Stephen H. Burum<\/strong> was born in November of 1939 in Visalia, a small California town near Fresno. His father worked as a distribution manager for the \u2018Visalia Times Delta\u2019, and the grandmother on his father\u2019s side was a journalist at \u2018The Alta Advocate\u2019. His mother\u2019s side of the family owned \u2018The Dinuba Sentinel\u2019, another newspaper published in the same town. Despite his family\u2019s journalistic roots, Burum<\/strong> chose to pursue his interests in photography and cinema. As a teenager, he shot his first films with Kodak Brownie 8mm camera loaned from a photography shop owned by his best friend\u2019s father.<\/p>\n \n Stephen H. Burum on the movie set<\/em> Burum\u2019s <\/strong>first career steps date to the early 1960s and the UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television in Los Angeles, where he was guided by some of the most prominent film industry professionals, including cinematographer Charles G. Clarke, ASC (remembered for such films as Moontide<\/em>, Hello Frisco, Hello<\/em>, and Carousel<\/em>), and one of the very first female directors in the history of cinema, Dorothy Arzner, whose films included Working Girls<\/em><\/span>, The Bride Wore Red<\/em><\/span>, or Dance, Girl<\/span>, Dance<\/span><\/em>. A committed and hard-working student, Stephen<\/strong> H.<\/strong> Burum<\/strong> photographed about fifty student films, shot mainly in black-and-white. During this period of time, he also became a teaching assistant for Charles Clarke\u2019s and Stanley Kramer\u2019s classes.<\/p>\n His first professional experience of working behind the camera came in 1964 on the wildlife television series, The NBC Wonderful World of Color<\/em><\/span>, produced for the Disney Studios. After he was drafted in 1965, Burum<\/strong> shot training films for the U.S. Army Pictorial Center in New York. Following his two-year military service, Burum<\/strong> returned to California. Due to initial difficulties in joining the union, he first worked on commercials and TV programs, as well as low-budget and independent film productions. These included Scream Bloody Murder<\/em> <\/span>directed by Marc B. Ray<\/strong>, and very popular TV series, Little House on the Prairie<\/em><\/span>, for which Burum<\/strong> shot countless MagiCam inserts. His creative potential was recognized already when he shared a technical craft Emmy Award for visual effects on the popular science TV program, Cosmos<\/em><\/span> (1980), aired on PBS.<\/p>\n In 1976, Stephen H.<\/strong> Burum<\/strong> worked as the second unit cameraman and director on the set of his first feature film, Apocalypse Now<\/em><\/span>, directed by Francis Ford Coppola<\/strong>, whom he befriended at UCLA, and then on the second unit of The Black Stallion<\/em><\/span>, directed by his other UCLA colleague, Carroll Ballard<\/strong>. Even though he began his career as cinematographer in 1964, Burum\u2019s <\/strong>formal debut as a fully-fledged director of photography in a feature film dates to 1982 when he worked on The Escape Artist<\/em><\/span>, a story of a boy exploring the magician\u2019s world, directed by Caleb Deschanel<\/strong>.<\/p>\n A year later, Burum<\/strong> joined Coppola<\/strong> on two adaptations of very popular novels by Susan Eloise Hinton. Lyrical in its expression, The Outsiders<\/em><\/span> and, most of all, the provocative Rumble Fish<\/em><\/span>, constitute not only a modern take on the juvenile crime but also, due to its avant-garde form, these two films significantly influenced the stylistic direction and the development of a music video as a film genre. Stephen Burum\u2019s<\/strong> black-and-white images with their artful interplay of light and shadow in Rumble Fish<\/em><\/span> take us to a timeless, dream-like reality of the 1950s. The world of juvenile criminals from Oklahoma is filled with strong emotions. Alike in terms of composition, The Outsiders<\/em><\/span> and Rumble Fish<\/em><\/span> feature unexpected framing, shadow play, and show some affinity with the expressionism of silent films and classic Hollywood musicals.<\/p>\n Rumble Fish<\/em> Burum\u2019s<\/strong> career began to flourish in the early 1980s. The fascinating war drama Uncommon Valor<\/em> (dir. Ted Kotcheff), a bittersweet story of a group of friends entering adulthood St. Elmo\u2019s Fire<\/em><\/span> (dir. Joel Schumacher), or the fast-paced crime film 8 Million Ways to Die <\/em><\/span>(dir. Hal Ashby), all come from this period of time. At this point in his career Burum<\/strong> also met Danny De Vito<\/strong> for whom he shot a grotesque black comedy The War of the Roses <\/em><\/span>(1989), and Hoffa<\/em> <\/span>(1992), a critically-acclaimed biopic, for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award\u00ae in the Best Cinematography category.<\/p>\n Above all, however, Stephen H. Burum<\/strong> is most famous for his collaboration with the director Brian De Palma<\/strong> with whom he made a total of eight films exploring variety of genres. They included Body Double<\/em><\/span> (1984), The Untouchables<\/em><\/span> (1987), Casualties of War<\/em> <\/span>(1989), Raising Cain<\/em> <\/span>(1992), Carlito\u2019s Way<\/em><\/span> (1993), Mission: Impossible<\/em><\/span> (1996), Snake Eyes<\/em><\/span> (1998) and Mission to Mars<\/em><\/span> (2000). Working alongside De Palma<\/strong> shaped Burum\u2019s<\/strong> visual style and transformed him into an experienced and mature cinematographer, sensitive to the aspects visualizing a story and fulfilling director\u2019s expectations.<\/p>\n Mission: Impossible<\/em> In the Academy Award\u00ae for Best Supporting Actor winner, The Untouchables<\/em><\/span> \u2013 a story of a determined federal agent who chases the merciless Al Capone \u2013 Burum<\/strong> and De Palma<\/strong> presented a universal story of a battle between good and evil that fits perfectly into the archetype of this type of cinema. Burum<\/strong> also fully supported the directorial vision on Carlito\u2019s Way<\/em><\/span>, a story of a Puerto Rican criminal who shortly after leaving prison tries to redefine his life. This purposefully slow-paced dramatic tale underscores deep social issues. Burum\u2019s<\/strong> elegant photography ideally complements the intimate and contemplative mood, making this gangster action movie difficult to classify.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/archive.camerimage.pl\/assets\/uploads\/2022\/04\/4.-Stephen-H.-Burum-on-the-movie-set-image-courtesy-of-the-ASC-Archives_ver.2-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
\n(image courtesy of the ASC Archives)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n(photo Zoetrope Studios\/Collection Christophel\/East News)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\n(photo Cruise Wagner Productions\/Collection Christophel\/East News)<\/em><\/p>\n