Emmy for Garin College old boy
Emmy winner Mat Goodman with his Shotover camera that was made in Queenstown. Photo: Supplied.
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When Moutere Hills-born and raised Mat Goodman learned on 17 September he had been awarded the New Zealand Cinematography Gold Award for his work filming giraffes in Namibia, he took it in his typically unassuming stride.
Just hours later, the former Upper Moutere Primary and Garin College student received news of even loftier success - he and his handpicked team of international wildlife filmers had won the prestigious Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography at the 52nd Annual Daytime Emmy Awards in California.
Still, Mat remained calm and nonchalant. Not that he wasn’t excited or grateful, but he saw the recognition as a meaningful affirmation of progress in a career that began on shaky ground in 2011.
And it was a literal shaky start. On day one of his Environmental Sustainability studies at Canterbury Polytech - which included a sidestep into filming and photography - Mat was shaken out of his Christchurch classroom by the series of earthquakes that claimed 185 lives and devastated the Garden City.
Despite the upheaval and disruption to his studies, Mat stayed focused - and the rest, you could say, is Emmy.
The globally-contested award was earned through his work with Grizzly Creek Films, based in Montana.
Contracted to National Geographic Television, which is owned by Disney Entertainment, Mat was sent to the Everglades and Florida Keys to film alligators and dolphins in their natural environments for the wildlife documentary National Parks USA.
Mat had previously earned three Emmy nominations for cinematography on Wild New Zealand, Spy in the Wild and Serengeti, where he has spent much of the past eight years filming wildlife and also tutoring aspiring local camera operators.
It’s in the Tanzanian wilderness where he’s had “really only a few unnerving experiences” - and not in the face of wild lions, buffalo or hippos.
“Disturbing a camp of elephant poachers in the middle of nowhere with only a driver for company is a dangerous situation,” Mat explains.
“They are armed and desperate because the consequences of arrest and conviction is not an option for some of these men.”
Floating in a rubber dinghy in the Arctic Ocean at night among protective and aggressive polar bears was another assignment that demanded serious caution from the team.
Mat is yet to confirm whether National Parks USA will be aired in New Zealand.