Kent L. Wakeford
Encyclopedia
Kent Lon Wakeford is an American
cinematographer
, the co-founder of Wakeford / Orloff Productions and founder of Kent Wakeford and Associates, two commercial
production companies.
Wakeford is most known for working on Martin Scorsese
's films Mean Streets
and Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
, as well as on the films Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade
and Wedding Bell Blues
.
. While finishing up high school, Wakeford apprenticed with fashion photographer Earl Scott. Following his apprenticeship, Wakeford landed a job as a cameraman at The Douglas Aircraft Company
. There he was responsible for filming new missiles, planes, and classified weapons tests at White Sands New Mexico
and Edwards Air Force Base, becoming one of the early experts in super high speed cinema (5,000 to 8,000 frames per second). Wakeford’s work at The Douglas Aircraft Company led him to the United States Army
where Kent spent two years in the Signal Corp. as a motion picture cameraman in New York
and Germany
.
Following his time in the Army, Wakeford began shooting documentary films. One of his early documentary films was on Wernher von Braun
whom Wakeford had met and developed a relationship with at Douglas Aircraft. He furthered his documentary
career by shooting films with Willard Van Dyke
, a leading social documentary filmmaker who later went on to be director of the Department of Film at the Museum of Modern Art
.
.
Later Wakeford began shooting live action that would be incorporated into animation. Wakeford quickly began working for animators in Hollywood like Jose Cuauhtemoc “Bill” Malendez
(Peanuts
), Hanna & Barbera, among others. With this success, Wakeford started a commercial production company with John Orloff
called Wakeford / Orloff Productions. Wakeford/Orloff Productions shot national commercials for brands including Budweiser
, Mattel
, Hot Wheels
, Barbie
, Boeing
, Purina, Post Cereal, Chevrolet, United Airline, Maybeline, Max Factor, Procter & Gamble
, Rice o Roni, Gallo Wine, Kellogs, and McDonalds.
and starring Harvey Keitel
and Robert De Niro
. Wakeford shot the film using handheld camera
techniques to capture the self-destructive lives of shady characters in Little Italy
New York. Huffington Post called the cinematography by Wakeford "arguably the most original for this genre
at the time and has been copied endlessly in other movies, down to his audacious tracking shots. The innovative handholding and lighting techniques used by Wakeford have since become mainstream practice in American cinema." In 1997, the United States National Film Registry elected to preserve Mean Streets for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Wakeford went on to shoot Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974) directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Ellen Burstyn
and Kris Kristofferson
. The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures
called Wakeford's cinematography "inventive." The film won the Academy Award for Best Actress (Ellen Burstyn) and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress
in a Supporting Role for Diane Ladd
and Best Writing, Original Screenplay
for Robert Getchell
.
Kent later transitioned back into commercial work by starting production company Kent Wakeford & Associates.
He later spent a season shooting the television show “L.A. Law
". However, after 14 episodes he turned his attention to small independent films and shot over a dozen independent films over the next decade. Most of the films were action oriented using his gritty street-like sensibility from “Mean Streets
.” He also shot short films like “This Ain’t Bebop” directed by Ralph Bakshi and starring Harvey Keitel
, and Some Folks Call it a Sling Blade
written by and starring Billy Bob Thornton
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
, the co-founder of Wakeford / Orloff Productions and founder of Kent Wakeford and Associates, two commercial
Television advertisement
A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...
production companies.
Wakeford is most known for working on Martin Scorsese
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
's films Mean Streets
Mean Streets
Mean Streets is a 1973 drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Scorsese and Mardik Martin. The film stars Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro. It was released by Warner Bros. on October 2, 1973...
and Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore is a 1974 American drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Robert Getchell. It stars Ellen Burstyn as a widow who travels with her preteen son across the American Southwest in search of a better life, along with Alfred Lutter as her son and Kris...
, as well as on the films Some Folks Call It a Sling Blade
Some Folks Call it a Sling Blade
"Some Folks Call it a Sling Blade" is a short film directed by George Hickenlooper and starring Billy Bob Thornton, Molly Ringwald, and J. T. Walsh...
and Wedding Bell Blues
Wedding Bell Blues
"Wedding Bell Blues" is a song written and recorded by Laura Nyro in 1966 that became a number one hit for The 5th Dimension in 1969 and subsequently a popular phrase in American culture...
.
Early life and career
Wakeford was born in 1928 and grew up in south Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. While finishing up high school, Wakeford apprenticed with fashion photographer Earl Scott. Following his apprenticeship, Wakeford landed a job as a cameraman at The Douglas Aircraft Company
Douglas Aircraft Company
The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer, based in Long Beach, California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. and later merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas...
. There he was responsible for filming new missiles, planes, and classified weapons tests at White Sands New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
and Edwards Air Force Base, becoming one of the early experts in super high speed cinema (5,000 to 8,000 frames per second). Wakeford’s work at The Douglas Aircraft Company led him to the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
where Kent spent two years in the Signal Corp. as a motion picture cameraman in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
.
