Neal Williams Business Entrepreneur - Wildlife Cinematographer - Executive Producer
Neal Williams is President of SuperFlow Corporation and Executive Producer of SuperFlow Productions. Williams has spent 15 years shooting in North & South America using a wide variety of special boats, blinds, towers, and tree platforms to film some of the most spectacular and endangered species found on the planet. As a result, Williams has compiled more than 300 hours of film and video footage, creating the largest library of tropical and natural behavior wildlife footage in the world. He is currently working on recording wildlife footage on the five different life zones amid Colorado's spectacular Rocky Mountains.
Neal Williams and Mary Helsaple founded SuperFlow Productions in 1987 in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It is a subsidiary of the SuperFlow Corporation, a multi-national corporation that manufactures computerized, high-tech, engine test equipment for the automotive, truck and bus industry sold around the world, and its emissions- testing equipment has played an important role in decreasing the air pollution in Mexico City. Simultaneous to this during the last ten years, we have been working on programs filmed in the Amazon, Siberia, and Yucatan and throughout North America.
Currently working on several HDTV programs that feature the exquisite rituals, body language, and chick rearing techniques of Flamingos, Wood Storks, Great Blue Heron, Great Egrets, Brown Pelican, Sand hill Cranes, and Sage Grouse and the spectacular places they inhabit in the North and Southern Hemispheres. Williams attends the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival each year and is in negotiations for several new television nature programs. Over the last 2 years we have traveled to unique habitats in North America to explore the diversity of wildlife eco-systems from the mountains and prairies to the wetlands of Florida.
“Observing the natural behavior and elaborate interactions of wildlife communities is of constant fascination. My fascination is to record these rarely seen ‘customs’ and share them with others. We want to make quality, compassionate and poignant wildlife films that inspire others to preserve and protect these special places for future generations and to help maintain the diversity of the planet.”
Nature Film Credits:
Williams co-produced "The Spirits of the Rainforest", a two hour special for Discovery which won 14 awards, including two Emmys for "Best Informational Program" of the year, and "Best Music", and the NEA award of the year for "Contributions to Education Through Broadcasting".
Williams was also Executive Producer for "The Great Siberian Grizzly", which won 7 awards, including a Cable Ace for "Best Natural History Program" on US cable TV for 1997.
Williams was Executive Producer and Helsaple Associate Producer for the PBS, The Living Eden’s Series, "Manu, Peru's Hidden Rainforest", which received an Emmy nomination for "Best Cinematography", and won an Emmy for "Best Music". It also won the "Best Limited Series" award at the Jackson Hole Film festival. (I believe this is the best rainforest program produced by anyone to date). See the website a
Williams was Executive Producer for The Living Eden’s Series, "Kamchatka, Siberia's Forbidden Wilderness", which first broadcast on May 10, 2000 on PBS. This program includes sequences on Grizzly Bears, Fur Seals, Killer Whales, Sea Otters, Puffins, Kittewakes, Skuas, Ravens, and Stellars Sea Eagles in Russia. The program received an Emmy for Best Sound.
Williams supplied the wild footage for National Geographic for a macaw smuggling TV program, for the school Jason Project in the Amazon, for the World Parrot Trust Promotional Tape, and quite a bit for "Journey Into Amazonia", (ICON Films), which was on PBS in 2000. Some of his footage will also be used in the new Fox, "Gone Wild" Series, two “Endangered Species” programs, and a new Nova (PBS) series on evolution. The Image Bank now licenses his Amazon film footage exclusively for commercials worldwide. See his stock footage website at:
In 1987, we began filming in the remote rainforest region of Manu National Park, located in southeastern Peru. During the last eight years, Nature Stock Shots has accumulated more than 300 hours of film and video footage. This is probably the largest library of footage on the Amazon. In addition we have another 200 plus hours of North American and other endangered species.
“We started out shooting slides on trips to South America with Ornithologist Ted Parker, (LSU), in the mid 80s. We quickly realized that the most interesting stories were about making moving images that focused on animal behavior, remote cultures and conservation efforts.” In March 1990, we made our first short documentary film illustrating the abundant wildlife along Peru's Tambopata River that encompassed one of the most spectacular macaw gathering sites in the world. The film was shown to key government officials with assistance from the Association for the Conservation of the Southern Rainforest. As a result, in January, 1991, the Peruvian government declared a 4.5-million-acre rainforest preserve called the Tambopata-Candamo Reserved Zone. The first "Spirits of the Rainforest" program was specifically aimed at influencing the officials in South America to have a greater appreciation of the validity of the nativo cultures in the Amazon. As a result of the efforts of many others, and this program, over 5 million acres in land around Manu have now been deeded to the nativo residents during the last five years.
In 1993, SuperFlow Productions produced a two-hour film for the Discovery Channel entitled "Spirits of the Rainforest." The film was shot entirely within the Manu Biosphere Reserve in southeastern Peru. The film production team spent months sharing and documenting the lives of the seldom- encountered ethnic tribe, the Machiguenga of Manu. Mirroring the environment in which it was filmed, "Spirits of the Rainforest" blends science, natural history and ethnography--a unique mix that is perhaps the only way to capture and do justice to such a diverse environment. The program "Spirits of the Rainforest" has received many awards and honors including People Magazine's "Top 15 programs of 1993," awards in the New York, Chicago, Denver, and Houston International Film Festivals, finalist status at the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival, a CINE Golden Eagle Award, and in 1994, two Emmys--one for Outstanding Informational or Cultural Programming and another for Outstanding Music Composer in a Documentary.
In 1994, film team produced, "The Spirit Hunters," a one-hour, ethnographic portrait of the Machiguenga Indians. Narrated by James Earl Jones, "The Spirit Hunters" premiered worldwide on the Discovery Channel in September of 1994 as part of Discovery's series, "Portrait of a People." We completed “The Great Siberian Grizzly” for Discovery Communication’s new “Animal Planet” and “Manu: Peru’s Hidden Rainforest” for the “Living Eden’s” series for ABC/Kane. Both aired in 1997.
SuperFlow Productions, now Neal Williams ProductionsNature Stock Shots utilizes its own on-line, Beta cam SP, component, computer-edit suite. It also has a digital, non-linear editing system, digital video effects and full audio-mixing capabilities. In addition, the company owns an extensive group of top-of-the-line cameras, which includes an Arriflex HSR-3, an Arriflex HSR-2 (both configured for super-16mm along with a video assist for an 8mm recorder), and a Photosonics high-speed 16mm film camera, as well as a BVP-400 Betacam SP broadcast video camera. SuperFlow's inventory also comprises a number of lenses adaptable to both film and video cameras. These include Canon broadcast-quality prime lenses up to 800mm, a Canon 150-600mm zoom lens, and a Canon J-33 zoom lens (11-726mm), the first of its kind on the North American continent. Sound is recorded with Neumann and Sony stereo microphones, Sennheiser shotgun, and Cetec-Vega wireless microphones onto a Sony PCM-2000 R-DAT recorder. Increased production value is attained through the use of a Steadicam SK and a Jimmy Jib III (with a 25-foot boom).
“To date our nature programs have been nominated for 7 Emmys and won 4 including one this year for the PBS Living Eden’s: Kamchatka. In addition we have won 1 Cable Ace and 2 Cine, Golden Eagle awards for nature programs. “
Preservation of the world's pristine habitats is still important for Williams and Helsaple and they continue to support the efforts of many National & International conservation groups and field biologists’ efforts worldwide.