This is our true horror story about Bob Gilles - a man who posed as a Director of Photography using over 20 fake Cinematography credits on IMDB.
We hired him after he lied to us and said he was the Director of Photography on big TV shows like ‘Empire’, ‘Minority Report’, ‘Academy Awards’, etc. He showed a link to over 20 cinematography credits on IMDB – all proved fake. He also had over 16 credits as a steadi-cam operator – again all fake.
We hired him to be the DP on a feature film we shot with high-profile actors in Hawaii. We flew him to the set and put him up in a hotel.
He came to our set and it was a shocking disaster.
One the first day of shooting, we became growingly suspicious – not just me, but the crew began to suspect that Bob Gilles was not a real DP.
First, he wouldn’t call me, the director, about working on the shot list for the script.
After two weeks, I was ready to fire Bob. However Bob finally called me and we talked about the script. Again, Bob informed me that he shot HBO’s ‘Empire’ in 3 days and they were so impressed with his work. He lied and said how much the lead actor loved his camera work (this is the work of a pathological liar – keep reading on it gets better).
On the first day of shooting, his camera didn’t work. It was obvious that his stead-cam rig was shaking on the monitor, but he brushed it off. It wasn’t until I stopped shooting and actually played back the footage that Mr. Gilles said there was something wrong with his rig and we would have to stop shooting until he fixed the problem.
We were set back now waiting on Mr. Gilles to fix his steadi-cam.
But there was more. Bob’s shooting represented the work sometimes of a junior high-schooler. He would move the camera, jiggle the auto-focus, switch to a non-speaking actor….all in the middle of a scene. It was like having Moe, Curly, and Larry as the camera operators – it would make you laugh if it weren’t so tragic.
Now we know that Bob Gilles was a trespasser on the set with no business whatsoever being the Director of Photography. But on that first day, we believed he was really a true DP.
Bob knew he was a scam-artist and there was always fear in his eyes – like he would be found out that all his film/tv credits were bogus.
I knew something was very wrong as he always tried to avoid talking to me. He would always be staring at his camera and not even asking about what the next scene was. He was so clueless as to what scene we were shooting.
He would never light any scene and when I called ‘Action!’ he would grab his Steadicam and focus on the actor talking. When a new actor spoke, he swung his camera too late. It was unreal. I thought, ‘How on earth could this guy be a real DP of real movies?’
I’ve worked with some of the very best A-list DP. So far Bob was working like a high-school student with no experience.
Finally, after putting up with this for two days, I quizzed him what scene we were about to shoot. He shook his head. I ask him if he read the scene. Again he shrugged his shoulders and moved away from me. What legitimate Director of Photography would do this? And I’ve worked with some of the best A-list DPs in the industry.
We fired Bob after 5 horrendous days. It was the first time in 22 years that I fired a DP.
After seeing the footage, I wept like a baby. I thought at first he was trying to sabotage us as NO legitimate DP would shoot like this. There was no other explanation.
Then the answer came a couple weeks after we wrapped production. After seeing the horrible footage, I called some of the TV directors, 1st Ads, and producers of the TV shows he was on that were on his IMDB (Internet Movie Database) credits. None of them knew who he was. All of them said this guy Bob Gilles was a fake imposter and deleted the credits of the real DP or Steadicam operator.
My heart sunk.
I then noticed that Bob had listed two more fake DP credits on IMDB – one was ‘1906’ which was a Pixar movie and another was an upcoming Ridley Scott movie. So now he was the DP with Ridley Scott.
I texted Bob about his scam and that’s when I began to realize I was dealing with a complete sociopath: He then threatened to release a video of my losing my temper and using profanity. He also said I gave him death threats and abused women on the set – none of which was true.
So this is Bob Gilles. I would not wish Bob Gilles on my worst enemy. He is a pathological liar, con-artist, trespasser, and extortionist. Not to mention an amateur, talentless camera operator.
He ruined our first 5 days of shooting turning a beautiful film into chaos before he was fired.
The epilogue is IMDB investigated and completely erased over 36 fake movie credits. The sad thing is Bob was up to his old tricks and tried listing more fake credits.
Bob Gilles Reviews
This is our true horror story about Bob Gilles - a man who posed as a Director of Photography using over 20 fake Cinematography credits on IMDB.
