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Rex Ballard is a cinematographer with a career in movies, music videos and television programs. Ballard served for seven years as the Principal Cinematographer of ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,[1] and is currently the Director of Photography for the program.
With more than 30 years of experience in television entertainment,[2] Ballard has traveled the world working on a variety of projects including documentaries for National Geographic Channel and The History Channel, and camera work for television programs such as Nanny 911, Kid Nation, Matlock and The Merv Griffin Show. Ballard has also been behind the camera for music videos by artists including Tony Bennett, B. B. King, The Neville Brothers and The Pointer Sisters, and has developed commercials and features for most major national broadcast networks and many national brands.[3]
Ballard is also an innovator, inventing a special camera crane for filming inside operating rooms as part of his 30 years of work with Medtronic, filming surgeries used to educate individuals in the medical profession.[citation needed] The crane he developed allows surgeons to teach as they are operating on the patient without the filming process obstructing the view or surgical work in any way. In the early 1980s, Ballard also helped design, build and manufacture The Barber Baby Boom, a 100% mechanical jib arm that was the first of its kind in the industry.[citation needed] Additionally, Ballard designed a movable jib base specifically to address the challenges of filming on construction locations for ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.[citation needed] Engineered with special tires so the jib base can be moved from location to location and he later went on to develop a motorized version of the jib base to make set-up and movement even easier that has been used in recent seasons of the program.
