Jimmy O'Donnell - Director of Photography
Jim ODonnell is an 2 time Emmy Award winning Director of Photography & has been nominated numerous times, most recent nomination for "Outstanding Achievement in Single Camera Photography" Spring 07. Over the last 22 years, JOD has built his reputation working in both film & television. He is considered a pioneer in the world of High Definition Television, as one of the first DP’s to work in the new medium as early as 1986. O’Donnell’s close collaboration with Rebo Studio (the first HDTV production company in the USA) during the eighties and nineties makes him one of the few DP’s that has worked with every generation of HD camera since it’s inception. The scope of his work includes Documentary, Commercial, Reality, Children’s Television, & Independent film’s.
Camera Operator Skills:
Jimmy Jib operator
Aerial Photography (Tyler Mounts)
Hand Held
Studio Pedestals
Dollies
Camera Experience:
Sony HD F 900 & 950, Sony 700, 750, 600, 400, PD 150 & 170
Panasonic Varicam, SDX 900, HVX 200, DVX 100 A & B
Ikegami HLV 59 & 55
Arriflex - Arricam, Arri 435, SR 2 & 3
Aaton - XTR Prod
In 2004 O’Donnell spent much of his time shooting the long running & multi award winning television series Reading Rainbow (hosted by Levar Burton). This season dealt with children copping with a parent in prison. O’Donnell found himself shooting in Sing - Sing NY State prison and in the newly formed ICE center in Washington D.C.
This show earned O’Donnell an Emmy Award for “Outstanding Achievement in Single Camera Photography” and also earned Reading Rainbow multiple Emmy Nominations as well as Best Children’s Television Series”.
2002 & 2003 had O’Donnell shooting the Showtime original documentary series “What’s Going On?” co-produced by RCN Entertainment & the United Nations. The series dealt with children from all over the world in crisis situations. O’Donnell shot 5 out of the eight shows that dealt with such topics as girls education, child labor, children with Aid’s, poverty, and extreme violence. Shot entirely on location in India, Brazil, Northern Ireland, Trinidad & the USA. During this time, O’Donnell had the opportunity to work with Richard Gere, Danny Glover, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Meg Ryan, Sonia Braga, & Lawrence Fishburn, who were just some of the Hollywood heavies to host this doc series.
In the summer & fall of 2003 O’Donnell worked on the PBS series “Colonial House” as first & second unit DP. Produced by PBS &Wall to Wall Television (UK).
In 2001 O’Donnell shot additional photography on the documentary “Blue Vinyl”.
Winner at Sundance for “Best Cinematography in a Documentary” and aired on HBO’s “ America Undercover”. Also in 2001 O’Donnell worked as camera operator on the HDTV dramatic series for A&E “100 Center Street” produced & directed by Sidney Lamet.
During the 1990’s O’Donnell through his association with the NY based HDTV production company Rebo Studio, spent most of his time shooting numerous
High Def documentaries for NHK (Japan).
A partial list includes:
“Wish Of A Lifetime” 1hr doc about the Make A Wish organization and 3 children’s wishes.
“A Passage To Vietnam” 30min doc about Rick Smolin (Day in the Life book series) and many world renown photographers coming together to shoot photo’s for the book “A Passage to Vietnam”. Shot on location in Vietnam.
“Doctors Without Borders” 1 hr - Shot on location in Azerbaijan & France, this doc looks at what life is like to work for the Nobel Piece Prize - French based organization. 10 doctors from around the world sharing one small farmhouse, help take care of 15,000 refugees’.
“Cults in America” 30 min this doc looks at people being “deprogrammed” after spending time in a cult.
“New York on the Edge” 15 min – 14 episodes about life in NYC’s under ground societies. Topics such as: Drag Queens, Homeless, Rave parties, Rock bands, Graffiti artist’s and much more are dealt with in this hard hitting very edgy series. One episode “Rave On” was nominated at Sundance in1996 for “Best Short Documentary”.
For a complete list of credits, see Credits page.
O’Donnell has shot numerous commercial spot’s for PBS, WE, TV Land / Nick @ Nite, Sesame Street, Nicolodeon, AMC, Mattel, Real Simple Magazine, Coalition for the Homeless, Miracle Gro, Mitsubishi Electronics, Samsung, Nortel Communications, 1-800-Flowers, Simon & Schuster, La Coupe.
Over the years O'Donnell has been lensing pictures for PBS, Sundance Channel, AMC, Nick @ Nite, Women’s Entertainment, TV Food Network, A&E, ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, TNT, TCM, Noggin, NHK-Japan, Tokyo Broadcasting, Japan Broadcasting
Over the past 15 years Jim has operated camera & Jimmy Jib on many of these award winning children’s shows: Sesame Street, Between the Lions, Bear in the Big Blue House, Out of the Box, The Wubulous World of Dr. Seuss.
O’Donnell’s 14 year relationship with Sesame Street has earned him 6 Best Show Emmy’s, 1 – Technical Emmy & 3 – technical Emmy nominations.
