Sarah Shark - Huge Congratulations!

If you read this blog regularly, hell, if you have only ever read it once, you'll know I love my shark films, the (all too rare) brilliant, the good, the mediocre, the bad and the just plain awful, I always watch them and I regularly feel compelled to comment on them on this blog, passing my super dooper expert judgement on them like a kind of shark world Simon Cowell and more often than not, echoing his withering tones as yet another painted drone with a sense of entitlement, tramples over the legacy of the truly great originals.

If you are a regular reader, you'll know that I'm a big fan of the "Sarah Shark" project, a tiny independent group of film-makers in Australia, making their own short form, TV style documentaries about some of the sharks found in the waters that surround their very sharky country.

Why am I such a fan? Loads of reasons!

Firstly, Sarah is the real deal, an actual biologist and whereas that doesn't necessarily always equate to great TV, it gives her a sense of credibility that you can't get by simply repeating what you've read on the Sea Shepherd website, Facebook or the back of a cereal box. She knows what she's talking about and she gives a shit, as in she really genuinely cares.

She also manages to completely ignore the narcissistic, self styled shark messiah approach so beloved by many these days, preferring a grounded, approachable and engagingly natural style which makes her infinitely more likable, when she speaks, you listen because you want to listen to her. It's a simple, yet all too rare approach in the modern era.

Aside from Sarah herself, the content is always good, not too heavy, ideal for that core audience of young teenagers to those in their mid-twenties (in my opinion), it's serious and factual, but not overbearing and shouty, the conservation message is there, but it's not an over earnest, Americanised, finger jabbing guilt trip and I love the way they make it a central feature, without allowing it to strangle the fun and enjoyment out of each episode.

Primarily though, I just love their attitude, they're doers, they go out on a tiny budget and they get stuff done and when they do it, it's professional, really well made and most importantly of all, it has a heart and soul, each film is borne out of a desire to go out and do something cool the best they can and that is something which should be celebrated far more than it already is.

Shark Party!! Photo: Nicolas Rakotopare

So why all this gratuitous purring over these people from the other side of the planet? Well, they finished the first series (six episodes) and having been in negotiations with the TV in their home country for some time, haven't been able to put episodes 3-6 online for public consumption however, since we have become friends in the last couple of years, Kieren Curry, the creative driving force behind the series, was kind enough to let me see them before their wrap party.

Before I give you my thoughts, I have already mentioned we are friends so does that make me biased? No, it doesn't, if I thought they were really bad, I obviously wouldn't come on here and say "this really sucks, these losers need to get proper jobs" but I would make constructive criticisms of the areas I personally think could and should be improved but again, it's only my opinion. If I say something is good and give it praise on here, it's because it is good and deserves it, full stop.

What's changed then in these later episodes? First and foremost, the production is better, it seems slicker and as the series runs through each episode, those episodes get better and better, you can actually see the development happening from film to film and I really like that. They say they're taking us on a journey and they really mean it, that rough and ready, low budget charm, really, really works because they have obviously strived to make the absolute most of what they had available.

The cinematography has got more ambitious and locations play a bigger part, you can tell they've gone to the effort to set up shots in specific locations because they look good aesthetically, that wasn't so present in the first two I thought but in the latter episodes, it's an obvious progression.

Sarah seems more relaxed on camera and is very good at delivering what is a scripted narrative, both to camera and on voice over, she's clear, articulate, warm and the scripts are actually very good.

A really big winner they have is whoever is doing their graphics, from episode 1 to 6, they are consistently brilliant and creative, the time and effort that has obviously gone into them really shows, they are genuinely top class, whoever you are, please go to the nearest mirror and high five yourself.

The sound is really good too. Normally on low budget films, the sound varies from bad, to really, really, really awful, a muffled mess of badly edited soundbites barely audible above traffic noise or wind (I myself have been culpable in that regard on Behind Blue Glass, a mistake I will never, ever make again) but in each episode, the sound is always, at worst good and at best, excellent.

Where I have been critical in the past is the music, in the first episode it was a bit cheesy, I can sympathise though, stock music is often horribly dreadful, a synth dirge of forgettable and utterly inoffensive pseudo melody, music designed to make you forget music is playing, so at least they made the effort to create their own. The musician behind the Sarah Shark score read my first review and instead of throwing his toys out of the pram and having a strop, took on board the feedback from an opinionated pom he's never met, went into the studio and altered the style of music for future episodes, and it's to his great credit that the music is yet another facet of the production which has taken a drastic upwards curve.

To be honest, each episode showed improvement upon improvement and I am absolutely over the moon for them that they managed to finish the first series because it was a huge task. There is so much good about Sarah Shark I feel I should balance out the onslaught of praise with some stuff that's bad about the films but being completely honest, there is nothing bad about them! Is there room for improvement? Of course, there is in everything, but they have a very solid foundation upon which to build for future series, especially if they are given the money to increase production value and I'm going on record here, if they ever need a Cinematographer, Shark guy, Editor, Colourist etc for a future series, I would jump at the chance to work in that team.

