WEATHERMAN
FILMS
VIDEO PRODUCTION AND MUSIC SERVICES
JOHN BECK-HOFMANN
Owner of Weatherman Films
Director/DP/Composer/Editor/writer
John is an award-winning filmmaker & director of photography whose extensive documentary footage of nearly every NASA Mars mission since 1995, has been seen repeatedly in National Geographic documentaries, PBS NOVA programs, featured in two IMAX movies, “Roving Mars” and James Cameron’s “Aliens of the Deep”, and countless other Discovery Channel and Science Channel programs. His most famous works have been the creation of the NASA viral videos “Seven Minutes of Terror” for the Curiosity Rover mission and "Jupiter: into the Unknown" for the Juno mission.
John recently completed shooting and scoring a National Geographic documentary about NASA/JPL's Mars 2020 rover mission. The program, "Built for Mars", aired on landing day, February 18, 2021, and is currently hosted on Disney plus.
Latest news:
John is currently back in production of his resurrected feature film TYRANNY. Based on his hit TV series of the same name, TYRANNY the movie will pick up where the TV series left off in September 2000, taking Daniel McCarthy 22 years into the future. The film is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2024. Stay tuned for more updates!
In other news:
John is also a composer, his most recent work was composing the entire score for Nat Geo's "Built for Mars". In 2019, he composed the entire score for Oliver Stone's 2-hour documentary "Revealing Ukraine", which won the Grand Prix award at 2019 Taormina Film Festival. In 2018, he composed the entire score for National Geographic Channel "Life of a Mars Rover". In 2017, he composed the complete scores for two films, including: Oliver Stone's two-hour documentary "Ukraine on Fire", and an animated feature film entitled "Last Prince of Atlantis." Recently, John composed the entire scores for National Geographic's two-hour special, "Expedition Mars"; Discovery Channel's "Red Planet Rover" and the documentary feature, "Maidan Massacre", which he also directed. He composed the score for his 2-hour web series "TYRANNY" as well as multiple NASA video productions over the last 20 years, including the recent viral videos, “Seven Minutes of Terror" and "Jupiter: Into the Unknown." John will also be composing the music for the National Geographic documentary on the Mars 2020 rover mission.
In 2014, John directed a documentary about the Ukraine Revolution which focused primarily on the massacre of over 50 people on February 20th, 2014, in Kiev's Independence Square, known also as Maidan. The documentary, called "Maidan Massacre", worked alongside forensic scientists as they examined the evidence of the shootings and analyzed vast amounts of video footage shot by amateurs, in an effort to identify those responsible for the atrocity. "Maidan Massacre" went on to receive the "People Choice" Award at the 2014 Terra di Siena Film Festival in Siena, Italy. As well as the "Audience Award" at the 2016 Eurasia.doc film festival in Smolensk, Russia.
Earlier in 2014, John completed co-producing, shooting and editing an hour long documentary on the Mars Curiosity Rover for the Discovery Channel. The program, called "Red Planet Rover", aired December 18th, 2014.
In 2013, John was honored to receive NASA's Exceptional Achievement Medal and has received NASA’s “Videographer of the Year” award four times over the last 9 years. In 2009, he received an EMMY award for his work on National Geographic’s “Five Years on Mars” and in 1999, a Gold Plaque Award at the Chicago Film Festival for his documentary of NASA’s Mars Pathfinder Mission.
In addition to his documentary work, John also played a starring role in the hit web series "Tyranny", which he also wrote and directed. The series, which aired primarily on the Koldcast TV network, received several nominations in multiple festivals for: best looking show, best web drama, best thriller, best soundtrack, best sound design, and in 2012, John received a nomination for best male actor in a web series. Tyranny was one of only 20 web series chosen for competition in the Geneva International Film Festival in 2010.
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