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You're listening to the Nick amp podcast, a podcast that dives into the lives and stories

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of creatives, entrepreneurs, and outdoor enthusiasts.

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My name is Nick amp and I'm a filmmaker and photographer best known for documenting stories

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in the mountains.

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We sit down with guests to uncover where they got inspiration from, dig into their experiences

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in the outdoor industry, and find a ton of actionable inspiration from their adventures

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in life.

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Welcome to episode 12.

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We have another special guest on today on the Nick Gamp podcast.

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He's an outdoors filmmaker, photographer.

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You may know him for his adventure videos, but recently he just did a documentary called

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The Backyard Bears featuring the Tahoe Black Bears.

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It was an epic film.

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If you haven't watched it already, highly recommend watching that.

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He's on Instagram.

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He's known as Roaming with Riley, but he goes by Riley McClary.

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That is his name.

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Riley, pleasure to have you on today.

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And how you doing so far, man, over there in Hawaii?

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Pretty good.

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Thanks for having me on.

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Yeah, Hawaii's been great so far.

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It's nice to escape the cold weather and be in a warm tropical environment for a little

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bit.

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Yeah, man.

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Normally you're in Tahoe, so I mean, this is definitely a change up from the previous

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winters probably, right?

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Definitely.

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Yeah.

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I mean, the last few years I've been pretty nomadic.

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I was living in a van for a while, but Tahoe is kind of home base.

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But in the winters I would kind of leave in the van and kind of go where it was a little

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bit warmer.

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So, I've never really been a huge winter person.

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So, yeah, winters were usually spent kind of seeking warmth, but this year I really

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kind of took that to another level and I've been out here for a few months.

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And it's been a good decision because Tahoe's been getting absolutely pounded with snow.

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So I'm glad I'm out here.

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It sure has, man.

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I mean, you can't spend it the wrong way in Maui like that.

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So normally on this podcast we ask our guests the first general question, who are you?

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So for you, who is Riley McCleary?

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How did this adventure all start for you, man?

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Yeah, all right, I'll try to keep it short.

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So I'm Riley.

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I am a filmmaker and photographer.

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I'm kind of diving a lot more into the wildlife space, wildlife conservation space these days.

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But I kind of got my start when I was about 14.

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I was doing a lot of like mountain biking and like adventure sports stuff.

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And I just kind of got a GoPro and started taking that on all my little adventures with

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my friends.

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And that kind of developed into getting a new camera.

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And I started out by filming weddings and was doing like weddings throughout high school.

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And then I got a job at a media company in Tahoe, like when I was a junior and we were

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doing a lot of adventure sports, mountain biking, skiing, all that stuff.

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So I was doing a lot of that kind of filming.

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And then with all that knowledge that I was learning from that production company and

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everything, I kind of took that into creating my own business and getting my own kind of

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gigs with companies in the outdoor industry.

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So that kind of sums up that amount of time until recently when I kind of started to transition

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into the wildlife space.

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And that was about, that was in 2022.

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So that was however many months ago.

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I'm still definitely kind of in the beginning stages of moving over, but it's been a fun

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journey so far and I'm excited to be where I am now.

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So you started this back in when you were 14 years old, like most kids at that age,

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when they enter into creative space, we get a GoPro.

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I mean, one of the easiest ways to enter into that atmosphere back then, were you just trying

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to document things or were you already trying to create stories like you do now?

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I would say back then I was kind of just trying to just document whatever we were doing, whatever

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stuff we were getting into, mountain biking, riding scooters and just kid stuff.

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So it was definitely more of just like raw, just documenting whatever and then just kind

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of eye moving it all together into random videos with like EDM music behind it.

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But that definitely like kind of sparked my love for cameras.

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And then that kind of took me to where I am now.

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At what point did you even know that this was what you wanted to do for a career?

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I would say pretty early on.

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I would like when I got my first real camera, it was the Sony A6000.

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And that like as soon as I got that, I was like, how can I start to like make money with

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this?

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I never really wanted to get a job at like a copy shop or something that like some of

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my friends would have been doing at the time.

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So I started to do weddings and that's kind of how I started to initially make money with

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it.

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And then I was like, I just want to do this.

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Like I don't want to do anything else.

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And I wanted to combine my love for the outdoors and nature with the camera stuff because it

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was like those are like my two big passions at the time.

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And so I was just kind of doing anything I could to merge those two together into a career.

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Man, I've never done a wedding before, but I've heard stories that it was, they're stressful.

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So I'm sure transitioning to what you actually wanted to do quickly on was very nice.

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I mean, you're known for, at least I remember the videos I've seen you do tightroping videos.

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Is that something that you still want to continue doing?

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Doing those adventure videos or is it full on wildlife mode now?

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Yeah.

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I mean, the action extreme sports world was something that is still, like I'm still very

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involved in that world right now.

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I don't do as much filming and documenting of all that kind of stuff.

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That's kind of more just like what I do for fun and stuff like that.

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But yeah, the wildlife stuff, like I've always had a love for wildlife growing up.

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Animals were always such a big part of my life.

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And I kind of went through this transition where I wanted to start making more of a difference

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in what I was doing with the camera.

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So I was like, I can just tie in my love for animals and my passion for wildlife and the

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environment and the natural world and start making films that push messages to help conserve

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and protect all the different animals and environments that I love so much.

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So yeah, I don't know if that really answers your question, but yeah, the highlining stuff,

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I got into that whole world when I initially moved to Tahoe and met a bunch of people that

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were doing a lot of highlining and cliff diving and stuff like that.

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And I kind of just immersed myself into that.

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And that's such like a unique activity, highlining.

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It is just such a mind mental game.

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Like you can walk a slack line in a park all day and it's essentially the same thing.

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But when you take it up 3000 feet above Yosemite Valley, it's just like such a mental game.

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And that's such like a fun challenge on the body and on the brain.

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So yeah, you're definitely daring, man.

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For those of you listening, if you don't know what we're talking about, go on his Instagram

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page and scroll back a bunch on his reels and look for the videos where he's highlining.

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He even documented one of them, one time when the stories in Tahoe, we climbed up these

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mountain summits and how he got the line across the other side.

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That was an epic part.

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I remember watching you when you were posting about that.

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And I don't know, man.

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I know a lot of people, at least in the photography space, I feel like are not that adventurous.

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And I bet for you at that point was probably on the document because you were doing something

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a little bit different than most people.

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What was, and you were saying that was just all for fun, right?

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Yeah, I mean, I like, yeah, that was just kind of passion.

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I was just going out with my friends and doing a cool adventure.

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Yeah.

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So you recently just posted, or probably a couple months back now, but you posted the

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Backyard Bears documentary featuring the black bears in Tahoe.

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And you mentioned briefly that you wanted to make a difference with what you're doing

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with your camera.

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So what was the reasoning behind the Backyard Bears to be your first initial documentary

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on himmels?

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Yeah, so come 2022, it was kind of like the turning point where I was getting kind of

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burnt out of what I was doing.

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And I just wanted to use my skills with the camera to make a difference, as cliche as

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it sounds.

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So I moved to Tahoe in 2020 after high school.

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I graduated high school in 2020, moved to Lake Tahoe.

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And that's when I kind of like I had been going to Tahoe my whole life.

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I grew up in Sacramento just outside of Tahoe.

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So I've been spending a lot of time in the mountains and in Tahoe my whole life.

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And I knew of the black bears in the area, but I didn't really know that there was a

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huge problem with human wildlife conflict until I moved up there.

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And I saw it for the first time when there was a bear walking in front of my apartment.

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This huge, huge black bear, like way overweight.

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And I followed him down and he went and got into a dumpster.

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And I was like, this isn't right.

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This like what are we doing to these incredible animals?

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So it was like then where I really like wanted to make a film about the Tahoe Bears.

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But it kind of took like two years of traveling and doing some other stuff where, which kind

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of led me to building up all the storytelling skills and knowledge with cameras and everything

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to get to the point where I was like, all right, I'm going to do it.

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And then in 2022, I kind of like put most things aside.

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Like I was doing a lot of video editing for some media companies in Tahoe, which kind

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of allowed me to spend all my time out in the wild looking for bears when it was daylight.

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And then I could work at night when it was dark.

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So I spent a good like six, seven months out spending like all my time with bears.

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Like I kind of cut out and like all social life kind of pretty much everything and everything

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was focused on the bears and learning their behavior and tracking them and just like trying

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to document anything that I could to tell their story in the way that I wanted to.

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I think I put in about like 60 or so days where I actually got footage of bears and

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then so many others where I just got completely skunked and didn't find anything.

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But that's kind of like where the idea originated and then kind of how I began production and

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started the filming of it.

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To dive into your video a little more in the depth, you said you started tracking these

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bears for six months, six to seven months in only 60 days of that you actually got footage.

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Did you learn better skills how to track the bears?