On location in Christmas Island

I know the guys have some exciting things in the offing so I won't spoil that for them by blabbing here but I do want to say a genuine well done to each and everyone of them for such a huge effort and to let them know that there are people around the world who support and enjoy what they are doing and who admire them for their courage and conviction to doing something worthwhile. I think you guys are awesome so the people reading this should hopefully feel the same.

Please check them out on Facebook and give them your support!

Well played Team Sarah Shark, well played indeed.

 

Great Shark Programme! More like this please

I was sent a link this morning, to an Australian documentary called The Wild Ones: Shark Harbour which I have just finished watching and I have to say, it was really good!

The premise is that the show follows a very likable team featuring Amy Smoothey and Vic Peddemors as they track Bull Sharks in Sydney Harbour to try and find out more about their movements, habits and ultimately, the threat they pose to swimmers.

It's a simple idea, well executed with good, solid, factual information, and which deals with the issue of shark attack in a non-sensationalistic and delicate manner and also features some really good Bull Shark footage taken from Shark Reef in Fiji, similar to what you will be seeing in "Of Shark and Man" (update coming this week) so that's always an added bonus.

I really am pretty cynical with modern day shark programming, in fact, I think most of it is pretty crap but "Shark Harbour" gets two enthusiastic thumbs up from me, more of this type of thing please!! Click the link and watch for yourself, tell me what you think :)

 

I wanted to add this in here in the hope as many people see it as possible. Unfortunately, a friend and tireless champion of shark and marine conservation had some terrible news recently when he heard that a friend, Emie Romero, who had been reported missing, had been found dead.

It's not for me to provide the details surrounding the case but being the type of people Angelo and his wife Edz are, they are doing a collection for anyone who may want to donate to help Emie's two children and you can find details here if you think you would like to help. Of course, times are hard for everyone at the moment but I know that each donation no matter how small would be enormously appreciated and show that, despite how we often hear otherwise, acts of kindness from strangers do still occur and do still matter and mean something.

Thanks.

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To Cull or not to Cull? That is the (stupid) question...

 

Firstly, let me apologise for my relative silence the last couple of weeks, not only have I been obscenely busy working my way through a mountain of things to do in regards to both "Of Shark and Man" and "Behind Blue Glass" (updates to come on the latter shortly including details about its release) but I have also been in attendance again at this years Dive Show in Birmingham and have also had my monthly technological problems meaning my laptop has been in for repair.

Also, contrary to an email I received yesterday asking if what they had heard about me was true, no I am not dead, I can confirm that I was not, nor have I ever been, killed in a motorway accident!!

Anyway, on to business...

With the three recent fatalities in Western Australia, the spectre of a shark cull has loomed large with echoes of JAWS and the Australian Fisheries Minister giving the go ahead to catch and kill the "killer shark." There are several problems with this, as the wonderful Valerie states in the video, how on earth can the authorities ensure they catch what they believe to be the lone shark responsible? The method of drum lining for sharks is hardly selective and how will they know if any shark they catch is responsible for any of the attacks? It also raises the nonsense theory of the "rogue shark" again, that is, a shark which actually swims around with a taste for human flesh, looking for humans to eat, in other words, something which doesn't exist so in effect, the Australian government is authorising a witch hunt, a hunt as worthwhile as trying to catch a fart in a fishing net.

 

Given my enforced absence and late arrival onto the scene commenting on this story, there is no point in me discussing the attacks in any detail, instead I want to focus on something else which has barely been mentioned and which, in my opinion, could have serious ramifications for sharks around the globe.

If you are one of the thousands of people partaking in the various incarnations of the brilliant "Occupy Wall Street" campaign or indeed, an ordinary football supporter in the UK, you will have a decent grasp of the hypocrisy of governments when it comes to the enforcement of laws, by that I mean that laws exist to stop you or I doing certain things or behaving in a certain way, for example, unprovoked violence against another person is an offence punishable by law, that is unless it's the police assaulting ordinary people with no justification at the behest of the government, then it's seemingly OK and although I'm veering towards digressing here, it's this moving of the goal posts and its relevance to this shark cull that needs to be addressed.

The Great White Shark is a protected species in various parts of the world including Australia, where law dictates that to catch and kill one is an illegal offence. That is, unless the government is killing them, then it seems, much like the physical abuse of people exercising their freedom of speech and expression, it becomes OK.

 

When the government decides to bend their own rules based on nothing more than an attempt to appease a minority of it's citizens, it makes a mockery of all the laws it places on its people. What would now stop a commercial shark fisherman asking why, if it's OK for the government to kill a protected and vulnerable species, is it not OK for him to do so? If the government are telling him the Great White Shark is in need of protection then going out and killing them themselves, were they telling him the truth about this shark's vulnerable status in the first place. How would the upholders of the law react to an ordinary fisherman bringing a Great White Shark into dock, would they look to prosecute him and if so, how would they react if he (quite rightly in a perverse way) were to say "well, you're doing it, why can't I?"

