A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
From Antarctica to the tropical Pacific, Paul Atkins, ASC has filmed the world's wildlife and cultures for National Geographic, Disney, the BBC including such acclaimed series as Planet Earth, for IMAX screens and feature films. His cinematography and directing have earned numerous awards including Emmys, British Academy Awards and a prestigious Telluride Film Festival Tribute. Paul's passion for the ocean brought him to Hawaii in 1974, where he pursued a Ph.D in marine biology at University of Hawaii and began working in the film business as an underwater and wildlife cinematographer. With his wife and producing partner, Grace Atkins, Paul filmed and directed groundbreaking documentaries that challenged our myths and inspired protection of the natural world, including the Emmy-winning Hawaii: Strangers in Paradise (Nat Geo/BBC), Great White Shark (BBC/Nat Geo) and Dolphins: The Wild Side (Nat Geo). Paul was director of photography on Jean-Michel Cousteau's Voyage to Kure, the film that persuaded President George W. Bush to declare the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands a National Monument in 2006. More recently, his work includes Disneynature's Dolphin Reed and Nat Geo's America's National Parks. Paul's narrative filmmaking spans numerous commercials, television series and feature films and he has worked with some of the world's most renown directors including Peter Weir on Master and Commander, Alejandro Inarritu on The Revenant, and Terrence Malick on The Tree of Life and other features. On a 40-day epic voyage around Cape Horn, he filmed for Master and Commander, which won the 2004 Academy Award for cinematography for Russell Boyd, ASC. His 2nd Unit shooting on The Tree of Life contributed to an Oscar nomination for cinematography, and Paul has continued to work with Malick on To the Wonder, Knight of Cups and as director of photography on his IMAX documentary about the evolution of the universe, The Voyage of Time.
"A" Camera Operator:
2023 May December
Camera Operator:
2015 Point Break
2023 May December
Cinematography:
1995 Great White Shark
2015 Point Break
2023 May December
Director:
1995 Great White Shark
1999 Dolphins: The Wild Side
2015 Point Break
2020 Sharks vs. Dolphins: Blood Battle
2023 May December
Director of Photography:
1983 Aliens From Inner Space
1990 The Trials of Life
1994 In the Wild: Dolphins With Robin Williams
1995 Great White Shark
1997 Night Orchid
1999 Dolphins: The Wild Side
1999 National Geographic: The Filmmakers
2004 The Land Has Eyes
2005 Tides of War
2005 Tsunami - Killer Wave
2007 Aztec Rex
2008 Heatstroke
2015 Point Break
2016 Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience
2017 Voyage of Time: Life's Journey
2020 Sharks vs. Dolphins: Blood Battle
2023 May December
Producer:
1983 Aliens From Inner Space
1990 The Trials of Life
1994 In the Wild: Dolphins With Robin Williams
1995 Great White Shark
1997 Night Orchid
1999 Dolphins: The Wild Side
1999 National Geographic: The Filmmakers
2004 The Land Has Eyes
2005 Tides of War
2005 Tsunami - Killer Wave
2007 Aztec Rex
2008 Heatstroke
2015 Point Break
2016 Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience
2017 Voyage of Time: Life's Journey
2020 Sharks vs. Dolphins: Blood Battle
2021 Sharks of Hawaii
2023 May December
???? Hawaii: Sharks of the Fire Goddess
Second Unit Cinematographer:
1983 Aliens From Inner Space
1990 The Trials of Life
1994 In the Wild: Dolphins With Robin Williams
1995 Great White Shark
1997 Night Orchid
1999 Dolphins: The Wild Side
1999 National Geographic: The Filmmakers
2004 The Land Has Eyes
2005 Tides of War
2005 Tsunami - Killer Wave
2007 Aztec Rex
2008 Heatstroke
2015 Point Break
2015 The Revenant
2016 Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience
2017 Voyage of Time: Life's Journey
2020 Sharks vs. Dolphins: Blood Battle
2021 Sharks of Hawaii
2023 May December
???? Hawaii: Sharks of the Fire Goddess
Second Unit Director:
1983 Aliens From Inner Space
1990 The Trials of Life
1994 In the Wild: Dolphins With Robin Williams
1995 Great White Shark
1997 Night Orchid
1999 Dolphins: The Wild Side
1999 National Geographic: The Filmmakers
2004 The Land Has Eyes
2005 Tides of War
2005 Tsunami - Killer Wave
2007 Aztec Rex
2008 Heatstroke
2011 The Tree of Life
2015 Point Break
2015 The Revenant
2016 Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience
2017 Voyage of Time: Life's Journey
2020 Sharks vs. Dolphins: Blood Battle
2021 Sharks of Hawaii
2023 May December
???? Hawaii: Sharks of the Fire Goddess
Second Unit Director of Photography:
1983 Aliens From Inner Space
1990 The Trials of Life
1994 In the Wild: Dolphins With Robin Williams
1995 Great White Shark
1997 Night Orchid
1999 Dolphins: The Wild Side
1999 National Geographic: The Filmmakers
2004 The Land Has Eyes
2005 Tides of War
2005 Tsunami - Killer Wave
2007 Aztec Rex
2008 Heatstroke
2011 The Tree of Life
2015 Knight of Cups
2015 Point Break
2015 The Revenant
2016 Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience
2017 Voyage of Time: Life's Journey
2020 Sharks vs. Dolphins: Blood Battle
2021 Sharks of Hawaii
2023 May December
???? Hawaii: Sharks of the Fire Goddess
Writer:
1983 Aliens From Inner Space
1990 The Trials of Life
1994 In the Wild: Dolphins With Robin Williams
1995 Great White Shark
1997 Night Orchid
1999 Dolphins: The Wild Side
1999 National Geographic: The Filmmakers
2004 The Land Has Eyes
2005 Tides of War
2005 Tsunami - Killer Wave
2007 Aztec Rex
2008 Heatstroke
2011 The Tree of Life
2015 Knight of Cups
2015 Point Break
2015 The Revenant
2016 Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience
2017 Voyage of Time: Life's Journey
2020 Sharks vs. Dolphins: Blood Battle
2021 Sharks of Hawaii
2023 May December
???? Hawaii: Sharks of the Fire Goddess
Director:
1983 Natural World
Director of Photography:
1983 Natural World
1990 Trials of Life
2002 The Life of Mammals
2014 Wild Hawaii
Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).
Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.