Matt Ginsburg

Taking five questions from StudioDaily this time around is director Matt Ginsburg, who was responsible for the second half of History Channel’s epic, 10-part documentary miniseries WWII in HD, which aired late last year. In 2002, Ginsburg founded New York’s Boom Pictures, where he leads a team of freelance creatives in a variety of programming assignments.

Q: What are you working on today?
A: A lot of development — lots of nonfiction projects.

Q: What’s the best tool or innovation you’ve found that has come out in the last year?
A: The iPhone 3GS. While I’m not a big fan of the phone, as coverage can be sketchy, the device and all of the new apps that just came out are fantastic. With easy access to Google Maps, Zip Car, Weather Channel, IMDB, iTunes, NPR, The New York Times, etc., it’s like having a digital swiss army knife for production.

Q: What’s the project (film, television, commercial or music video) that most impressed you in the last year? Why?
A: The Hurt Locker — because I can’t stop thinking about it.

Q: What’s your favorite project that you worked on in the past year? And why?
A: WWII in HD, for two reasons. First, because it was a tremendous privilege to be able to tell the stories of 12 people who experienced this pivotal event in human history, and to do so using rare, color archival films. And secondly, because I keep hearing feedback from people who say that while we made something that will stand as a vivid testament to the sacrifices of those who served, we ultimately made an anti-war film.

Q: Name the top four artists on your iPod.
A: Buddy Guy, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Cash and Spearhead.