Sign In
SHARE
Email Confirmation
Swimming With Sharks
by David Koeppel
Jul 9 2007
Jul 9 2007
Think your job has a few occupational hazards? You've probably got it easy compared with shark videographer Mark Rackley.
Want to add some sparkle to your phone conversation? Call bling applier Angela Oh. Read More
Can't play ball? You can still work in pro sports as a team mascot like Chris Bergstrom. Read More
Looking to branch out into real estate? Consult with tree house designer Pete Nelson. Read More
Hype Report: executives
| leaders for Today | ||
| Rank | executives | +/- |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steven P. Jobs | 0 |
| 2 | William H. Gates, III | 0 |
| 3 | Martha Stewart | 1 |
| 4 | Michael H. Jordan | 1 |
| 5 | Steven A. Ballmer | -2 |
Chumming involves throwing cut or ground bait into the water to attract fish and sharks.
B-roll refers to footage that filmmakers use to intercut with a program’s primary footage.
Job title: Shark Videographer
Companies that hire them: Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic Channel
How to find out about openings: The, um, job pool is small, and assignments are not publicly posted. To break in, expect to work as a videographer’s assistant first.
How much you might earn: Most videographers charge a day rate. Rackley’s fee is $1,500 per day.
Useful skills: Diving, swimming, and the ability to hold an underwater camera steady despite being attacked by a great white shark.
Number of jobs in the U.S.: Exact numbers aren’t available. According to Rackley, there are only a handful of shooters who specialize in underwater video.
Mark Rackley, 40, likes to keep dangerous company. As a shark videographer, his typical workday may involve riding a hammerhead and hand-feeding tiger sharks to lure them closer to his camera.
Rackley is the co-owner of Ultimate Predator Productions, which he runs with longtime partner Manny Puig. Together, they’ve shot footage for cable documentaries and programs on Animal Planet and MTV, as well as an episode this August for the Discovery Channel’s wildly popular Shark Week.
For an episode titled, “Feeding Time,” Rackley spent a month filming different species of shark to see what they would eat. “We found out they eat practically anything,” says Rackley. “We gave one a 50-pound turkey, and he just gobbled it right up.”
Athleticism and a willingness to put himself in harm’s way, says Rackley, are his biggest advantages in the small but competitive world of shark videography. Unlike most of his peers, he avoids the confines of shark cages and scuba gear and has the ability to “hold frame and breath longer than other divers to get an entire taped sequence.” Because he’s not saddled with equipment or constrained by safety devices, he’s able to be more mobile than other shooters.
He may be feeding fish now, but Rackley started his career as an 18-year-old spear fisherman in the Florida Keys, where he grew up. Intrigued by the hammerheads and other local varieties of shark that he would encounter, he began filming them with a jury-rigged underwater film camera. Soon Rackley was filming and documenting everything he observed and did, even shooting footage while riding hammerheads. He’d steady the camera with one hand while holding on to the shark’s dorsal fin with the other.
In 2000, he and Puig met an Animal Planet producer at a diving convention, showed her their footage, and made a deal for a 13-episode reality show called Extreme Contact, which chronicled their close encounters with different shark species. Though Rackley now consults with marine biologists to zero in on shark-infested waters and help predict the behavior of certain shark species, he relies primarily on his own gut instincts to find his subjects and keep himself safe.
Of course, close calls are an occupational hazard, says Rackley. For instance, there was the time in an Everglades swamp when a 12-foot alligator slammed into his camera and nearly bit his head.
But what about the fear factor? Rackley admits that were he to obsess about death, he would never be able to get in the water again. “Steve Irwin’s death gives you a little taste of reality,” he says. “The things we do are very dangerous. People tell us, ‘You guys are crazy’ and ‘It’s going to end in tragedy,’ but we always keep coming out alive. In my heart, I don’t feel I’m ever going to die.”
Typical day on the recent Shark Week shoot in the Bahamas:
5 to 7:30 a.m. Set out on a 100-mile boat ride from Stuart Cove’s resort to find and shoot tiger and lemon sharks.
7:30 to 9 a.m. Begin
chumming for sharks. The crew uses a barrel that discharges trickles of fish blood to attract the animals.
