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One of our most thrilling films at MacGillivray Freeman was “Everest,” which took us four years to make in the mid-1990s.
The highest I got was the base camp at around 18,000 feet. At that altitude, your brain doesn’t work well. So, we organized the film shoot like a military operation. Every worker’s position had a back-up, so if someone was sick or injured, the work could continue. We hired the best climbers, including sherpas, who were trained to carry the equipment on special backpacks all the way to the top.
When “Everest” was released in New York City in 1998, people lined up for blocks to pay $12 each to watch a 45-minute documentary. The film, narrated by Liam Neeson, became the highest grossing giant screen documentary of all time.
It was also during our filming that a tragedy happened where eight people on two other expeditions died during the climb. Our crew helped with the rescue efforts by providing critical radio communications because I always insisted on the best equipment. Jon Krakauer wrote a best-selling book, “Into Thin Air,” on the tragedy.
A $450 Camera
Let me tell you the story of a Corona del Mar kid who learned how to make films all on his own—and created 70 films over the next 70 years.
From the time I was 7 years old, I worked every summer with my dad, who built houses in Laguna Beach. I started surfing when I was 12 years old and whenever the surf was good, I could take off work to surf. That year for Christmas, my parents gave me an 8-millimeter camera they got with Green Stamps—those sticky stamps you’d get when shopping then glue them in a book. My camera cost 3 books.
I began making little stories on 8-millimeter film. I loved everything about making movies. By 14, I saved up enough money from my various jobs—paper routes, mowing lawns, carrying lumber for my dad—to pay $450 for a professional 16-millimeter camera that had never been used. Films like “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Surf Safari” inspired me.
I set out to make a professional documentary on California’s surf scene. My mother was an artist, so I started painting single frames in a crude form of animation, which was time consuming and difficult. I’d make sure every day after school I’d spend at least an hour on my film. It took me four years to make “A Cool Wave of Color,” the weirdest surfing film ever. It was about how California surf was better than any other surf in the world because it was small and glassy. About that time, Bruce Brown’s “Endless Summer” came out with a completely new kind of storyline, making surfing much more popular and helping my crowds grow in number. By the end of my freshman year at University of California, Santa Barbara, my film had earned four times its cost!
It was then that I met Jim Freeman, who had made a surfing movie in 3D, which is next to impossible because 3D requires subjects close to the camera—and surfing shots are usually 250 feet away. What a challenge. The film was mediocre, except for a brilliant 15-minute section that showed me how smart and talented he was. I introduced myself and we became friends. I was 18 and he was 19.
The College Dropout
Because my film was so popular, I contemplated dropping out of college to produce a second film, but I was terrified to make that bold decision. My parents told me, “Don’t ask our opinion. We have complete confidence in you. You’re good at school. If you want to go back to school, you can go back anytime you want. What you’re doing is something that’s unusual, and if you love doing it, just keep going. Do it.”
My second film did even better. We set up movie screenings in different coastal cities like San Diego and Santa Monica. My parents would help me; sometimes my grandma was assigned to watch the exits because surfers were notorious for sneaking in.
Then Jim and I teamed up to make a film in South America—a continent that people knew little about. That film, “Free and Easy,” introduced our artistic style of filmmaking to Hollywood and the world.
We eventually made five surf films, ending with 1972’s “Five Summer Stories,” which cost $72,000 that was raised from the profits of our previous films. We never thought we’d make any money, but it turned into one of the most successful surf films ever. I attribute a lot of its success to the music. The movie was structured so it could play in front of a crowd like a rock concert. Even the Beach Boys wanted their music in the film. Plus, the movie made a star out of Gerry Lopez. Everybody copied his style after that.
It was our final surf film because we felt that we’d done all we could do with that genre without repeating ourselves. We had also grown to where we were getting well-paying jobs in Hollywood shooting action sequences for films like “The Towering Inferno,” “Big Wednesday,” “The Shining” and “Jonathan Livingstone Seagull.”
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The IMAX Start
When the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum was built in the 1970s in Washington D.C., they decided to install a new concept called IMAX. They liked one of our documentaries on flying and invited us to make the premiere IMAX film.
We had to build three new IMAX cameras. We knew we wanted to put the cameras into the action, but they were giant, heavy and cumbersome. So, we built mounts for helicopters and trains and a biplane. Our mount for the underbelly of a 747 Boeing jet cost us $50,000 alone.
Two days before the premiere of “To Fly” in 1976, Jim was killed in a helicopter crash.
Jim and I had worked 12 years together, and we had the same ideas about how to make a great movie. He and I were best friends, and our girlfriends were best friends. We traveled everywhere together and took vacations together. It was such a tragic thing that he never got to see the IMAX movie on the big screen. We were devastated. It took me months to get over it. In his honor, I have kept his name on the company.
When “To Fly” came out, it was such a big success that every museum in the world wanted an IMAX theater to show that film. It was like we wrote the syllabus for how to make an IMAX movie. What makes a great movie or a documentary is emotionally touching people’s hearts in a way that they’ll remember.
Since then, we’ve made about 45 IMAX movies, working with stars like Tom Selleck and Matthew McConaughey. My favorite was Meryl Streep, who was so excited to work on “The Living Sea” that she volunteered to do it for free.
Our IMAX documentaries have generated about $1.3 billion in sales.
Beyond IMAX
We still do IMAX documentaries, including currently in the state of Ohio, which has a great nature conservation program. We have also branched out with TV and streaming series as well as videos for smaller formats like the iPhone.
We recently finished our biggest project ever for the most expensive and biggest aquarium in the world, SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, which cost about $1.2 billion to build and opened in 2023. We did all the visual elements, including a 50-foot-high screen that’s 700 feet in circumference. We shot it with 10 cameras, and then we basically stitched the image together. So, if a big hammerhead shark is swimming and it goes around you—it’s perfectly synchronized. It’s really the next step past IMAX.
For the past 50 years, we’ve kept our studios in Laguna Beach and Aliso Viejo with 25 people companywide working at our production and distribution companies. We do our own marketing and financing as well. Our office includes a 50-seat theater to test films in front of audiences.
We have an educational foundation because my big passion is communicating to adults and children about the importance of nature, whether it be the ocean or the mountains or lakes and streams.
My kids, Shaun and Meghan, have been running the company for the last five years and are doing a great job, better than I ever could. When we began, there were 4 IMAX screens. Today, there are over 1,700. With Shaun and Meghan in the lead, I know our reach will continue to grow everywhere.