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January 2013 l 05
Chills, thrills and elephant seals news
EUROPE
Dave Robinson enjoys a chat in the tropical sun (cough) with derring-do extreme cameraman/ director Phil Coates
PHIL COATES is not your average director/cameraman. His portfolio gives it away, really: North Pole Ice Airport, Everest: Beyond The Limit, Blizzard: Race To The Pole, Five Miles High. He’s worked on extreme assignments across the globe in temperatures ranging from -43° to +48°C and to altitudes of 8,000m, producing documentaries for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Discovery, National Geographic Television and more. He’s also worked for the British
Antarctic Survey and participated in over 30 international expeditions including the 2011 Catlin Arctic Survey. But it’s not just about video for Coates: he’s a big Sennheiser user too, as well as a regular speaker and adviser on capturing content in the world’s trickiest environments. PSNEurope grabbed him
between airport terminals and invited him for an ice-cream and a chat in a tropical setting. Well, it being January, we could all do with a little summer in our lives…
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE WHAT YOU DO? I tend to tell the stories of scientists, naturalists, adventurers and explorers in some of the most challenging locations on earth. I’ve been known to film closer to home too…
WHERE HAVE YOU JUST COME BACK FROM? Filming a new series for Discovery in Russia and Libya.
WHERE ARE YOU GOING NEXT, AND TO DO WHAT? In the New Year, I will be heading out to Djibouti and Afghanistan, again for this new Discovery production.
WHAT’S YOUR MODUS OPERANDI WHEN YOU’RE ON LOCATION? I like to play with paradox: always to be prepared but at the
same time flexible enough to adapt to any situation so you can follow the story and get the best from your contributors. You need to cover all bases. It’s all about scenario planning, really.
WHAT’S THE WORST PLACE YOU’VE EVER HAD TO RECORD/FILM? Trying to film in Moscow was really challenging: the traffic, the people, the extortion, the paranoia. I found it to be a professional pain in the arse.
DESCRIBE YOUR MOST HARROWING MOMENT It was at the end of the Catlin Arctic Survey. We were in a position where we had set things up to be picked up from the sea ice: we sculpted an ice runway, and marked it up ready for a plane to come in. After weeks away in the middle
of the Arctic Ocean, we saw the plane arrive, and our thoughts were of going home. Then, over a period of 90 minutes, the plane circled and attempted to land, but the pilot decided the conditions were too unsuitable. Imagine how we felt, seeing the plane head off, becoming a tiny dot in the distance… As a consequence, we were left out on the ice with only a
few days’ worth of food. I filmed a sequence of us counting out the last few bites of energy bars and food morsels. We went on to half rations. Then we learned there was a weather system coming in from Elsmere Island. We didn’t know what we could do, but we feared the worst. The situation was getting critical from a food/fuel point of view… and then, in the nick of time, a pilot servicing another scientific expedition a few hours away was able to divert his route and come to our aid. We piled onto the plane with only a window of a few minutes and we were off – finally.
WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR FINEST HOUR? Blizzard: Race to the Pole, the most complete production I have ever worked on. This was reliving history for the BBC – the quest to reach the South Pole first – working with a team of contributors and travelling across the Greenland Ice Cap for 10 weeks. It sticks in my mind because I was working with a great team – Bruce Parry looking after the Scott team, and Rune Gjeltnes with the Amundsen team. We had a substantial budget to do things properly. Helen Hawken, the
series producer, had just come from Big Brother, so the Race was a bit like BB meets BBC history: an expedition-based series on steroids. We took loads of flights, drove skidoos over the ice-cap… it was like having all the ‘boys toys’ and everything you could ever want in one production.
WHICH CREATURE HAS PROVED TO BE THE MOST DIFFICULT TO WORK WITH? Filming elephant seals in the Antarctica’s South Orkney Islands while I was working for the British Antarctic Survey. If you could think of the most disgusting creature on earth, the elephant seal is it – a tonne and a half of bad-tempered, farting, snorting, belching blubber that when approached rears up and towers above you – definitely a species not to mess with. My base producer was having a cigarette outside on one occasion… only to get hit on the shoulder by a big glob of elephant seal snot. Totally disgusting.
APART FROM YOUR PASSPORT, NAME THREE THINGS YOU NEVER TRAVEL WITHOUT. My Leatherman, ear plugs and a sense of humour.
AUDIO EQUIPMENT OF CHOICE
l MKH 416, MKH 8060 mics l ME66 mic/K6 capsule l HD25 headphones x 2 Evolution wireless mics x 2
l MKE 600, MKE 400 shotgun mics (
...all Sennheiser)
l Nagra SD recorder
WHAT DO YOU DO FOR FUN? Race up and down the green lanes and tracks of the National Cycle network – it’s about as much fun you can have with your clothes on! When winter comes around it’s off-piste skiing at the foot of Mont Blanc in the beautiful village of Les Contamines Montjoie.
HOW’S THE LOLLY? I do like a FAB. Reminds me of being a kid. n
www.philcoates.tv
+ Phil Coates will be presenting ‘How to prepare for filming in extreme conditions’ at BVE London Wednesday 27 February
Special thank you to Charlie, Olivia, Michael and everyone at Mahiki, London, for helping out with the sunset
FAB, Phil! Coates cools off with an ice lolly
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