Jack Couffer A.S.C.

American Society of Cinematographers

The American Society of Cinematographers is an educational, cultural, and professional organization. It is not a labor union, and it is not a guild. Membership is by invitation and is extended only to directors of photography and special effects experts with distinguished credits in the film...

 (born December 7, 1924 in Upland, California

Upland, California

Upland is a city in San Bernardino County, California, located at an elevation of 1,242 feet . As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 73,732, up from 68,393 at the 2000 census. It was incorporated on May 15, 1906, after previously being named North Ontario.-History and culture:Upland...

) is an American

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...

 and film and television director

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

. Couffer has specialized on documentary films, often involving nature and animal cinematography. Couffer was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography

Academy Award for Best Cinematography

The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...

 for his work on the film version of the novel Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Jonathan Livingston Seagull, written by Richard Bach, is a fable in novella form about a seagull learning about life and flight, and a homily about self-perfection...

(1974).

Couffer served in the United States Army during the Second World War; based on his war experience, he subsequently wrote a book about the "Bat Bomb

Bat bomb

Bat bombs were bomb-shaped casings with numerous compartments, each containing a Mexican Free-tailed Bat with a small timed incendiary bomb attached. Dropped from a bomber at dawn, the casings would deploy a parachute in mid-flight and open to release the bats which would then roost in eaves and...

" project to use bats to deliver incendiary bombs. Following the war Couffer studied at the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television

USC School of Cinematic Arts

The USC School of Cinematic Arts, until 2006 named the School of Cinema-Television , is a film school within the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California. It is the oldest and largest such school in the United States, established in 1929 as a joint venture with the Academy of...

.

Couffer has described his subsequent career as follows:

Among many other projects with Disney, Couffer wrote, directed, and filmed the documentary The Legend of the Boy and the Eagle

The Legend of the Boy and the Eagle

The Legend of the Boy and the Eagle is a 1967 American live-action Walt Disney film. A Hopi Indian boy is banished from his village after he defies tribal law and frees a sacred, sacrificial eagle. After surviving in the wilderness he returns to his village where he is again rejected. Fleeing the...

(1967). Couffer has also worked on numerous independent and major studio films and television shows. Couffer was credited as a cinematographer for the influential, experimental documentary The Savage Eye

The Savage Eye

The Savage Eye is a "dramatized documentary" film that superposes a dramatic narration of the life of a divorced woman with documentary camera footage of an unspecified 1950s city. In a 1960 review, A. H...

(1959), and received his nomination for the Academy Award for Best Cinematography

Academy Award for Best Cinematography

The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is an Academy Award awarded each year to a cinematographer for work in one particular motion picture.-History:...

 for the film Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Jonathan Livingston Seagull (film)

Jonathan Livingston Seagull is a 1973 American film directed by Hall Bartlett, adapted from the novella by Richard Bach. The film, which has no human actors on screen, tells the story of a young seabird who, after being outcast by his stern flock, goes on an odyssey to discover how to break the...

(1973). He had worked with Joseph Strick

Joseph Strick

Joseph Strick was an American director, producer and screenwriter.Born in Braddock, Pennsylvania, Strick briefly attended UCLA before enrolling in the Army during World War II. In the Army, he served as a cameraman in the Army Air Forces.In 1948, he and Irving Lerner produced Muscle Beach...

 on The Savage Eye, and Strick co-produced two documentary films directed and written by Couffer, including Ring of Bright Water

Ring of Bright Water

Ring of Bright Water is a British feature film starring Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna in a story about a Londoner and an otter living on the Scottish coast. The film was based upon a 1960 autobiographical book of the same name by Gavin Maxwell, featuring the stars of Born Free, another movie...

(1969) and The Darwin Adventure (1972).

In addition to his book about the "Bat Bomb," Couffer has published ten other books of non-fiction and fiction.