Biografia
Bob Carmichael is an experienced producer, director, and cameraman with a diverse background in documentaries, commercials, and second unit directing for feature films. He is a longstanding member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA) as a director and the International Cinematographer Guild as a director of photography. Based in Boulder, CO, he operates from his custom studio under Carmichael Productions, Inc. Carmichael holds both an Academy Award nomination and an Emmy Award. His career began at NFL Films, where he worked as a staff director, cameraman, editor, and writer. He was a trailblazer in climbing production techniques, culminating in his direction and cinematography of the Star Trek 5 title sequence, filmed 2,500 feet up El Capitan.
In still photography, Carmichael has earned seven nominations from the International Master Color Awards and seven Silver Telly Awards for web content. He developed a pioneering technique called photo-GRAPHIC-video, which combines DSLR photography, motion graphics, and cinematic storytelling. Using this method, he documented Maroon 5’s 2008 national tour and their performance at President Barack Obama’s inauguration.
Carmichael has consistently been ahead of cultural trends. His 1972 climbing film, Break on Through, is regarded as a seminal work in adventure sports filmmaking. He created the film with a score by Tommy Bolin, then hitchhiked to New York to sell it to CBS Sports. Alongside his rigging crews, he innovated 16mm and 35mm filming on vertical rock faces. His second film for ABC Sports captured a mixed climbing team’s third ascent of the 900-foot desert tower known as the Titan. His 1976 pilot documentary, Outside the Arena, which focused on lifelong sports engagement, was shot on the 2,000-foot sheer face of Long's Peak and introduced sync sound to vertical filming. Carmichael brought the concept of ‘extreme’ sports to national attention with the 1979 Academy Award-nominated short Fall Line, co-directed and shot with Greg Lowe, showcasing extreme skiing on Wyoming’s Grand Teton.
In 1981, he directed and filmed First Ascent, the first American all-women climbing film, featuring Lynn Hill and Beth Bennet. In 1988, he co-created and served as director of photography for the Snowbird International Climbing Competition, the first American televised climbing competition broadcast on CBS Sports, chronicled in John Burgman’s 2020 book, High Drama: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of American Competition Climbing. Jeff Lowe co-produced this event. That same year, Carmichael produced two pilot shows for Maryland Public Television as part of a global documentary project spanning four continents in 45 days: Mountain People (filmed in Nepal, Europe, and Peru) and Mini-Dragons (shot in Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, and Taiwan). He also earned writing and cinematography credits for a History Channel four-hour series on Extreme Cold Weather Survival, which covered the Douglas Mawson survival story and elite Alaska airborne search and rescue teams.
In 1982, Carmichael won a National Sports Emmy Award for Special Achievement in Sports Programming for producing and directing Football in America, a documentary exploring traumatic injuries in football. This WNET-funded film led helmet manufacturers to place warning labels externally on helmets. The New York Times featured his early efforts to raise awareness about football's dangers in a 2016 sports page article. In 2020, he developed a unique nine-part television series proposal on contemporary American football, represented by Ann Murtha of Murtha Skouras.
Recent projects include online spots for the Metro Denver Boys and Girls Club; Made Movement Agency’s launch of a new 7th Generation skin product line; a German commercial for Hansplast Extreme band aids; PSAs for the Colorado Department of Public Health; Medtronic’s hearing aids; and Boulder's initiative to establish a community energy grid. These works highlight Carmichael’s skill in creating compelling visuals and directing dialogue. He studied under Milton Katselas at the Beverly Hills Playhouse.
Throughout his career, Carmichael has brought advanced sports expertise to his projects, including climbing, cycling, skiing, surfing, sailing, stunt work, aerial photography, and automotive action. He has contributed to approximately 40 climbing projects across the United States, the Central Alaskan Range, Canadian Rockies, French and Italian Alps, and the Himalayas.
His work as a 16mm cameraman for 60 Minutes and 20/20 sharpened his journalistic abilities. Documentary credits include Killer Bees in Panama; flight deck operations aboard the USS Enterprise for The Future of the Navy; Greyhound Therapy; Homophobia; Navajo vs. Hopi; and celebrity profiles. He has filmed three Olympic Games, including Bud Greenspan’s 35mm feature 16 Days of Glory. For National Geographic Explorer, he produced groundbreaking long-form documentaries on big wave surfing and waterfall ice climbing.
As a second unit action director and cameraman, Carmichael’s credits include Navy SEALs, Star Trek, First Wives Club, Queens Logic, and Baywatch. He directed a high frame rate 70mm film on the Daytona 500 for Daytona International Speedway, which now showcases the film in its museum. With over 100 hours of helicopter aerial photography experience, his early second unit work included Spinal Tap, Terminator, Top Gun, Hunt for Red October, and second unit segments for TV series such as Knight Rider, Commando, and Airwolf.
Commercially, Carmichael has directed national spots as a staff director at Fairbanks Films, Paramount Images, and Dream Quest Images. His clients include Reebok, Sprite, Ford, Merrill Lynch, Bayer, USA Cycling, USMC, Burger King, Kellogg’s Tony the Tiger, Cadillac America Cup, Adidas Cologne, Disney World, Busch Gardens, Sea World, Six Flags, Molson Beer, Coors Beer, Sea-Doo, Kawasaki, Nautica, Bally’s, Remington, Smuckers, Re-Build LA, as well as tourism boards for Hawaii, Oklahoma, Mexico, and the British Virgin Islands. He has co-written an action mountain screenplay titled Fall Line and directed a thirty-minute corporate narrative film called Wilderness Within. His company motto is "Creativity in any Environment." More information is available at Bobcarmichael.com.
