Teaser Trailer 3 Is Here!

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

*Fanfare*

Here it is, the third and final teaser for "Of Shark and Man," and in keeping with the previous two, which you can view here and here, it runs with a separate theme from the film. The first teaser focused on my story, the second on the sharks and this third teaser focuses on the spiritual and most importantly, conservation, issues raised in the film.

Aside from the points alluded to in the trailer, this is also a clear hint at how much closer I am to finding the look I want for the film. I have worked hard on establishing a stylised, cinematic and filmic look for this trailer, I have always wanted this film to stand out, my inspiration for the style of the film is not other shark films, instead it is a host of films from the 70's up to the modern day so for the people interested in this stuff, it was coloured and graded in Da Vinci Resolve 10, with additional look building in Film Convert, with a few extras I will keep to myself for now. It was edited as always, in Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 on my custom built Novatech Edit Suite. All footage was shot on location during production using Canon 7D and Sony XD cameras except the shark fin footage which was kindly provided by Shawn Heinrichs, thank you Shawn!

The music is two separate tracks, the first by Before the Beginning entitled "This Memory of You is Immortal" and the second, once again, another Chris Zabriskie track, "I am a Man who will Fight for your Honor."

You will notice that this trailer is letterboxed, if you want to be more technical, instead of the standard 16:9 aspect ratio, this is in 2:35:1, often commonly referred to as Anamorphic. I'll be honest, I never intended to have this kind of look for the film, I only threw it on the trailer initially to see how it would look, expecting it not to work at all but, on the contrary, I love it and I am now seriously considering applying this aspect ratio to the film. Now, I know not everyone likes this look so I, being the nice person I am, I have also uploaded a standard 16:9 version of the trailer;

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

Your feedback is important, so please take the time to watch it and comment and perhaps even more importantly, share it on your social media pages, blogs, mailing lists etc. People won't just search out this stuff on their own, they need a friendly nudge. Be that friendly nudge!

If you do decide to comment, please do so here or on the Facebook page but mainly, share, share, share!!! it only takes a few seconds of your time but the benefit can be huge.

Progress on the edit for the film is going well and the first cut is now only missing a closing sequence, a couple of stock footage shots and some UK stuff which will be filmed soon so we're on track and looking good.

Enjoy the trailer and get in touch!

Behind Blue Glass - More Details!

With all the excitement and ever increasing workload of the upcoming production in Fiji, it might have been forgotten that I am actually doing post-production on my first ever film, "Behind Blue Glass," well you may have forgotten, I certainly haven't!

I've already mentioned what an incredibly enjoyable experience it was shooting this film but now is the time to fill you in on what to expect and hopefully you'll be chomping at the bit to spend approximately twenty minutes of your life, with a cup of tea and a plate of biscuits, actually watching it! "Behind Blue Glass" is a short film, based in Mallorca and for which I came up with the idea in late February and to the credit of Brad and Bea at Ondine Escape and the guys at Palma Aquarium only took three weeks or so to get the required funding to actually go and make it.

The film is centred around two main aspects, telling the story of Mallorca's history with sharks, in particular, the Great White and also showing that sharks can have a life changing, positive effect on ordinary people.

The Mallorquin relationship with sharks and its story is one which is very much untold, particularly for a non-Spanish audience, google it and see how little there is online! Undeterred and with a decades old fascination with sharks in this part of the world, I was determined to go and delve deeper into it and did so with no shortage of success! For example, did you know where the second largest, recorded, Great White Shark ever caught was taken? Yep, Mallorca, less than one hundred metres from shore in a popular tourist resort. Surprising yes? I doubt you will have heard the story about this before so who better to tell it than the man who caught it, Xisco Perez? My thoughts exactly so look no further than this film as he was kind enough to let me talk to him about it on camera.

Xisco is a fantastic bloke and gave up over an hour of his time to spend with me talking about what happened, by the boat upon which the shark was caught and was ably translated by another fantastic Mallorquin and new friend, Jaime Ros.

The last surviving set of Great White jaws in Mallorca? Check, eyewitness reports from the people who were there and saw these huge sharks in the flesh? Check, input from the people who know more about Mallorquin Great Whites than anybody? Check, it's all in there for you!

