A Ray of Light II Is On It's Way

It's been a manic few months. The first cut of "Of Shark and Man" is on it's way to California so the Sound Design stems can be added.

If you don't know what Sound Design is, it's basically the creation of sound, its manipulation, mixing and mastering, all of which gives the viewer more of an emotional and sensory experience. Some films have a simple, more straight ahead sound design, especially in factual film, however, having gone down a far more complex and ambitious route, we have hundreds of sounds to mix in a cohesive way which will hopefully give you a fuller viewing experience and aid in the narrative of the film. We will end up with a mix of four "stems," one each for the narrative, voice over, topside ambiance and underwater sound, however, currently we have fifty so David Lawrie has his work cut out but what we have sounds incredible!

As post production on "Of Shark and Man" has been reaching completion, alongside commercial work for various clients, I have been putting the finishing touches to "A Ray of Light II."



A Ray of Light from Scarlet View Media on Vimeo.

If you haven't seen the first film, predictably entitled, "A Ray of Light," you can do so above.

The film took me by surprise in the level of success it attained, headlining various film festivals around the world and having been viewed to date, in 151 countries. I'd always intended to do a sequel because the reaction to Brad and his work was overwhelmingly positive, indeed, as more people saw the film, the level of support for Brad's work increased to the stage where he was able to raise sponsorship to start Asociacion Ondine, an official non-profit, grassroots marine conservation organisation based on the island.

I don't want to give too much away but A Ray of Light II is a longer film (29 minutes) much less retrospective with a first person insight into Asociacion Ondine's biggest conservation project to date (a Stingray tagging expedition) and has much more by way of content. It focuses on the effects the first film had on Brad's life and conservation on the island, the growth of Asociacion Ondine, the huge changes to Brad's personal life and also confronts the challenges and more controversial aspects of marine conservation in Mallorca. Where the first was something of a vignette, the sequel is a more rounded, documentary style film which asks the difficult questions and gives the important answers.


In short, I am really, really proud of it.

Production-wise the film was shot on two Canon 7D's, various L Series and EF-S Lenses, about 6 GoPros (meaning lots of mounted POV type shots) and two aerial drones. Sound was captured on a Zoom H1n, Rode Video Mic and Rode Video Mic Pro and underwater sequences were filmed primarily on 7D in a Nauticam housing, with two Sola 1200 lights, with some additional footage captured with GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition, both mounted and hand held.

Post-Production was all done on Adobe Production Premium CS6 on a custom built Novatech edit suite and graded in Da Vinci Resolve Lite 10 with a few of my secret little tricks added on top (they stay secret!) Sound Design was mixed and mastered by David Lawrie on Logic on Mac.

As always, big thanks to the awesome Fourth Element, Apeks and Aqualung!


A very small handful of people have seen it and the feedback has been pretty overwhelming to be honest, so far all but one have admitted to shedding a few tears (the one who hasn't, I think may have at least experienced a little moistening ;) ) and all seem to feel this is a big leap forward in terms of the quality of everything.

A Ray of Light II gets its full premiere at Palma Aquarium, in Mallorca on October 30th, where they will also be screening the first film, Gabriel Morey will be giving details of findings of the Stingray Survey to date and Brad, Gabriel and myself will also be doing a Q&A session so if you're on the island, make sure to get down and see it!

The film will then get an online release (free of charge again) some time in November and will be hopefully hitting some festivals next year.

To make sure you are amongst the first to see it when it's out, join here and here as all details will be posted there and there will also be a "Making Of" featurette as well!


** By the way, if you haven't already seen the great news, please have a read of Mike's blog here!**

A new short film coming very soon...

Hard at work chasing Stingrays

As alluded to in my previous blog, I have recently returned from three weeks in Mallorca where, in rather typical fashion, I created a new mountain of work to get through by coming up with the idea to use my "holiday" to shoot a short film about a brilliant conservation initiative set up and run by my equally brilliant amigo, Brad Robertson. I am involved in that I support it and offer advice where I can, helping in bits and pieces where my skill set is needed but this really is Brad's baby.

The Mallorca Stingray Survey (click the link and join the group) is a simple and endearingly positive project whereby divers can volunteer to take part in regular Stingray counts throughout a twelve month period, in a Marine Reserve with Brad to try and gain better understanding of the visiting Stingray population and when they are present throughout the year. That's pretty much it, grassroots conservation that unites the local community and actually allows people the chance to get their hands dirty and contribute to the collection of scientific data. Once again, our friend, the immeasurably cool Gabriel Morey, is involved and giving us the political, governmental and scientific clout we need to actually maybe even make a difference.

