this research by understanding what types of engagement

appeal to newer audiences, and Communication scholars would benefit from the new knowledge

on the ways Burns is adapting his style to newer audiences. Another future study could look at

the Ken Burns Effect’s influence in other genres of documentary filmmaking such as

environmental, cultural, and awareness using the same analysis, characteristics, and theory as

this study. This would lend insight on how Ken Burns’ The Civil War has influenced

documentary filmmaking as a whole rather than just one subgenre of it.

CONCLUSION

The major influence that The Civil War has on the historical documentary subgenre

demonstrates that the historical documentary is still important not only to the field of

Communication, but also to the general public. This study shows that even though the Ken Burns

Effect has had a major influence on present day historical documentaries, documentarians’

ability to build on each other’s works in new and engaging ways in adapting to newer audiences

will ultimately determine the fate of historical documentaries. Marshall McLuhan’s Medium

Theory shows that with ever changing audiences, new techniques of engagement are imperative

to holding the audience’s attention. With such renowned historical documentaries as The

American Experience on PBS playing a major part in the retelling of past events, the need for

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new techniques in audience engagement is now greater than ever before. Up and coming

documentary filmmakers who are interested in recounting past events should keep these

techniques in mind if they want their message to be successful. The long history of ever

changing tactics in audience engagement used in historical documentary film reveals that

creativity is the key factor to developing engaging tactics that will fit the audience of the time.

Thus, the combination of different creative styles of engagement to effectively hook the audience

to the story is what continues to make the historical documentary a major player in society today.

With this idea at the forefront, the new methods of engagement developed by documentarians

today reveal a bright future for this style of filmmaking.

27

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