9 a.m. to mid-afternoon About 50 lemon sharks show up. Dive into the water to get footage as the sharks are given massive amounts of ham, turkey, and other foods to consume. Hold the mayo.
Afternoon ShootB-roll of lemon sharks.
6 to 7 p.m. Tiger sharks arrive and are fed a variety of foods and other objects, including a 12-foot rubber turtle hanging from a fishing line. Spend the hour trying to capture the money shot: a few frenzied seconds of sharks gnarling, smashing, and shaking the faux tortoise, then swimming off.
7 p.m. Head for dry land.
Companies that hire them: Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic Channel
How to find out about openings: The, um, job pool is small, and assignments are not publicly posted. To break in, expect to work as a videographer’s assistant first.
How much you might earn: Most videographers charge a day rate. Rackley’s fee is $1,500 per day.
Useful skills: Diving, swimming, and the ability to hold an underwater camera steady despite being attacked by a great white shark.
Number of jobs in the U.S.: Exact numbers aren’t available. According to Rackley, there are only a handful of shooters who specialize in underwater video.
Mark Rackley, 40, likes to keep dangerous company. As a shark videographer, his typical workday may involve riding a hammerhead and hand-feeding tiger sharks to lure them closer to his camera.
Rackley is the co-owner of Ultimate Predator Productions, which he runs with longtime partner Manny Puig. Together, they’ve shot footage for cable documentaries and programs on Animal Planet and MTV, as well as an episode this August for the Discovery Channel’s wildly popular Shark Week.
For an episode titled, “Feeding Time,” Rackley spent a month filming different species of shark to see what they would eat. “We found out they eat practically anything,” says Rackley. “We gave one a 50-pound turkey, and he just gobbled it right up.”
Athleticism and a willingness to put himself in harm’s way, says Rackley, are his biggest advantages in the small but competitive world of shark videography. Unlike most of his peers, he avoids the confines of shark cages and scuba gear and has the ability to “hold frame and breath longer than other divers to get an entire taped sequence.” Because he’s not saddled with equipment or constrained by safety devices, he’s able to be more mobile than other shooters.
He may be feeding fish now, but Rackley started his career as an 18-year-old spear fisherman in the Florida Keys, where he grew up. Intrigued by the hammerheads and other local varieties of shark that he would encounter, he began filming them with a jury-rigged underwater film camera. Soon Rackley was filming and documenting everything he observed and did, even shooting footage while riding hammerheads. He’d steady the camera with one hand while holding on to the shark’s dorsal fin with the other.
In 2000, he and Puig met an Animal Planet producer at a diving convention, showed her their footage, and made a deal for a 13-episode reality show called Extreme Contact, which chronicled their close encounters with different shark species. Though Rackley now consults with marine biologists to zero in on shark-infested waters and help predict the behavior of certain shark species, he relies primarily on his own gut instincts to find his subjects and keep himself safe.
Of course, close calls are an occupational hazard, says Rackley. For instance, there was the time in an Everglades swamp when a 12-foot alligator slammed into his camera and nearly bit his head.
But what about the fear factor? Rackley admits that were he to obsess about death, he would never be able to get in the water again. “Steve Irwin’s death gives you a little taste of reality,” he says. “The things we do are very dangerous. People tell us, ‘You guys are crazy’ and ‘It’s going to end in tragedy,’ but we always keep coming out alive. In my heart, I don’t feel I’m ever going to die.”
Typical day on the recent Shark Week shoot in the Bahamas:
5 to 7:30 a.m. Set out on a 100-mile boat ride from Stuart Cove’s resort to find and shoot tiger and lemon sharks.
7:30 to 9 a.m. Begin
chumming for sharks. The crew uses a barrel that discharges trickles of fish blood to attract the animals.9 a.m. to mid-afternoon About 50 lemon sharks show up. Dive into the water to get footage as the sharks are given massive amounts of ham, turkey, and other foods to consume. Hold the mayo.
Afternoon Shoot
B-roll of lemon sharks.6 to 7 p.m. Tiger sharks arrive and are fed a variety of foods and other objects, including a 12-foot rubber turtle hanging from a fishing line. Spend the hour trying to capture the money shot: a few frenzied seconds of sharks gnarling, smashing, and shaking the faux tortoise, then swimming off.
7 p.m. Head for dry land.
| Read All