Following his time in the Army, Wakeford began shooting documentary films. One of his early documentary films was on Wernher von Braun
Wernher von Braun
Wernher Magnus Maximilian, Freiherr von Braun was a German rocket scientist, aerospace engineer, space architect, and one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Nazi Germany during World War II and in the United States after that.A former member of the Nazi party,...
whom Wakeford had met and developed a relationship with at Douglas Aircraft. He furthered his documentary
Documentary
A documentary is a creative work of non-fiction, including:* Documentary film, including television* Radio documentary* Documentary photographyRelated terms include:...
career by shooting films with Willard Van Dyke
Willard Van Dyke
Willard Van Dyke was an American filmmaker and photographer who believed that photography could have a major influence on the world....
, a leading social documentary filmmaker who later went on to be director of the Department of Film at the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
.
Advertising career
To supplement his documentary work, Wakeford began freelancing on commercial projects. One of his first jobs was as a cameraman for “Danger is My Business”, a reality show that traveled around California filming dangerous professions. During this time, he also created art films, including “Fish” which explored movement of color in synch to music and won an award at the Edinburgh International Film FestivalEdinburgh International Film Festival
The Edinburgh International Film Festival is an annual fortnight of cinema screenings and related events taking place each June. Established in 1947, it is the world's oldest continually running film festival...
.
Later Wakeford began shooting live action that would be incorporated into animation. Wakeford quickly began working for animators in Hollywood like Jose Cuauhtemoc “Bill” Malendez
Bill Melendez
José Cuauhtémoc "Bill" Meléndez was a Mexican-American character animator, film director, voice artist and producer, known for his cartoons for Warner Brothers, UPA and the Peanuts series...
(Peanuts
Peanuts
Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...
), Hanna & Barbera, among others. With this success, Wakeford started a commercial production company with John Orloff
John Orloff
John Orloff is an American screenwriter who currently lives in Chatham, New York.-Life and career:Orloff studied screenwriting at the University of California, Los Angeles Film School, and on graduation, went to work in the advertising business...
called Wakeford / Orloff Productions. Wakeford/Orloff Productions shot national commercials for brands including Budweiser
Budweiser
Budweiser is a German adjective describing something or someone from the city of České Budějovice in Southern Bohemia, Czech Republic.Beer brewing in České Budějovice dates back to the 13th century...
, Mattel
Mattel
Mattel, Inc. is the world's largest toy company based on revenue. The products it produces include Fisher Price, Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels and Matchbox toys, Masters of the Universe, American Girl dolls, board games, and, in the early 1980s, video game consoles. The company's name is derived from...
, Hot Wheels
Hot Wheels
Hot Wheels is a brand of die cast toy car, introduced by American toymaker Mattel in 1968. It was the primary competitor of Matchbox until 1996, when Mattel acquired rights to the Matchbox brand from Tyco.-Models:...
, Barbie
Barbie
Barbie is a fashion doll manufactured by the American toy-company Mattel, Inc. and launched in March 1959. American businesswoman Ruth Handler is credited with the creation of the doll using a German doll called Bild Lilli as her inspiration....
, Boeing
Boeing
The Boeing Company is an American multinational aerospace and defense corporation, founded in 1916 by William E. Boeing in Seattle, Washington. Boeing has expanded over the years, merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997. Boeing Corporate headquarters has been in Chicago, Illinois since 2001...
, Purina, Post Cereal, Chevrolet, United Airline, Maybeline, Max Factor, Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble
Procter & Gamble is a Fortune 500 American multinational corporation headquartered in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio and manufactures a wide range of consumer goods....
, Rice o Roni, Gallo Wine, Kellogs, and McDonalds.
Film career
Wakeford's first major motion picture was Mean Streets (1973) directed by Martin ScorseseMartin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. In 1990 he founded The Film Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to film preservation, and in 2007 he founded the World Cinema Foundation...
and starring Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel is an American actor. Some of his most notable starring roles were in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, Ridley Scott's The Duellists and Thelma and Louise, Ettore Scola's That Night in Varennes, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Jane Campion's The...
and Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer. His first major film roles were in Bang the Drum Slowly and Mean Streets, both in 1973...
. Wakeford shot the film using handheld camera
Camera
A camera is a device that records and stores images. These images may be still photographs or moving images such as videos or movies. The term camera comes from the camera obscura , an early mechanism for projecting images...
techniques to capture the self-destructive lives of shady characters in Little Italy
Little Italy
Little Italy is a general name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an urban neighborhood.-Canada:*Little Italy, Edmonton, in Alberta*Little Italy, Montreal, in Quebec...
New York. Huffington Post called the cinematography by Wakeford "arguably the most original for this genre
Genre
Genre , Greek: genos, γένος) is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or culture, e.g. music, and in general, any type of discourse, whether written or spoken, audial or visual, based on some set of stylistic criteria. Genres are formed by conventions that change over time...
at the time and has been copied endlessly in other movies, down to his audacious tracking shots. The innovative handholding and lighting techniques used by Wakeford have since become mainstream practice in American cinema." In 1997, the United States National Film Registry elected to preserve Mean Streets for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
Wakeford went on to shoot Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974) directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Ellen Burstyn
Ellen Burstyn
Ellen Burstyn is a leading American actress of film, stage, and television. Burstyn's career began in theatre during the late 1950s, and over the next ten years she appeared in several films and television series before joining the Actors Studio in 1967...
and Kris Kristofferson
Kris Kristofferson
Kristoffer "Kris" Kristofferson is an American musician, actor, and writer. He is known for hits such as "Me and Bobby McGee", "For the Good Times", "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down", and "Help Me Make It Through the Night"...