 

 No photoshop on that, honestly!

As far as films go, it doesn't sound the most exciting, but if you're expecting a run of the mill film about people counting Stingrays then you're very much mistaken.

There are very few true conservationists out there in the world, by true conservationists I mean the spit and sawdust individuals who spend every waking hour fighting red tape, apathy, financial limitations, the weather, exhaustion and countless other obstacles. The people for whom conservation isn't a Facebook status but a way of life, the people who know all too well that glamorous photo shoots, glossy PSAs and clicking "like" on something hasn't saved a single shark, whale, rhino or whatever regardless of how many "fins up" you get.

 

Conservation projects like this cost money, create mountains of work dealing with people who ultimately let you down, offer glimpses of hope before inevitable crushing disappointment and for all you romantics out there, believing in something enough to dedicate your life to it fucks up relationships. We can all live in a world where "A click a day keeps the finners away" or we can start living in the real world and that is what this film is about.

I decided to approach this film looking not primarily at the project, but the person behind it, my "thing" is animals and people and the relationships bound by a very one sided passion. Brad is a very close friend and someone for whom I have the utmost respect and he was very brave in opening up over the course of three interviews during which we discussed pretty much anything and everything relating to the reality of starting a conservation project in a hotbed of corruption and bureaucratic fuckwittery and most importantly, the effects on his and wonderful wife Bea's life.

I also shot the film in a very specific way, filming often when neither Brad, Bea or anyone else for that matter were aware I was even there so this is very much a look into the lives behind what seems on the surface, a small, embryonic conservation labour of love.

 

So why shoot it like this? A number of reasons really, firstly, I wanted it to be interesting! In this world of instant gratification, platitudes, back slapping and the sycophantic felching of the self proclaimed conservation heroes who don't actually do anything, I once again (much like in "Of Shark and Man") want to focus on the real heroes, the ones you haven't heard of because they're too busy working their arses off to try and make the world a better place while everyone else is limiting their contribution to 140 characters or less.

This is the reality behind grassroots conservation, of all the NGOs contacted for advice and/or support, (as far as I am currently aware) not a single one has responded despite the project having governmental support, every single cent spent on the project has come from Brad and Bea's pockets whilst they try to build their business after a Winter of barely working at all. This is the sixteen hour days, the strain on relationships, the continued disappointments, the apathy, rejection and sacrifices made because they believe in something enough, but it is also the wins, the people who begin to believe in Brad and his project and the moments which make it all worthwhile (car sized Stingrays anyone?...)

Incidentally, this film also received no outside funding support, I paid for the whole thing out of my own pocket and Brad and Bea's involvement in regards to doing the dives etc was entirely funded by themselves also so once again, this was a case of three friends doing something on their own because they felt it was the right thing to do.

 

It was an interesting experience for me as this time I was the entire film crew. This was a "one camera" shoot which creates very specific issues when it comes to the edit and getting the shot. Being responsible for every single shot, the sound, the lighting and of course direction and production was an enjoyable challenge, dealing with whatever arose, both opportunities and problems was a hugely rewarding experience, especially with having a very specific look and flow in mind for the finished result before a single shot had even been done. As always, I filmed everything with the edit in mind and when capturing reality that can be a very risky thing to do but I am happy to say that the end result will more than exceed my expectations.

Aside from "Of Shark and Man" of course (which is looking sumptuous by the way,) this is very likely my favourite thing I've ever done and you should be able to see it in the next week to fourteen days, for free, in the usual places so I'll leave it up to you to judge for yourselves.

As always, when I have the final cut, I will send it out to a select group of industry people and subscribers to the mailing list first and shortly thereafter it will be online for everyone. With projects like this, if you like it, or you know someone you think might, share it, please share it! The Stingray project needs support and Brad can only maintain it if we get that support and interest in the media we produce is a great way of showing potential investors that it has the backing of public support.

The film doesn't have a definite title yet and will be around the twelve minute mark. I am actually interested in putting it forward to any film festivals that may be interested so if you have any suggestions please feel free to put them forward to me.

Anyway, not long to go now and I have an edit to finish so keep an eye out over the coming days to find out when and where you can see it.

Finally, a huge congratulations to my mate Colin and his lovely wife Emma on the birth of their second little person, Oliver. Col is a big supporter of "From the Office..." and a reader of this very blog so well done mate, pass on my best to Emma and tell Lily uncle sharkboy will no doubt see her again soon!

:)

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