Being prolific is essential in television — you must keep making content or people will forget about you. Some people can master this and create something new and exciting and quickly turn around into another great project. Ryan Murphy and Louis C.K. produce something original every year. While many people should aspire to this ability, harvesting work too early often results in a diluted final product.

Ken Burns is not prolific, at least in the immediate sense. A Ken Burns documentary on PBS only shows up once every few years, and it only lasts a few hours. It might not be a feasible way to work for a lot of people, but Burns shows that taking your time on a project can allow the finished piece to reach its full potential. Burns is allowed the time to examine every small piece and turn it into exactly what he wants.

Last week, Burns’ “Jackie Robinson” debuted on PBS, showing another side of the man that other documentaries and biopics glossed over. No man is perfect, and if you lived a life like Robinson’s, things were not always going to go well.  Anything I could write would take away from the way Burns tells it. Here are some of Burns’ most notable projects that showcase his signature style of storytelling.

“The Civil War”

Burns’ first big documentary put him on the map as a great filmmaker and introduced his text-like style to documentary as well as the fabled “Ken Burns” shot. The combination of vast archival pictures, voice acting and narration made this nine-part mini documentary series the start of Ken Burns’ legacy.

“Baseball”

Burns separated the century-long history of baseball into nine innings and told the cultural love story of a sport and its progress through history. He showed himself to not be a one-hit wonder and proved himself able to be able to produce a range of content.

“Jazz”

The follow up to “Baseball” ran through the fascinating life of American music through the 20th century. With more interviews, footage, recordings and performances, Burns’ “Jazz” gave much of America a history of people whose great influence on society that they never knew about.

“The War”

In my opinion, this series is Burns’ best. World War II is such a heartbreaking and fascinating time, especially for a time where the last of its heroes are passing away, but people still long for the stories of this recent history.  This one proves my point on time to work. The long production gave him time to capture the wide impact of the events by finding the right anecdotes to combine.

Ken Burns proves taking your time can result in the best work. It is not that he is slow to make his documentaries, it’s that he understands that to tell people a big story, you have to know every aspect of it and more than the story you’re telling. I am in awe of how he can become an expert in so many different parts of history.  He comes under criticism sometimes for exclusion or perceived biases, but the man knows his stuff and knows how to tell the stories of eras and people.

Kyle Stevens is a sophomore advertising major. You can email him at ksteve03@syr.edu or reach him on Twitter at @kstevs_.

Published on April 17, 2016 at 8:29 pm