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How did you even go about knowing where to look for them?

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Yeah, so I would say the first two months is kind of where I didn't get anything and

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I was just kind of aimlessly wandering around the woods looking for bears.

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I could find them occasionally in town doing the dumpster stuff, but I wasn't having a

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whole lot of success at the beginning until I started to kind of learn their routines

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and behaviors.

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Like the bears that are the urbanized population that are in town that pretty much eats trash

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for a living, they really are kind of on a schedule and I could towards the end, like

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after like following them around for so long, I could pretty like consistently go out to

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specific dumpsters and find the same individual bears on their same loop around town every

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day.

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So once I kind of figured out those routines and patterns, it became a lot easier.

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And then the same kind of thing for the bears out in the wild as well.

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I was finding like different spots that they like to hang out and I was figuring out why

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they liked to hang out there.

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So then like once I kind of figured out those patterns again, like I could predict where

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they were going to be, when they were going to be there.

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And I was getting that system a lot more dialed in as it kind of went along.

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So then I was pretty successful for a while, like finding bears.

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And then come like October when I was trying to film the salmon run scene with the bears

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fishing for salmon, that was another scene where I went like a month without getting

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anything and I was going out sunrise to sunset every single day.

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And I didn't get anything because the salmon weren't going up because the water levels

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were too low.

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So that was like a month in the making of just like nothing and nothing and nothing.

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And then all of a sudden one day the salmon went up, one family of bears came down once

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in the morning and then I stayed, they left and then they came back once again in the

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afternoon and that's when I got all that footage for that scene.

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And then a storm rolled in the next day and put the bears away for the winter for the

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most part.

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So yeah, it was a long process, but it was super fun and I learned so much in that whole

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process.

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Yeah, man.

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Following anything for six months, you're going to learn their patterns.

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And one thing that surprised me, I had no idea that bears eat 5,000 calories in the

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summertime.

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So you mentioned something called hyperphasia.

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So before they go to bed for the winter, they start eating more.

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And what was that like experiencing watching them increase their appetite during those

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months?

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Yeah.

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So yeah, so bears, black bears, they eat about 5,000 calories a day throughout the summer.

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But then come the fall when it's nearing winter, they start packing on 20,000 calories a day

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plus.

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So they're just in like a complete feeding frenzy all day, every day they're eating.

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And that's like, what I really noticed more was the bears that were in town.

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Like, I would see, like I would probably count like eight to 10 bears in town every single

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day, like in some specific neighborhoods that I would go that really had a problem.

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And they were just gorging themselves the entire day.

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I like that throughout that time, I was also spending a lot of time at the river where

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the salmon were running or supposed to be running because that's another huge food source

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for the bears that are that are out eating natural food sources.

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So I was kind of bouncing back in between the salmon run and in town getting all the

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in town shots.

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But yeah, it's crazy, it's crazy the amount of calories they can pack on in a day.

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And that's why like the trash is so like rewarding and appealing to them is that they can get

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00:16:50,240 --> 00:16:53,360
20,000 calories in an hour.

229
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Whereas if they're out foraging for food, it's going to take them the whole entire day.

230
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So it's like, if it's available, why not take advantage of it?

231
00:17:04,280 --> 00:17:08,920
So that's kind of the problem I was highlighting in that in the film.

232
00:17:08,920 --> 00:17:14,480
So Riley, I spend most of my time in Kings Canyon National Park, Socorro National Park

233
00:17:14,480 --> 00:17:17,200
and the Suriname National Forests.

234
00:17:17,200 --> 00:17:24,000
And the black bears over there are one, not as big as the ones in Tahoe, and two, they're

235
00:17:24,000 --> 00:17:28,560
still more afraid of people from what I've encountered myself.

236
00:17:28,560 --> 00:17:32,120
I mean, I've counted bears a lot out there.

237
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And when I went to Tahoe, I camped on some BLM land out there.

238
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I don't know what it was.

239
00:17:38,280 --> 00:17:40,840
It was some type of national forest land.

240
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And there was one bear that was scavenging through someone's truck because he left it

241
00:17:45,160 --> 00:17:46,160
open.

242
00:17:46,160 --> 00:17:47,160
Yeah.

243
00:17:47,160 --> 00:17:52,680
And that was the biggest bear I'd ever seen in my entire life in the black bear species.

244
00:17:52,680 --> 00:17:58,180
So when I saw your video, you featured the bear literally opening the trash can.

245
00:17:58,180 --> 00:18:04,840
I did not know that it was that intelligent or capable of opening trash cans like that.

246
00:18:04,840 --> 00:18:13,520
In your opinion, what are some ways that businesses can help improve keeping the food away from

247
00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:14,520
bears?

248
00:18:14,520 --> 00:18:22,600
So, so yeah, bears are, they're super talented in their door opening and trash can opening

249
00:18:22,600 --> 00:18:23,600
skills.

250
00:18:23,600 --> 00:18:27,840
Door, car doors, they can open those as well.

251
00:18:27,840 --> 00:18:31,600
They can't do the ones where you have to slide your hand in sideways, but the ones with the

252
00:18:31,600 --> 00:18:35,640
handles where you hold them, where you can go under like this, they can just open up

253
00:18:35,640 --> 00:18:36,800
car doors like that.

254
00:18:36,800 --> 00:18:39,120
They can open up doors to your houses.

255
00:18:39,120 --> 00:18:40,840
They can, they can do whatever.

256
00:18:40,840 --> 00:18:46,720
And if they can't open up a door to your house, they can for sure bash through it and break

257
00:18:46,720 --> 00:18:52,800
it down, especially some of the 600 pounders that we have in Tahoe.

258
00:18:52,800 --> 00:19:02,640
But getting back to your question, the businesses throughout the Tahoe basin, pretty much all

259
00:19:02,640 --> 00:19:06,120
of their dumpsters can be locked.

260
00:19:06,120 --> 00:19:11,560
They have like this locking system with the carabiner and a chain that has this latch

261
00:19:11,560 --> 00:19:15,440
that goes over and then you can lock it with the carabiner and the bears can't open up

262
00:19:15,440 --> 00:19:17,560
the carabiner.

263
00:19:17,560 --> 00:19:21,800
So the dumpsters can be locked.

264
00:19:21,800 --> 00:19:30,480
It's just the human error of being too lazy and irresponsible to close the latch and lock

265
00:19:30,480 --> 00:19:33,400
the dumpster.

266
00:19:33,400 --> 00:19:35,840
Most of the dumpsters are that way.

267
00:19:35,840 --> 00:19:38,820
Some of the dumpsters just aren't locking at all.

268
00:19:38,820 --> 00:19:46,760
So those businesses need to get on the train of getting a dumpster that can be locked.

269
00:19:46,760 --> 00:19:51,320
But then it all just goes back to the ease of use.

270
00:19:51,320 --> 00:19:57,920
If the dumpster, if it takes too much effort to lock it, it's just not going to get done.

271
00:19:57,920 --> 00:20:07,120
And then for the residential streets and the residential trash cans, a lot of houses have

272
00:20:07,120 --> 00:20:13,240
these bear bins that they put the trash cans in and then on trash day the trash crew will

273
00:20:13,240 --> 00:20:17,880
come and open up those bins, take the trash cans out and dump them.

274
00:20:17,880 --> 00:20:22,400
So you'll see a lot of those throughout town but not everyone has them.

275
00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:26,760
And a lot of people just have normal trash cans that they put out every trash day.

276
00:20:26,760 --> 00:20:29,560
And the bears know the schedule.

277
00:20:29,560 --> 00:20:33,480
They know what day the trash is coming.

278
00:20:33,480 --> 00:20:38,360
Even in the wintertime, you'll see, I'm seeing videos all the time from my friends where

279
00:20:38,360 --> 00:20:43,000
on trash days the bears know and they don't even hibernate anymore.

280
00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:48,960
They just sleep for six days or whatever and they come out on trash day and walk the streets

281
00:20:48,960 --> 00:20:53,760
and eat a bunch of trash and then go back and nap for a little bit.

282
00:20:53,760 --> 00:21:01,240
So they're so smart and once they know where and how to get that food reward, they're just

283
00:21:01,240 --> 00:21:04,280
going to keep doing it as long as it's still available.

284
00:21:04,280 --> 00:21:12,360
So it's really up to us as humans to take a little bit more responsibility and just

285
00:21:12,360 --> 00:21:13,640
do what's right for the bears.

286
00:21:13,640 --> 00:21:15,640
And it's not even just for the bears.

287
00:21:15,640 --> 00:21:19,180
It's like they make a mess, right?

288
00:21:19,180 --> 00:21:26,000
And then the wind blows, trash goes everywhere, plastics in the lake, plastics everywhere.

289
00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:28,200
So it's not even just the bears.

290
00:21:28,200 --> 00:21:33,640
That's the beginning of it but it's a whole deal.

