Bio Page -- Jim Furrer, Producer, Director, Camera, Dark Street Films

Jim Furrer's career in media production spans thirty years of professional experience in both film and videotape. In 1970 his first 16mm film short subject The Orchard Heritage, sponsored by the American Film Institute, received an Academy Award student nomination for Best Animation. After graduating with a degree in Mass Communications and Journalism, the next eight years were spent with public television stations around the country working on shows including Out Of Thin Air starring Marcel Marceau and three seasons working with guest stars E. G. Marshall, Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon, William Shatner, Vincent Price and other names on the Anyone For Tennyson national PBS poetry series. After completing his PBS experience at a Denver station, he launched his career as an independent lighting cameraman in 1983.

Winning a CINE Golden Eagle Award for Rowing The Mainstream, a one hour look at motivational sports programs for physically challenged, Jim went on to serve as Director of Photography on the Newsleaders series for PBS. Lighting and camera work on a series of General Motors videodiscs gained Jim another assignment shooting seven one hour interactive videodiscs on location in Detroit for the UAW and Ford Motors. Similar quality on Partners In Progress, a dramatic telling of the history of transportation over the past 100 years, placed him in the top five internationally at the 1989 AGFA Forum Awards in West Germany. Jim won a 1990 Emmy Award for Lighting as the Director of Photography on the television feature, First Cowboy's Fall From Grace. More recent recognition includes the 1999 Telly, Videography Excellence Award, and the 2000 Axiem Silver awards, all for the kid's television movie Moosie.

Furrer's imaging expertise is seen in projects for ABC, AT&T, BBC, CBS, Coors, Discovery Channel, DirecTV, Echostar, Hallmark, HBO, IBM, John Hancock, Johns Hopkins, Learning Channel, MTV, NBC, Nickelodeon, StorageTek, TIAA-CREF and VH1. He's shot segments on the PBS series Making Sense of the Sixties and lensed half of 14 episodes for The Arts In Every Classroom educational series, scheduled to premiere early in 2003 and produced for Annenberg Foundation / CPB by Lavine Production Group, New York City. Jim also DP'd CD-ROMs for Warner Films, Los Angeles; MediaShare, San Diego; and NetPark, Tampa. His international experience includes shoots in Japan; ten days in mainland China; and two weeks in Tashkent, Samarkand and the former Soviet gold miners at Muruntau in the Kyzylkum Desert of Uzbekistan

Jim earned screen credit as Director of Photography on the 1997 motion picture Raising The Stakes for EO Entertainment, after previously shooting effects segments on Switchback with Dennis Quaid and Danny Glover and second unit work on Princess and The Dwarf. 1998 found him shooting two more features, Sign Of The Times for Sought Pictures and Moosie for Sunstone Entertainment, plus the television pilot Class. For most of 2000 he was cinematographer on Tantalus, Behind The Mask, a feature-length film documentary premiering on the BBC and later on seen on PBS. With 2001 came the DVD Ringo Starr So Far shot in Los Angeles, plus Chris Botti In Concert for DVD and DirecTV. Jim also lensed U.S. segments for 3 Minutes To Impact on The Learning Channel; effects sequences for Discovery Channel's Walking With Dinosaurs; and shot behind-the-scenes footage and cast interviews for ABC’s Stephen King's The Shining mini-series. Working in Los Angeles he DP'd 35mm studio segments on the weekly series Leonard Maltin Presents for Hallmark Networks. Jim's commercial work includes spots for Bell South, B.E.T., DirecTV, Delicato Vineyards, Echostar, Encore, Maaco, Raid, Starz, Ovation Arts Network, Odyssey, and The Kermit Channel.

Extensive experience in music production includes concert projects with .38 Special, 311, Bad Company, Chris Botti, Counting Crows, Cracker, John Denver, Devo, Del Amitri, Eagles, Mary Chapin-Carpenter, Bonepony, Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine, Fleetwood Mac, Rev. Horton Heat, Royal Trux, Sirhan & Hollywood, Sonia Dada, Shawn Colvin, Ray Charles, Leo Kottke, Little Steven, Ozzfest 2002, Rolling Stones, Sun 60, Widespread Panic,and ZZ Top. He was one of five camera operators picked for Under A Blood Red Sky, U-2 At Red Rocks, the definitive concert special taped on location at Red Rocks near Denver and originally produced for British TV music series The Tube.

Jim Furrer is a past member of International Photographers Local 600/ IATSE and the American Society of Lighting Designers in Los Angeles; plus being one of the founding members of the Rocky Mountain chapter, National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. From 1984 until 1990 he taught courses in video production and unit-managed Electronic Cinematography and the Commercial Directing workshops at the International Film and Television Workshops in Rockport, Maine. And since 1989, Jim’s been listed in all editions of the national industry directory Marquis' Who’s Who In Entertainment. He's currently the creative principal behind Dark Street Films, lives near Bear Valley, Colorado, and finds some time to pursue his hobby of large format still photography while continuing to work nationally.