Up Close With Bob Poole
One of the last presentations that Full Sail hosted in the Hall Of Fame week was a SONY presentation. Myself, as a writer, had assigned myself to cover the Green Rooms, so I had not actually planned to attend this presentation. However, just like always, things didn’t go as planned, or in this case, as not planned. Just hours before this presentation, Kathy Craven, MCBS Program Director had managed to book a one-on-one interview with the special guest of the day, Bob Poole and when I was told about it, I had to jump right into it. Me and my group of four headed to the venue to nobody’s surprise, the venue was fully booked hours before the presentation. With some persuasion towards the venue managers, two of us got an entry and of course one was myself.
The event was held for SONY’s big announcement but it was the special guest Bob Poole’s presentation that had me captivated. Bob Poole is one of the leading wildlife cinematographer and filmmaker whose works has been widely viewed on National Geographic along with other networks. He has been awarded an Emmy for his works and justifiably, his was a presentation unlike any that I had attended till date; I had never been on the verge of tears through any presentation. He projected his passion and drive through his visual works, experiences, and adventures.
*To read more about the presentation, do follow this link: Into The Wild With Bob Poole: The Venice Unveiling
Throughout the presentation, I was on the edge of my seat and even jumping now and then, and after the presentation, I got the honor of pulling Bob to the side to have a conversation and an interview. I almost embarrassed myself as I was a little queasy and the planned questions flew out of my ears, I couldn’t understand my own scribbled questions across my notebook but Bob was more than kind to let that pass. On that note please allow me to share the interview as it went:
Me: First of all I would like to thank you on behalf of the Full Sail student body for being here and sharing some incredible experiences with us.
Bob: Of course it was my pleasure.
Me: How do you feel being here?
Bob: I'm really excited to be here because, I think that you know what I've seen of this university is really cool. I wish that I had been able to have a facility like this to go to when I was, you know, the right age.
Me: You are here today on the day with Sony as they unveiled their new camera. How are you connected with Sony?
Bob: Well, we have had a long relationship. When I was working in Gorongosa, Sony was instrumental in helping me with the cameras because we really wanted good quality 4K cameras just didn't have access to that. So we worked together with Sony and they helped us with cameras.
Me: Have you had a chance to work with this one(Venice)?
Bob: No, but I'm really excited to. We are talking about it but you know it's only on out now, but it seems to do most of the things I like.
Me: Please let me ask some technical questions, when it comes to wildlife photography and filming, what is your preferred technology? What kind of cameras do you use or prefer, or any other gear that you use?
Bob: A tough question because you know the technology advances really quickly. We're using high resolution cameras, lenses are always important. We need to have long lenses because we try to keep a distance from our wildlife that we film. So we need long lenses and that's a challenge because lenses are not so long as they used to be, but they are awfully big and heavy and expensive. So that's a base challenge for wildlife. But I think it's not so important. What's important in my work is the moment.
Me: Did you get any formal training going towards this kind of work? Towards wildlife filmmaking?
Bob: Not really, on the job only. I kind of, I stumbled into this career, and I was really up for the adventure more than anything and so I was lucky enough to get on film crew and work with a cameraman as an assistant who was willing to train me because I had no experience at all. But he liked me, liked working with me and so I learned on the job.
Me: So I would assume that you had no plans of going into Filming?
Bob: No, I had no plans. I mean I knew I had to find a career. But once I started doing this then I realized it was perfect for me and that's what I was going to do.
Me: Wow. How did the first opportunity to work with this camera person come your way?.
Bob: Basically I got lucky, when I was really young I got to work on a National Geographic crew when I was still a teenager. When I graduated from university which was in science, I stumbled into the cameramen who had been a cameraman on that job and he said oh you know we could use your help. And I was like, 'Oh my God what a great idea. That's what I want to do." So I went to work for him and I worked for him for about a year I guess, and he told me National Geographic was doing a film in Kenya. And so I went to Africa and my sister told me that they were going to be filming her. So I went and I waited. And I passed the word on that I wanted to work and I was there. Turned out that the cameramen had just lost his assistant and they were like well there's a guy over there who would probably be good, I was young. Just out of college twenty three or four and he was like, "Oh he's perfect." So I didn't know a thing about cameras or whatever. Only a little bit slow to film magazine but I learned it all on the job.
