Action Unit Photographer Jasin Boland

“I’ve done some big films but nothing compares to James Bond,” says action stills photographer Jasin Boland. “The thing about Bond is just the awesome locations. I really love the snow in the mountains, that’s my happy place. Trudging around through there with all the equipment, that’s what I love to do.”

Capturing vibrant, dynamic images on Skyfall, Spectre and No Time To Die, Boland’s interest in photography began with creative attempts at skipping school in Australia. “We would put the red light on in the darkroom and go down to the beach to surf,” he says. After taking photos for his school and having served an apprenticeship in newspaper publishing, Boland gravitated to action photography, an interest inspired by his experience watching 007 films as a child. 

“I watched all the older Bond films with my dad,” Boland reveals. “The first film I went to see with just my buddies was Live And Let Die. I really remember that clearly. I swear that that is the reason why I got into action films to start with. I’ve now watched every James Bond film with my son.”

So, for Boland, what makes the perfect James Bond image?

“I was asked just the other day. ‘If you could go back and work on any film, what would it be?’, he says. “For me, it would be to go back and work on The Man With The Golden Gun and photograph that corkscrew jump. The perfect James Bond image is something that makes you stop and go, ‘Wow!’”

Below, Boland talks us through some of his ‘wow’ images from Spectre and No Time To Die…

SPECTRE (2015)

Having infiltrated a SPECTRE meeting in Rome, Bond (Daniel Craig) is discovered and makes a getaway in his newly stolen DB10, chased by the network’s top assassin Hinx (Dave Bautista) in a Jaguar C-X75. The pursuit takes in narrow alleyways and huge boulevards as Bond gets to grips with the new gadgetry.

ROAD TEST

“This shot was taken at over 100 miles an hour. The camera is on the actual camera crane mount and the boys will let me sit in the car, and fire my [camera] trigger. Sometimes if I can’t be in the vehicle, they will do it for me. But most of the time, I get the opportunity to do that. They might do 10 takes of it but I only get to do one run. You just don’t know what you’re gonna get but it’s better than sitting on the side of the road getting nothing. I really like this shot because it’s really weird. I didn’t really like it in the beginning. and then I looked at it five or six years later, and was like, ‘Oh, you know what? It’s actually pretty cool.’ What makes it the coolest is how you got it. It was a really tricky shot to pull off.”

JUMP STREET

“To get this shot I’m leaning out into the roadway. I’ve got a physical camera in my hands with a remote and a stunt guy, Frosty, behind me. He’s holding onto my Blackrapid Strap, which has a camera strap and other safety sash belt as well. He’s got hold of me there. And as the car has jumped, I’m firing the remote that is on the ground. I’m also firing my physical camera, and I’m holding that trigger down until I get pulled into the doorway into safety.

“When you are photographing action like that, anything can go wrong. But we are so well prepared with safety, it’s very unlikely for something to happen. I’ve already checked with safety. I’ve checked with stunts. I’ve checked with the first assistant director, and then I’ve told everyone where I’m going to be. Even if that car has bounced wrong, inertia carries it forward. So, by them pulling me out of the way, anything is just gonna fly past me. It could bounce off a wall, and then maybe fly in, but that’s completely unlikely.”

Leaving Rome, Bond heads to Altuassee in Austria to track down the mysterious Pale King aka Mr. White (Jesper Christensen), a Quantum operative. After White is exposed to thallium poisoning he takes his own life and Bond looks to find his daughter Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux) who is taken hostage by Hinx. As Swann is spirited away in a convoy of cars, Bond tracks her in a Britten-Norman BN-2 Islander, smashing through an Alpine lodge to crash into a procession and rescue Madeleine.

PLANE SAILING

“This was really tricky. That shot is from a remote rig as well. I was actually in the window of a house straight in front of it. I had that camera on the ground — that’s where this shot is from — and then I had another camera on the left. Also, if you’re looking at it, you’ll see in the snow, there’s some square white boxes. That’s where the cine cameras were and I had another camera in there. But the one that worked is further in front.”

NO TIME TO DIE (2021)

No Time To Die’s pre-credit sequence sees Bond (Daniel Craig) and Madeleine (Léa Seydoux) travelling through the ancient hilltop town of Matera in Italy. Paying his respects at Vesper Lynd’s tomb, Bond is knocked off his feet by an explosion. Trying to make his way back to his hotel, 007 comes under attack from Safin (Rami Malek)’s operative Primo (Dali Benssalah). Following a bruising fight, Bond steals Primo’s Triumph Scrambler motorcycle, speeding up steps and jumping over walls in a race to get back to Madeleine.

