A Ray of Light II Going Live on Monday, December 8th

Ready and waiting for you!

It's not been easy sitting on A Ray of Light II for so long, it seems like forever really, but I'm excited to say that it will finally see the light of day on an internet near you sometime around midday UK time on Monday, December 8th.

If you haven't already seen them, please do take a bit of time to check out Lockie's two "Making Of" featurettes below:

The three weeks in Mallorca shooting the film was a big challenge to say the least, exhausting both physically and mentally and at times emotionally draining and it shows in the film.

Whereas the first film was a pretty straightforward affair, this was anything but and has a far more expansive, documentary feel to it. As opposed to taking a retrospective look at things that have already happened, A Ray of Light II gives you an insight into things as they happen and an intimate and deeply personal look at how Brad's life has changed in the two years from the first film.

It's a longer film, coming in at just under 29 minutes, the cinematography is better, the sound is better, the story is better and the overall look of the film is a vast improvement from the first, which people still comment very favourably on. The post production of the film was a big job, much bigger than I expected and I think the time and effort I took to get the film how I wanted really shows in the finished result.

A small group of people have already seen the film outside of the premiere and feedback from both has all been overwhelmingly positive so I'm pretty confident if you liked the first, you'll hopefully like (maybe even really like) A Ray of Light II.

As with the first film, A Ray of Light II will be free to view online wherever you are in the world (barring maybe North Korea), that doesn't mean it was a cheap production, far from it! With that in mind, Vimeo's "Tip Jar" feature will be enabled so if you enjoy the film and want to show your appreciation, feel free to chuck a few quid/dollars/yen/whatever in there, every little bit helps recoup costs but of course there is no obligation.

I do ask though that if you enjoy it and value the film and/or the project featured within, that you share the film on your Social Media, Blogs and Websites with a description of why you're sharing it, the more people aware of the work of small, independent Conservation orgs like Asociacion Ondine, the better, they really are a shining light in the marine conservation world.

So, set a reminder, mark your calendars, A Ray of Light II is out this coming Monday. As always, feedback is warmly welcomed!

A Ray of Light II - Premiere Screening in Palma de Mallorca!

Just a quick heads up to all you hombres and chicas in Mallorca, the premiere for A Ray of Light II is happening next week in Palma!

The screening is taking place at Palma Aquarium on Thursday October 30th, doors open at 19:00 and everything kicks off around 19:30 with a screening of A Ray of Light, which will then be followed by A Ray of Light II and afterwards there will be a Q&A session and a brief presentation by Spain's numero uno Rock Star of the Marine Biology world, the one and only Gabriel Morey.

I will be there, as will of course, the one and only Brad Robertson and if all that isn't enough for you, there will also be a bar and not only that, as if we aren't being good enough to you already as it is, the whole event is FREE to enter!

We would love to see you, feedback for the film from the small group of people who have seen it already has been amazing so you're in for a real treat and besides, what else will you be doing on a Thursday night in one of Europe's best cities?!

We look forward to seeing you.

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!**

Behind Blue Glass Released To The World TODAY!

AVAILABLE HERE (ENGLISH WITH SPANISH SUBTITLES)

Spanish language article here!

"For years some of the largest Great White sharks ever landed, were caught off the coast of Mallorca, sometimes less than one hundred metres from popular tourist beaches. These captures abruptly stopped after the second largest White Shark ever caught was brought back to the dock by fisherman, Xisco Perez. The year was 1976, the year Steven Spielberg's JAWS was released in Spain.

The story has remained largely untold outside of Mallorca until now, David Diley explores why, along the way taking seven unwitting volunteers into the deep, to show how important sharks really are, how shark encounters are actually a positive thing and show the world what is truly at risk.

This was the first film I ever made and features content never before seen on TV, including eyewitness accounts from the people who were there. Behind Blue Glass premiered to a packed room in Portals, Mallorca, in May 2011, after its DVD release earlier that year."