Passionate, knowledgeable and incredibly helpful people were certainly not in short supply, another of these people, IUCN member and fisheries and conservation minister for the Balearics, Gabriel Morey, was kind enough to not only talk to me on camera about the state of Balearic and Mediterranean shark populations, he also took us diving at the El Toro marine reserve to get some footage of Mallorca under the waves.

Alongside the conservational and educational aspect of the film we have a little bit of inspiration as well in the form of a group of plucky volunteers, young and old and all shapes and sizes who agreed to participate in a "conservation project" but didn't know exactly what I had in store for them, they got a bit of a shock to say the least but their reactions are priceless and illustrate my point about people and sharks better than any words. Every one of them was fantastic and an inspiration to me and to see them now spreading a positive message about sharks is hugely rewarding.

So what was intended to be a ten minute piece about people meeting sharks, shot on a minuscule, shoestring budget has turned into something so much more, Liam aside, this was the first time any of the crew, myself included, had attempted to make a film, staying true to my word of involving talented, enthusiastic people in everything I do, we even got a couple of the volunteers involved in actually making the film itself getting the kind of hands on experience they may not normally get.

So what is the result? Most importantly, a film with heart, no pretension, just enthusiastic people with a love for and deep knowledge of sharks, combined with an everyman approach and an awful lot of smiles! Sound good? Keep an eye out, I am currently editing at the moment and some of the footage looks superb and I am very happy with the way things are going, hopefully it will all be completed by the end of this month with a premiere to come at Palma Aquarium and after which, you lot can get to have a look and make your own minds up.

This film is a celebration of sharks, of people and of Mallorca, one of my favourite places on earth and to who's people I owe huge gratitude. It's not a mini version of the film in Fiji as it differs in several areas, it is less "cinematic" with more of a "documentary" feel but it is no less, very "me." I'll leave it up to you guys to decide what you think of it but I'm confident you'll love it!

"Behind Blue Glass" - Coming soon!

Ambition...But at what price?

I heard a saying a few years ago that has stuck with me since, "In every great success story is a chapter entitled 'The Hard Times'..."

It's fair to say that what constitutes "hard times" is wholly relevant to the normal standards to which one is accustomed, these hard times may be fleeting glimpses of how those less fortunate than you live, causing you to once again appreciate your good fortune, for others, they encapsulate a lifelong struggle to get by, a situation whereby life is not for living, but enduring.

I was discussing with a friend last week, which would be worse, going through life not knowing what you want to achieve or spending your entire life with an overwhelming passion and ambition, striving to achieve something that almost always seems out of your reach. We came to the conclusion that each is probably equal and the only people who can be easily pleased are those who are satisfied with what they're given, nine-to-five job, mortgage, wife or husband they can tolerate enough to spend their lives with and a kid or two, they accept that this is their lot, at least they have a night out with their mates once a week to look forward to...

Think back to when you were a child, I would bet that every single one of you had an ambition, doctor, teacher, footballer, astronaut, movie star...How many of you have achieved your childhood dreams to at least some extent? Probably the minority, for those who didn't, do you still dream the same dream from time to time?

Let's be honest, many people have dreams that are very, very unlikely to ever become reality, the most common being "I want to be *insert celebrity*." This is obviously impossible because you can only be you, that is why the majority of people don't fulfill their ambitions, perhaps its a case of wanting to be that person now, without having to have put in all the work, writing their own chapter entitled "The Hard Times" in order to get there?

There is a school of thought that states "if you want it enough, you'll get it," well I'm afraid it's not that easy. The reality is that life gets in the way of what you truly want and in order to give yourself the best opportunity to achieve the things you dream of, you have to remove yourself from your previously "normal" life, focus everything of your being on your ambition and work like you have never worked before to make opportunities where you get that stroke of luck become more likely. The harder you work, the luckier you get...or so the saying goes.

