As a freelance cinematographer-director, Nick has been incredibly fortunate in having the opportunity to work on a number of documentary series that have aired on Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, Apple TV+, CRAVE, Knowledge Network BC, TVO, along with countless other broadcasters around the world. Nick is currently developing a couple of his own character-driven wildlife documentaries, focusing on the incredible wildlife BC has to offer.

RECENT PROJECTS

Grizzly Rewild documents a groundbreaking scientific study exploring whether or not orphaned grizzly cubs, that have been raised by humans, can survive in the wild. The story follows five orphaned cubs that are reared at Northern Lights Wildlife Shelter in Smithers BC - North America’s only grizzly rewilding facility.

Awards:

Nominations & Screening:

The documentary Grizzly Rewild, was an ambitious undertaking as rewilded orphaned grizzly bears had not previously been filmed post-release in North America. This was not a traditional natural history documentary though as the distance we had to maintain from the bears was much further, as any potential interaction with the bears, could be detrimental to the study. We hoped to be the first to capture natural behaviours from the bears like scavenging, foraging, fishing for salmon, and emerging from their winter dens - none of which had ever been captured on camera before.

In addition, we also followed the research team, led by Dr. Lana Ciarniello who tracked the bears’ movements and explored their habitat to understand how well they were integrating with their landscape. One of Nick’s favourite shoots for Grizzly Rewild, involved dropping in by helicopter on the top of a mountain out of Bella Coola in late spring. From there, we hiked down to their den site, where Nick was able to film Dr. Ciarniello crawl inside and assess their ability to build a den. Filming the rewilded grizzlies explore the wild was a beautiful thing, but getting this tactile immersion in their world was a truly unique experience.

A Bear’s Necessities

Nick had the incredible privilege of filming with biologist Helen Davis for this short profile of her work, documenting the struggles that black bears face while finding winter dens amongst the disappearing forests of Vancouver Island. This short film was Directed, Produced, & Edited by Jemma Titheridge and Wild Bus Films for Hakai Magazine.

Helen Davis has studied bear denning on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island for 30 years, documenting over 150 dens—the vast majority of which involve large old growth trees. The hollow insides of these trees, and the cavities they create when they fall, are perfect den sites for coastal black bears looking to stay warm and dry. Female bears also give birth during hibernation; dens provide critical shelter to cubs during the first three months of their lives, when they are unable to survive outside. As more and more old growth is logged each year, Davis is nervous for the bears.

Wild Bear Rescue

Show DESCRIPTIOn:

Wild Bear Rescue is a documentary series produced by Omnifilm Entertainment, that ran for three seasons on Animal Planet Canada before airing with multiple other broadcasters including - Animal Planet US, Apple TV +, CRAVE, Discovery, and Knowledge Network. The series followed the Langen family who run the Northern Lights Wildlife Shelter in Smithers, British Columbia, which specializes in bear rehabilitation. The shelter takes in injured and orphaned wildlife and provides with them a second chance in the wild. Wild Bear Rescue is a character driven series, where the primary characters are wildlife.

Director’s note:

As the Series DOP, I was extremely privileged to be the only member of the Wild Bear Rescue production team allowed inside the bear cages. This provided me with the unique task of building individual wildlife characters by observing and capturing unique animal behaviour. Filming wildlife always takes a great amount of patience, and ability to roll with whatever unexpected obstacles come your way, and this series was certainly no different. 

I did the majority of my filming in a one-man band format, which took me all over British Columbia with the Langen family in order to rescue and release bears back into their home territory. For my work in the third season of Wild Bear Rescue, I was nominated at the 2020 Leo Awards for both “Best Direction” and “Best Cinematography in a Documentary Series” for episodes that I shot, directed, and recorded sound for - entirely on my own. My goal for the series was to work as close as possible with the bears, providing unique insight into bear behaviour while avoiding habituation.

Credits

• Series Director Of Photography

• Episodic Director

• Drone Operator

Awards & Nominations

• Nominee for “Best Direction in a Doc Series” at the 2020 Leo Awards

• Nominee for “Best Cinematography in a Doc Series” at the 2020 Leo Awards

• Nominee for “Best Documentary Series” at the 2020 Leo Awards

North American Broadcast Networks:

• Animal Planet US

• Animal Planet Canada

• Apple TV+

• CRAVE (Streaming Service)

• Discovery Canada

• Knowledge Network

Produced by:

• Omnifilm Entertainment

Selection of episodes filmed as a
solo Shooter-Director