Victoria cinematographer David Malysheff takes pictures for a living. He’s the man behind the camera on productions such as Amazing Race Canada and Canada’s Next Top Model, the news magazine The Fifth Estate, numerous corporate and industrial videos and an Irish Rovers special in 2017.
In 2021 he won a Leo, BC’s highest film and TV accolade, for his cinematography on a Nature of Things episode called “Listening to Orcas.”
“I’ve met a lot of famous people,” says David, recalling The Immortal Beaver, a one-hour television show involving pilot and actor Harrison Ford. Hired to photograph the restoration of a vintage Canadian bush plane, a DeHavilland Beaver, languishing in the United States, David loaded his car with video gear and crossed the border at Blaine, Washington anticipating some pointed questions.
“What’s your business in the States?” the border agent charged.
“Well sir,” David replied, “I’ve been invited by Harrison Ford to do an interview with him.”
“The Blade Runner? Right on, have a great time and go on through.”
David did indeed go right on through and days later found himself in California photographing Harrison and his restored Beaver.
“Harrison was super humble and just so approachable and so nice. He looks at us and says ‘You gotta remember I was a carpenter.’ And it’s true, he was.”
The Immortal Beaver is just one of many commissions in David’s 37-year career. As the owner operator of Gamut Productions, a full-facility Victoria production house, David has seen it all and now, at an age when most of us retire, he’s about to begin a new chapter in his varied and interesting career. It’s been quite a ride.
“I haven’t had a real job for years,” he laughs.
Born in North Vancouver, David moved to Victoria with his family in his teens.
“When I got out of high school, I started undercoating cars and ambulances,” he says. “My mother took me out for lunch. I was covered in black tar and she said, ‘You don’t want to do this for the rest of your life.’”
A career in cinematography seemed a long way off but his mother persevered.
“She kind of pushed me into it,” he says. “As a kid I always took photographs. I liked photography a lot.”
So he enrolled in a communications program at Camosun College and worked at two Victoria radio stations to pay his way through school.
After graduation, he worked in the sound department at CHEK-TV and when a job came up in the commercial production department as a cameraman, David made the jump to camera work. After six years at CHEK-TV, he left the company to strike out on his own.
“I had to challenge myself and be better than a furniture or car commercial. There comes a point in your life when you want to tell more meaningful stories and I was able to do that by having good gear. I’ve always prided myself on owning the best gear in Victoria.”
David founded Gamut Productions in 1992 with his first Sony Betacam, a state-of-the-art professional camcorder, a big deal back in the day. Today he owns two high-definition Canons and three drones.
“I love when things work, but I’m a bit of a MacGyver,” he admits. “I go to great lengths to prepare my gear and maintain it.”
If he doesn’t have it, he’ll get it, hiring people and resources on a per occasion basis as he needs them.
“My main sources of revenue are shooting television shows and a bit of corporate work here and there. Documentary is what I really enjoy the most because I end up learning about something I knew nothing about before. I’ve seen things that many other people have never got to see.”
Places like Senegal, Mexico, Britain, Japan, Germany, Spain, and the Philippines come to mind. One of the most memorable trips was accompanying a young Canadian dance troupe to the USSR, albeit under the supervision of a “minder.”
“KGB,” he explains. “The project was called Youth Ambassadors for Peace and it was pre-perestroika.”
Or living aboard the Canadian submarine HMCS Victoria for 18 days.
“The mission was to sink a hulk off Hawaii. It was pretty high action. When we finally got back to Honolulu, I bought every person on that submarine a beer. I’m not a submariner, I’m a sailor. I’ve been sailing for years but I definitely like the top of the water rather than underneath it.”
Then there’s the time he participated in “The Garden of Alice”, a 90-minute musical adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. It was 2020 and the pandemic had killed live theatre. Pacific Opera Victoria didn’t want to shut down; it wanted to reach its audience at home with streaming video so it hired David to take care of production. It was a mammoth undertaking involving five interlocked cameras shooting against a green screen in Victoria’s Baumann Theatre.
“The first stage was getting the singers and the musicians in and they recorded the entire opera,” says David. “Then the performers came in and they sang out loud but they were singing to playback.”
He edited the production himself.
“I’m a content editor. I like to create the story and I like someone else to do the polish. I had put in 700 hours on the rough cut and then I brought in an editor for an additional 200 hours to lay in the images and replace the green screen with some really great imagery.”
It was this which helped both David and Pacific Opera weather the pandemic.
Much of his work has been with First Nations. He’s particularly proud of the documentary Kuper Island; Return to the Healing Circle, which he photographed 27 years ago. The film focuses on community reaction to physical and sexual abuse at a BC residential school on Kuper (now called Penelakut) Island.
“If there was that one moment that sent me down a path where I wanted to work with First Nations people, it would have been that documentary,” he says. “It made me question how is it that as Canadians we didn’t know about this? How could this have happened? It made me want to do more research about the horrors that happened to our indigenous people.”
He says the production gave the community a voice.
“It gave the community strength to begin the process of confronting the abusers. Consequently, I’ve done a lot more [productions] with First Nations people.”
