Carroll Ballard

• Name — Carroll Ballard • Born — 14 October 1937 • Birthplace — Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Alma Mater — University of California, Los Angeles • Occupation — * Director • cinematographer • Years Active — 1965–2005

Ballard was born in Los Angeles in 1937. After serving in the U.S. Army, Ballard attended film school at UCLA, where one of his classmates was Francis Ford Coppola. He made a well received student film called Waiting for May in 1964.

His early credits include the documentaries Beyond This Winter's Wheat (1965) and Harvest (1967), both of which he made for the U.S. Information Agency. The latter was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film. He directed a short subject called The Perils of Priscilla (1969), which was filmed from the point of view of a cat who escapes from home. Rodeo (1970) provided an intimate look at the 1968 National Finals Rodeo in Oklahoma City. He shot the title sequence of Coppola's 1968 musical Finian's Rainbow and was second unit cinematographer on Star Wars (1977), for which he handled many of the outdoor desert scenes.

• Year — Title — Notes • 1965 — Pigs! — Documentary short • Beyond This Winter's Wheat • 1967 — Harvest — Documentary • 1969 — Rodeo — Documentary short • The Perils of Priscilla • 1971 — Seems Like Only Yesterday • 1974 — Crystalization • The Hello Machine • 1979 — The Black Stallion • 1983 — Never Cry Wolf • 1986 — Nutcracker: The Motion Picture • 1992 — Wind • 1996 — Fly Away Home • 2005 — Duma

• Year — Title — Director — Notes • 1964 — 3 Nuts in Search of a Bolt — Tommy Noonan — Production designer • 1968 — Finian's Rainbow — Francis Ford Coppola — Second unit cinematographer • 1977 — Star Wars — George Lucas • 1995 — My Family — Gregory Nava — Cinematographer: River crew