Two years ago, whilst working towards getting "Of Shark and Man" funded, I figured, rather later than I should have in all honesty, that in order to help me get said funding, I should really actually go and try my hand at making a film!

I'd wanted to do a comprehensive piece about Mallorca's Great White Sharks for years, since my first visit to the island in my early teens and thanks to an email out of the blue from a certain Mr Brad Robertson, asking my advice on his Shark Diver course, after having stumbled across this blog, the wheels were set in motion for the start of a pretty amazing journey!

I'm not going to tell the whole story again, this blog post will tell you everything you need to know as a back story...

So, here's the big news...As of today, you, yes YOU, can now see Behind Blue Glass, in its entirety, in full HD, thanks to Vimeo's new "On Demand" feature which, to be frank, looks to be quite brilliant!

Behind Blue Glass was released on DVD only last year, available to buy direct from Palma Aquarium, but I'd been looking around for ages for a place where I could offer a digital download in return for a small fee but everywhere seemed to charge through the nose, take large cuts of sales and make it overly difficult to just get the thing out there.

I've been waiting for On Demand to be launched since I first heard of it last year. Available only to Vimeo Pro members, On Demand actually makes the whole process easy to do. You upload your film, give them your paypal account details and launch your film. They take 10% and that's it. It's so simple! All you need to do is visit the page click "Watch Now" put in your card details and you get to stream the film from Vimeo on any device, anywhere, for as long as I am a Vimeo Pro member so basically, years and years. You know that the majority of your money goes to the Film-Maker which is where the majority of your money should go but often doesn't in more traditional distribution agreements.

The film is very reasonably priced at $5.99 which is £3.95, or €4.58 at the current rate of exchange, in fact, it's under-priced to be honest, for 37 minutes of film, you're practically stealing it from me ;) After I have covered my own costs, a percentage of each sale will go towards Asociacion Ondine and the ongoing Mallorquin conservation projects we are running, currently at our own expense.

So, why should you pay your hard earned money to see this film? Firstly, it's almost certainly the most in-depth documentary about Mallorca's Great White Sharks ever made, certainly the most detailed English language film on the subject, on the planet.You also don't know this story, it's a brilliant story and you are absolutely guaranteed to learn something new.

Having watched the film again last night for the first time in a while, the amount of content and factual information is pretty staggering. There is a wealth of info packed into less than 40 minutes, probably more than you would find in other, shall we say, "bigger budget" and more "professional" productions and not just that, the whole thing comes from nothing more than just wanting to make something fun, a little bit different and to tell a great story. There's no cynical attempt to try and sell you things, it's just a guy who really loves sharks, making an interesting film to hopefully appeal to other people who really love sharks!

Behind Blue Glass will always be very special to me because it was an amazing experience to make it and because of everything that has followed it. This was my first ever attempt at making a film, not my first film after film school, not my first paid job, I'd bypassed all of that, this was the first time I had ever attempted to produce, direct, present and shoot a film...Ever. Only eight months prior, I was working as a Recruitment Consultant with my only experience being filming sharks on diving holidays and making videos of myself and my friends acting like idiots whilst drunk on New Year's Eve!

Of the four man crew (well, three men, one woman) only Liam had any experience, this was literally four mates, three of whom  had no idea what they were doing, trying to complete an enormously complex and ambitious project, in fact looking back, the goals I set were completely unreasonable, naive, way too ambitious and complex but somehow, we managed to pull it off through sheer bloody mindedness and determination.

We absolutely ran ourselves into the ground on this film, the average shoot day lasted 14 hours, one day on pre-production, Brad, Bea and I started at 3am and didn't finish until 1am the following day with no breaks. Also nobody really got paid, most of you reading this will be paid more today, sitting at your desk than the people involved in this film got for three weeks of solid grind. It was incredibly hard work but one of the happiest times of my life.

