Hitchcock Chronology: Robert Burks
Entries in the Hitchcock Chronology relating to Robert Burks...
1953
September
- Hitchcock begins assembling a new team of key personnel for his first Paramount film, Rear Window, including assistant director Herbert Coleman, production manager C.O. "Doc" Erickson, cinematographer Robert Burks, editor George Tomasini, costume designer Edith Head, production designer Hal Pereira and his team of Joseph McMillan Johnson, John P. Fulton and John Goodman.[1]
November
- 13th - Cinematographer Robert Burks begins photography tests on the complex studio set of Rear Window to ensure each part can be lit independently for both day and night scenes.[2][3]
- 27th - Principal photography begins Hitchcock's first film for Paramount, Rear Window, starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly. The first sequence to be filmed is the complex opening title sequence — 10 takes are required before Robert Burks is happy.[4][5][6]
1956
June
- 19th - The Hitchcocks meet up in London with Robert Burks, Herbert Coleman and Angus MacPhail in order to talk with staff from the British Colonial Office to discuss plans for the director's next project, Flamingo Feather. From there, they travel on to Europe and then South Africa to scout locations and to visit Hitch's aunt Emma Mary Rhodes (who dies in September). It soon becomes obvious that the logistics of shooting a film in southern Africa will be too much and Hitchcock decides to abandon the project.[7]
1963
February
- 1st - With all the effects shots completed and printed to his satisfaction, cinematographer Robert Burks' work on The Birds is completed.[8]
1968
May
- 13th - Cinematographer Robert Burks, who worked with Hitchcock on 12 films in the 1950s and 1960s, dies with his wife in a house fire, aged 58.
References
- ↑ Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light (2003) by Patrick McGilligan, pages 483-85
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 41
- ↑ American Cinematographer (1990) - Hitchcock's Techniques Tell Rear Window Story
- ↑ Writing with Hitchcock (2001) by Steven DeRosa, page 43
- ↑ American Cinematographer (1990) - Hitchcock's Techniques Tell Rear Window Story
- ↑ Patrick McGilligan states filming began in October, but this is likely an error.
- ↑ The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock (1983) by Donald Spoto, pages 380-1
- ↑ The Making of Hitchcock's The Birds (2013) by Tony Lee Moral, page 179
