Here’s the trailer for the new season of Moonshiners that I spent the past 6 months filming on location in Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina and Virginia. I produced and also operated camera – so a lot of those cool slomo and drone shots are mine. Be sure to tune into the season premiere January 2nd, […]
Author: Pete
Buckeye Season Premiere: Watch Hawaii’s Favorite Mobile Veterinarian
THIS SATURDAY! The show I worked on last year in Hawaii, “The Adventures of Dr. Buckeye Bottoms” premieres on Nat Geo Wild on Sat, 4/7 at 9pm! This series follows Hawaii’s favorite mobile veterinarian as he treats animals small and large on Kauai and Maui. It was a pleasure to make this series, and we’re […]
The Adventures of Dr. Buckeye Bottoms on NatGeo Wild
Aloha! I’m back from four months filming on location in HAWAII for NatGeo. My latest TV series follows a mobile veterinarian named Dr. Bartholomew Buckeye Bottoms, who treats farm animals on the islands of Kauai and Maui. Buckeye works from a mobile vet clinic (pickup truck) with his dog Kevin, and goes from farm to […]
Love & Vets: Series premiere and trailer
The show I filmed last Fall in Atlanta for NatGeo Wild has just premiered! “Love & Vets” follows husband and wife vets Dr. Will Draper and Dr. Fran Tyler at their three busy animal hospitals in Atlanta, The Village Vets. It was a pleasure filming these great doctors at work last fall, and we’re very […]
One Second Everyday: 2016
2016 was quite a year! On New Year’s 2016, we moved down under to Sydney, AUSTRALIA, then lived the #vanlife all over the continent in our campervan named Maggie. It also included trips to New Zealand and Bali. In the second half of the year, I traveled to South Dakota, Minnesota, NYC, Chicago, Detroit, San […]
$100 Budget Campervan Conversion – Turn a mini van into a camper for cheap
My girlfriend and I spent the majority of this year living in a campervan in Australia that I converted from a regular old Toyota Tarago mini van. We didn’t want to sink too much money into a van we’d only be living in temporarily, so we figured out a very cheap and easy way to […]
Rental Car Rally: Costumed hijinx in the desert
One of my favorite annual events is Rental Car Rally – a costumed, overnight rally where teams compete to hit a bunch of checkpoints at abandoned buildings and cultural oddities, whilst trying to get the lowest total mileage between the starting line (in L.A.) and the finish line (somewhere hundreds of miles away and deep […]
Australian Animal Crossing Signs: The Definitive Collection
Australia has some of the coolest and most unique animal crossing signs in the world. Over the past several months traveling around Australia, I’ve made it a personal goal to take a photo of myself in front of as many of these animal crossing signs as I possibly can. Here’s my collection!
“Deadliest Place on Earth”: Special on animal attacks in Australia
Earlier this year, I had the fortune to work as a Field Producer for an Animal Planet special entitled “Deadliet Place on Earth”…that place being Australia. I traveled all over the country during my first few weeks living in Australia on my Working Holiday Visa, interviewing survivors who had been attacked by animas such as […]
Living in a Campervan Down Under
#VANLIFE! Amanda and I are on our epic Australian roadtrip, and we’re living out of a Toyota Tarago mini van that we converted into a basic camper ourselves. So far, living in “Maggie” the van has been a ton of fun, and we’ve found that there’s no better way to travel around Australia than in […]
“Don’t Stop Me Now” in New Zealand
In February, I went on a week long trip to New Zealand’s south island with some friends from Ithaca College. While we were exploring the South Island, we decided to shoot this really silly music video to Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now”…and it came out great! Shooting a lip dub video like this was a […]
Greetings from Sydney, my new home
Happy Australia Day from Down Under! Just a few weeks ago, my girlfriend Amanda and I moved to Australia on our Working Holiday Visas. We arrived on New Year’s Eve, and were greeted by the world famous Sydney Harbor Fireworks. It’s been very busy — we rented a room in a flat in Sydney (shared […]
One Second Everyday: 2015
Here’s my One Second Everyday video for 2015! It was the last year of my twenties and my last year in #PureMichigan. It was the year I bought Marty, my trusty VW Vanagon and drove cross country – twice – living the #Vanlife. It was a year of: Dr. Pol. Burning Man. South by Southwest. […]
Hi! I’m Pete.
