Doug Allan Underwater Cinematographer

Text by Alison Barrat Photos courtesy of Doug Allan and Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation You might know Doug Allan because of his spectacu- lar cinematography. In his 30-year filming career, he’s been involved with over 60 films and series, and has worked for BBC, Discovery, National Geographic and many oth- ers, filming on series such as The Blue Planet, Planet Earth, Human Planet and Frozen Planet. His photographic awards include seven Emmy’s and four BAFTA’s. He has twice won the underwater category in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year and was awarded the Royal Geographical Society’s Cherry Kearton Medal for his wildlife images. Last year, he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society.

Or, maybe you’re familiar with his work But you probably won’t know Allan for AB: You’ve said that your early career paragraph. I couldn’t go into space, but ting close to dangerous animals. Classic in Antarctica. He spent eight years his views on being hugged by a Walrus, ambitions were to work “underwater, anyone could go underwater. things that would attract a wee boy. down south as a research diver, sci- why he gives Svalbard airport café a anywhere”. What attracted you to div- Back then, underwater was a much entist, and photographer for the British wide berth, or what he thinks about making? more foreign environment then it is now. AB: Are those the same reasons you went Antarctic Survey (BAS), before changing ing films on ocean conservation. Read I read The Silent World [by Jacques-Yves to be a research diver in Antarctica? direction to full time filming in 1985. He on to find out what Allan has to say DA: I was drawn to the water in the 60’s Cousteau] when I was 11 or 12, and has three honorary doctorates in recog- about these as well as some of his other when quite honestly there were two fron- it really fired me up with that sense of DA: When I graduated as a biologist, nition of his camerawork, as well as two stories. tiers. There was space and the ocean, underwater adventure. It was exciting I didn’t want to be a full on scientist. I Polar Medals. and they were talked about in the same and romantic, and I liked the idea of get- wanted to help scientists underwater

43 X-RAY MAG : 58 : 2014 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS WRECKS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY TECH EDUCATION PROFILES PHOTO & VIDEO PORTFOLIO Allan filming humpback profile whales Doug Allan back then—and we’re talking AB: You first started filmmaking in about the days of telex, a very Antarctica, how did you get into slow and cumbersome form of it? communication—messages had to be practical, to do with issues DA: I became very interested in on base. We were only allowed photography during my first three to send out 100 words of personal winters, but then at the end of my news every month and receive third winter, we had a film crew 100 words back each month. come on the base, including Today, most of the bases David Attenborough. They were have email, so you can pretty there for just a day, and through much send as much text as you that day, I helped them around want. I think that would be too the island and took their camera- much communication for me. man underwater. Because the problem is that the It was while talking to them really good emails would tend to that I realized that there was this make me long for home, and the job called a wildlife cameraman really depressing news from ‘the that checked all the boxes I was real world’ would make me sad enjoying—diving, travel, animals, because there’s nothing you can excitement, worthwhile cause. do because you are isolated. That’s where the germ started. I think if you can’t physically get That’s where I thought that I back, then you’re actually bet- should consider shooting movies ter if you mentally can’t get back rather than stills. there either. But this is an oldie So I decided I would take a speaking, not a digital native! movie camera down on my next winter in Antarctica. Before I

because I simply felt I was a bet- conference in Cambridge to Antarctica. How do you cope right kind of person to ter diver than many of them. learn about BAS and meet all with that type of isolation? be there, then there’s Back in those days, it was slightly the other people who have jobs nothing else like it—you unusual for scientists to dive, and in the Antarctic. But I bypassed DA: The most isolated place was don’t really notice the I had been working as a pearl all that completely, and when I a base called Halley, and I got isolation, or if you do, diver in Scotland and as a diver in arrived on base, I had only been a chance to be the base com- then it’s something that the central Sudanese Red Sea, so to Cambridge for about a week, mander there. The 16 of us on the you take on and almost when the vacancy for a diver in then flown down to the bottom base were isolated for 11 months; thrive under. But I have Antarctica came up, I didn’t think of South America and been on a we only got one ship during the to say that the isolation too much about it, I just applied. ship for four days. I arrived on the year. There’s no exposed rock for back then was very dif- I was offered a one year con- base on one morning, and the 150 miles, and the sun doesn’t ferent from now. tract to take the place of some- following day, the ship left for the come above the horizon for 100 The Antarctic is still body who had left. Normally, winter. We wouldn’t see any other days. physically isolated, but when you go to the Antarctic people for nine months. I think the whole BAS experi- we were quite cut off you get the job about June or ence is great if you hit it at the with regard to com- July and then you go to a big AB: You spent five winters in right time in your life. If you’re the munication. Because Allan diving with camera