 

OK, let's be honest, it's far from perfect, it's rough and ready, there are things I would do very differently now, knowing what I know but you know what, who cares? I really don't think that matters because taking into account what we had to go through, I still look at this film as a pretty incredible achievement. That's not me blowing my own trumpet, that's testament to everybody who rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in to help us make it. Brad and Bea almost killed themselves to make this happen with their sheer effort and passion, Debora, Roman, Manon and the guys at Palma Aquarium were an amazing help. Jaime Ros, Soller Museum, Gabriel Morey, all the volunteers, Xisco Perez, the list of people who gave their time and effort, free of charge to help get this made is huge and without them, it wouldn't be what it is.

Huge thanks also to Richard Theiss and Lawrence Groth for the additional footage which again, they contributed for free.

So for the imperfections, the fact that the sound department was either Bea or local kids, Brad and Bea being handed cameras and expected to do a crash course in cinematography whilst actually shooting segments on the spot, the obligatory "things not working properly at the worst possible time," the fact I had to wear sunnies through most shots due to an eye problem and the often improvisational approach to film-making, I am incredibly fond of this film because not only is it way better than anyone's first film should be, it has a heart and soul at its core of people just wanting to do something good and start something.

And start something it did. Behind Blue Glass was the big first shove behind the marine conservation projects now being rolled out by Brad and Bea in Mallorca, Brad is now running a full time Conservation NGO, people suddenly started taking an interest in marine conservation, including the media, it directly led to "A Ray of Light," one of the headlining films in this year's Beneath The Waves Film Festival and also taught me more in three weeks on how to shoot films than any film school could, meaning it helped enormously in the making of "Of Shark and Man." It's fascinating to me to see the enormous progression and growth from film to film and Behind Blue Glass has a lot of the credit for that.

Anyway, that's enough from me, are you sold yet? If you're interested in sharks and that still doesn't encourage you to part with the cost of a packet of fags to see this film, then you're probably not actually that interested in sharks...

Buy Behind Blue Glass HERE

Edit: Muchas gracias Patric!

A Ray of Light Gets Its TV Broadcast Premiere Tonight!!

Filming the underwater sequences in Mallorca

A quick heads up for all you people lucky enough to live in sunny Spain. Tonight, at 7pm, on Canal 4, Mallorca Today, "A Ray of Light" gets its TV broadcast premiere.

That means that tonight, it will be seen by thousands of people across the whole Spanish mainland and the Balearic Islands, so a project which was initially an idea for a grassroots conservation project Brad discussed with me on Skype a couple of years ago is about to take another huge leap forward and we did this all on our own! Brad, Bea, Gabriel Morey, Stefan Lawrence, Erica Lay, Joves Navegants, myself and some very enthusiastic volunteers are continuing to show that great things can be achieved in the conservation sphere without the help of the big conservation groups. That's not to say we wouldn't welcome the support, of course we would, especially Brad, it's just not been offered.

So what does this mean? First and foremost, Spain is now talking about marine conservation, a nation with a major impact on the declining health of our oceans, is starting to look at the concept of local marine conservation projects. The media are interested in finding out more, the numbers of people volunteering to take part has gone through the roof and some really great things are in the pipeline in regards to new projects and involvement of yet more influential people in Mallorca.

At the risk of repeating myself as well...I shot this film on my own as a one man crew for 750 quid of my own money and so far it has;

• Been seen by roughly 15,000 people, a figure which will increase enormously tonight
• Raised over £35,000 in donations for the project, that's more than 45x what it cost to make
• Been requested for inclusion in two film festivals
• Resulted in a television feature, two radio features and press articles about the project

That's all from social media and word of mouth only.

Just imagine what I could do with some financial backing, especially if, say, I had a rather amazing idea for "A Ray of Light II"...

