Photographed by Kory Archuleta
In an interview with Vogue Philippines, filmmaker and Glambot creator Cole Walliser talks about his early career, filmmaking, and his advice for creatives.
As the awards season kicks off, the red carpet comes alive with a familiar sight: the Glambot. Now a cultural phenomenon in its own right, the high-speed robotic camera has become a must-stop for celebrities, offering fans dramatic, slow-motion glimpses of their favorite personalities. Behind the lens (and often in the frame himself) is director Cole Walliser, the creative behind these trending videos.
Walliser, who first picked up a camera filming skateboarding videos, has since created a distinct niche at the intersection of filmmaking, fashion, and pop culture. At first, he casually shared the behind-the-scenes clips of Glambot, but before long, viewers were tuning in not just for the slow-motion videos but also for Walliser. “It never occurred to me that people would be drawn to my personality or my interactions,” he reflects. Yet fans now recognize him as much for his candid rapport with celebrities as for Glambot’s cinematic sweep.
In this conversation, Walliser shares his experience behind the Glambot camera and the lessons he’s learned from experimenting across genres.
What’s the first thing that goes through your head when you see a celebrity step in front of your camera?
I guess if they’re willing to do something fun. That’s what I’m first trying to figure out because I think that obviously, people have different approaches to doing a Glambot. I always want to just try to do something big, fun, and different. So, I’m kind of assessing if that’s a possibility? I feel like it is, I’ll push them a little bit more to do a different or big move. Then, if not, then we can just sort of do a standard one. That’s probably the first thing.
I’ve been on the red carpet for so long, and I’ve shot a variety of celebrities, so on average, I’m not sort of nervous per se, but that doesn’t mean that a single individual that I haven’t shot yet is going to come up and not make me a little nervous. Kind of depends on who it is, though.
What’s the one that made you the most nervous?
Different people through different eras. The first time I shot Ariana Grande, I was really nervous, and you can tell because I’m talking really fast. Because sometimes that happens! One time, I was shooting Lana Del Rey, and her publicists pulled her away. After that moment, I’m like, “Okay, I guess this is a possibility,” which I hadn’t realized was possible before.
With Ariana Grande, I was speaking fast because I’m trying to get through it, and I’m trying to make it seem to her publicist that I’m rushing, so it’s like they’re not wasting time. Then, the same thing for Brad Pitt. There was a lot of news when Brad Pitt was sort of working the campaign trail for the awards season for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and he was doing a lot of press, and we heard that he was walking.
So, I’m nervous because I’m worried about whether or not someone’s going to stop us. But I’m not really worried about our interaction, just more worried about something out of my control happening, I suppose.
I just think about how much experience it takes to be able to handle those kinds of situations. Your experience began with doing skateboarding videos. What was that like for you?
That’s how I first got a camera in my hand, and I learned that I loved creating things in video. I feel like people would hand me the camera more often, and so they’re like, “Cole, you know how to get good footage.” And I started thinking about how moving the camera would affect the footage. And that was my first foray into understanding how camera work can affect the shot. That got me interested.
How did you find which things you liked working on?
When I was early in my career, I made it a point to try different things. Early on, I directed an action film, a horror film, a zombie film, and a comedy. I purposefully tried all these different things to answer that question to try to see what I enjoy doing. And there were aspects of all of them that I really liked.
I like playing creatively. There are things I like about being creative, both in a world that I’m very familiar with and a world that I’m very unfamiliar with. Having a niche is good for work; people obviously come to me for slow-mo glamour stuff, which is great. But that doesn’t mean that’s the only thing I enjoy doing at this point.
What advice would you give to young creatives who want to carve their own path in the industry, but they may not see what it is yet?
It’s super important that they enjoy the process of making things. Because if you look at your career and what it’s going to be, years of just making stuff over and over and over, so if you don’t really enjoy the process, you have to find a way to do that. From there, the goal is to improve, and then it puts you on a path of finding some version of success.
If you think about your content in terms of views, comments, or engagement, I think what ends up happening is you can get steered down a path that will lead you to not enjoy it, right? The best version is finding what you enjoy making, then continually getting better at it. As you make content, you’ll develop your voice. If you’re making content consistently and it’s true to you, it’ll be true to someone else, too.