“Kuper Island started a relationship that has lasted for decades. Other indigenous themed productions he has photographed include Tillicum Lelum; A Saving Grace about a Nanaimo aboriginal friendship centre offering education, counseling, and sports activities for children.
Another is Ocean Warriors. When the tour boat Leviathan II overturned in rough seas near Tofino in 2015, the nearest vessel, an aboriginal fishing boat, came to its rescue. It spurred the Canadian Coast Guard to instigate a program called Coastal Nations Coast Guard Auxiliary in which coastal aboriginal communities get formal training in search and rescue. That series will air on APTN and CHEK.
“Generally, on the ocean there’s an indigenous fisherman somewhere and that spawned the idea,” says David. “If there’s an emergency on the water, skin colour doesn’t matter.”
Winds of Change, Truth, Art and Reconciliation is David’s latest indigenous story. The 37-minute documentary profiles the life of indigenous artist Daniel Elliott and his reaction to colonialism and reconciliation.
“I felt very marginalized and muted,” says Daniel. “I couldn’t express what I was thinking about and around reconciliation so I said, ‘Hey, I’m an artist and I can create something that tells a story and shows a pathway out of this in some way.’”
The result is a deeply personal account about using art to arrive at a new understanding. It’s the third project they’ve worked on together since 2017 and the impetus for forming Raven Sky Productions, a new venture in which David’s friend Daniel is the majority partner. David continues the story.
“Daniel and I looked at one another and Dan said, ‘You know what, I’m indigenous’ and I said ‘Yep,’ and he said, ‘I bring years of cultural wisdom to the table’ and I said, ‘Yep and I’ve been in TV forever.’ So we formed this symbiotic relationship. We didn’t go into this blindly. We are both bringing our strengths and elements together to form a company with the intent to produce quality indigenous programming.”
“I have creative control over what we’re going to do and where we’re going to go,” adds Daniel. “I have an enormous level of respect for Dave and I see him as a real, true ally, someone who can champion reconciliation alongside me.”
Raven Sky Productions represents David’s latest attempt to expand his gun-for-hire business with more personal projects. It’s a familiar tale among creatives. Artists are often wrapped up in the creation of their “babies” but not so much with the mechanics of financing and distribution. Pitching an idea, retaining control, and stick-handling it through to completion in today’s film and TV market is a lonely, soul-crushing enterprise.
“On the broadcasts I’ve done, somebody else has done the homework and managed all of that. I get in and out easily,” says David. “To my detriment, I probably didn’t learn the business of the business as I should have and I’ve relied on people that know the business to generate the funding.”
Undaunted, he forges ahead putting his time and money on the line. A 20th Century Survivor, the story of a Holocaust survivor who wrote an oratorio in the mid-1970’s but never saw it performed, is one such project. David’s been working on it for the past eight years as a labour of love, raising money and shooting footage to bring the oratorio to life.
“It’s getting pretty close to being finished. For me it really has become a passion project.”
Passion projects, commissions, managing a new venture – it all contributes to a busy lifestyle.
An avid sailor – he bought his first boat at 21 – David takes to the water in his vintage 46-foot Nautor Swan sailboat to relax. It’s a beautiful boat designed to go fast. Really fast. He used to race when he was younger but he hasn’t had the Swan on any spectacular runs lately. There’s no time.
Gardening is another activity that keeps him centered. Living in a heritage house with his partner, David tends the backyard garden. It’s “Japanese style,” as he puts it.
His life sounds idyllic but don’t expect him to sail into the sunset anytime soon.
“I’m not done yet. As a kid we grew up on Freedom 55 commercials. I joke with my friends that I’m currently on the Freedom 83 plan.
“I have to ask myself; even financially could I retire now; would I retire now? The answer to that is no. There’s still stories I want to tell.”
SNAPSHOT
If you were to meet your 20-year-old-self, what advice would you give him?
“My advice to myself would be to concentrate a little bit more on the business of the business and not rely on other producers to hire me.”
Who or what influenced you the most and why?
“I suppose it was my mother that inspired me to get out of fixing cars and pursue something I’ve always liked as a kid – photography. There’s a cinematographer that I admire named Vic Sarin. I think he’s one of Canada’s little gems. I think a lot can be learned from him.” (Editor’s note: Vic Sarin was profiled in the February 2018 edition of Inspired magazine).
What are you most grateful for?
“I’m grateful that I’ve been able to make a living in a career I like. I’ve got a beautiful partner and a comfortable house and a 46-foot sailboat, so I’m grateful for those things.”
What does success mean to you?
“For some people you need a house overlooking the Royal Victoria Yacht Club to be successful but that’s not my goal. I’m successful in that I’ve been able to do a job I love. I can’t imagine going to a job every day that you hate.”
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Want to listen to an interview with David Malysheff on our new INSPIRED podcast hosted by Michael Forbes and Lisa Marshall? CLICK HERE
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Dave’s the reel deal, and a truly nice guy with boundless enthusiasm. Great profile!
As always, David is understated. Starting out he had the courage to follow his dream when few would have, and inevitably has achieved a legacy that few do.
No doubt a resourceful talented man, who is very connected to his work and those he captures on film!
David is a talented, consummate professional. I’ve had the honor of working with him and witnessed his full commitment to the craft and the art of storytelling.