Heading to Australia on my Working Holiday Visa!
This year, I turned 30…and with the clock ticking, I finally decided to pursue a dream I’ve had for many years: to live and work in a foreign country! I was granted a one year Working Holiday Visa for Australia, and will be moving there with my girlfriend Amanda on New Year’s Eve. This visa […]
American Food Legends and the search for America’s greatest onion rings
A steaming, tangled, golden stack of delectably crispy onion rings, leaving “ah” in one’s mouth and a slight sheen of finger-lickin’ grease on one’s fingers…the memory of the “world famous” onion rings served up for decades at Michael’s Restaurant on the east edge of Worthington. – The Daily Globe I just got back from two […]
Living the #VANLIFE in my Volkswagen Vanagon named Marty
Earlier this year, I purchased a 1991 Volkswagen Vanagon pop top camper van in Toronto, and I’ve absolutely fallen in love with this vehicle, whom I’ve lovingly named “Marty” after former President Martin VAN Buren. I’ve already driven Marty cross country, and crisscrossed from Michigan to New York to California. It’s been a total blast! […]
Dodging Bulls and Chasing Pols: The Filming of “The Incredible Dr. Pol”
Working on “The Incredible Dr. Pol” is an adrenaline rush. At its heart, it is a show about medical emergencies…so every day, time is of the essence, and life is on the line. Our TV crew finds ourselves chasing a 70-year-old at 80 mph on back roads in Michigan, hopping into pens with angry bulls […]
One Second Everyday 2014: My year in 365 seconds
In 2014, I recorded one second of my life every single day, using the amazing 1 Second Everyday app. This is the final product. The Nifty Fifty. Dr. Pol. The Polar Vortex. Ham horn. Mountain Collective ski trip. Desert Bus. #TC14. The World’s Largest Muskie. The Mototaxi Junket. Machu Picchu. Burning Man. 32 U.S. states […]
The Mototaxi Junket: 3,000km on a sofa-bike across Peru
I completed the Mototaxi Junket! Nearly 3,000km of puttering across Peru in a 125cc sofa bike, a lost backpack where I was left with just the clothes on my back, a dozen breakdowns and 16 different mechanic visits, two breakdowns where I was stranded alone in the middle of nowhere…but I managed to junketeer from […]
Behind The Scenes of Dr. Pol: Dumb iMovie Trailer Edition
Behind the scenes of filming B-Roll for The Incredible Dr. Pol. it gets pretty intense! I recently got an iPhone 6 with the new version iMovie included. iMovie comes with a bunch of templates to make cheesy movie trailers, complete with music and titles…you just have to drop in the clips. I used the “Action” […]
Burning Man 2014 Montage
Burning Man 2014 montage! This year, I attended my very first Burning Man. It was an amazing time, and I experienced art, community, and expression, in so many new and exciting ways. Here’s to my camps AwesomeTown, Pollination, and all the amazing sights, sounds and people of Black Rock City. Thank you all for making […]
The Nifty Fifty: Visiting all 50 states in one year
Last June, when I was only a few hours into my cross country drive from California back to the East Coast, I pulled over on a whim at the Arizona welcome sign and took a selfie. Then I got to thinking: wouldn’t it be cool if I had a photo of myself in front of […]
Safety First on the set of The Incredible Dr. Pol
On my first day on the job for “The Incredible Dr. Pol,” Charles Pol handed me a packet with a list of common farm animals that they see at the clinic. “Read this over, my dad takes this pretty seriously.” I looked down to find a photo of an angry-looking bull, with a caption: “BEEF […]
One Second Not-Quite-Everyday 2013