291
00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:39,920
And it all kind of comes down to us and the responsibility that we need to take to fix

292
00:21:39,920 --> 00:21:40,920
it.

293
00:21:40,920 --> 00:21:45,720
If you answered one of my questions I was going to ask you, if I guess it's the top

294
00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:53,600
people who ever govern Tahoe Basin, if they are applying pressure to businesses to taking

295
00:21:53,600 --> 00:21:58,400
responsibility to locking up their bins, I would think that they would apply more pressure

296
00:21:58,400 --> 00:21:59,400
there.

297
00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:04,060
But it sounds like the residential areas are taking care of business.

298
00:22:04,060 --> 00:22:05,060
I don't know.

299
00:22:05,060 --> 00:22:06,260
You've lived in Tahoe.

300
00:22:06,260 --> 00:22:10,800
Is this something that's talked about in terms of putting pressure on businesses?

301
00:22:10,800 --> 00:22:14,320
It's definitely talked about.

302
00:22:14,320 --> 00:22:18,040
And there's some numbers that you can call to report businesses that aren't securing

303
00:22:18,040 --> 00:22:19,540
their trash properly.

304
00:22:19,540 --> 00:22:22,920
But it's just it's not enforced.

305
00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:23,920
There's no fines.

306
00:22:23,920 --> 00:22:25,360
It's not enforced.

307
00:22:25,360 --> 00:22:31,600
So yeah, there needs to be some sort of change on that level to make a difference.

308
00:22:31,600 --> 00:22:37,760
And with the bear documentary, I'm talking to some people about getting in front of some

309
00:22:37,760 --> 00:22:45,200
government officials and going to some different community events and talking about it and

310
00:22:45,200 --> 00:22:50,280
just doing whatever we can to push the message and try to make some sort of change.

311
00:22:50,280 --> 00:22:56,160
Well, I was happy to see a local newspaper, the Placerville newspaper and Active NorCal

312
00:22:56,160 --> 00:22:59,480
to give your documentary some attention.

313
00:22:59,480 --> 00:23:03,720
Has there been people, are they reaching out to you talking about it?

314
00:23:03,720 --> 00:23:04,720
Yeah.

315
00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:05,720
Trying to help you out in this endeavors?

316
00:23:05,720 --> 00:23:06,720
Definitely.

317
00:23:06,720 --> 00:23:07,720
Yeah.

318
00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:11,720
The documentary has been doing really well.

319
00:23:11,720 --> 00:23:16,520
There's a few local Tahoe newspapers and magazines that have published some stuff on it.

320
00:23:16,520 --> 00:23:22,080
And so that kind of helped get a lot of recognition in the Tahoe basin.

321
00:23:22,080 --> 00:23:26,360
And then I've been submitting to a bunch of different film festivals.

322
00:23:26,360 --> 00:23:32,600
I'll be in in Montana next month from the 22nd to the 27th at the International Wildlife

323
00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:33,600
Film Festival.

324
00:23:33,600 --> 00:23:39,040
If anyone wants to come say what's up and watch the film, I'll be there.

325
00:23:39,040 --> 00:23:45,680
And then come October, I'll be in New York for another film festival showcasing it as

326
00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:46,680
well.

327
00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:50,920
I've got it submitted to a few other ones that I'm waiting to hear back for or from.

328
00:23:50,920 --> 00:23:53,200
But yeah, it's been doing really well.

329
00:23:53,200 --> 00:23:59,360
I've been getting a lot of good feedback and a lot of eyes on it, which was the whole goal

330
00:23:59,360 --> 00:24:03,680
to just get as many people to see it as possible and just spread the word.

331
00:24:03,680 --> 00:24:06,280
Because I feel like it's not talked about enough.

332
00:24:06,280 --> 00:24:09,640
And I'm hoping that this kind of changes that.

333
00:24:09,640 --> 00:24:10,800
Yeah, man.

334
00:24:10,800 --> 00:24:19,960
You mentioned even that these bears get euthanized because they become dangerous to us, the people.

335
00:24:19,960 --> 00:24:23,800
Because we didn't take responsibility in the first place.

336
00:24:23,800 --> 00:24:26,720
So I don't know if this even crosses your mind.

337
00:24:26,720 --> 00:24:27,720
Probably did.

338
00:24:27,720 --> 00:24:32,760
Obviously you talked about it in an documentary, but you have many tourists who are coming

339
00:24:32,760 --> 00:24:37,320
to Tahoe from all over the states.

340
00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:43,440
So these bears could be potentially attacking these tourists who are on the hiking trails

341
00:24:43,440 --> 00:24:45,880
as well, right?

342
00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:47,160
Yeah.

343
00:24:47,160 --> 00:24:53,320
And so black bear attacks on humans are super rare, right?

344
00:24:53,320 --> 00:25:00,160
But it's more of like they're getting so used to people being around.

345
00:25:00,160 --> 00:25:04,520
They're so used to connecting humans with food, right?

346
00:25:04,520 --> 00:25:09,480
So bears start, they start breaking into cars, they start breaking into people's houses.

347
00:25:09,480 --> 00:25:14,640
And a situation where the bear only knows the way that it came in to get out, right?

348
00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:20,800
So if a bear gets in through a window into someone's house and they're in their fridge

349
00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:25,720
and someone comes down and is blocking that window, that bear is now trapped in its exit.

350
00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:29,560
The only way that it knows to get out is blocked.

351
00:25:29,560 --> 00:25:32,200
It freaks out and it doesn't have anything else to do.

352
00:25:32,200 --> 00:25:36,280
So it just does what a bear does.

353
00:25:36,280 --> 00:25:40,240
And unfortunately that's pretty taxing on humans with their claws.

354
00:25:40,240 --> 00:25:47,660
Like we've got soft skin, so a bear can do a lot of damage to someone.

355
00:25:47,660 --> 00:25:54,280
So it's just like this problem of the trash just leads to a whole bunch of different things.

356
00:25:54,280 --> 00:26:01,200
And even out hiking on trails and stuff, like there's some places in Tahoe that get a lot

357
00:26:01,200 --> 00:26:10,040
of kind of tourist attraction, especially in the fall with salmon and the bears eat

358
00:26:10,040 --> 00:26:11,040
the salmon.

359
00:26:11,040 --> 00:26:15,000
So people come to see the salmon and there's bears all over the place.

360
00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:19,880
And people don't realize that it almost feels like a zoo.

361
00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:28,280
There's a boardwalk and it feels so not wild where people are going up and trying to take

362
00:26:28,280 --> 00:26:32,320
selfies with bears.

363
00:26:32,320 --> 00:26:35,840
People don't realize that they're wild animals.

364
00:26:35,840 --> 00:26:41,200
They are so comfortable around people, but that's because they're so used to people being

365
00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:46,120
around, they're so used to being surrounded by people all the time.

366
00:26:46,120 --> 00:26:51,600
So they're comfortable around people, which isn't typical for a black bear.

367
00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:56,120
Black bears are really skittish and really afraid of people like you said in other parts

368
00:26:56,120 --> 00:26:58,960
of the country.

369
00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:04,660
A black bear should run for the hills and climb a tree as soon as it sees a person.

370
00:27:04,660 --> 00:27:09,520
But in Tahoe they're so used to people being around and it's almost like they don't feel

371
00:27:09,520 --> 00:27:13,360
as wild as they are.

372
00:27:13,360 --> 00:27:15,800
And so people don't really respect that.

373
00:27:15,800 --> 00:27:21,240
And they put themselves in bad situations.

374
00:27:21,240 --> 00:27:28,320
And yeah, it all comes down to the end result being the bears get euthanized.

375
00:27:28,320 --> 00:27:30,600
And it's not their fault.

376
00:27:30,600 --> 00:27:32,040
They're just trying to do their own thing.

377
00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:39,260
We're encroaching on their habitat and we need to respect that and give them the respect

378
00:27:39,260 --> 00:27:41,280
and space that they deserve.

379
00:27:41,280 --> 00:27:42,280
They're wild animals.

380
00:27:42,280 --> 00:27:45,680
I mean, we're the higher intelligent beings.

381
00:27:45,680 --> 00:27:50,200
I had no idea that people also came to Tahoe to see the salmon.

382
00:27:50,200 --> 00:27:57,120
I thought that was just his own thing that bears were able to hunt in peace.

383
00:27:57,120 --> 00:27:58,120
But it makes sense.

384
00:27:58,120 --> 00:27:59,320
I mean, people go fishing out there.

385
00:27:59,320 --> 00:28:05,120
So are they just viewing the salmon or are they fishing for the salmon as well?

386
00:28:05,120 --> 00:28:11,400
Yeah, so you're not allowed to fish for the salmon at this time of year during the salmon

387
00:28:11,400 --> 00:28:15,400
run.

388
00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:19,200
But yeah, so there's this place that people go to see the salmon.

