In the world of broadcast journalism, getting the perfect shot can be critical. That couldn’t be truer out on the water, where Bjoern Kils pilots a boat that allows reporters and film crews to see New York City from an entirely different angle.
Kils, a 2002 graduate of the School of Communication and Information (SCI), owns the New York Media Boat, a 26-foot, ex-military special ops craft that plies New York harbor and surrounding waters.
“We take photographers on board, we take news crews on board, and I do a lot of maritime photography out there myself,” says Kils, who majored in journalism and media studies at Rutgers.
His clientele includes CNN, Fox, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg, media organizations that use the boat to shoot footage from the harbor.
“A lot of these bigger New York media outlets come to us because this boat is cheaper to run than a helicopter, and generally we can stay on scene longer,” notes Kils. “We can also get to many places that are harder to access by car.”
A car could never have saved the life of a crew member of a tugboat sinking in the waters off Queens, as Kils and the New York Media Boat team did this past winter.
In January, Kils was doing some commercial work off East Rockaway, out in the Atlantic with his boat “It was very bad conditions, very foggy with 6-foot waves," he recalls. "We were out there, and all of a sudden I hear on the radio that there is a mayday call. A tugboat was taking on water."
The Coast Guard relayed the coordinates, and Kils' team used their navigation system to determine the tugboat's position. "By the time we got there, there was only about 2 feet of tugboat left. The boat was going down fast," Kils says.
Kils and his crew pulled the man on board and then transported him to a nearby pilot's boat. "We were able to save this guy’s life,” he says.
Though Kils always loved the water, he never thought he’d make his living by it. He grew up in northern Germany on the Baltic Sea and moved with his family to the United States in 1994, when his father was recruited by Rutgers' Institute of Marine and Coastal Science.
While at SCI, Kils minored in marine science. He began working at News 12 News Jersey following graduation. Beginning as a freelancer on the overnight shift in the master control room, he eventually was promoted to editor and cameraperson. Kils also worked at the assignment desk and ran the satellite truck.
He stayed with News 12 New Jersey until 2007, and then accepted an offer to work for MedPage Today, a medical news service, to build the company’s video department. There, Kils shot still art and video footage of medical conferences and experts as he traveled throughout North America and Europe.
During that time, he got the idea to start the New York Media Boat.
“I had a smaller boat here in the harbor, a 12-foot boat, from which I was doing photography, especially of sail boats,” he recalls. When he realized there was demand for TV crews and photographers wanting to come on board and shoot in the harbor, he upgraded the boat.
Now the New York Media Boat has another sideline: taking tourists and photography clubs out on the water. Embarking from a dock off the West Side Highway at North Moore Street, Kils’ Adventure Sightseeing Tours gives visitors an opportunity to see the major sights in New York City from the water.
Kils also has developed sailing-based photography packages for international clients, such as Hugo Boss and Maserati.
This article originally appeared in Alum-Knights, Spring 2014 edition, Rutgers’ School of Communication and Information.