WILDLIFE CINEMATOGRAPHER
About Barrie
Here is the story of my wildlife film making career.
I have had a passion for birds and wildlife since childhood. I became fascinated by filmmaking as a teenager and began making my own amateur wildlife films on 8mm home movie equipment. Growing up in Bristol, I was fortunate to receive advice and encouragement from staff at the Bristol-based BBC Natural History Unit (NHU). After completing a BA degree in Zoology at Oxford University, I spent a year working in the BBC NHU Film Library. I was then awarded a 2-year NHU bursary to work as a trainee assistant cameraperson in the BBC Bristol Film Unit. This allowed me to develop my camera skills to a professional level.
On completion of the bursary, I purchased my own 16mm camera equipment and set out on a career as a freelance wildlife cinematographer. Initially I worked on projects based in the UK. In my first year I made a film about the little owls of the Gordano Valley, in North Somerset, for the RSPB Film Unit. My first foreign filming trip as a cameraperson was a low-budget BBC shoot to film African wild dogs in Kenya. The shoot was only 6 days long, but after 3 days we hadn’t seen any dogs! Fortunately, we found the pack on the fourth day. My filming from that shoot helped me gain work on the BBC landmark series “The Trials of Life”. I then began working overseas regularly.
Through the nineties, I worked as principal cameraperson, and sometimes director, on programmes for the popular “Wildlife on One” series. The subjects that I filmed included urban raccoons, hanuman langurs, chameleons, puffins, ospreys, frigatebirds and feral cats. My Wildlife on One film about foxes and rabbits, which was shot on the Mendip Hills and featured rare wild hunting behaviour, had a prime-time slot on BBC1 and was watched by 9 million viewers.
One of my favourite series to work on was “The Life of Birds”. The focus on different aspects of bird behaviour was, for me, very satisfying. My very first shoot for the series was filming the courtship behaviour of the unassuming dunnock. This was an unlikely but fascinating sequence! I had other shoots further afield, filming bird behaviour in Alaska, Australia, South America and the Galapagos.
The hugely successful BBC “Planet Earth” series followed a few years later. I spent several months in the forests of Far East Russia. I am privileged to be one of very few people to observe and film the extremely rare amur leopard. I also filmed the migration of demoiselle cranes over the Himalayas in Nepal and their predation by golden eagles.
In the late 2000’s, I enjoyed two years filming birds and primates for the BBC “Life” series. I had a fantastic trip to the remote cloud forest of West Papua to film vogelkop bowerbirds, their amazing bowers and courtship behaviour. I also returned to the rainforest of Sumatra for a sequence about orangutans, finding and filming the same wild female that I had filmed over ten years earlier for a Discovery orangutan special.
It was during the filming of Planet Earth that I began to switch from my trusty Arriflex HSR 16mm film camera to using video cameras. In recent years I have primarily been shooting with Red cameras and Phantom slow-motion cameras, which I greatly enjoy using. The pre-record systems of these cameras have facilitated the filming of fast unpredictable behaviour and spectacular slow-motion footage. Good examples of this are the golden eagles fighting in snow, which I filmed for the BBC “Planet Earth II” series and the National Geographic “Hostile Planet” series. More recently I have filmed the very tricky mid-air capture of swallows by jumping tigerfish for the National Geographic “Incredible Animal Journeys” series.
For some wildlife subjects and sequences, long lens filming is vital for the capture of good footage of behaviour. I believe that my specialisation in this enables me to maximise my long lens skills and helps make my wildlife sequences as strong as possible. I have developed particular expertise in filming birds in flight. I also have great experience in the use of hides for the filming of unhabituated birds and mammals. On landmark series, I often work alongside other cinematographers who are using drones, stabilised gimbal systems or other kit. This combination of different skills works extremely well and it has been a pleasure to collaborate with other cinematographers.
Looking back over a long career, I have had many amazing experiences, filming incredible wildlife in stunning landscapes. I have also greatly enjoyed working in small teams with directors, researchers, scientists, guides and fixers. It has been a privilege to work with so many great people!