The Australian government needs to have a word with itself, they either protect the Great White Shark or they don't. I'm gonna be honest here and it may piss a few people off, the Australian government's attitude to serious shark conservation is a joke, a backwards, unfunny joke, just look at this year's reversal of the laws protecting Sand Tiger Sharks around Fish Rock in NSW by this idiot. 

That brings me on to my next point, the issue of shark culling isn't an occasional news story, it is actually something which happens every single year in Australia and South Africa with the archaic use of shark nets and this is the fourth suggested shark cull this year alone with The Seychelles, Mexico and Costa Rica also wanting in on the act.

The Seychelles is an interesting one because the use of shark nets has been recommended by a team of "experts" from South Africa including Geremy Cliff, the very same Geremy Cliff of the KZN Sharks Board, the same KZN Sharks Board who, it is alleged, sell the fins of the sharks they find dead in the nets, to the Asian Shark Fin industry which, if true, must raise questions as to whether their motives are for the nets remaining in place to continue to provide negligible protection to bathers at netted beaches or to continue to benefit financially from the unsustainable trade in shark fins?

Shark nets are even less selective than drumlines and with the Australian government's intentions to initiate a shark cull it now seems to me that in Australia, Great White Sharks are protected, that is unless they're killed in shark nets...or on drumlines...or indeed any other way the government deems appropriate when it decides to break its own laws.

There is some good to come out of this though, a quick googling of the Australian shark cull, shows overwhelming opposition in the media, from experts, from the scientific community and of course, the millions of facebook groups which have been set up in protest. We've come a long way, back when I started in shark conservation over twenty years ago (Jesus, I feel old) a cull was the standard response to an attack pretty much everywhere and were undertaken with almost zero opposition. Public perception is changing thankfully but until the world's governments actually start listening to their people (instead of attacking them with tear gas and batons) when they speak out for change, we won't achieve anywhere near what we need to. The only way we can make our leaders act responsibly is to speak out, act up and make them listen, after all, they work for us, not the other way around.

Sarah Shark Episode 2

 

You may remember a couple of months ago, I stumbled across Sarah Richmond, or "Sarah Shark" as she is better known who had made a half hour documentary about Wobbegongs which was really, pretty good! I had never heard of Sarah before but what I thought was great about what she was doing was that she is obviously a passionate shark lover and was out there doing something positive, creative and something which was of a very high standard, higher than I was expecting if I'm being honest.

Well, Sarah's back and this time she's tackling the far sexier and much better known, Great White Shark.

 

I'm a bit of a fan actually, there's something incredibly likable about Sarah as a host and she's clearly very passionate. What she does extremely well is that she doesn't allow this to manifest itself into some chest beating pious war cry blinding by inaccuracies and anti-human propaganda, in fact, quite the opposite. She sticks to the facts , involves the general public and allows the viewer to make his or her own mind up.

This episode, like the first is clearly aimed at an already sympathetic audience and has an almost innocent quality to it, it's not trying to be arty, controversial or sensationalist, it just is what it is, a small group of talented and passionate people doing something they all clearly enjoy doing and that's one of its major strengths.

In this episode, Sarah and the team look at the issue of shark nets, film some very big and beautiful cuttlefish and go cage diving with the White Sharks off Port Lincoln.

The shark nets issue could have been a bit more in-depth maybe but then again, the episodes last less than half an hour and they more than cram enough in without anything seeming like it's been brushed over so this section in particular more than gets its point across.

It's filmed well, the sound is good and once again, the graphics used to illustrate certain points are top notch, a real professional edge to everything. The basics are done well also, Sarah's narrative and pieces to camera are delivered articulately and at a suitable pace which although sounding obvious, gets the points she's making across well. Pieces to camera aren't easy, a lot less easy than you probably think and it's something she does very well.

 

The White Shark footage is good too. It can be restrictive filming from a cage with angles and shots being somewhat limited, add to that the time constraints of what I imagine was only a couple of days at sea to get the shots but they did a really good job.

I said in the previous review that what Sarah and her team is doing isn't groundbreakingly original or completely new, but it doesn't need to be. It doesn't hide behind a glossy veneer of "art" to make up for lack of substance. It is what it is, it gets a message across and it's put together and promoted very well and people are certainly seeming to take an interest. The highlight of this episode, well, both episodes put together for me, is a simple reaction, a three second scene where, when passed by a very large shark, Sarah jumps up in the water squealing with delight, it's those honest, unscripted moments of enthusiasm, enjoyment and positivity, which often do far more to help sharks and the image of sharks, than constant images of death and slaughter.

Well done again Sarah and the Sarah Shark team, looking forward to part three!

As for me, well, coming soon will be some info on "Behind Blue Glass" which I am hoping will finally be released very soon and also some progress reports on post production for "Of Shark and Man" which after having spent the last six weeks reviewing, cataloguing and filing a month's worth of footage, I can tell you, is looking like it's gonna be pretty damn special! Keep your eyes peeled and join the mailing list!!!! The feedback from the private teaser promo which you will only have seen if you are on the mailing list, attended the BiteBack fundraiser or are one of the select few I sent the link to directly, has been nothing short of phenomenal.

have a top weekend!

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