. The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures
National Board of Review of Motion Pictures
The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures was founded in 1909 in New York City, just 13 years after the birth of cinema, to protest New York City Mayor George B. McClellan, Jr.'s revocation of moving-picture exhibition licenses on Christmas Eve 1908. The mayor believed that the new medium...
called Wakeford's cinematography "inventive." The film won the Academy Award for Best Actress (Ellen Burstyn) and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
in a Supporting Role for Diane Ladd
Diane Ladd
Diane Ladd is an American actress, film director, producer and published author. She has appeared in over 120 roles, on television, and in miniseries and feature films, including Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore , Wild at Heart , Rambling Rose , Ghosts of Mississippi, Primary Colors, 28 Days , and...
and Best Writing, Original Screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
for Robert Getchell
Robert Getchell
Robert Getchell is an American screenwriter. He is probably best known for writing Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and creating the Sitcom Alice.-Filmography:* Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore * Bound for Glory...
.
Kent later transitioned back into commercial work by starting production company Kent Wakeford & Associates.
He later spent a season shooting the television show “L.A. Law
L.A. Law
L.A. Law is a US television legal drama that ran on NBC from September 15, 1986 to May 19, 1994. L.A. Law reflected the social and cultural ideologies of the 1980s and early 1990s and many of the cases featured on the show dealt with hot topic issues such as abortion, racism, gay rights,...
". However, after 14 episodes he turned his attention to small independent films and shot over a dozen independent films over the next decade. Most of the films were action oriented using his gritty street-like sensibility from “Mean Streets
Mean Streets
Mean Streets is a 1973 drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Scorsese and Mardik Martin. The film stars Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro. It was released by Warner Bros. on October 2, 1973...
.” He also shot short films like “This Ain’t Bebop” directed by Ralph Bakshi and starring Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel is an American actor. Some of his most notable starring roles were in Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, Ridley Scott's The Duellists and Thelma and Louise, Ettore Scola's That Night in Varennes, Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, Jane Campion's The...
, and Some Folks Call it a Sling Blade
Some Folks Call it a Sling Blade
"Some Folks Call it a Sling Blade" is a short film directed by George Hickenlooper and starring Billy Bob Thornton, Molly Ringwald, and J. T. Walsh...
written by and starring Billy Bob Thornton
Billy Bob Thornton
Billy Bob Thornton is an American actor, screenwriter, director and musician. Thornton gained early recognition as a cast member on the CBS sitcom Hearts Afire and in several early 1990s films including On Deadly Ground and Tombstone...
.
Filmography
- Halfway Home (1998)
- Waking Up Horton (1997)
- Last Lives (1996)
- Wedding Bell BluesWedding Bell Blues"Wedding Bell Blues" is a song written and recorded by Laura Nyro in 1966 that became a number one hit for The 5th Dimension in 1969 and subsequently a popular phrase in American culture...
(1996) - Power 98 (1996)
- Boy Crazy, Girl Crazier (1996)
- Loser (1994)
- Frame-Up II: The Cover-Up (1994)
- Some Folks Call It a Sling BladeSome Folks Call it a Sling Blade"Some Folks Call it a Sling Blade" is a short film directed by George Hickenlooper and starring Billy Bob Thornton, Molly Ringwald, and J. T. Walsh...
(1993) - Love, Cheat & Steal (1993)
- Grey Knight (1992)
- IronheartIronheartIronheart is a martial arts film starring Bolo Yeung, created as a showcase vehicle for Britton K. Lee. It is considered a cult classic by many Bolo Yeung fans.-Plot:...
(1992) - Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me (1992)
- Night Eyes II (1991)
- Total Exposure (1991)
- The Last Hour (1991)
- China O'Brien II (1990)
- China O'Brien (1990)
- L.A. Law (TV series) (1987–1988)
- The Women's Club (1987)
- The Princess AcademyThe Princess AcademyThe Princess Academy is a 1987 independent film comedy directed by Bruce A. Block and written by Sandra Weintraub. It was filmed mostly in Yugoslavia.-Plot:...
(1987) - Alice Doesn't Live Here AnymoreAlice Doesn't Live Here AnymoreAlice Doesn't Live Here Anymore is a 1974 American drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Robert Getchell. It stars Ellen Burstyn as a widow who travels with her preteen son across the American Southwest in search of a better life, along with Alfred Lutter as her son and Kris...
(1974) - Black Belt Jones (1973)
- Doctor Death: Seeker of Souls (1973)
- Mean StreetsMean StreetsMean Streets is a 1973 drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Scorsese and Mardik Martin. The film stars Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro. It was released by Warner Bros. on October 2, 1973...
(1973)