A friend of mine, Cesar Kuriyama, has created an amazing movement / smartphone app called 1 Second Everyday. The goal is to record one second of every day of your life, and compile a video. The goal is to help you remember every day, and also encourage you to go out and do interesting things. […]
Dr. Pol Goes Stone Age: Throwing a Thunderbird Atlatl
Recently, my parents stopped by the clinic while I was filming The Incredible Dr. Pol, and they showed Dr. Pol how to use an atlatl. We filmed it, and NatGeo Wild turned this into a Behind-The-Scenes video and posted it on their website! Check out this video of Bob Berg and Cheryll Berg of Thunderbird […]
Dr. Pol By The Numbers
A lot of people have asked me how much footage we shoot to make an episode of “The Incredible Dr. Pol,” and the answer I typically give them is: A LOT. Pol Veterinary Services is a real clinic, and there are often as many 100 cases a day, plus as many as seven or eight […]
Getting Dirty with Dr. Pol
…in which Dr. Pol teaches me how to rectally pregnancy check a dairy cow! NatGeo Wild recently posted this behind-the-scenes video from The Incredible Dr. Pol, where Doc and Charles teach a few of us crew members the art of sticking your entire arm into the rectum of a cow, in order to see how […]
Filming “The Incredible Dr. Pol” in Arctic Michigan, and taking the Pol’r Plunge
I recently took a job as a Field Producer on NatGeo Wild’s veterinarian series “The Incredible Dr. Pol,” and one of our very first shoots this season — in the middle of February, in icy cold Michigan — was at the Mount Pleasant Polar Plunge. This is an annual fundraiser for the Special Olympics, where […]
The Legend of Sheriff Gus Skinner (Pilot)
My latest TV project was a pilot for A&E about a rough-and-tumble sheriff in rural McCreary County, Kentucky in the Danielle Boone National Forest. We shot two half hour episodes following Sheriff Gus Skinner, and his deputies as they enforce the law in the hollers and back roads on the edge of the Appalachian Mountains. […]
JAIL: Filming in County Jail with inmates in Portland and Reno
I’ve just finished serving 6 months in Jail — not as an inmate, but as a Field Producer for Spike TV’s series “JAIL.” From Langley Productions of “Cops” fame, “JAIL” and follows fresh arrests off the street as they get booked and processed into County Jails around America. I worked for 3 months in Portland, […]
American Underworld on Discovery Channel
My latest TV project before I went abroad was Discovery Channel’s American Underworld. This was gritty documentary at its finest. The show follows investigative journalist Mark Allen Johnson as he delves into underground subcultures throughout the country — drugs, prostitution, carjacking rings and more. We produced three episodes this spring, which include a Meth bust […]
18 Countries. 56 days. 12,000 miles. 250 Rubber Duckies. We Completed the Mongol Rally!
WE MADE IT TO ULAANBAATAR!! 12,000 miles. 56 days. 18 countries. 16 mechanic shops. 3000km on 3 pistons. $9000 for charity. And 250 rubber duckies. We finished the Mongol Rally! The last two months on the Mongol Rally was one of the most exciting and toughest things I’ve ever experienced. I’m happy to say that, […]
The Mongol Rally
I’ve got that itch for adventure again, so it’s time to dust off my backpack and hit the road! This summer I will be taking part in The Mongol Rally, a 10,000 mile car rally from London to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. I’ll be driving with a team of friends through about 18 different countries with anything […]
Is the D.B. Cooper case solved?
Tonight’s episode of Brad Meltzer’s DECODED delves into the D.B. Cooper case, the 1971 skyjacking which has been unsolved for forty years. I produced this episode, and it’s my personal favorite one of the season. And after this latest investigation, the case may very well be solved. The show follows a new suspect named Kenny […]