389
00:28:19,200 --> 00:28:24,840
You can go to this underwater thing and look at them through glass and see the salmon and

390
00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:25,840
stuff.

391
00:28:25,840 --> 00:28:31,200
And people don't necessarily go there for bears, but sometimes there are bears around.

392
00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:37,880
Yeah, and then people don't really realize the danger involved.

393
00:28:37,880 --> 00:28:42,360
Black bears aren't necessarily, obviously they're dangerous.

394
00:28:42,360 --> 00:28:49,120
They can do a lot of damage, but they're not out to get people.

395
00:28:49,120 --> 00:28:52,300
Black bear attacks on humans are so, so, so rare.

396
00:28:52,300 --> 00:28:58,960
But it's when they get so habituated to humans and food conditioned, when people feed them,

397
00:28:58,960 --> 00:29:04,160
they start pairing humans with food.

398
00:29:04,160 --> 00:29:11,360
And then all of a sudden that breaks that barrier of fear and can lead to potentially

399
00:29:11,360 --> 00:29:14,040
dangerous situations.

400
00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:20,520
So there is places that the bears can go and be away from people and eat salmon.

401
00:29:20,520 --> 00:29:26,480
But the hotspots are where this center is where people go a lot.

402
00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:30,120
So yeah, we just kind of find a balance.

403
00:29:30,120 --> 00:29:31,120
Yeah, man.

404
00:29:31,120 --> 00:29:37,240
I mean, I'm way more terrified if I was to encounter a cougar in the mountains instead

405
00:29:37,240 --> 00:29:38,240
of seeing a black bear.

406
00:29:38,240 --> 00:29:41,520
I'd rather see a black bear 10 times out of 10, man.

407
00:29:41,520 --> 00:29:43,280
Because I do all the sunrise hikes.

408
00:29:43,280 --> 00:29:48,200
So I mean, the likelihood of me seeing a cougar in the morning is very high as well.

409
00:29:48,200 --> 00:29:52,120
I would rather it be a big old bear making monster sounds than a cougar who can sneak

410
00:29:52,120 --> 00:29:53,120
up behind you.

411
00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:54,120
Yeah, for sure.

412
00:29:54,120 --> 00:29:59,600
I feel like with the mountain lion though, if you see it, your chances of having a bad

413
00:29:59,600 --> 00:30:03,120
encounter with it go down drastically.

414
00:30:03,120 --> 00:30:06,640
It's kind of the ones that you don't see.

415
00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:10,360
But yeah, for sure.

416
00:30:10,360 --> 00:30:13,080
I would rather spend time with black bears any day.

417
00:30:13,080 --> 00:30:16,120
But mountain lions are a huge fascination of mine.

418
00:30:16,120 --> 00:30:20,940
And I'm definitely looking to find some at some point.

419
00:30:20,940 --> 00:30:22,920
So the document.

420
00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:28,720
But that'll be something that will involve a little bit more research and time.

421
00:30:28,720 --> 00:30:31,640
Yo, that's going to be epic, man.

422
00:30:31,640 --> 00:30:39,360
So going into this documentary, what are some things that you can share that you've learned

423
00:30:39,360 --> 00:30:46,680
about the wildlife industry in terms of filming them?

424
00:30:46,680 --> 00:30:51,280
What did you learn that you didn't know at the beginning of this?

425
00:30:51,280 --> 00:31:04,400
I would say I thought that the wildlife space, I kind of knew already that in order to make

426
00:31:04,400 --> 00:31:12,400
a full film about an animal, you need to spend an absurd amount of time out filming to piece

427
00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:14,120
together a story.

428
00:31:14,120 --> 00:31:19,040
I have some, all the different scenes throughout the film are all individual bears.

429
00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:25,920
The original, the first scene is like a family of a mom with two cubs.

430
00:31:25,920 --> 00:31:30,000
And it kind of goes through with them for like a minute and a half or so.

431
00:31:30,000 --> 00:31:38,320
And that like, I encountered that family like five to six times in order to get the shots

432
00:31:38,320 --> 00:31:41,120
for that one little scene.

433
00:31:41,120 --> 00:31:45,560
And it's like a lot of the wildlife space.

434
00:31:45,560 --> 00:31:50,960
It's like, it looks like it's one day that all this stuff is happening.

435
00:31:50,960 --> 00:31:55,400
But it's like, you get one shot one day of a bear walking.

436
00:31:55,400 --> 00:31:59,840
And then two weeks later, you find that same bear and you get it doing something else.

437
00:31:59,840 --> 00:32:05,560
And then it takes so many days out there to actually piece together a sequence and a story

438
00:32:05,560 --> 00:32:07,800
with an individual animal.

439
00:32:07,800 --> 00:32:17,840
And I kind of knew that going in, but it really like, that was really something, like definitely

440
00:32:17,840 --> 00:32:27,720
a learning process and took a lot of time to build sequences out for sure.

441
00:32:27,720 --> 00:32:30,440
Did you ever feel like it tested your patience?

442
00:32:30,440 --> 00:32:31,800
Oh yeah.

443
00:32:31,800 --> 00:32:33,360
Oh yeah.

444
00:32:33,360 --> 00:32:40,160
Like especially the salmon scene, because it was like, yeah, like a month of me just

445
00:32:40,160 --> 00:32:43,880
sitting there getting absolutely nothing.

446
00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:50,360
Well, I got the whole bald eagle scene was shot when I was waiting for bears to show

447
00:32:50,360 --> 00:32:52,480
up.

448
00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:58,360
So that scene also took like a few different days of encountering the bald eagles to put

449
00:32:58,360 --> 00:33:01,700
together just that one like hunt.

450
00:33:01,700 --> 00:33:06,640
It was probably like three days worth of footage where I got a take off on one day.

451
00:33:06,640 --> 00:33:11,080
And then I got the hit of it catching the salmon on one day.

452
00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:14,360
And then I got some other B roll of it flying another day.

453
00:33:14,360 --> 00:33:20,320
And then you put all that together into one scene and it all flows together.

454
00:33:20,320 --> 00:33:26,960
But yeah, like towards the end of October, I was getting pretty impatient.

455
00:33:26,960 --> 00:33:28,440
It was getting cold.

456
00:33:28,440 --> 00:33:33,960
The snow had already started coming and I was living in my van.

457
00:33:33,960 --> 00:33:40,040
So van life in the snow isn't necessarily super ideal.

458
00:33:40,040 --> 00:33:43,480
So towards the end of October, I was getting pretty impatient.

459
00:33:43,480 --> 00:33:49,360
But then all that time kind of paid off one day and like the first week of November when

460
00:33:49,360 --> 00:33:51,720
it all kind of came together.

461
00:33:51,720 --> 00:33:58,160
So for those people who may not have that much experience in the documentary industry

462
00:33:58,160 --> 00:34:05,600
of filmmaking, was there, is there any other recommendations in terms of gear that you

463
00:34:05,600 --> 00:34:10,320
recommend them using when they're going out to do something like this?

464
00:34:10,320 --> 00:34:18,040
Yeah, so I feel like the documentary space is such a broad, such a broad industry.

465
00:34:18,040 --> 00:34:22,920
In my case, my like this documentary, there's no people in it.

466
00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:24,680
There's no interviews in it.

467
00:34:24,680 --> 00:34:31,640
Like so it's, it was, I feel like it was a lot more bare bones than what a typical documentary

468
00:34:31,640 --> 00:34:34,480
would look like where you're setting up a bunch of different interviews with people

469
00:34:34,480 --> 00:34:36,000
and everything like that.

470
00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:42,800
I did all the voiceovers in just like in a closet with a microphone.

471
00:34:42,800 --> 00:34:52,720
But like my gear for that film was essentially just, I shoot on the FX3 now, but when I started

472
00:34:52,720 --> 00:34:55,420
the film I was shooting on the A7 IV.

473
00:34:55,420 --> 00:35:00,160
So I was shooting with the A7 IV with the 100 to 400 and that's pretty much like the

474
00:35:00,160 --> 00:35:08,880
entire film is shot with the 100 to 400 on the A7 IV and then a Sassler tripod with the

475
00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:11,320
video head on it.

476
00:35:11,320 --> 00:35:17,320
And then throughout filming, I started picking up a little bit more gear, monitors, cages

477
00:35:17,320 --> 00:35:23,240
and kind of started building out a little setup and then the ending scene was all shot

478
00:35:23,240 --> 00:35:28,320
on the FX3 with the Sony 200 to 600.

479
00:35:28,320 --> 00:35:33,560
That's kind of where I ended up towards the end of the film as far as gear went.

480
00:35:33,560 --> 00:35:37,400
But yeah, most of that was shot on the A7 IV.

481
00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:39,040
It performed great.

482
00:35:39,040 --> 00:35:41,360
I love the way that it turned out.

