Ben Shedd is an American director, producer, and writer of film and video. He shared the 1978

Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Film This is a list of films by year that have received an Academy Award together with the other nominations for best documentary short film. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are announ ...

Education

He earned a BA from

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is ...

in 1968 and an MA from the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

School of Cinematic Arts The USC School of Cinematic Arts is an academic unit of the University of Southern California, in Los Angeles. With a history that dates to the first years of talkies, the school descends from America's first program to confer a college degree in ...

in 1973.Notable Alumni, USC School of Cinematic Arts

Career

As a member of the original production team, he worked on the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

science series ''

Nova A nova ( novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. All observed novae involve white ...

''. He worked on the first program in 1972 and acted as a director, producer, and writer during ''Nova''’s second and third seasons in 1973-1976. Since 1985, he has directed and produced giant screen

IMAX IMAX is a proprietary system of High-definition video, high-resolution cameras, film formats, film projectors, and movie theater, theaters known for having very large screens with a tall aspect ratio (image), aspect ratio (approximately ei ...

-type science films, including ''Seasons'' and ''Tropical Rainforest''. Ben Shedd has described large-format film and

fulldome video Fulldome refers to immersive dome-based video display environments. The dome, horizontal or tilted, is filled with real-time (interactive) or pre-rendered (linear) computer animations, live capture images, or composited environments. Although t ...

as “exploding the frame,” where the frame to which he refers relates to experiences typified by “framed” cinematic art.

Recognition

Ben Shedd shared a

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and in ...

for the second season of ''Nova''. Shedd and Jacqueline Phillips Shedd, producers of ''

The Flight of the Gossamer Condor ''The Flight of the Gossamer Condor'' is a 1978 American short documentary film directed by Ben Shedd, about the development of the Gossamer Condor, the first human-powered aircraft, by a team led by Paul MacCready. The Academy Film Archive p ...

'' film, received the 1978

Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject This is a list of films by year that have received an Academy Award together with the other nominations for best documentary short film. Following the Academy's practice, the year listed for each film is the year of release: the awards are announ ...

. The film tells the story of history's first successful human powered airplane—designed by inventor

Paul MacCready Paul Beattie MacCready Jr. (September 25, 1925 – August 28, 2007) was an American aeronautical engineer. He was the founder of AeroVironment and the designer of the human-powered aircraft that won the first Kremer prize. He devoted his life t ...

and his team from

AeroVironment AeroVironment, Inc. is an American Arms industry, defense contractor headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, that designs and manufactures unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Paul MacCready, Paul B. MacCready Jr., a designer of human-powered aircraft, ...

, flown by pilot Bryan Allen.

References

External links

* American documentary film producers American documentary film directors Year of birth missing (living people) Living people San Francisco State University alumni USC School of Cinematic Arts alumni {{US-film-producer-stub