Florentine Films: Ken Burns

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.8 • 31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2022

⏱️ 80 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As a boy, Ken Burns was captivated by the power of film and dreamed of being the next Alfred Hitchcock or John Ford. But in college, he discovered that stories about American history could be just as dramatic as any he could make up. Eventually, he set out to make a new kind of documentary, layered with actors’ voices and sound effects; and animated by a gentle panning motion that became known as the Ken Burns Effect. But he also had to run a business: knocking on doors to raise money, managing a small team of producers, and fiercely protecting his creative vision and IP. Today, 40+ years after it was founded, Ken’s company Florentine Films has built one of the most valuable documentary archives in the world, including The Civil War, Jazz, Baseball, The Statue of Liberty, and most recently, Benjamin Franklin.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to how I built this early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:07.0	Download the app today.
0:09.0	When you leave home, can you ever really go back?
0:12.0	Made a version!
0:13.0	Soccer legend Leo Messi and I both left Argentina as kids.
0:17.0	You know you're that piece of a puzzle that doesn't fit anywhere.
0:20.0	To so many immigrants, football is a way to reconnect.
0:23.0	Listen to the last cop in the embedded podcast feed
0:26.0	to hear the latest collaboration from MPR and Fuduro Studios.
0:31.0	For many, many years I had on my desk two, three ring binders.
0:36.0	Each of them three or four inches wide, filled with all the rejections.
0:41.0	And I kept them there just to remind me that you could have the best idea in the world,
0:46.0	all the talent, but there was some other ingredient that had to do with stubbornness
0:50.0	or perseverance and I don't know where I got that.
0:53.0	That's why I kept those nose and I was just trying to get people to yes.
0:57.0	Welcome to How I Built This, a show about innovators, entrepreneurs,
1:08.0	idealists and the stories behind the movements they built.
1:13.0	I'm Guy Raaz and on the show today, how Ken Burns built one of the most valuable
1:20.0	documentary archives in the world and became one of the most iconic filmmakers of his generation.
1:31.0	There's a black and white photo in an old national geographic from the mid-1950s
1:37.0	of a young mother spooning food into her baby's mouth.
1:41.0	The baby sits in a high chair looking straight at the camera
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Guy Raz | Wondery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Guy Raz | Wondery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.