How Director and Content Creator Cole Walliser Uses His Platform To Inspire

Cole Walliser is a film and music video director who's spent the better part of this last decade working with many of the entertainment industry’s finest. Think: Collaborating with Katy Perry on her 2011 California Dreams World Tour, shooting with Miley Cyrus and capturing the late Whitney Houston. Walliser’s work isn't just limited to music though. The director has worked on the marketing side for Mercedes Benz, Revlon and COVERGIRL, and is also famous for his “GlamBOTS” series where he spotlights different red carpets looks from celebrities at all the major award shows.

Broski: Can you walk us through ‘GlamBOT’ and explain how high- quality the camera is, and what goes into all of that?

Walliser: It shoots at 1,000 frames per second, and then we play it back at 24 frames per second, so it slows down an insane amount. The camera is also on a rig that is motion-controlled that they use in different commercials and feature films. That is what we use on the red carpet. It's a high-speed rig, so it moves the camera super slow motion, really fast, and that is how you get the dramatic ‘GlamBOT’ effect. We shoot in 4K and use a lot of lights. What is surprising to some is that we use a ton of people to work on it. There are 13 to 15 people working on those clips to push them out that fast.

Broski: Obviously the internet has played a huge role in that viral success. How have you seen a shift in your career from doing the traditional stuff to what you do now? Do you enjoy it now?

Walliser: I still have the foundation of my career. I haven’t left my directing career, and the ‘GlamBOT’ is really only three or four times a year, so it’s not like I’m spending all my time on it. I will say that focusing on social was a conscious decision I made in 2017 because prior to that I had done the ‘GlamBOT’ for two years, and had directed videos for Britney, Pink, Revlon, etc. I felt I had a career going and there was no lack of work in 2017. I was trying to look at the future, and I asked myself where the industry was headed. It occurred to me that a lot of the people that I looked up to weren’t on social. I figured that we were only going to be more digitally connected as time went on, and that I could either do it at that time, or be forced to do it later.