I'll be honest, as I will always be, I haven't had any luck in this process so far, everything has happened because of something I have done to give myself a chance to make an opportunity for it to happen. Some things haven't gone to plan, others have gone better than expected, what I'm saying is that although some people get everything handed to them on a plate, others, like me and most likely you, don't and we have to work ten times harder to get to where we want to be. Is that struggle worth it? If not, give up. If you want it enough though, if you believe in it with everything you have, that then gives you the emotional strength to fight the fight, no matter how insurmountable your task may seem. That though, is only the beginning.

It's all about money. Say it again, it's all about money.

Why is it all about money? Because you don't have any of it, or at least enough of it to set you on the way to achieving your ambitions. That's when you need people that do have enough of it to help you but they want something back which is obviously only fair! You absolutely must be prepared to repay their benevolence in the manner they deem acceptable.

Here is where I am with everything so far, I need one thing and one thing only in order to actually achieve the first of my ambitions, the first film as part of "From the Office to the Ocean," and that one thing is £29,078.16, for arguments sake we'll say thirty grand.

What can I offer in return for that amount of cash? Plenty, alongside a willingness to discuss any other ideas of how my sponsors or investors will benefit from being involved in the process of this film being made. In ordinary situations, I wouldn't dream of asking people for financial assistance for things but this is as far away from being an ordinary situation as possible. I have planned to begin filming in February 2011 for four weeks, before returning to the UK to edit everything together alongside shooting and editing a "making of" feature and writing a number of articles about my story and the stories I explore whilst shooting the film. This means that realistically, the latest I can secure funding is in December of this year if it is to go to schedule.

That is not all, I will most likely have to leave my flat at the end of October at the latest and it is almost certain that I will have to rely on the kindness of others in allowing me to impose upon them until they deem my presence an annoyance and I have to move on again! Is it a stressful and pressurised situation? You bet your life it is but I wouldn't swap it for an easier life back in an office, slowly dying away and dreaming of what could have been!

This is me in my bedroom in my parents' house twenty years ago, holding one of my most prized possessions in the world, a signed book, sent all the way from Australia, from the one and only Valerie Taylor. I can't tell you how overwhelmed I was when it came in the post and to this day it takes pride of place in my living room.

The ambitions I have now are the same as then, to make a series of films about the relationship between sharks and humans, breaking new ground and doing something that focuses on getting more and more people to love and cherish sharks like I do and in turn, caring about their protection. The difference now is that I am in a position to actually do that, barring of course one rather sizable obstacle.

I do believe though however, that someone out there has it and would want to give it to me, it may even be ten people who want to give me three grand each or even a hundred who donate £300, either way, I want to repay those who help me make this happen and that is a cast iron promise and I never go back on my word. I believe it, Cameras Underwater believe it, several people of note in the diving, shark and media industries believe it and it is that belief and the validation of that belief from others that keeps me going.

My belief is so strong that should the unthinkable happen and I don't get the funding, I actually do have a backup plan, a very drastic, risky and slightly ridiculous backup plan which I would rather avoid if you don't mind!

So, to return to the quote with which I started this blog, I am going through the hard times now, it's not a problem, most of my adult life would fill this part of my story but the difference this time is that I am in the process of writing the following chapter. A friend of mine says to his son, "think of your life like a book, make it one you'd want to read," he thinks it's a bit daft, I personally think he's nailed it.

I'll finish by saying that I do appreciate you reading my blog, actually, properly appreciate it because its honest and your taking the time to read it does actually mean a lot to me. If I could ask you one favour, if you read it and enjoy it, please pass it on to at least one person who hasn't seen it, it may be about my journey but it's a story which I think resonates with most people and if I succeed, anyone who has followed my story will be a part of that success and see that it is possible!

"From the Office to the Ocean" has two primary messages, cherish, love and protect sharks and be inspired to make your dreams become reality, I know I have readers who feel as though I am speaking directly to them, they have told me themselves, if the message gets through and people start to embrace life, I will have succeeded in at least one of my goals, you never know, maybe someone will read it who can help me make this happen!

If you're on Facebook, there is now a group, just search for "From the Office to the Ocean," ditto on Twitter. To learn a bit more, check out www.officetoocean.com and in the coming days, I will blog here, more detail about part one of "From the Office..."

Sharks rule.