About Shedd Productions, Inc. and Ben Shedd
![Ben Shedd Director/Producer/Writer/Designer
Company President, University Faculty, Speaker, & Scholar

Biography Academy Award winning filmmaker Ben Shedd has been a professional film & video director producer writer since 1970. He has been producing and creating award winning films and videos of social and intellectual interest since he began his production career.
NOVA science series Ben shares a Peabody Award for the second season of the Public Television NOVA® science series. He was a member of the original production team and worked on the very first NOVA production in 1972 and was a director, producer, and writer during NOVA's 2nd and 3rd seasons in 1973-1976.
THE FLIGHT OF THE GOSSAMER CONDOR Jacqueline Phillips Shedd and Ben Shedd, producers of THE FLIGHT OF THE GOSSAMER CONDOR film, received the 1978 Academy Award® Oscar® for Best Documentary Short Subject. The film tells the story about history's first successful human powered airplane - designed by inventor Dr. Paul MacCready and his team from Aerovironment, Inc. and flown by pilot Bryan Allen.
The Gossamer Condor airplane won the coveted 50,000 pound Kremer Prize for human-powerd flight and fulfilled the age old dream of flying by our own power. Today, the Gossamer Condor aircraft is on display in the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC, where it hangs in an honored place beside the Wright Brothers first airplane and the Apollo 11 moon capsule.
THE FLIGHT OF THE GOSSAMER CONDOR was the first production of Shedd Productions and producers Jacqueline Phillips Shedd and Ben Shedd received numerous international awards, including an Oscar®, for the film. The newly remastered and digitally restored 30th Anniversary Edition DVD of this 27 minute award winning science education film is distributed by Shedd Productions, Inc. and is available at: www.gossamercondor.com.

GIANT SCREEN FILMS Since 1985, filmmaker Ben Shedd has been designing, directing, and producing giant screen IMAX & OMNIMAX type science films, including SEASONS, TROPICAL RAINFOREST, the FORT WORTH FLYOVER II and DANCING IN THE SKY. These elegantly produced giant screen films have gotten excellent reviews and have played in theaters around the world.
Ben Shedd's film productions have been supported by substantial grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the NOVA series public television funders. His films have received forty international awards and are distributed world-wide in five film and video formats, including Laser Disc and Digital Video Disk.
UNIVERSITY TEACHING & PUBLIC LECTURES In addition to his production work, Ben Shedd was the 1989/1990 PNM Foundation Endowed Chair Professor of Media Arts in the College of Fine Arts at the University of New Mexico where he originated and taught six production courses in two semesters. For ten years, Ben was an Adjunct Associate Professor at his alma mater, the world famous University of Southern California's School of Cinema/Television, where he created and taught a course called Producing the Nontheatrical Film and Video with Mitchell Block. Ben has also taught film and video courses at the California Institute of the Arts, the Art Center College of Design and Boise State University, and he has given numerous lectures on film producing and directing throughout the world.
Ben has two university degrees in film and video production: a Master of Arts graduate degree from the University of Southern California's School of Cinema/Television and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Radio/Television/Film from San Francisco State University.
RESEARCH IN GIANT SCREEN DESIGN In 1989, Ben was one of four recipients of the Alden B. Dow Creativity Residential Fellowship, where he researched the similarities and differences between small screen productions and giant screen 70mm filmmaking. Ben has published and presented several articles and essays about making giant screen frameless films and digital designs, and is developing a theory and book called EXPLODING THE FRAME.
Ben Shedd was an Artist-in-Residence in the Princeton University Visual Arts Program Atelier during Spring 2004. He was a Senior Research Scholar and Lecturer at the Department of Computer Science, Princeton University for 6 years from 1998 through 2004 and a Visiting Fellow at the Council of the Humanities at Princeton University during the 1997/1998 academic year doing research on large scale display media design and informal science education. Ben's work at Princeton has been featured in several Princeton University articles including: Shedd Lives Life IMAX Size, Wall Comes to Life, Imaginations Drive Wall and Into the Great Wide.
Ben Shedd was the Capstone Speaker at the IEEE InfoVis 2003 Conference, presenting his vision of design for future wall size computer screens. He has consulted with the MITRE Corporation about wall-size computer displays.
Ben was Co-Chair - with Idaho State Representative Jana Kemp - of the Idaho Film Task Force to develop film and media production tax incentives and workforce training support for the state of Idaho to encourage increased film production business in the state. Appointed by Roger Madsen, Director of the Idaho Department of Commerce and Labor, the year-long Task Force developed Statewide Media Strategies to improve production in Idaho. Information about the new Idaho Media Incentives are on the Idaho Film Office web page.