We hired him after he lied to us and said he was the Director of Photography on big TV shows like ‘Empire’, ‘Minority Report’, ‘Academy Awards’, etc. He showed a link to over 20 cinematography credits on IMDB – all proved fake. He also had over 16 credits as a steadi-cam operator – again all fake.
We hired him to be the DP on a feature film we shot with high-profile actors in Hawaii. We flew him to the set and put him up in a hotel.
He came to our set and it was a shocking disaster.
One the first day of shooting, we became growingly suspicious – not just me, but the crew began to suspect that Bob Gilles was not a real DP.
First, he wouldn’t call me, the director, about working on the shot list for the script.
After two weeks, I was ready to fire Bob. However Bob finally called me and we talked about the script. Again, Bob informed me that he shot HBO’s ‘Empire’ in 3 days and they were so impressed with his work. He lied and said how much the lead actor loved his camera work (this is the work of a pathological liar – keep reading on it gets better).
On the first day of shooting, his camera didn’t work. It was obvious that his stead-cam rig was shaking on the monitor, but he brushed it off. It wasn’t until I stopped shooting and actually played back the footage that Mr. Gilles said there was something wrong with his rig and we would have to stop shooting until he fixed the problem.
We were set back now waiting on Mr. Gilles to fix his steadi-cam.
But there was more. Bob’s shooting represented the work sometimes of a junior high-schooler. He would move the camera, jiggle the auto-focus, switch to a non-speaking actor….all in the middle of a scene. It was like having Moe, Curly, and Larry as the camera operators – it would make you laugh if it weren’t so tragic.
Now we know that Bob Gilles was a trespasser on the set with no business whatsoever being the Director of Photography. But on that first day, we believed he was really a true DP.
Bob knew he was a scam-artist and there was always fear in his eyes – like he would be found out that all his film/tv credits were bogus.
I knew something was very wrong as he always tried to avoid talking to me. He would always be staring at his camera and not even asking about what the next scene was. He was so clueless as to what scene we were shooting.
He would never light any scene and when I called ‘Action!’ he would grab his Steadicam and focus on the actor talking. When a new actor spoke, he swung his camera too late. It was unreal. I thought, ‘How on earth could this guy be a real DP of real movies?’
I’ve worked with some of the very best A-list DP. So far Bob was working like a high-school student with no experience.
Finally, after putting up with this for two days, I quizzed him what scene we were about to shoot. He shook his head. I ask him if he read the scene. Again he shrugged his shoulders and moved away from me. What legitimate Director of Photography would do this? And I’ve worked with some of the best A-list DPs in the industry.
We fired Bob after 5 horrendous days. It was the first time in 22 years that I fired a DP.
After seeing the footage, I wept like a baby. I thought at first he was trying to sabotage us as NO legitimate DP would shoot like this. There was no other explanation.
Then the answer came a couple weeks after we wrapped production. After seeing the horrible footage, I called some of the TV directors, 1st Ads, and producers of the TV shows he was on that were on his IMDB (Internet Movie Database) credits. None of them knew who he was. All of them said this guy Bob Gilles was a fake imposter and deleted the credits of the real DP or Steadicam operator.
My heart sunk.
I then noticed that Bob had listed two more fake DP credits on IMDB – one was ‘1906’ which was a Pixar movie and another was an upcoming Ridley Scott movie. So now he was the DP with Ridley Scott.
I texted Bob about his scam and that’s when I began to realize I was dealing with a complete sociopath: He then threatened to release a video of my losing my temper and using profanity. He also said I gave him death threats and abused women on the set – none of which was true.
So this is Bob Gilles. I would not wish Bob Gilles on my worst enemy. He is a pathological liar, con-artist, trespasser, and extortionist. Not to mention an amateur, talentless camera operator.
He ruined our first 5 days of shooting turning a beautiful film into chaos before he was fired.
The epilogue is IMDB investigated and completely erased over 36 fake movie credits. The sad thing is Bob was up to his old tricks and tried listing more fake credits.
Bob Gilles was a trespasser on the set
Mr. Gilles was a trespasser on our set. He posed as a DP with 22 credits when he had NONE.