44 X-RAY MAG : 58 : 2014 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS WRECKS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY TECH EDUCATION PROFILES PHOTO & VIDEO PORTFOLIO Allan with underwater camera under the ice in the Canadiian Arctic; Emperor penguins and three-week- profile old chicks, photo by Doug Allan (left) Doug Allan ness made for ‘96-97. We got these lovely under- a very dramatic water shots of polar bears swim- sequence. ming. For a couple of shots, I was I always remem- in the water with them, but the ber that one in loveliest takes were with a remote terms of being a camera held over the side of the real groundbreak- boat and working with a very er. Then, on the cooperative polar bear. He let us other hand, the get really close while he was pad- time I spent with dling through the water. the emperor penguins in the water AB: So have you had any close for Blue Planet— calls while filming underwater? that was really special as well. DA: Well a walrus grabbed me But I have to when I was snorkelling off the say the pick of ice edge in the Arctic. I had just my underwater finished taking some still shots polar sequences of some murres diving, and I is probably the was treading water vertically. polar bears swim- Suddenly, something had me ming, which I did around the waist and was hold- for the BBC wildlife ing me really, really tightly. It was special just called a complete surprise; this was a doug allan Polar Bear, back in classic attack, no warning what- went, I contacted the BBC and AB: What is the best asked was anyone interested in thing that you have the footage I might come back filmed underwater with? A producer said he was, in Antarctica or the and so when I was down there, I Arctic? filmed the emperor penguins. When I came back, I showed DA: Wow, that’s a him the footage. He liked it. He hard call, but we did bought some and asked me to do leopard seals hunt- go down for the following sum- ing Adele penguins for mer to shoot stuff for his upcom- the BBC’s Life in the ing series about birds. So when Freezer. It was the first Birds for All Seasons came on TV time leopard seals had in 1985, I had my foothold. You been filmed underwa- so-ever. I looked down and attack seals. could say the first commercial ter. literally tucked underneath Sometimes they shift their diet piece of movie photography that I was always fairly my arm there was a head from mussels to seals, hunting I shot was in 1983 when I did the confident that we of a walrus. I hit him on the them when the seals are sleep- emperor penguins. could do it. But in head, hard, with the cam- ing at the surface. The walrus dive I then wrote up a couple of those days, a lot of era; he let go and swam down and look up from under ideas that I had about films, people believed that away a couple of meters water, see the seals, grab them, which you could do in the leopard seals were and looked at me. By that and take them down. If that wal- Antarctic winter. I persuaded very dangerous. time I was swimming hard rus’ reaction to being hit on the Survival Anglia to commission In reality, the seals for the ice edge and pull- head had been to sink down them and went into full time film- were actually quite ing myself out, so the whole with me, that would have been making in 1986. approachable in the thing lasted seconds. But it. They kill the seals by either water, and that close- that’s exactly how walrus squeezing them very tightly and Allan being handed his camera in a hole in the ice

45 X-RAY MAG : 58 : 2014 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS WRECKS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY TECH EDUCATION PROFILES PHOTO & VIDEO PORTFOLIO Allan filming humpback whale and profile calf in Tonga Doug Allan crushing them, or the walrus puts filmmakers we go into situations we get to spend with the animals, his lips on the seal’s head and on land or in the water where means that we can recognize sucks his brains out. So it was just certainly there’s the potential when their mood changes, and luck really that he didn’t do either for things to get dangerous. But at that stage, you just back off. of those things to me. I think ... that our experience, There’s no point in getting injured As an aside to that, as wildlife gained from the amount of time or bitten. That usually brings the shoot to a halt, and that’s just frustrating and daft. After all, you’re there to do a job, and to be unnecessarily injured is just a bit pointless really.

AB: You’ve recently written a book called Freeze Frame about your experiences filming in the Arctic and Antarctica. Why did you write a book?

