Wheel-to-Reel: Local Filmmaker Gets to Shoots Solely by Bike

Bob Nesson knows the 12-mile bike ride from Norwood to Brookline well. The first time the Somerville filmmaker made the trip on his own he was just six years old and wanted to visit his friends.

“Of course when my parents found out, they were . . . maybe horrified isn’t the right word,” Nesson laughs, recalling the unannounced solo trip he took. “I found my own way.”

These days Nesson runs Nesson Media Boston. He specializes in documentary, education and fictional films—and in getting to local film shoots by pedal power. To keep his carbon footprint low, he loads his rather extensive collection of film production gear onto his bike and just goes.

His camera fits in a baby backpack, his tripod attaches to an extended metal bike rack and his sound gear tucks into his saddlebags, or panniers. Anything else he needs, such as lights for more extensive film shoots, tags along on his custom-made bike trailer.

(See the film above for a short video about Nesson and how he uses his trailer, and check back tomorrow for a video that Nesson made about Doug Moore of Somerville, who built the trailer).

Protecting the environment--and getting the best shots

“When it comes to picking up shots around town, there’s nothing better than a bicycle,” Nesson said.

Nesson’s films cover broad territory from local to international. In one documentary he looks at how Boston grew into its current geographical shape. In another, he tells the story of a Cambodian refugee who survived the Pol Pot regime. So when he says he bikes “around town,” he isn’t just referring to Somerville.

This summer he drove to Montreal to shoot a film about Montreal’s bike system. He brought his bicycle in the car and his crew rented bicycles.

“I parked the car at the hotel and didn’t touch it again for three more days. We bicycled everywhere, carrying everything,” he said.

A practical mode of transportation for a practical guy

The cost of Nesson’s bike setup totals $1,000. That includes the bicycle, rack, helmet, trailer, panniers and lights—as well as his spiked winter tires. He spends about $200 a year on maintenance, which he points out is less than half of what he spent in one day when his car was towed: over $500 to pay for the towing, ticket and damage repair.

Biking everywhere—even with bulky equipment—fits in with Nesson’s general no-nonsense approach to living. He says he does what’s practical, what makes the most sense to him. He wears durable Wrangler jeans, hiking boots and a polar fleece jacket. He uses an iPhone.

A self-dubbed “juvenile delinquent” as a youth, Nesson dropped out his freshman year on his first attempt at college. Soon he enlisted in the 101st Airborne Division and grew intrigued with posters of soldiers jumping out of airplanes. He started parachuting with a camera (still does) and writing about his experiences. Soon enough, he was back in school, this time at Boston University, where he took a film class that inspired him.

“I began to think of film as art, as a true medium,” Nesson said.

Film degree in hand, Nesson then worked his way up the film industry ladder, working for several educational film companies as well as local PBS station WGBH, where he worked off and on for about 25 years. But soon, “it just made sense” to found his own business.

Aside from film production, Nesson is on the board of MassBike, a bike advocacy group, and involved with Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership and Mystic View Task Force, where he gets ideas for films. He is also a part-time faculty member at Emerson, where he teaches, “Film Making and the Environment” and “Documentary for Social Action.”

The oil crisis drove him to two wheels

While Nesson has always been an avid biker, there was a distinct period when he saw the benefits of biking as transportation. He was tired of traffic, which he said a bike allows you to scoot around, and during the 1972 oil crisis, he saw the financial benefits.

When he saw people waiting in giant lines for fuel as he cruised by on his bike, he thought, “This is called energy independence.”

“Bicycle filmmaking” catching on

Last fall, Rule Boston, a camera rental and sales company, featured Nesson at a Learning Lab, where Nesson shared tips with film colleagues on how to rely on bicycles for filmmaking.

Rule Boston founder John Rule said his company promotes bicycle filmmaking because it ties two important trends together: lighter, more efficient film equipment and less environmental impact.

“I thought it was just such a great idea that I wanted to get it out there to see if we could start a little trend here in Boston,” he said.

Lynn Weissman, who has her own Boston-based film company, picked up the trend a while ago. Her style, however, is slightly different than Bob’s—she uses a “kiddie trailer” for her equipment, including her camera.

“People are very nice to you when you’re riding with a kiddie trailer. They give you a lot of room,” said Weissman, who describes herself as an “extreme bicycle commuter."

Doug Moore, who built Nesson’s bike trailer based on a design he liked online, said there’s a “very specific kind of person” who bikes with a trailer, “it’s usually pretty hardcore bicycle people.”

The combination of biking and filming was a natural progression for Nesson: he was an avid biker and needed to transport his film equipment. He has experimented with various setups, but has always kept his camera in his backpack for safety reasons—though he has never damaged any equipment.

Nesson has found his own way to transport his film gear that works for him. One that’s fast for short distances and allows him to cruise by traffic in densely populated urban areas—a technique great for “urban filmmaking,” he said.

“I can stop, get the shot, get back on the bike and continue,” Nesson said. “It’s fast, easy and relatively painless.”

Download the movie