Jason Burks’ love for film began while shooting a short video overseas with a consumer camera 15 years ago. Shortly thereafter, he began educating himself in filmmaking, and in 2001, founded Retrospec Films based in Tulsa. At the age of 32, Burks is one of the youngest cinematographers to have extensive experience with a long list of the highest end motion camera’s and equipment used for filming today.
Burks recently served as the Director of Photography for the steampunk spectacle “Pax Masculina”, which shot in Guthrie, Oklahoma and utilized the Oklahoma Film Enhancement Rebate Program. Additionally, Burks has shot over 800 TV commercials both regional and national, dozens of music videos, short films, feature films, documentaries and product videos. His projects have taken him to all 50 states in the US and 6 different continents including Europe where he just finished filming an international project about the decommissioning of nuclear power plants which has great benefits to our environments cleanliness.
Despite filming all over the world, Burks believes the accessibility of filming in Oklahoma and the state’s varied eco-regions make it a truly unique place to film. “The ease of production and the permitting process in places like New York and California can be crazy difficult; whereas people are very open and excited for film production in Oklahoma,” said Burks. “Working on the Oklahoma Tourism commercial spots in 2014, I realized just how much diverse terrain the state offers in a very small area. It’s very interesting to go from the Gloss Mountains to the Arbuckle region. Within three hours, you can have anything from sand dunes to plateaus to jagged mountains.”
This year, Burks continues to avidly focus on screenwriting and plans to put the finishing touches on his feature film “Just Brunch” with co-writer Toby Morton (“South Park”, “MadTV”) as well as his documentary “The Pursuit of Motion Art”, which Netflix has optioned for a first look.