DA: I think I’ve always enjoyed the different media—television, radio and books. Of the three, television actually gives you the least information output. It aims to swamp you with visuals. Radio is better, and books are best of all. And I like talking to people, talking to schools. People ask can you go? How do you take I thought, “I know what some of come singing through when you me about my adventures, and I such a shot? How do you live in these stories are going to be.” So read the stories. Like the man knew there were a lot of things the Antarctic for two and half I just wrote down the one-liners himself, this book is a one off.” I I wanted to offer, information to years without women and come that reminded me about all of thought that was great. Very flat- give out about my career and away quite sane? What was it these things. tering. animals, who I am, and how you like shooting film when you didn’t I wanted to wear my heart on film and various things like that. see the results until you came my sleeve and open up a little AB: You like making people laugh. So, I’d been thinking about a back? All these little sort of things bit, too, and I didn’t find that dif- What are the funniest moments book for quite a long time. are just answered piece by piece ficult at all. In some respect, it was that you’ve spent filming or div- I decided to do it in the form of through the book. Writing it was wonderfully liberating. When you ing? short stories. Of course, that was one of the biggest bits of fun I’ve don’t have to write an introduc- much easier to write than a big ever had, and I hope that comes tion to anything, you can just go DA: One of the funniest was when long linear book. You can open through. Me, my editor Roz, and right into the story. It’s almost like I was coming back off of a shoot mine anywhere and read a little my designer, Simon—those were doing standup comedy or being in Svalbard, in the Norwegian story. And I wanted it so that with- the only people involved. Great. on a talk show. Give them the Arctic. I had been in the field for in the stories there would be at facts, make them laugh, make a long time, and we’d been held least one or two moments where AB: You reveal quite a lot about them sigh, make them gasp! up by bad weather. We just had you would say, “Well I didn’t know yourself in the book. How did you That’s what I like about it. But it’s time to get all the gear packed, that.” choose which personal moments up to the reader to choose—it’s fling it in the car and drive to the And it can be all kinds of to include? what makes the book different. airport. Back in those days, there “didn’t know that”—maybe a The best review that I got was in were only two or three flights a wee fact about a polar bear, or DA: What I did when I started, I Wanderlust magazine, who said, week back to Norway. a different way of thinking about had this idea to write all these “The most fascinating thing about We got all the gear checked an ethical issue that comes up short stories. I literally sat up one Freeze Frame is that you can feel in with very little time to spare. doug allan when you’re filming. How close night in bed about 2:00 AM, and Doug’s personality and passion We had just a few minutes, and Beluga whales, photo by Doug Allan

46 X-RAY MAG : 58 : 2014 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS WRECKS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY TECH EDUCATION PROFILES PHOTO & VIDEO PORTFOLIO Allan on a shoot in French Polynesia; Allan filiming sealion in Galapagos profile (below) Doug Allan so I went upstairs to the toilet. I noise behind me—another door DA: I first went to the Arctic in went into this toilet that was just opened, and all these people 1988 and caught the tail end of off the café, and it was so nice were looking in from the café. I what I would call the classic pre- and warm, I fell asleep on the had come out of the toilet cubi- dictable weather period. When loo. I woke up a little bit later to cle and turned the wrong way. you went in April or May, you a Norwegian airport announce- Now I was basically trying to kick could pretty much guarantee ment—I thought it had to be the myself into the cleaning closet. I nine or ten lovely days of sunshine last call for this flight. had to push my way past these followed by a two- or three-day So, I went to go out, but the people and run down the stairs blow, and then another decent main door back into the café and get on the plane. period of weather. was locked, and I couldn’t get And the thing is I had to go Now 25 years later, the weather out. Then, there was another back through that airport several in April or May can be all over announcement, and I was begin- times over the next year, and the place. You don’t really know ning to get concerned because there were always people there what you’re going to get. There this was a big, heavy, metal who had been in that café. I’m can be rain, which was almost door, and I wasn’t able to open sure I became known as the mad unheard of back then. You seem it. There hadn’t been many peo- man who locked himself in the to see much less of the sun. The ple in the café when I went in. I toilet in Svalbard. weather patterns are much less thought people had left the café and that it was all locked. So, I AB: You’ve returned to Antarctica started banging on the door, kick- and the Arctic many times since ing at it, shouting at the top of my you first went there. What kind of voice. No way I was going to miss changes have you seen in terms my flight! of climate change? bin S ultan L iving O ceans F oundation Then suddenly, there was a K haled

but the peninsula of the mer where all the ice melts in the Antarctic has warmed Arctic. What this will mean in the up so much that these long term to population numbers Gentoos are now able to of seals, whales and polar bears come further south. is open to question. It will mean You talk to the Inuit in a huge change to basic Arctic the Arctic because they marine ecology, but it seems are the people who really clear that polar bear numbers know. Their experience will fall, and their distribution will of the climate goes back become more restricted. not 25 years like mine but 2,000 years. They will AB: You’ve recently been working tell you about the ber- on some scientific films that high- ries coming out sooner, light climate change. What are Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation about the ice changing these projects? predictable weather pat- same place now, and the glacier and how much longer the sum- terns. I certainly notice is 30 meters away. mers are becoming. Things like DA: I’ve always worked on a that. I can look at where 30 years that. range of films. And certainly And in the Antarctic, I ago I could see a 20,000 strong There is absolutely no doubt among the most challenging and can go back to places colony of Adelie penguins. I stand that the Arctic in changing really, exciting, but also good fun and where 35 years ago I would there now, and there are only really dramatically. The amount worthwhile films, are the ones be standing right at the 2,000 to 3,000 Adelies, and the of sea ice in the summer is much, I’ve done which are conserva- front of a glacier, where I rest are Gentoo penguins—so one much less than it used to be, and tion or issue led. That’s why it has could reach out and touch species has moved over. Gentoos almost certainly in the next five been so satisfying working with a Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation the ice. I stand in that are basically a northern species, to ten years, we will have a sum- group called the Living Oceans Allan filming current meter deployment