In 2006-2007, Ben leaped into High Definition Production with WideEye Productions, Inc. He developed and directed the new Widescreen documentary GREEN IS THE COLOR OF MONEY, about one of the world's most energy efficient, high performance buildings - the US Green Building Council LEED® PLatinum rated Banner Bank Building in Boise, Idaho. The movie was awarded the 2007 Best in Show/Contemporary Issues from the Accolade Competition, cited because "the production illustrates the power of a documentary to foster technological change." The Digital Download of GREEN IS THE COLOR OF MONEY is available at www.deepgreen.tv. The Banner Bank Building has received the Environmental Design + Construction's 2007 Excellence in Design Award - Excellence in Commercial Design. Available from Shedd Productions, Inc. at: www.deepgreen.tv
The Making of PLEO: Behind the Scenes for UGOBE. Produced in High Definition by Shedd Productions, Inc. and WideEye Productions, Inc. On YouTube - called PLEO - Behind The Scenes 1 - 6
Make-A-Wish Foundation of Idaho STAR WAITERS production - Mitch’s Movie - Producer & Executive Producer. The 35 minute movie is online on YouTube with a Behind the Scenes documentary at: Mitch’s Make-A-Wish Movie. There is a great story about wish kid Mitch Kohler and this wonderful project on the Make-A-Wish of Idaho chapter web page. “May the Fork be with You Always.”
The STAR WAITERS Make-A-Wish Foundation of Idaho project was awarded the 2009 National Make-A-Wish Foundation of America INFINITE WISH AWARD, chosen from 13,200 wishes, awarded to the chapter that involves a whole community in granting a wish.
STAR WAITERS On Location stills by Craig Clark [coming soon].
Ben's wife Janine Boire is the Executive Director of the Discovery Center, Idaho's Hands-On Science Center.
Ben Shedd is listed in WHO'S WHO IN AMERICA since 1982 and in WHO'S WHO IN ENTERTAINMENT for his film work.
-----------------
THE FLIGHT OF THE GOSSAMER CONDOR DVD at www.gossamercondor.com.
30th Anniversary Edition DVD - newly remastered and digitally restored - available August 23, 2007.
[VHS video withdrawn from distribution]
Jacqueline Phillips Shedd and Ben Shedd, Producers
Rave film reviews about THE FLIGHT OF THE GOSSAMER CONDOR video:
"Wonderfully uplifting, cheering and amusing." Charles Champlin, The Los Angeles Times
"From a flight of fancy to a magnificent obsession, the creation, evolution, and successful flight of a human powered aircraft are detailed in this absorbing production that closely follows the wavering course of the Gossamer Condor and the resolute perseverance of its inventor, Paul MacCready... enthralling." American Library Association Booklist
"A film to set you soaring." Media and Methods magazine
The historic flight of the Gossamer Condor is featured as one of the Millennium Moments in the National Geographic magazine February 1998.
This family film is the inspiring true life story of an historic landmark event in the world of flight and was filmed as it happened.
Ordering the DVD - Available Now Online!
The Academy Award winning documentary Email SheddProductions for ordering information for THE FLIGHT OF THE GOSSAMER CONDOR DVD for home/private use.
Running Time: 27:15 minutes plus Special Features.
UPC 6-89076-37757-7
Ordering DVD with Public Performance Rights License for classroom & Project Lead The Way use: Link for Public Performance Rights License for schools, libraries, and PLTW curriculum.
For TV presentation or other distribution, contact Shedd Productions by email at sheddprods @ aol.com. [Please remove spaces email address.]
Books from my library, about making science films/videos and working on giant screen - links to Amazon.com through our Amazon.com Associates program.
Thanks to Google.com for having a fabulous cache system which made it possible to rapidly recover all these web pages when they were lost in a digital windstorm.
A huge thanks to my Mac Pro bro Dick Shedd, Lewis-Clark State College Technology for Teachers, for guiding me through the big move, and a hat tip to Danielle Olson and Lance Dice for their advice. This web site lives on very helpful HostGator.
Academy Award and Oscar are a registered trademarks of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. IMAX is a registered trademark of the IMAX Corporation. NOVA is a registered trademark of WGBH Educational Foundation. Amazon.com is a registered trademark of Amazon.com. Pleo is a registered trademark of UGOBE. National Geographic is a registered trademark of the National Geographic Society. Other trademarks registered to their respective owners. Revision 02/07/08 12/2/08 08/16/09 06/01/12
Home About SPI/Ben Shedd SPI Manifesto Reviews Academic/Grants Int’l Awards Papers
The Flight of the Gossamer Condor Home Page Green Is The Color Of Money Home Page
Copyright ©2007-present Shedd Productions, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Version 06/01/12](About_SPI_and_Ben_Shedd_files/shapeimage_3.png)
