Talk Humboldt: Will Goldenberg

If you love nature documentaries, you've probably seen some footage captured by Arcata's Will Goldenberg. "I think Humboldt is a fantastic place to be a wildlife filmmaker, because I still naturally discover stories," he says. He's worked on shows for Netflix, Nat Geo, the BBC and Tom Hanks' latest documentary, The Americas, which features scenes from around the North Coast.

But he's not just looking through the lens - Goldenberg is also a scientist who's used camera technology to help explain how salamanders have such exceptional footing.

Here, he shares stories about his job as a natural history cinematographer, why it's not all about having the fanciest camera, and the relationship between art and science.   

Click here to see the salamander sequence: https://www.tiktok.com/@nbc/video/7495531569600531758

Transcript has been lightly edited for clarity:

Spagna:
Hi, I'm Mike Spagna, the interim president at Cal Poly Humboldt, and I'm here with my colleague and friend…

Flamer:
…Keith Flamer, president of College of the Redwoods.

Spagna:
And we have the pleasure today to be with Will Goldenberg, who's a nature filmmaker and biologist. So let's start with this question: Why is Humboldt a great place to be as an outdoor filmmaker?

Goldenberg:
All right. Well, thank you guys for coming to my studio. I really appreciate you being here. I think Humboldt is a fantastic place to be a wildlife filmmaker, because I still naturally discover stories. And I'll give you an example of one of my highlight moments. You know, driving around Highway 101 and saying, "Why don't I go down to the mouth of the Klamath River or see what's going on there?"

And I got to see these massive Steller sea lions hunting salmon, and they rip it apart. So you've got this bright salmon flesh just flying through the air. And so there are those things that are here that are mind-blowing.

Flamer:
So you did film it?

Goldenberg:
I did film it that day. And later in the week, I got a call from a top producer in England saying, "Will, we want this sequence."

Flamer:
So Will, who hires you to do this work?

Goldenberg:
Usually I will be contacted by a production company. They’ll say, "We have a particular shoot on this species. Are you interested and available?" They will rent cinematography equipment for me, send it to me — because most shows want the latest, greatest stuff. So you'll just get ten Pelican boxes shipped to your house, and you load up the truck and go wherever they want you to.

I’ve had the chance to work with David Attenborough, and what he tells young people like me at the time was: if you can make an interesting film on a low budget about some creature in your backyard, that's going to impress me a hundred times more than if you have all the best equipment in the world, went to the best location, and got some great footage.

Many of the shots — especially the fog sequences in the redwood sequence — I shot on a camera that’s years old and not something they’d ever have me shoot on. But I was able to use it in such a way where nobody could tell if it was a top-notch camera or my little camera from home.

It's just learning how to use the light, learning how to use camera movements. Really, camera does not matter if you can see light and use light properly. That's the key. Everything in cinematography is light.

Flamer:
If you woke up in a dream and you heard your phone ring for the best job that you could ever get, what would that call sound like to you?

Goldenberg:
The dream project for me is definitely here in the redwoods — exploring the upper canopy of the redwood trees even more than we have. We've barely scratched the surface. I also really want to tell the story of a single old-growth redwood tree from bottom to top, where we see all of the different creatures that live in it, like a multi-story skyscraper. That would be cool.

In a single tree — the cave, the burned-out caves, flying squirrels, mushrooms growing in the canopy... We didn’t even know that this habitat existed until the late ’90s.

Steve Sillett, Cal Poly Humboldt faculty, was really the one who started climbing up there and saying, “There’s a whole other world up here.” These salamanders lay their eggs in the canopy, hatch up there, and never come to the ground. One of the stories I really love telling is how the sequences we filmed here for The Americas show with Tom Hanks dovetailed with the scientific research we’ve done.

We were filming a sequence for National Geographic about the wandering salamander. We had one get to the edge of a little branch on the set, and we’re all watching it — and it jumps. And it lands beautifully. We're like, that thing didn’t just fall off — that jumped.

Spagna:
Into the—

Goldenberg:
...Intentional jump. The salamander researcher we were working with went, “Oh my gosh.” He did his PhD on that behavior and found that they do, in fact, skydive from the tops of these trees. So the sequence evolved — the science told us they’re actually skydiving. Now we had a new sequence to shoot, just based on the science.

While filming close-ups, we saw their toes are translucent. You could see blood flowing through them. Dr. Christian Brown said, “What is going on with their toes?” We did a research project on that, filming this blood flow in high-speed. We published a research paper on it.

What we found is that when they step, they fill their toes with blood. Imagine a balloon — if you want it to stick to the surface, deflate it. But if you want it to release, blow it up. The salamander does that every step: deflates for stickiness, inflates to release.

Spagna:
You're bringing up something important — people often think art and science are separate. But here, the art informs the science. Something you filmed sparked a new line of inquiry.

Goldenberg:
Absolutely. I get to do both — scientific research papers and filming. 99% of the time we’re piggybacking on scientific research already in place.

Flamer:
You have to speak the language of cinema and the language of science.

Goldenberg:
You do. When you show up at a research camp with someone who’s studied the species for 25 years, you better have done your homework. You don’t just show up saying, “Hey, we’re the film crew, you got any critters?” You’ve got to talk the talk.

Spagna:
Nice. That's a great place to end.

Flamer:
That's a beautiful place….

Spagna:
And you’ve been so inspiring, Will. We've enjoyed this time and your passion.

Goldenberg:
Thank you.

Spagna:
Just wonderful.

Flamer:
Thank you so much for the opportunity to talk to you.

Anncr:
From his garage studio in Arcata, that was cinematographer Will Goldenberg on Talk Humboldt. To hear this episode and see some of the clips he was talking about — including the flying salamander — visit KHSU.org.