The Public Likes Of Shark And Man

Talking to ClubSub about Of Shark and Man

On Monday, I went to Leek, having been invited by the guy behind ClubSub, to give a bit of a talk about "Of Shark and Man," for an audience of about thirty or so people of all ages and during which I showed each of the three teaser trailers.

I hadn't actually thought about it prior to speaking but I realised just before I was due on, that this would be the first time I would ever screen the trailers to an audience where I was actually present. I know I'm not too great at self-promotion and certainly not as keen on it as some others out there, but I really do not enjoy watching myself on the telly, even worse is watching myself on the telly when other people are present, also watching. It makes me very uncomfortable but I am fully aware that I just need to suck it up and get used to it, in fact, I need to embrace the whole "self-promotion" thing, maybe even come up with a snazzy catchphrase or something, I don't know but either way, I digress...

I was originally planning to speak for around ten minutes max but ended up going over the half hour mark, the reason being that the response was really, overwhelmingly positive and there was a genuine interest and enthusiasm about not just the film, but my own back story, the story of Shark Reef and shark conservation in general so, in super-efficient presentation style, are a few bullet points of the stand out things I took from this really quite pleasant evening;

• Not one of the people there, all of whom were divers, knew anything about the story of Shark Reef. This was very encouraging to me as it makes the film more interesting!
• People responded extremely well to the notion that it's just an ordinary bloke with a dream fronting the film and not just another "TV person" or someone making a vanity project.
• The idea of shooting and producing everything using the kind of gear they themselves can realistically go out and buy was also a huge plus point for them.
• The assumption prior to the first trailer however, seemed to be that the quality of the film would not be very high, the kind of "shaky GoPro footage where everything is a slightly different shade of blue" kind of thing.
• After seeing the trailers, everybody seemed not only hugely surprised but also really energised by the quality of everything.
• Delivering a story in a way which resonates with the "everyman" is definitely a winning idea, questions started before I had even got to the "has anybody got any questions" bit.
• Everyone seemed to love the story and the idea of weaving the "everyman" story in with it seemed to help everything stick so to speak.
• The people I spoke to afterwards are very, very interested in shark films and stories relating to sharks but not really at all interested in what they are seeing either on TV or online from Independents currently and all of whom mentioned they thought that this would finally give them what they actually want to see.
• I spoke with two very nice gentlemen, one a 59 year old diver with an interest and passion for sharks going back half a century and another, probably in his late sixties who has dived all over the world chasing the big stuff and both of whom were very excited by the 70's and 80's influence on the film, the former immediately mentioning the "Blue Water White Death" influence. This pleased me enormously.
• After screening the trailers, answering the questions and chatting to everybody afterwards, it seemed that everyone would definitely make an effort to see the film.

It was a really enjoyable evening and everyone was so nice, thanks to Dave for having me and also to Ed and Anna from EDNA who filmed everything for the Making Of featurettes. They've also done a little blog themselves about the evening which you can read here.

So it would seem then that even at this early stage, people really want to see this film and there is a genuine excitement growing that people might actually be getting something different, creative and innovative.

Which was nice...

"Of Shark and Man" Teaser Trailer 3 (Letterboxed Version) from Scarlet View Media on Vimeo.