The guest
Morgan Fallon: Nine-time Emmy-nominated executive producer, director, and cinematographer who spent roughly a decade shooting, directing, and producing for Anthony Bourdain (Parts Unknown, Mind of a Chef); now director/EP on United States of America with W. Kamau Bell.
What this episode covers
Morgan Fallon recounts his unlikely path from a denied Emerson College applicant who drove to admissions to demand a spot, through three intense years assisting director Michael Mann on Ali, into documentary television. He details how he broke into Anthony Bourdain's world, the craft of two-camera vérité shooting (the 180-degree rule and the wordless 'dance' between operators), and what made Bourdain's relentlessly high standards both brutal and beloved. He reflects candidly on his own bipolar disorder and anxiety, quitting drinking after Bourdain's death, and the physical toll of being a 'physical shooter.' The conversation closes with deeply personal stories: returning to West Virginia to make peace with a hard childhood, working alongside his wife Jillian, and a transcendent day filming in Antarctica he calls the peak of his career.
Recommended on this episode
MediaRecommended
Jaws
Steven Spielberg
“I love that movie”
“I had Jaws I love that movie and I I had Jaws on VHS tape I recorded it off of HBO”— Morgan Fallon
MediaRecommended
The Thin Red Line
Terrence Malick
“incredibly articulate film that almost feel like visual poems”
“Terren Malik is Thin Red Line and he just has a way of making these incredibly articulate film that almost feel like visual poems”— Morgan Fallon
MediaRecommended
GoodFellas
Martin Scorsese
“probably the greatest American film ever made”
“he directed probably the greatest American film ever made which is good Fellas I believe I think it was Tony's favorite as well”— Morgan Fallon
MediaRecommended
The Insider
Michael Mann
“I really I loved Insider”
“but Michael I really I loved Insider and I loved heat and I love I think that the last sequence in Last of the Mohicans”— Morgan Fallon
MediaRecommended
Heat
Michael Mann
“I loved heat”
“I loved Insider and I loved heat and I love I think that the last sequence in Last of the Mohicans is one of the masterpieces of film making”— Morgan Fallon
MediaRecommended
The Last of the Mohicans
Michael Mann
“one of the masterpieces of film making it's technically perfect”
“the last sequence in Last of the Mohicans oh yeah is one of the masterpieces of of film making it's it's technically perfect”— Morgan Fallon
MediaRecommended
Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain
Morgan Neville
“I thought it was well done”
“I watched roadrunner this documentry about Anthony Bourdain Tony Bourdain and I thought it was well done”— Tim Ferriss
BookRecommendedISBN verified
American Buffalo
Steven Rinella
“excellent writer that's earned”
“skillful writer I mean American buffalo many other books excellent writer that's earned”— Tim Ferriss
MediaRecommended
We Need to Talk About Cosby
W. Kamau Bell
“I think it's really Brave”
“his current project which I had absolutely nothing to do with is the four-part documentary on Showtime on Bill Cosby and I think it's really Brave”— Morgan Fallon
ProductRecommended
JM Custom muzzle brake
JM Custom
“I respect what they're doing and they do high quality work”
“this muzzle break was made by JM customs and West Virginia which is cool because they're a they're an independent operation”— Morgan Fallon
The guest's own work
MediaBy the guest
Mind of a Chef
“I did a season of Mind of a chef with Magnus neelen in Sweden which was a show that Tony produced”— Morgan Fallon
MediaBy the guest
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations
“working for them and was at that time working for Tony on No Reservations they hired me for a couple of jobs”— Morgan Fallon
MediaBy the guest
Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown
“Morgan Fallon director cinematographer and producer of Anthony Bordain Parts Unknown misses most about working with Tony is the pressure”— Tim Ferriss
MediaBy the guest
MeatEater
Steven Rinella
“we launched a self-financed Endeavor which was mediator which has now grown into this big company that's Steve owns”— Morgan Fallon
MediaBy the guest
Wild Within
“We went on to film Eight Episodes of a show called wild within which was I think like a early attempt to make a hunting show”— Morgan Fallon
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
MediaReferenced
Pink Floyd The Wall
“she was using like Pink Floyd The Wall Deliverance Apocalypse Now you know do the right thing”— Morgan Fallon
MediaReferenced
Deliverance
“Pink Floyd The Wall Deliverance Apocalypse Now you know do the right thing Deliverance is intense pretty heavy”— Morgan Fallon
MediaReferenced
Apocalypse Now
“she was using like Pink Floyd The Wall Deliverance Apocalypse Now you know do the right thing”— Morgan Fallon
MediaReferenced
Do the Right Thing
Spike Lee
“Pink Floyd The Wall Deliverance Apocalypse Now you know do the right thing Deliverance is intense”— Morgan Fallon