483
00:35:41,360 --> 00:35:47,640
I shot a lot of it in 4K 60 with a little bit of that crop that the A7 IV puts in.

484
00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:53,480
So that helps with wildlife getting as close as possible to them without kind of affecting

485
00:35:53,480 --> 00:35:56,680
their behavior.

486
00:35:56,680 --> 00:36:00,240
But again, with the Tahoe Bears, you can kind of get pretty close to them and they're kind

487
00:36:00,240 --> 00:36:04,520
of unbothered, which isn't the best.

488
00:36:04,520 --> 00:36:11,560
But yeah, it definitely made it easier to get those nice close up shots.

489
00:36:11,560 --> 00:36:17,440
So for your sounds, were you recording the natural sounds in the real time events or

490
00:36:17,440 --> 00:36:22,720
were those more post production sound design works?

491
00:36:22,720 --> 00:36:29,920
Yeah, so the whole film is all in post as far as sound design goes.

492
00:36:29,920 --> 00:36:36,080
So that was a whole mix of using Epidemic Sound and Artlist and then also recording

493
00:36:36,080 --> 00:36:37,520
my own sounds.

494
00:36:37,520 --> 00:36:43,320
So like filling up a bathtub and recording splashing in the bathtub or some of the chewing

495
00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:49,520
stuff I would give my dog something to chew on and I would get up close to his mouth and

496
00:36:49,520 --> 00:36:58,280
have him chew on something that had some moisture in it to get that salmon chewing sound.

497
00:36:58,280 --> 00:37:01,200
Or just like random stuff.

498
00:37:01,200 --> 00:37:06,440
Sound design is so fun because you can just kind of start thinking of crazy things to

499
00:37:06,440 --> 00:37:09,160
start making sounds.

500
00:37:09,160 --> 00:37:14,840
Finding sounds for animals on those music platforms like Epidemic Sound and Artlist

501
00:37:14,840 --> 00:37:18,040
is pretty hard to find the right sound.

502
00:37:18,040 --> 00:37:24,240
You can get some footsteps and some stuff, but in order to really get the right sound

503
00:37:24,240 --> 00:37:27,380
for a lot of things, you've got to kind of make them yourself.

504
00:37:27,380 --> 00:37:32,180
So then that's where the creativity comes in where you're like flapping books in front

505
00:37:32,180 --> 00:37:37,840
of your microphone to get like a bird flapping sound.

506
00:37:37,840 --> 00:37:42,180
Or yeah, like getting rocks and like covering them in like fabric and then getting like

507
00:37:42,180 --> 00:37:49,400
a gravel like kind of area and like making your own footsteps with like it's really fun.

508
00:37:49,400 --> 00:37:53,680
Like that was honestly like one of the like it was such a cool experience to like make

509
00:37:53,680 --> 00:37:56,520
a bunch of cool sounds for it.

510
00:37:56,520 --> 00:37:57,520
So yeah.

511
00:37:57,520 --> 00:38:02,440
Well that just goes to show how important sound is to the overall video.

512
00:38:02,440 --> 00:38:06,880
I mean that goes into pushing the story forward.

513
00:38:06,880 --> 00:38:11,880
Was sound design something that you were familiar with before the documentary?

514
00:38:11,880 --> 00:38:14,740
A little bit.

515
00:38:14,740 --> 00:38:21,580
Like I would just it was more like I would put like ambient sounds in my videos.

516
00:38:21,580 --> 00:38:27,420
Like the sound of a waterfall or the sound of the ocean waves and stuff like that.

517
00:38:27,420 --> 00:38:34,320
Like I had never really dove into like specific like like really in depth sounds.

518
00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:41,560
But yeah, like this whole film was such a cool learning experience and it was just so

519
00:38:41,560 --> 00:38:43,720
new new to me.

520
00:38:43,720 --> 00:38:50,280
And yeah, it was a really fun process and I learned a lot in a bunch of different ways.

521
00:38:50,280 --> 00:38:52,520
Making those sounds by yourself.

522
00:38:52,520 --> 00:38:55,760
I mean what was your thought process?

523
00:38:55,760 --> 00:38:57,840
You scroll on Epidemic Sound and Artlist.

524
00:38:57,840 --> 00:39:02,800
I've been through those and I know how they look and it is hard to find sounds.

525
00:39:02,800 --> 00:39:07,240
In your thought process, were you were you just thinking well I have to create my own

526
00:39:07,240 --> 00:39:12,800
sounds or were you just kind of stumped and like what do I do?

527
00:39:12,800 --> 00:39:19,160
Yeah so like I would scroll Epidemic Sound and Artlist constantly trying to find sounds

528
00:39:19,160 --> 00:39:24,600
but a lot of the animal stuff that just wasn't right or you just can't find any sounds for

529
00:39:24,600 --> 00:39:32,280
bears or sounds for different like weird behaviors that you can't really pinpoint what the sound

530
00:39:32,280 --> 00:39:34,520
would be.

531
00:39:34,520 --> 00:39:42,380
So that's when I kind of started researching like what do people do for like the planet

532
00:39:42,380 --> 00:39:47,820
earth documentaries and all that stuff and you can find on YouTube and stuff like the

533
00:39:47,820 --> 00:39:54,080
Foley artists that make those sounds for those films and it was like I went down this whole

534
00:39:54,080 --> 00:39:58,680
rabbit hole of watching all these like behind the scenes videos of people making sounds

535
00:39:58,680 --> 00:40:06,000
for wildlife documentaries and that kind of inspired a lot of what I did for the sounds.

536
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:11,520
But then even on Epidemic Sound and Artlist you can like find different sounds like there's

537
00:40:11,520 --> 00:40:18,560
a sound where the bear rips off like a bunch of skin off of a salmon and I used like a

538
00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:25,760
paper tearing sound off of Epidemic Sound and I just like added some effects to it to

539
00:40:25,760 --> 00:40:28,800
make it sound a little bit more like salmon flesh.

540
00:40:28,800 --> 00:40:33,440
But then yeah but you can start you can use sounds that like wouldn't necessarily be for

541
00:40:33,440 --> 00:40:38,760
that specific thing but you can kind of tweak them and like add slow motion and different

542
00:40:38,760 --> 00:40:41,680
effects to them to make them sound right.

543
00:40:41,680 --> 00:40:44,040
So it was super fun.

544
00:40:44,040 --> 00:40:45,440
That is epic Ray.

545
00:40:45,440 --> 00:40:54,720
To go into a little more detail just how did you get better at telling stories?

546
00:40:54,720 --> 00:41:00,640
I feel like a lot of new videographers and filmmakers they get to a point where they

547
00:41:00,640 --> 00:41:07,920
understand how to take pretty videos but then that's as far as it goes.

548
00:41:07,920 --> 00:41:13,760
Where did you go to start learning how to improve the actual overall story beginning

549
00:41:13,760 --> 00:41:17,120
middle and end videos?

550
00:41:17,120 --> 00:41:26,440
Yeah I think it all comes with time like putting as much time and actually doing it as much

551
00:41:26,440 --> 00:41:32,220
as possible you'll start to kind of get the feelers for everything.

552
00:41:32,220 --> 00:41:38,180
But then as far as for wildlife goes in the conservation wildlife conservation film space

553
00:41:38,180 --> 00:41:40,880
like I knew what the problem was.

554
00:41:40,880 --> 00:41:49,280
The problem was the bears are food conditioned to human food and like they're getting into

555
00:41:49,280 --> 00:41:50,280
trash cans.

556
00:41:50,280 --> 00:41:51,460
That was the problem.

557
00:41:51,460 --> 00:41:56,320
And then I then I had to look for what's causing the problem.

558
00:41:56,320 --> 00:41:58,720
So then I figured out what was causing the problem.

559
00:41:58,720 --> 00:42:04,400
And then you got to figure out like what the potential solution would be.

560
00:42:04,400 --> 00:42:08,560
And then from there you kind of try to piece together the story.

561
00:42:08,560 --> 00:42:14,640
But with wildlife it's hard because you can't tell a bear to go sit over there and say a

562
00:42:14,640 --> 00:42:17,600
line you know.

563
00:42:17,600 --> 00:42:21,980
So it all kind of changes throughout the filming process.

564
00:42:21,980 --> 00:42:27,120
But I kind of knew what what story I wanted to tell and then as I spent time out there

565
00:42:27,120 --> 00:42:33,200
documenting things and getting different footage I was like okay this footage will be great

566
00:42:33,200 --> 00:42:41,200
to help tell this story and this footage will be great to add this to the story.

567
00:42:41,200 --> 00:42:46,200
So I think like going into something with a story in mind but then like allowing the

568
00:42:46,200 --> 00:42:53,480
flexibility to make changes and tweaks along the way is super important.