EASY RIDER

“This is the easiest shot to do in the world. It’s all about patience and timing. I had minimal time to get into that position. I had a camera on the crane, I’m actually standing in front of the church in the doorway. So, I’m photographing it as he’s coming up the jump at the same time firing off the trigger. There’s a lot going on. I do actually love that shot but it was one of the easiest shots to pull off.”

HIGH FLYER

“In this one, he’s wearing a cranial helmet. It’s protection, but it’s not like wearing a full-face helmet. It’s so that they can do face replacement.”

POSTER 

“This was at the beginning of Bond going up the stairs for take off. He starts off sideways and comes into the shot. I knew that it was going to be really good. I knew it was going to be a powerful image, but I didn’t realise it was going to be the IMAX poster. It was actually my first James Bond poster. So I was pretty stoked. I was like ‘WHAT’S THIS? A JAMES BOND POSTER! NO WAY!’ It was pretty crazy.”

After returning to the hotel, Bond confronts Madeleine, believing she betrayed him to SPECTRE. Forcing her into his trusty Aston Martin DB5, the car is immediately pursued by Primo and his men. The chase comes to its climax when the Aston Martin is rammed by Primo’s Jaguar Land Rover, bringing it to an abrupt halt in a deserted town square. As black clad henchmen start hitting the bulletproof car with machine gun fire. Bond starts ‘donutting’ the car, spraying bullets 360 degrees from the headlamp machine guns and covering the square with a smokescreen.

DONUT DANGER

“I definitely had five cameras on it and obviously my physical camera as well. That was a lucky stroke because you have a very small window to set something up. Setting the camera up underneath the camera on the crane is a big ask. This one really came off. That’s one of my favourite shots of all time because it was super difficult to get really lucky. With these remote rigs, you’re shooting completely blind, so you’re having to just get timing and hope that you’re going to get something out of it. This was one that was one of those cases. When they come off, it’s really exciting.”

A QUICK GETAWAY

“This may actually be my favourite shot. Everyone who looks at it is just completely blown away. It was a really, really difficult shot to get. We set up in the beginning and it was just meant to be the car coming out of the donut. But then Alexander (Witt, Action Unit Director) was like, “No, let’s get it coming out of the donut and then flying off down the street.” We all set up our cameras, and then all of a sudden, everything in shot was too dangerous to be manned. I had to set up a complete remote rig within a minute. I’d set it up on a tripod on the ground, then there was nowhere to be except behind a big metal Church door. I am actually blind behind a church door with a remote holding it up as high as I possibly can hoping that I can get through these walls. All I could hear was, ‘We’re rolling! Action!’ There was a squeal of tyres and I’m pressing the button. This is actually framed on my wall in my house.”

Bond later learns from Blofeld that Madeleine didn’t betray him in Italy so tracks her down in Norway. Finding her with her daughter Mathilde (Lisa Dorah Sonnet), 007 fears for their safety and spirits them away in Madeleine’s old land cruiser. A chase ensues (with the Ardverikie Estate in Scotland standing in for rural Norway) with the land cruiser chased cross country by Logan Ash (Billy Magnusson) and his forces.

“A lot of the time with the remote rigs, you don’t get a usable shot. With the Land Rover Defender rolling towards the camera, it hit the camera and knocked it over. But, it’s all about how you set your cameras up so that they don’t get damaged. I set them up so that when they get hit, they just fall over. Or I have a camera mount which is flat bottomed and, if it gets hit, it just slides, so you’re unlikely to do a lot of damage.”

LOCH AND LOAD

“On No Time To Die, when the car is flying off towards the loch I’m actually down next to the wall on top of a big rock. Now, the rock isn’t so big that if I fall off, I’m going to hurt myself. But the rock is big enough that I can jump down behind it. It was too dangerous to have two of us there so I’m on my own and using my judgement.”

YOU’LL BELIEVE A CAR CAN FLY

“Everyone that sees this shot just goes, ‘I want to hear classical music whenever I see that image’. This floating car and you just want to hear some Beethoven or Mozart or something.”