MediaReferenced
The Insider
Michael Mann
“you think of a film like The Insider and what he was able to do with Russell Crow who's obviously a brilliant actor”— Morgan Fallon
MediaReferenced
Ali
Michael Mann
“I worked with Michael on the on the making of Ali right so we were what I think 130 something like that was the end budget”— Morgan Fallon
BookReferencedISBN verified
The Last of the Mohicans
James Fenimore Cooper
“I just rewatched last of the micans recently because I read the book for the first time and oh that's cool”— Tim Ferriss
MediaReferenced
The Wild Bunch
Sam Peckinpah
“Sam peek andpa is like very famous director think of like the Wild Bunch yeah okay got it”— Morgan Fallon
ProductReferenced
Toyota Land Cruiser
Toyota
“we meet this group of BN all in their like late 70s Toyota Land Cruisers which is the car of choice in the Western desert of Egypt”— Morgan Fallon
ProductReferenced
Clif Bar
Clif Bar & Company
“I'm begging him to eat Cliff Bars and stuff like that because he wouldn't eat anything he's just like wasting away”— Morgan Fallon
MediaReferenced
John Wick
“if he spends 45 minutes of his hourong interview talking about John Wick to you're going to have to kind of like suck it”— Morgan Fallon
MediaReferenced
Free Solo
“My last cinematography nomination was up against free solo it was up against free solo we're punching way out of our class”— Morgan Fallon
MediaReferenced
Lost in Translation
Sofia Coppola
“the bar of the park Hiatt in Tokyo right where Bill Murray was in in Lost in Translation soaking up just being in that space”— Morgan Fallon
MediaReferenced
CNN
“you're watching CNN you're watching Mind of a chef you're watching t on HBO you're watching The Layover you're watching repeats of No Reservations”— Morgan Fallon
MediaReferenced
The Layover
Anthony Bourdain
“you're watching Mind of a chef you're watching t on HBO you're watching The Layover you're watching repeats of No Reservations”— Morgan Fallon
ProductReferenced
Gulfstream V
Gulfstream
“one day I'm flying around in golf stream fives with Michael and Will Smith and I had at Nelson Mandela's house”— Morgan Fallon
Big reveals from this episode
- Fallon quit drinking and took up mountain biking immediately after Anthony Bourdain died.
- He landed his break with Michael Mann via a random 3-day office-assistant gig, refused to leave, and within months was in Africa shooting on Ali.
- Mann's assistant left Fallon alone with Mann to attend a Roger Waters concert; Fallon delivered a David Remnick book quote on demand and took the assistant's job within about a week.
- Around 2014 Fallon pushed to direct, proved himself on Mind of a Chef in Sweden, and got Bourdain's blessing to direct the Ethiopia episode with Marcus Samuelsson.
- Fallon explains the famous Sicily octopus scene: a diver planted a dead octopus underwater, devastating Bourdain, who downed six negronis before turning it into an iconic scene.
- Fallon describes a daily Parts Unknown rhythm of drinking to sleep, then powering through on coffee and adrenaline before drinking again.
- Fallon pitched the West Virginia (McDowell County) episode in Antarctica; the show won an Emmy, which he sent back to the town of Welch where it now sits in someone's home.
- On the last day of shooting a never-aired Florence episode a week before he died, Bourdain told Fallon's wife Jillian he'd just signed three more years and wanted to keep working with them.
Worth remembering
- Fallon blew out his knee running sprints with a camera while filming a 2003 documentary on Coastal Carolina's football team, then shot two more months before getting surgery.
- The bio: nine-time Emmy-nominated, studied film at Emerson College, worked for Michael Mann, joined ZPZ in 2007, and shot Parts Unknown across its 103-episode run.
- On the Ali shoot in Mozambique, Mann directed a night scene with about 15,000 extras.
- Fallon met Steve Rinella in a Michigan parking lot and was up to his shoulders in a swamp setting turtle traps within 35 minutes; their canceled show Wild Within evolved into MeatEater.
- Fallon shot 96 episodes of The Biggest Loser over three years, a camera on his shoulder ~10 hours a day, which taught him endurance shooting.
- Bourdain, who ate almost anything, couldn't stomach Ethiopian food and nearly starved on the shoot; Fallon begged him to eat Cliff Bars.
- Parts Unknown shot 7-day field segments on roughly a $3,000 external equipment rental budget yet earned cinematography nominations, one against Free Solo.
- For the Tangier episode they filmed Bourdain typing; his freestyle text mixed 'It was the best of times,' 'Call me Ishmael,' and 'Jackie Brown.'
- The Washington Square Park scene with Grandmaster Maurice Ashley demolishing a street hustler has about 9 million views on Ashley's YouTube channel.
- In Antarctica the crew flew their own C-130 and a helicopter, drank whiskey over 50,000-year-old ice, and ate pulled pork sandwiches over a drum of jet fuel at a remote refueling station.
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