569
00:42:53,480 --> 00:43:00,360
And yeah I think it just like defining what the problem is and why it's happening and

570
00:43:00,360 --> 00:43:05,800
what the potential solution would be is super important just as the bare essentials of a

571
00:43:05,800 --> 00:43:07,520
story.

572
00:43:07,520 --> 00:43:12,840
And then like having the skills and knowledge of the camera and being able to take beautiful

573
00:43:12,840 --> 00:43:18,100
beautiful images that'll just help aid the storytelling process.

574
00:43:18,100 --> 00:43:23,440
But if you don't have a good story all those those skills with the with the camera and

575
00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:28,840
taking beautiful beautiful videos won't won't do it justice.

576
00:43:28,840 --> 00:43:33,280
So you gotta have a good story and yeah.

577
00:43:33,280 --> 00:43:37,080
It just goes back to story as king.

578
00:43:37,080 --> 00:43:43,960
I feel like most filmmakers, photographers, I mean you said you were getting burned out.

579
00:43:43,960 --> 00:43:46,640
I've heard this story before from other filmmakers.

580
00:43:46,640 --> 00:43:50,880
They get burned out because they're just taking pretty videos and they feel like they're not

581
00:43:50,880 --> 00:43:53,480
doing anything with their skills they have.

582
00:43:53,480 --> 00:43:59,400
So you get to a point that you have those skills you built them up but now you want

583
00:43:59,400 --> 00:44:01,720
something more out of what you're doing.

584
00:44:01,720 --> 00:44:06,920
And that's great that you were able to make this more known about theirs.

585
00:44:06,920 --> 00:44:09,640
I'm sure working with humans is probably a lot easier.

586
00:44:09,640 --> 00:44:13,920
I remember you doing a little documentary or film you were following these guys doing

587
00:44:13,920 --> 00:44:18,400
gainers off in Oregon in the NorCal area.

588
00:44:18,400 --> 00:44:19,400
What was that all about?

589
00:44:19,400 --> 00:44:23,000
I wasn't sure you didn't really post about it too much.

590
00:44:23,000 --> 00:44:26,320
What was that for?

591
00:44:26,320 --> 00:44:29,240
That was just for fun.

592
00:44:29,240 --> 00:44:36,760
So like growing up growing up growing up near near Tahoe and kind of in the Northern California

593
00:44:36,760 --> 00:44:41,200
area I got into cliff jumping pretty pretty young.

594
00:44:41,200 --> 00:44:47,760
And then when I moved to Tahoe there's a huge community of like super rad cliff jumpers

595
00:44:47,760 --> 00:44:51,720
there that are doing insane stuff.

596
00:44:51,720 --> 00:44:59,320
So I kind of got in with that community and I've filmed a lot of cliff jumping throughout

597
00:44:59,320 --> 00:45:02,600
the earlier years.

598
00:45:02,600 --> 00:45:08,920
I was doing some different films for some contests and just for fun in my free time

599
00:45:08,920 --> 00:45:14,600
going out with friends and whatever but yeah this whole crew of these young super talented

600
00:45:14,600 --> 00:45:19,600
cliff jumpers were going to do this trip up through Oregon to hit all the most insane

601
00:45:19,600 --> 00:45:23,200
waterfalls and the biggest waterfalls in Oregon.

602
00:45:23,200 --> 00:45:28,840
And I was like I have some free time I'm going to come with you guys and document it all.

603
00:45:28,840 --> 00:45:35,240
So yeah we did this whole road trip throughout Oregon and hit all the waterfalls that you

604
00:45:35,240 --> 00:45:39,400
see on Instagram but like you just see photos of the waterfalls.

605
00:45:39,400 --> 00:45:44,960
Like they were doing like triple flips and like crazy stuff off of them.

606
00:45:44,960 --> 00:45:50,960
So that was super super fun like documenting stuff like that is just so mind blowing.

607
00:45:50,960 --> 00:45:56,600
The way that they use their skills as athletes and like the beauty of mother nature together

608
00:45:56,600 --> 00:45:58,820
is like super cool.

609
00:45:58,820 --> 00:46:04,160
So that was a super fun a super fun project but that was just that was just for fun and

610
00:46:04,160 --> 00:46:08,280
I had some free time so made that trip happen.

611
00:46:08,280 --> 00:46:13,480
So at that point when I saw those videos I was only purely a photographer at that time

612
00:46:13,480 --> 00:46:20,600
and honestly those videos inspired me to shift over to the video side more because I started

613
00:46:20,600 --> 00:46:23,080
with video back when I was in high school.

614
00:46:23,080 --> 00:46:28,240
So seeing your videos realizing like you can tell these epic stories even better than through

615
00:46:28,240 --> 00:46:31,680
photos that you can like do a live action video like that.

616
00:46:31,680 --> 00:46:34,760
And I was like dude those are epic.

617
00:46:34,760 --> 00:46:40,600
What kind of cameras man were you using for capture those ones jumping off the cliffs?

618
00:46:40,600 --> 00:46:47,120
Alright yeah yeah so with yeah with video you can like it's just so much easier and

619
00:46:47,120 --> 00:46:53,240
more engaging to tell to tell stories with I feel like at least from my perspective.

620
00:46:53,240 --> 00:46:59,360
And like half the adventure is what it took to get there and what it takes to make the

621
00:46:59,360 --> 00:47:03,440
stuff happen like in the situation with the cliff jumping.

622
00:47:03,440 --> 00:47:07,600
Like it's not as easy as just going up there and jumping off a cliff.

623
00:47:07,600 --> 00:47:10,560
Like these guys are professionals they have it so dialed in.

624
00:47:10,560 --> 00:47:17,360
They depth check the water they like do all that they put all these measures in to make

625
00:47:17,360 --> 00:47:22,840
it as safe as possible and like that's that's the story.

626
00:47:22,840 --> 00:47:30,000
It's like people have seen people jumping off the cliffs before but like to tell the

627
00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:35,200
story of like how they're actually doing it what like they're doing it in a really like

628
00:47:35,200 --> 00:47:38,760
safe way and professional way.

629
00:47:38,760 --> 00:47:41,880
I think video is such a such a key tool for that.

630
00:47:41,880 --> 00:47:45,240
And I was using pretty much the same camera equipment.

631
00:47:45,240 --> 00:47:56,960
I was using the a7 for 100 to 400 Tamron 2875 1728 the Sony a7 III I probably use that a

632
00:47:56,960 --> 00:48:01,240
little bit as well to get a second angle and then go pros.

633
00:48:01,240 --> 00:48:05,640
I use go pros all the time for a lot of stuff.

634
00:48:05,640 --> 00:48:11,720
The GoPro Max 360 camera is super crucial for it's such a cool tool for cliff jumping

635
00:48:11,720 --> 00:48:16,520
because you can throw it off a cliff with them and have it falling next to them the

636
00:48:16,520 --> 00:48:20,600
entire time and then in post you can reframe it to keep them right in the center of the

637
00:48:20,600 --> 00:48:21,840
frame.

638
00:48:21,840 --> 00:48:25,800
So it's like I got some sweet stuff with that.

639
00:48:25,800 --> 00:48:33,240
So yeah go pros are super key and then I've been a Sony guy my whole journey so all the

640
00:48:33,240 --> 00:48:37,040
Sony cameras and DJI drones as well.

641
00:48:37,040 --> 00:48:43,000
I think all the drone stuff in that video was the Air 2 and then now I'm on the Mavic

642
00:48:43,000 --> 00:48:44,000
3.

643
00:48:44,000 --> 00:48:49,720
I'm not sure if I remember videos seeing you jump off with them but did you jump up any

644
00:48:49,720 --> 00:48:52,520
of those waterfalls with them?

645
00:48:52,520 --> 00:48:59,080
I dabble in cliff jumping for that trip I didn't do a whole lot of jumping I was mostly

646
00:48:59,080 --> 00:49:04,080
behind the camera but I can do I can do some stuff off of the clips.

647
00:49:04,080 --> 00:49:11,960
I kind of my biggest jump is 68 feet and that's kind of the cap of what I'm probably going

648
00:49:11,960 --> 00:49:14,400
to do.

649
00:49:14,400 --> 00:49:22,000
I can do a couple tricks but nothing compared to what these young kids are doing and yeah

650
00:49:22,000 --> 00:49:29,680
I choose to kind of let them take the spotlight there and I'm happy documenting them.

651
00:49:29,680 --> 00:49:38,280
Okay dude my biggest jump was 50 feet and I was absolutely terrified.

652
00:49:38,280 --> 00:49:44,020
We had this swimming hole up in our hills and mountains and you have to use a rope to

653
00:49:44,020 --> 00:49:50,520
climb up to get to the top of this waterfall and the way the slope is it's not like just

654
00:49:50,520 --> 00:49:56,160
a cliff it goes like this so you have to get a running start and get over the hump to get

655
00:49:56,160 --> 00:50:01,440
into the water and you have to hit the pool perfectly bro.

