Biography
Bob Carmichael is a veteran producer/director/cameraman who has an extensive documentary, commercial, and feature 2nd unit directing background. Carmichael is a long-time member of the DGA as a director and the International Cinematographer Guild as a DP. Bob lives in Boulder, CO, and works out of his custom studio under Carmichael Productions, Inc. Bob has both an Academy Award nomination and an Emmy Award to his credit. Bob's first job out of college was working as a staff director, cameraman, editor, and writer for NFL Films. He was a pioneer in developing climbing production techniques that culminated in his direction and cinematography of the Title sequence for Star Trek 5 that was filmed 2500 feet up El Capitan. In still photography, Carmichael has been recognized with 7 nominations from the International Master Color Awards and 7 Silver Telly Awards for Web content for a Maroon 5 photography plus graphic effects technique he pioneered for video production called photo-GRAPHIC-video in which Carmichael documented the band's 2008 national tour and their performance at the Barrack Obama Inauguration. This technique blends DSLR photography, motion graphics, and cinematic storytelling.
Carmichael has a history of being well ahead of cultural curves. His first climbing film in 1972, Break on Through, has been recognized as one of the seminal influences in adventure sports filmmaking. He made the film, Tommy Bolin created the score, Bob then hitchhiked to New York, and sold it to CBS Sports. He and his rigging crews pioneered 16mm and 35mm filming techniques on vertical walls. His second film for ABC Sports featured a man and women climbing team who climbed the 3rd ascent of the 900-foot high desert tower known as the Titan. His 1976 pilot documentary Outside the Arena centered on a philosophy of life-long sports involvement was filmed on the 2,000-foot sheer face of Long's Peak. This film introduced sync sound to vertical productions. Carmichael literally brought the word 'extreme' to the nation's attention with his 1979 Academy Award-nominated short, Fall Line, a film on extreme skiing down the east face of Wyoming's Grand Teton. Bob was co-director and cameraman on that film with Greg Lowe. In 1981, Bob directed and shot the first American, an all-woman climbing film with First Ascent featuring Lynn Hill and Beth Bennet. In 1988 he conceived and introduced the first American televised competition climbing to national television as the co-creator and DP of the Snowbird International Climbing Competition, as seen on CBS Sports and as chronicled in John Burgmans 2020 book: High Drama: The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of American Competition Climbing published by Triumph Books LLC. Jeff Lowe was a co-producer. That same year, Carmichael filmed two pilots shows for Maryland Public Television on an around the world documentary project traveling to 4 continents in 45 days. The shows: Mountain People was filmed in Nepal, Europe, and Peru, and Mini-Dragons was shot in Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, and Taiwan. The History Channel ran a four-hour series on Extreme Cold Weather Survival about the Douglas Mawson survival story, and elite Alaska airborne SAR teams for which Carmichael received cinematography and writing credits.
In 1982 Carmichael won a National Sports Emmy Award for Special Achievement in Sports Programming by producing and directing a documentary film, Football in America, that investigated traumatic injuries in football. This WNET grant film forced helmet manufacturers to place their warning labels on the outside of all football helmets. In 2016 the New York Times ran a feature sports page article about Carmichael's early contribution to raising awareness about the dangers of football. (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/05/sports/football/nfl-films-violence-football.html?smid=fb-share) In 2020 Carmichael researched and developed a unique 9-part television series proposal on contemporary American Football. Ann Murtha of Murtha Skouras represents this project.
Recent online spots for the Metro Denver Boys and Girls Club, Made Movement Agency launching a new skin product line by 7th Generation, a German climbing commercial for Hansplast Extreme band aids, PSAs for the Colorado Department of Public Health, Medtronic's hearing aids and Boulder's drive to create its own community energy grid, are projects that underscore Carmichael's ability to create arresting imagery and direct dialogue. He studied under Milton Katselas at the Beverly Hills Playhouse.
During his career, Carmichael brought a quiver of high-level sports skills to his documentary, commercial, and 2nd unit projects. His areas of expertise include climbing, cycling, skiing, surfing, sailing, stunt work as well as aerial photography and automotive action. Carmichael has some 40 climbing related projects to his name on rock cliffs and mountains throughout America, the Central Alaskan Range, the Canadian Rockies, the French and Italian Alps, and the Himalaya.
Working as a 16mm cameraman for 60 Minutes and 20/20 developed his journalistic skills. His documentary projects included Killer Bees in Panama, flight deck Ops on the deck of the USS Enterprise for The Future of the Navy, Grey Hound Therapy, Homophobia, Navajo vs. Hopi, and celebrity profiles. He has filmed three Olympic games, including Bud Greenspan's 35mm 16 Days of Glory. For National Geographic Explorer, Carmichael produced long-form, ground-breaking documentaries on Big Wave Surfing and Waterfall Ice Climbing.
As a 2nd unit action director and cameraman Carmichael has credits on Navy SEALs, Star Trek, First Wives Club, Queens Logic, and Bay Watch. Bob directed a high frame rate 70mm film on the Daytona 500 for the Daytona International Speedway. The speedway built a museum to showcase this film. Carmichael has over 100 hours of helicopter aerial photography experience. His early 2nd unit operating assignments included Spinal Tap, Terminator, Top Gun, Hunt for Red October, and 2nd Unit segments for the TV series Knight Rider, Commando, and Airwolf.
Commercially Bob has directed national spot projects while staff director at Fairbanks Films, Paramount Images, and Dream Quest Images. Clients: 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, along with Hawaii, Oklahoma, Mexico, and BVI Tourism. Carmichael has co-written an action mountain screenplay, Fall Line. He has also directed a thirty-minute corporate narrative film entitled Wilderness Within. His company motto is "Creativity in any Environment." Bobcarmichael.com
