October 7, 2014
Award-winning National Geographic adventure filmmaker visits campus
Filmmaker Bryan Smith will provide insights into filming in remote and dangerous locations on 14 Oct.
Photo: Pablo Durana
From ice-climbing Canadian peaks at minus 35 degrees to kayaking some of the most treacherous rivers in India, Peru and Russia, adventure filmmaker Bryan Smith, will share with a Wollongong audience the gripping, behind-the-scenes moments from his assignments to document extreme feats and high adventure in the world’s most challenging environments.
Smith, an award-winning filmmaker for the National Geographic Channel, will present the National Geographic Live event Extreme Adventure on the Edge: Vertical Feats and The Man Who Can Fly at the UOW’s University Hall on 14 October.
Audiences will get a rare insight into what it takes to make a National Geographic film about a remote, dangerous place, including his recent co-produced and directed work The Man Who Can Fly.
The film is about free climber and BASE jumper Dean Potter. The film features a jump in a wingsuit from the 2700-metre Mount Bute in Canada, which, Smith told the Herald, took two days of planning the sequence shots and resulted in a breathtaking jump from the peak.
Smith, 39, has paddled kayaks through steep rivers in India, Peru, and Russia. He was inspired to pick up a video camera while protesting a hydroelectric dam project that threatened rivers in his native British Columbia, Canada.
He quickly developed a knack for creating innovative technical solutions to capture dizzying images—inevitably putting himself and his team at risk to get the shot.
"I was an adventurer and an expeditioner before I became a filmmaker, so that kind of stuff is what makes me feel alive. I live for it,” Mr Smith told the Sydney Morning Herald. “So to take that into filmmaking, a lot of people would look at it and go, 'that just looks like it sucks,' but to be able to have those experiences, to me, it is hard, but the pay-off is huge."
Smith has developed a strong reputation in both TV documentary and commercial cinematography. With a knack for storytelling and an insane work ethic, his client list has grown to include National Geographic Channel, Discovery Network, Disney, Red Bull, Patagonia, New Belgium Brewing, Arcteryx, and more.