656
00:50:01,440 --> 00:50:06,880
Kid you not I'm 18 years old never jumped in my life and all my buddies want to go do

657
00:50:06,880 --> 00:50:10,600
it because that's the cool swimming hole you jump off into.

658
00:50:10,600 --> 00:50:16,280
So I couldn't imagine jumping off the heights that they were jumping off do you know what

659
00:50:16,280 --> 00:50:19,440
was the tallest height they jumped from?

660
00:50:19,440 --> 00:50:32,920
Yeah 105 feet was the max on that trip so that was a waterfall in Oregon.

661
00:50:32,920 --> 00:50:39,300
The waterfall itself was like 99 or 100 feet but then the ledge that they were jumping

662
00:50:39,300 --> 00:50:44,720
off was five feet higher than that so yeah that was gnarly.

663
00:50:44,720 --> 00:50:52,960
It's like three plus seconds in the air and like some of these kids were 15 years old

664
00:50:52,960 --> 00:51:02,520
dude doing like triple flips off of 100 plus feet like it's mind-blowing the talent that

665
00:51:02,520 --> 00:51:04,520
these kids have yeah.

666
00:51:04,520 --> 00:51:10,920
Dude you've had your fair share of experiences I mean bears, cliff jumping, now you're doing

667
00:51:10,920 --> 00:51:17,560
this YouTube series on wildlife animals and I wanted to touch on that just a little bit.

668
00:51:17,560 --> 00:51:23,080
I felt like I turned on your one about the links while I was eating in and out with my

669
00:51:23,080 --> 00:51:27,280
girlfriend after one of our trips because I wanted to show her like what you do and

670
00:51:27,280 --> 00:51:30,640
I felt like I was watching Animal Planet bro that's what I felt like I was doing like the

671
00:51:30,640 --> 00:51:34,280
huh and like the what it's going to go get the the prey.

672
00:51:34,280 --> 00:51:40,400
Yeah I bet there's a lot of people who don't know that you put a lot of work into that

673
00:51:40,400 --> 00:51:47,480
film in what are the motivations behind documenting all these other animals.

674
00:51:47,480 --> 00:51:54,920
Yeah so like I said before I'm very much at the beginning of my kind of journey into the

675
00:51:54,920 --> 00:51:58,620
wildlife conservation space.

676
00:51:58,620 --> 00:52:03,720
The backyard bears was a huge kind of jump into the industry like I was like I need to

677
00:52:03,720 --> 00:52:08,760
I need something to show for myself and it was an important story that I really wanted

678
00:52:08,760 --> 00:52:17,000
to tell so that was kind of my leap into the industry and then this YouTube series like

679
00:52:17,000 --> 00:52:24,140
this is kind of like this YouTube series is all about wildlife and conservation it's about

680
00:52:24,140 --> 00:52:29,720
each episode about a new species and it kind of takes you through like it's like a narrated

681
00:52:29,720 --> 00:52:31,980
wildlife documentary for part of it.

682
00:52:31,980 --> 00:52:36,160
It's a little bit of behind the scenes and what goes into finding the animals and filming

683
00:52:36,160 --> 00:52:43,360
them and then it kind of ties in some conservation stuff at the end and the goal with it is like

684
00:52:43,360 --> 00:52:49,360
similar to the bear film just to spread awareness about different conservation issues and try

685
00:52:49,360 --> 00:52:58,680
to spread my love for these animals and in the natural world and then and yeah so that's

686
00:52:58,680 --> 00:53:03,160
kind of like the motivation behind it and it's been super fun trying to put one out

687
00:53:03,160 --> 00:53:09,360
every two weeks or so but I'm kind of realizing that that's like kind of a tight deadline

688
00:53:09,360 --> 00:53:16,400
for wildlife stuff especially because you can't really control what's happening like

689
00:53:16,400 --> 00:53:21,720
right now I'm out in Hawaii trying to do a lot of ocean stuff and I'm getting into a

690
00:53:21,720 --> 00:53:31,560
lot of underwater animals and like it's so up to the elements really.

691
00:53:31,560 --> 00:53:36,240
It's like for the past few days the water conditions have been super murky and you can't

692
00:53:36,240 --> 00:53:38,140
really go out and film.

693
00:53:38,140 --> 00:53:43,640
You can go out but it feels super sketchy when you're out there and you can't see anything

694
00:53:43,640 --> 00:53:48,060
and then you can't film anything because the water's murky and everything so it really

695
00:53:48,060 --> 00:53:55,840
all depends on the conditions and when the animals want to be filmed right.

696
00:53:55,840 --> 00:54:00,480
It's like any of these animals if they don't want to be filmed or if they don't want to

697
00:54:00,480 --> 00:54:06,800
be around people they're gone and out so you got to have the right intentions.

698
00:54:06,800 --> 00:54:12,440
I think the energy that you put out when you're out there trying to spend time with wildlife

699
00:54:12,440 --> 00:54:17,720
is super important and they'll kind of reflect that.

700
00:54:17,720 --> 00:54:27,560
So yeah the bobcat stuff there are subspecies of lynx and yeah that episode was super fun.

701
00:54:27,560 --> 00:54:33,600
I spent a lot of time early winter this year before I came out here documenting the bobcats

702
00:54:33,600 --> 00:54:39,120
and yeah they're fascinating animals.

703
00:54:39,120 --> 00:54:43,480
They probably look a little bit bigger in the film than they really are.

704
00:54:43,480 --> 00:54:52,060
They're only about like 30-40 pounds max but they're super talented hunters just nabbing

705
00:54:52,060 --> 00:55:00,280
gophers left and right and yeah that was a super fun film to make about the bobcats and

706
00:55:00,280 --> 00:55:02,160
their hunting behavior.

707
00:55:02,160 --> 00:55:05,880
So you mentioned that the waters get murky.

708
00:55:05,880 --> 00:55:10,560
In my mind I feel like Hawaii waters are probably always clear.

709
00:55:10,560 --> 00:55:17,420
Is this murky waters situation something that's very common or is it something that happens

710
00:55:17,420 --> 00:55:20,480
during the winter time that is right now?

711
00:55:20,480 --> 00:55:22,480
It all really just depends on conditions.

712
00:55:22,480 --> 00:55:28,480
It's like if it rains a lot which it rains a lot this time of year the mud runoff into

713
00:55:28,480 --> 00:55:29,480
the water.

714
00:55:29,480 --> 00:55:32,280
It turns the water to chocolate milk.

715
00:55:32,280 --> 00:55:37,600
If it's really windy and swells are picking up the sand will get kicked up and it'll be

716
00:55:37,600 --> 00:55:40,440
a little bit more murky.

717
00:55:40,440 --> 00:55:46,660
So it's just so variable and the weather patterns right now are a lot more kind of all over

718
00:55:46,660 --> 00:55:50,400
the place in the winter time here.

719
00:55:50,400 --> 00:55:53,080
So yeah it's like it rained two days ago.

720
00:55:53,080 --> 00:55:57,120
Today like it rained pretty hard two days ago and today the water is still a little

721
00:55:57,120 --> 00:55:59,020
bit murky.

722
00:55:59,020 --> 00:56:03,160
So I haven't been able to go out and film the last couple days but I'm hoping tomorrow

723
00:56:03,160 --> 00:56:12,200
will be good and I'll be back out there looking for sharks and turtles and cool stuff.

724
00:56:12,200 --> 00:56:14,360
That's truly epic man.

725
00:56:14,360 --> 00:56:20,040
Is there been any other similarities you've noticed documenting these last three animals

726
00:56:20,040 --> 00:56:22,920
or have they all been pretty different for the most part?

727
00:56:22,920 --> 00:56:29,040
I mean all the animals like the three animals that I've highlighted in this series so far

728
00:56:29,040 --> 00:56:31,320
they're so different.

729
00:56:31,320 --> 00:56:33,400
The first one is a land predator.

730
00:56:33,400 --> 00:56:37,560
The second one was sea turtles and then the humpback whales.

731
00:56:37,560 --> 00:56:44,760
They're all so different but it just goes back to the similarities being they're wild

732
00:56:44,760 --> 00:56:47,440
animals they're unpredictable.

733
00:56:47,440 --> 00:56:57,320
You don't know like it's all up to them and so the similarities are in that case where

734
00:56:57,320 --> 00:57:03,840
it's kind of up to the animals what story they'll allow you to tell and you can go in

735
00:57:03,840 --> 00:57:10,680
to these films like with a story in mind but it's really all up to the animals.

736
00:57:10,680 --> 00:57:17,720
Like the whale video I didn't know what story I was going to tell about the whales.