Me: Personally though, what are the challenges that you could face while doing this Wildlife films?
Bob: There are so many challenges in this world. The biggest challenge of course is getting the work! Everything about it is challenging, but those are good challenges. And it depends on the animals and your filming they're all different but you know you have to understand the behavior of the animals. And what you anticipate and where to be and getting enough time with them to get the kind of sequences that you're after. It really depends on what you're doing but I think I showed you some of the challenges today with different species.
Me: What would you say is your favorite species?
Bob: And I do like everything but elephants are incredibly interesting to me. They are misunderstood and very intelligent. They have a lot of the same qualities as humans. They're long lived and caring and gentle in so many ways for being so powerful. They are intriguing to me but they're also they're fascinating at the same time. I like being around things that are so powerful and yet so gentle.
Me: Throughout the presentation, you showed us a little bit of what you have gone through. Obviously some of them are scary; generally people would not want to wake up and go do that job the next day. What is it that you gets you going on the next day?
Bob: That's why I said it's not for everyone. But I love it. I don't know why. I mean, I can't really get enough of it in a sense. In our business you know it's hard work is hard to come by no matter what level you're on, the projects are few and far between. Nowadays I'm interested in kind of trying to create projects that I want to do. And that's even harder than being for hire. People can hire me though that's OK. But yeah it's a privilege; to be able to go and do what I love.
Me: Of course, there are problems going on in Africa and worldwide with wildlife, especially with a lot of species are going extinct. What are your hopes going forward and put the situation in Africa and worldwide.
Bob: Yeah, so I am asked mostly about cameras and filming. But normally what I talk about is conservation because that's really why I got into wildlife filmmaking because you know I really care about this stuff and I know we're losing it so fast and I wanted to tell and share them to the world what we are losing, and so I find that really important, and that's one of the things about our business, being able to do these films and show people how amazing they are. We don't want to lose it, like those cheetahs are elephants we lose. We lost so many. But people are working hard you know and I think we can hope there is. The Chinese have now stopped trading ivory, HongKong about to about to stop selling ivory. And that's really important.
Me: Do you have any suggestions advice for students who want to go towards this field?
Bob: Yeah. These students here, first of all they're lucky because they got such a great place to learn. What I say is that there's no one way you can become successful in our business but everybody's got their own way of figuring that out because really I think has to be about doing what you love. You have to really love it to do anything in media. Music or any kind of art, it's got to be your passion. And then you find your way. You know one thing after another. I don't think you can have a plan. That says I'm going to be this or that in our business. You work two years maybe a veer off and you know you just keep keep moving yourself the direction you want to go.
Me: <uncontrollable giggles> Do you have any advice for a travel bugged person such as myself?
Bob: You know I'm the same way. And I got into this business for the adventure. When I was first starting, I was working as a camera assistant. And I got lucky, when the cameraman asked me if I want to travel to South America next. We were in Africa where I grew up. And I said Yes!. And I worked so hard for them and kept hiring me. So I worked for them for almost six years, traveling the world.
Me: What is next on your plate?
Bob: I'm going home! I've been on the road for a long time. I'm going to Africa. I'm hoping to go back to Kenya to film. And then I'm going to be in Sri Lanka. So I have a series of jobs coming that will keep me traveling. But next month I'm going home.
Every session I attended this Hall of Fame seemed to be better than the last one, and this being the last session that I attended, definitely took the first spot on my list. Not only did I get to attend a great presentation, I also got this amazing opportunity to share a few words with Bob which was just the cherry on the top of my Hall of Fame experience.
The full presentation along with other aired presentations can be viewed on Full Sail’s official youTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmbG9rWPMXof92_o0IkJqNw
For more news, recaps and events do stay tuned and check out other articles.
