Adventure filmmaking program highlights safety instruction
April 9, 2025
Maybe nowhere is on-set safety more vital than when filming on a mountainside, on a raging river, or in a gorge. While drones provide stunning imagery in wild and hard-to-reach places, their use isn’t allowed everywhere. The UNM-Taos Film and Digital Media Arts (FDMA) Adventure Film program teaches students how to safely and creatively film in wild places without using a drone, such as in the Río Grande del Norte National Monument. Through work-based learning, the FDMA program creates a strong, new emerging workforce—who can film anywhere—for the blooming New Mexico film industry.
“We take our students all over the place. We go to the river regularly. We go to the mountains,” said FDMA Program Coordinator and Instructor Peter Walker. “There’s no adventure without risk. It boils down to mitigating the hazards and creating communication plans and solid teamwork to keep everyone safe while still getting the shots.”
If anyone needs medical attention while filming, Walker and FDMA student and work-study participant Cruz Concha are certified wilderness first responders. Walker, Concha, and FDMA Multimedia Services Technician Maggie Duval recently completed a National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) risk management skills program for leaders who run outdoor trips.
In addition, FDMA now includes the AIARE Level 1 Avalanche Training program. It’s a three-day course that provides an introduction to using decision-making tools to help a group manage risk while traveling in avalanche terrain by learning how to recognize avalanches, learn snow science, and manage technical gear, which is very much connected to filmmaking. It’s not only snow, raging water, and boulders that filmmakers need to navigate.
“When you're out filmmaking, you’ve got to keep your stuff together,” Walker said. “If there's suddenly a rain/windstorm on a film shoot in New Mexico, you better have everything organized in your pack because if you forgot your batteries, your hat blows away, you left your jacket in the van, you ran out of snacks and water, and your flashlight has dead batteries, then you're now about to become part of the problem.”
After UNM-Taos released http://www.riograndeserenade.com/ in 2021, the Public Lands Interpretive Association contacted Walker to ask if FDMA could produce an Adventure Safety Series for the Río Grande del Norte National Monument. The idea was to introduce safety topics to international visitors who visit the monument annually. This two-year collaboration resulted in five episodes visitors can watch before arriving: https://unmtaosfdma.com/adventure-safety-series/. The Bureau of Land Management manages the national monument, and recently published an article about the series in its internal newsletter highlighting FDMA students’ great work.
The next Adventure Film class begins in mid-May. Ten students will travel to Ghost Ranch for five days of camping where they will canoe and paddleboard to an island on Abiquiu Reservoir to film and participate in a 16-hour wilderness first-aid course. This will be followed by five days of volunteering at the Telluride Mountain Film Festival, including networking with filmmakers, athletes, and world-class storytellers.