47 X-RAY MAG : 58 : 2014 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS WRECKS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY TECH EDUCATION PROFILES PHOTO & VIDEO PORTFOLIO Diving Guillemots, Allan’s prize- winning photograph; Book cover of Freeze Frame by Doug Allan profile (below inset) Doug Allan enough, which is clever enough AB: You been a lot of places, and with good producers, and good you’ve seen a lot of things other story lines, where we can mix the people haven’t seen. Do you message with the lovely wildlife have a philosophy for making life and make something that really worthwhile and enjoyable? does make people think different- ly about the sea and about the DA: There are two quotations that environment, and so let people I found a long time ago. I found reconnect with it. The big glossy them when I was at university, series are wonderfully polished, and I’ve sort of lived by them, but I’m not sure the viewers con- consciously or subconsciously. nect with them on a visceral level One has been ascribed to Henry the way you do with other films. David Theroux: “The mass of men I think the smaller films like the live lives of quiet desperation and Living Oceans Foundation pro- go to the grave with song still in duction are getting closer to we them.” want somehow. I think you should start singing as soon as you can, and make AB: What’s your next project? sure you sing as long as you can, and as loud as you can. DA: My next project is a Living And the other is often attrib- Oceans Foundation program out uted to Mark Twain: “Twenty years in the Pacific. And then I have from now you will be more disap- some polar bear filming to do. pointed by the things you didn’t It’s actually second unit stuff for a do than the things you did do. So feature film. It’s a feature film with throw off the bowlines. Sail away a climate change message in it. from the safe harbor. Catch the Nothing Trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” I say that somewhere inside you is a passion for something which is as strong as my passion was doug allan for diving. I didn’t know when I Foundation. Their purpose is sci- them to come along and make AB: Why is it important to you to until we let them started where I would end up, the entific, educational, and it has a space for them on their expedi- be involved in films that teach see what it is that main thing I did was follow my conservation angle to it because tion—because nothing speaks to about ocean conservation? we want them to heart. ■ they do reef surveys. They study a country like local people from protect. But I think coral reefs and use the science that country. DA: Part of it is just your maturity the big series run Doug Allan’s book, Freeze and the films to help influence It’s much more powerful if you as a person and maturity as a film the risk of losing that Frame, is available at Dougallan. government opinions about have the locals talking about it; maker. I know that it’s my involve- purpose. They edu- com. You can see the work which are the best areas of a it’s much more powerful if the ment with these high-end series cate to a degree, of the Khaled bin Sultan country’s coral reefs to conserve. local scientists spread the word. which gave me the profile I have. but they’re not multi- Living Oceans Foundation at The films are also used to get So, for all of these reasons, and But I like to think I have something faceted enough. Livingoceansfoundation.org. the information into schools, even though they may be non- now to give back. They may be realistic Alison Barrat is a former pro- which is where I think you have broadcast and are lower profile I think when I started, I was real- about the behaviors ducer and series producer for to go for the basics. You’ve got than a whole lot of these bigger ly excited to show people things they show, but do National Geographic Television. to educate the youngsters about series that I’m on, I still often think which they hadn’t seen before. they really show what absolutely She is currently Director of these things. I think it’s great that the films that the Living Oceans Twenty years ago, there was a the broader world is major—just a number of things to Communications for the Khaled wherever the foundation is, they Foundation makes are more strong case for saying that we like? consolidate. It’s always like that bin Sultan Living Oceans try involving some local divers worthwhile. won’t get people to care about What I would like to see is as a freelancer. Foundation. and local scientists, encourage the oceans or the environment a series, which is imaginative

48 X-RAY MAG : 58 : 2014 EDITORIAL FEATURES TRAVEL NEWS WRECKS EQUIPMENT BOOKS SCIENCE & ECOLOGY TECH EDUCATION PROFILES PHOTO & VIDEO PORTFOLIO