737
00:57:17,720 --> 00:57:23,920
I knew what kind of like conservation issues that they faced on the daily basis but I didn't

738
00:57:23,920 --> 00:57:31,440
know like really much about them but spending the last few months out here surrounding myself

739
00:57:31,440 --> 00:57:37,200
with people that were knowledgeable on whales and everything like that I kind of just started

740
00:57:37,200 --> 00:57:45,040
documenting any whale that I ever saw like I was just trying to film as much whale footage

741
00:57:45,040 --> 00:57:51,540
as possible and throughout like a couple months of filming that I started to get like some

742
00:57:51,540 --> 00:57:55,560
repeat behaviors with whales and then like I could take those footage throughout the

743
00:57:55,560 --> 00:58:01,980
different days and kind of combine them together to make the tell the story that was there

744
00:58:01,980 --> 00:58:04,420
for me to tell.

745
00:58:04,420 --> 00:58:10,520
So yeah the similarities are that they're unpredictable and you got to leave it up to

746
00:58:10,520 --> 00:58:15,200
the wildlife and kind of see what their plan is.

747
00:58:15,200 --> 00:58:18,140
That's awesome Rayleigh.

748
00:58:18,140 --> 00:58:21,500
Is there any films that you're working on right now that you're able to share with us

749
00:58:21,500 --> 00:58:28,420
that you are hoping to share with us in the upcoming future?

750
00:58:28,420 --> 00:58:36,400
So the YouTube series I'm working on more episodes for that.

751
00:58:36,400 --> 00:58:46,440
I've got a project that I'm having some meetings about and that's kind of in like the pre-production

752
00:58:46,440 --> 00:58:55,760
phases that I can't really dive super deep into but then back in Tahoe I'm hoping to

753
00:58:55,760 --> 00:59:03,600
make some follow-up stuff with the bears this summer and then just some normal client work

754
00:59:03,600 --> 00:59:10,240
to keep the bills paid until I can kind of start kind of going deeper into the wildlife

755
00:59:10,240 --> 00:59:11,240
space.

756
00:59:11,240 --> 00:59:13,360
Awesome Rayleigh.

757
00:59:13,360 --> 00:59:20,720
So one question I had in mind I try to get people to think about something long and hard

758
00:59:20,720 --> 00:59:28,200
so for you if you weren't doing filmmaking and photography, couldn't do it, what would

759
00:59:28,200 --> 00:59:35,000
you be doing?

760
00:59:35,000 --> 00:59:43,840
I would probably I would like to say I would be an athlete of some sorts in like I grew

761
00:59:43,840 --> 00:59:49,340
up playing baseball and soccer and like throughout my younger years baseball and soccer were

762
00:59:49,340 --> 00:59:57,080
like a huge a huge kind of thing in my life and me and my brother were super into baseball

763
00:59:57,080 --> 01:00:03,960
and soccer and I was kind of like our family was super sports oriented and my brother he's

764
01:00:03,960 --> 01:00:09,320
the shortstop for University of Arizona right now so he's kind of taking that to the next

765
01:00:09,320 --> 01:00:17,200
level and he's pursuing pursuing his dreams in the baseball space and I feel like if I

766
01:00:17,200 --> 01:00:23,880
didn't kind of find a camera I would I would have probably worked a little bit harder in

767
01:00:23,880 --> 01:00:33,120
in the the the sports space and maybe maybe still be playing sports but yeah I don't know

768
01:00:33,120 --> 01:00:39,880
I feel like I just this is what I want to do this is what I've been doing for as long

769
01:00:39,880 --> 01:00:45,600
as I can remember so yeah I don't really know what what I would be doing.

770
01:00:45,600 --> 01:00:49,800
I feel like it'd be something creative though I always kind of had the creative side to

771
01:00:49,800 --> 01:00:57,720
me whether it was music or some sort of art drawing and and whatever so I feel like it'd

772
01:00:57,720 --> 01:01:04,600
be either something with sports or or something in that in the creative space but yeah.

773
01:01:04,600 --> 01:01:08,720
Well we got that at Comic-Me and I played soccer throughout high school too and I remember

774
01:01:08,720 --> 01:01:13,760
playing against the guys up north I did club soccer the whole thing so that would have

775
01:01:13,760 --> 01:01:20,080
been cool to imagine Riley playing sports but man the Bears wouldn't begin as much attention

776
01:01:20,080 --> 01:01:24,760
without you finding the camera so that's awesome man.

777
01:01:24,760 --> 01:01:30,680
Is there anything else that you would like to add for the listeners here today just something

778
01:01:30,680 --> 01:01:34,640
inspirational tips for them starting out?

779
01:01:34,640 --> 01:01:40,840
Yeah I would say like when I was when I was starting out I think the most important thing

780
01:01:40,840 --> 01:01:46,200
was just getting out there and doing it as much as possible.

781
01:01:46,200 --> 01:01:51,240
It doesn't have to be a big project it doesn't have to be something that's that's paying

782
01:01:51,240 --> 01:01:55,520
the bills it doesn't have to be something that's going to change the world but just

783
01:01:55,520 --> 01:02:02,880
getting out there and using your camera and getting everything super dialed in where the

784
01:02:02,880 --> 01:02:08,720
camera is just an extension of your hands and once you find the stories that are important

785
01:02:08,720 --> 01:02:13,760
that you want to tell you don't have to worry about any of that and you can just focus on

786
01:02:13,760 --> 01:02:20,480
the story and all that camera and all that that time and energy that you put into learning

787
01:02:20,480 --> 01:02:28,200
your camera skills in the past will just make the storytelling process that much easier

788
01:02:28,200 --> 01:02:33,960
and produce a much better product so I would say yeah just get out and do it doesn't really

789
01:02:33,960 --> 01:02:38,800
matter what it is just go out and make it happen.

790
01:02:38,800 --> 01:02:47,280
Will said I know I told my girlfriend when I'm doing photography video I don't love photography

791
01:02:47,280 --> 01:02:54,680
and video because of the technical stuff I love photography and filmmaking because of

792
01:02:54,680 --> 01:02:58,800
the doors that can open for me and the things I can do with it.

793
01:02:58,800 --> 01:03:03,680
Not just taking the pretty photos and the pretty videos you're being in like being intentional

794
01:03:03,680 --> 01:03:09,480
with the things I do with it whether it's connecting with people like you I mean I wouldn't

795
01:03:09,480 --> 01:03:13,600
have connected with you unless I've gotten to this industry and for you the bears wouldn't

796
01:03:13,600 --> 01:03:18,720
have gotten enough attention if you didn't get into learning the camera and this goes

797
01:03:18,720 --> 01:03:23,360
all back to telling the story so well said Riley.

798
01:03:23,360 --> 01:03:28,320
Where can the listeners find you at man social media website things like that where can they

799
01:03:28,320 --> 01:03:29,320
watch you?

800
01:03:29,320 --> 01:03:35,160
Yeah so Instagram I'm probably the most active on Instagram it's just roaming with Riley

801
01:03:35,160 --> 01:03:41,880
with an underscore at the end and then YouTube is just my name Riley McCleary I'm starting

802
01:03:41,880 --> 01:03:47,840
to get a lot more active on there and trying to build that up and then my website is Riley

803
01:03:47,840 --> 01:03:55,360
McCleary media I can just send you links and stuff that you can put somewhere but yeah

804
01:03:55,360 --> 01:03:59,400
that's where you can find me that's where you'll see all the all the upcoming stuff in behind

805
01:03:59,400 --> 01:04:01,320
the seats of what I'm doing.

806
01:04:01,320 --> 01:04:06,040
Awesome we will link you down below if anybody didn't catch that he's roaming with Riley

807
01:04:06,040 --> 01:04:11,760
on Instagram he's Riley McCleary on YouTube but his series on YouTube is roaming with

808
01:04:11,760 --> 01:04:15,840
Riley so I'm sure if you search that up yeah that those three videos would pop up.

809
01:04:15,840 --> 01:04:16,840
That's it.

810
01:04:16,840 --> 01:04:21,720
Hope you guys stay tuned with his adventures because I'm telling you guys are missing out

811
01:04:21,720 --> 01:04:25,880
you guys don't want to miss the next episode and you guys should catch up on the last three

812
01:04:25,880 --> 01:04:30,720
and if you want to follow more about this podcast it's the Nick Amp podcast at Instagram

813
01:04:30,720 --> 01:04:31,720
TikTok and YouTube.

814
01:04:31,720 --> 01:04:37,240
You want to follow me about more mountains adventures I'm at the Nick Amp and a quick

815
01:04:37,240 --> 01:04:42,360
way you guys can help the podcast out is just sharing it with a friend leaving a five-star

816
01:04:42,360 --> 01:04:47,480
review we appreciate you for tuning in and listening we hope that you get the most out

817
01:04:47,480 --> 01:04:51,360
of this podcast learning from other people's perspectives.

818
01:04:51,360 --> 01:04:54,760
Riley thanks for coming on man it was a pleasure.

819
01:04:54,760 --> 01:05:21,760
Yeah thanks for having me this was fun.