Ollie Richards
I'm Ollie, a Director of Photography and Drone Operator, driven by an ambition to help share stories, rendered in beautiful images. Splitting my time between the UK and Canada, I'm regularly hired for documentary and wildlife cinematography, but with a broad background spanning commercials, narrative work, and live broadcast. Pursuing a multi-disciplined approach my skillsets includes organic actuality coverage, hand-held and vehicle mounted gimbal work (GSS/Shotover/DJI/Movi), lighting for scene-work and interviews, long-lens behavioural sequences, mini-cam rigging, and time-lapsing. Additionally I am certified as a commercial drone pilot by the CAA(UK), EASA (EU), FAA(USA), and Transport Canada; with many hundreds of hours of logged flight experience globally including FPV style flight for broadcast. I hold Swift-water Rescue level 1, AV1, and am Remote First Aid and Bear Safety trained. Never one to be daunted by new technology, I'm always tinkering and adapting the latest equipment to be able to capture stories in a unique way that most compliments them, without limitations.
Ollie Richards - wildlife cinematographer
selected work
'Asia' - BBC
"From the vast Gobi Desert to the jungles of Borneo, and from the polar wilderness of Siberia to the coral seas of the Indian Ocean, showcasing the breath-taking variety of Asia’s wildest places.” In this upcoming mega-landmark for the BBC I was fortunate enough to come onboard as DP for a Proboscis Monkey urban-wildlife sequence filmed in Indonesia. I was primarily responsible for operating the GSS system mounted onto a small camera crane aboard a longtail river boat.
Our Universe ‘Turning Seasons’ - Netflix
Spending a Summer and Fall on the Katmai coast of Alaska I was responsible for capturing the seasonal behaviour of the world largest and most formidable Brown Bears across a number of sequences. We took a fresh approach to natural history filmmaking by endeavouring to shoot as much of the behaviour as possible on Anamorphic lenses, bringing in the CN20 for complimentary close-ups. Alongside sweeping Inspire 2 aerials and my trusty feather-crane mounted gimbal setup we were able to deliver blue-chip results with a very small team and timeframe.
Earth’s Great Rivers II ‘The Yukon’ - BBC
"Remote and wild, the Yukon is a river of haunting beauty and dangerous extremes - a place where the 'call of the wild' is still strong. In summer, it is a relentless giant, carving its way 2,000 miles across Canada and Alaska. In winter, -50C temperatures transform it into a river of ice. “As DP for the Yukon episode I spent close to 4 months living in the frozen north across Canada and Alaska. Filming a broad spectrum of wildlife including Bears, Musk Ox, Swans, Moose, & Mozzies! We employed cutting edge filming techniques such as small Pack-raft mounted gimbals and FPV drone to keep things dynamic.
skills list
Adventure Filming, Aerial, Animal Behaviour, Astronomy, Arriflex cameras, Birds in Flight, Blackmagic cameras, Blue & Green Screen Filming, Boat Work, Cable Dolly, Camera Assistant, Canon Cameras, Camera Traps, Cineflex, Data Wrangling and workflow, Digital Editing (Avid, Final Cut etc), Diving Qualifications, Drone Operator, Expedition, Extreme Environments, First Aid Qualifications, Gimbal Filming (Ronin etc.), Gaffing, Grip, Hand Held Filming, Infrared Filming, Hide Work, Jib and Dolly, Long Lens, Low Light, Macro Studio, Medical and Scientific, Night Filming, Observational Documentary, Periscopes, Phantom Cameras (slow motion), Platform work, Remotely Operated Cameras, Red Cameras, Shooting Director, Shotover and other heavy gimbal work, Sony Cameras, Sound Recording, Sport filming, Sync and Crew Filming, Technician for camera equipment, Time Lapse, Time Slice, Verité, VFX Plate Shots, Working at Height
contact - Ollie Richards
cell: UK CELL: +447596180371, US/Can Cell+1-778-917-0207