Anyway, 7pm, Canal4 tonight, the perfect aperitif to the main course of United beating Madrid at the Bernabeau ;)

Spain starts taking baby steps in the right direction

Yep, that's a huge Great White Shark and yep, it's in Spain. This specimen was washed ashore at Tossa de Mar in 1992 and as you can probably imagine, caused quite a stir, enough of a stir for the local authorities to try and squash the story before it got out, terrified at the impact it would have on tourism. Nobody really knows what exactly happened to the shark or how it sustained the injuries which led to it washing up on the beach, although still alive, clearly in severe bad health. Don't just take my word for it, watch this

 

What does this have to do with the subject of this blog? Not much, but anyone who knows me or who reads this blog knows I love Spain dearly and I have a particular interest in Mediterranean sharks. The fact that there are sharks at all, let alone specimens like the shark in the video, in the Med is still barely known amongst the wider public but there they are and they are in desperate need of help.

Make no mistake about it, everything you read about the desperate state of our oceans and no matter how bad it is in the ocean nearest you, it's worse in the Med. It has been absolutely ravaged, obliterated of life in a relatively short period of time, including its elasmobranchs, with estimates ranging from 90-99% of its resident sharks now gone.

The Mediterranean is the cradle of civilisation, the body of water where ocean trading and industry began and the place from which the first ever written document of an interaction between man and shark took place, when I say interaction, I of course mean that a hapless sailor was eaten by what was probably a Great White Shark, whilst taking a dip from his ship in waters off Greece.

 

That the Mediterranean is in the dire state it is, is tragic, and it pains me to say that historically, Spain has contributed to the Med's demise possibly more than any other nation. However, could there be hope?

Maybe...

Your best chance of seeing a shark in Spain remains either in an aquarium or the markets. On that list are six species of shark, six species which if you moved to Spain or the Balearic Islands you almost certainly would still never see, even if you visit the fish markets when the boats come in, something I actually enjoy doing and find fascinating. I have seen a picture of an Angular Rough Shark in a Spanish market, the last confirmed sighting of a Smalltooth Sandtiger I can recall from Mediterranean waters was around 1998 off the southern coast of France, I haven't a clue when the last reliable report of a live Mediterranean Sand Tiger was and it's common knowledge that all Angel Shark species have taken an absolute hammering in Europe.

Spain, unlike the UK, traditionally speaking anyway, has not been seen as a nation of animal lovers, that isn't to say people in Spain hate animals, that would of course be ridiculous, but the relationship between animals and people in Spain was once more one of tolerance or complete indifference than affection. However, in keeping with the changes in attitude towards conservation and repsect for animals around the world, Spain and its people have made huge strides forward and this change in attitude in Spain is reflected in this decision and young Spaniards now have the same affections for animals and conservation as we in the UK do. Bear in mind the British and to a slightly lesser extent, American, relationship with animals is unusual in that, whereas other nations keep and love animals, we actually make them parts of the family blurring the line between man and beast and that is part of our culture, many other nations look at us because they think what we do is weird. Just because we do it, doesn't mean it's autmoatically the right thing to do.

 

What has all of that got to do with anything? Well, think about it, a nation which once had a very different attitude towards animals and conservation is introducing a law giving special protection to some species of sharks and that my friends is progress, small progress, but progress nonetheless.

Too little too late? Maybe, in fact probably, but if we react to news like this with a sigh and a shrug of the shoulders we will never solve anything. A win is a win and this small victory is a step in the right direction, it's not the species specific protection laws that made me see this in a positive light, it's the fact that the single biggest contributor from the developed world, to the unsustainable trade in sharks, has started taking the right steps in shark conservation and is listening to what the scientists there, scientists like my friend Gabriel Morey, have been telling them for years.

Let's hope this is just the beginning and nations like Spain continue to see the benefits in protecting not just sharks, but all marine life in the Med because boy does it need to happen and quick. it will take a miracle to rescue the Mediterranean but remember, miracles do happen!

Muchas gracias España

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