Goodbye 2011, here is your school report.

 

So, that's 2011 done with and what a year! It will always be the year I first truly felt my life was going in the right direction and I was doing the thing I have always wanted. It would be fair to say that of my thirty-two years, 2011 was the best.

2011 was also a pretty good year for sharks, it was very much the year of the Shark Sanctuary with Tokelau, Guam and The Marshall Islands making notable strides forward. The latter was something about which I felt a degree of extra happiness as it transpired that the two testimonials I wrote in support of the legislation were the ones chosen to support the bill during the government hearings. It was a proud moment to feel I had contributed (albeit in only a small way) to something so positive. The efforts from people like Stefanie Brendl, Pew and organisations like CORAL and Shark Savers however, are the ones which deserve genuine admiration, their tireless hard work, often beset by frustration and disappointments, is what makes these positive changes happen, they and the political representatives who put these legislations in place, were the true shark heroes of 2011.

On a lesser scale, we also saw the California Shark Fin Ban and the steps to achieve similar in Canada for which Wild Aid should be commended, you might not be aware they were responsible but groups like Wild Aid and the people behind the scenes there rarely get the credit they deserve.

There were some naughty sharks in 2011 and in response some rather silly articles but 2011 was a year that reminded anyone with even a modicum of sense that yes, shark attacks do exist. 

As usual, there was quite a lot of crap masquerading as "shark conservation" or just general shark pseudo science, Shark Week 2011 was quite possibly the worst ever, special mention going to its ultimate nadir, the weeping sore on the anus of lowest common denominator shark programming that was "How Sharks Hunt" and there was the discovery and subsequent mini revival of the semi-cult classic (?!) "Tintorera!" which was the stand out addition of 2011 to the ever growing list of films which no matter how bad they are are still better than Titanic.

Mike has what is thus far, the definitive list of what he (and a fair few others) deem to have been the worst of 2011 and it's certainly hit its target judging by the outrage it has caused. Read it and make up your own mind, you may not agree with some or even all of it but try to avoid the "well what has he ever done for sharks" argument. Yes, Mike is a personal friend and somebody for whom I have no shortage of admiration and as he says, his opinions are just that, his opinions and there is no harm in disagreeing with them (if you indeed do disagree) and discussing your point of view directly with the man himself but entering into a pissing contest about "who's done the most for sharks" is pointless because I can tell you now, you will lose. 

In typical fashion, his post about good things in 2011 hasn't received the same level of interest or discussion so have a read of that too, I'd like to add a couple of things I have really liked in 2011 too, the immensely likable Sarah Shark and her extremely talented team and the creative, cool and very worthy White Mike.

 

As for me, well I managed to do what I have always wanted and that is become a professional film-maker working with sharks which was nice. Actually, it was a bit more than nice, it was fucking amazing. Sorry for the blue language but that's really the only way it can be described. I have met some of the planet's greatest people this year, kindness, enthusiasm, passion and joy have been thrust upon me, I did the world's greatest shark dive with the world's biggest Bull Sharks more than forty times with one of, if not the best dive crew in the world who entrusted in me the respect to get closer to these sharks than pretty much any non-established pro has ever been. For twenty-eight days I felt like one of a team which has no equal and for that I will be indebted to them until I draw my final breath. To quote Toobi, "BAD Boyz for life."

I met and made a film with Brad Robertson and Bea Esparza who are now like family to me, two people who are the real conservationists, people who sacrifice what many of us deem to be necessities (like money) because they believe in the impossible becoming possible and the simple fact that they do what so many claim to do but so few actually do, they care.

I was actually approached to provide the film accompaniment to something quite spectacular, involving people who are also quite spectacular and when this amazing thing hopefully happens, it will be my two short films you see telling the world. That is very humbling.

The trailer for Behind Blue Glass has been viewed on various platforms over seven thousand times in more than thirty-five countries around the world and the film was even highlighted in a Spanish TV show seen by more than two million people before even being released, which incidentally, will happen in the next few weeks :)

This very blog attracted more than 40,000 individual people to these pages to read whatever it was I felt was worth saying at the time.

So that was 2011 diluted in to a short blog post with lots of links. If I've missed anything you think I should have included, pop it in a comment for me. It really was the best year of my life so far but here's hoping 2012 is even better!

Happy New Year.

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Things I learnt watching "Tintorera!"

1. In 1970's Mexico, the only things that happened were shark attacks and orgies. (Confirmation Mike?)
2. "Chopper Chicks in Zombie Town," "Johnny Mnemonic" and "Titanic" are still the worst films I have ever seen
3. If you and your buddy's double act is reminiscent of Ted Bundy and The Zodiac, you will get all the hot chicks
4. Susan George is a terrible dancer
5. Apparently if you don't speak English or Spanish, you don't deserve to know what is being said in 50% of this film

 

6. This man (above) is utterly irresistible to women despite looking like a permanently constipated Kenny Everett

7. Continuity and plot are not at all important, the character of Steve is first seen in a hospital bed after having collapsed at work, he is next seen, within sixty seconds, on a boat in Mexico, with no explanation whatsoever.

8. You can cover the real time period of ten days in less than two minutes, even without a montage, you just have to say it's been ten days. 

9. "Tintorera!" has some of, if not the, most realistic shark attack sequences I have ever seen.

10. In the 1970's, it seems attempted rape is something women think is funny.

11. "Zazzil" is the Mayan word for scotch on the rocks. I learnt this during this dazzling exchange;

"What's a zazzil?

"Zazzil huh? It's the Mayan word for Scotch on the rocks,"

"I'll have a Vodka and tonic...aren't you going to have your Zazzil?"

"I think I'll have a Martguerita"

 

12. No matter what your film is actually about and no matter how boring it might be, it becomes instantly watchable, even enjoyable, if you put sharks in it and on the cover. See the Burt Reynolds straight to video masterpiece "Shark" as proof. Full film here if you're interested.

13. Our attitude to sharks has changed enormously and without question, for the better.

14. CGI sharks really, really suck. Although that's hardly news to anyone, if this (brilliant) piece of crap can offer up live shark footage like they have, there is no excuse for Hollywood to keep forcing bad CGI sharks upon us when the real thing looks as good as it does.

15. Susan George swims like she's riding a bike.

16. Two men sharing one woman never ends well. 

17. The 70's looks like possibly the most fun anyone has ever had. (Confirmation Mike?)

18.  It's possible to make a film entirely about threesomes seem mainstream if you put sharks in it.

19. The cutaway wasn't invented when this film was made meaning the main character appears to be in up to four different places at the same time.

20. It's still shocking to see actual live animals being killed purely for a film, how things change!

21. I still have no idea whether Steve lives or dies at the end, an ending which looks as though they just ran out of time and had an hour to finish the film.

Is Tintorera! a good film? Hell no! Is it unintentionally funny? Yes! The real life Shark/Turtle/Eagle Ray killings aside, I actually quite enjoyed it. If you like films with the following ingredients, sharks, boobs, beards, speedos and really bad dubbing, then you might too.

Make your own mind up here. Feel free to post your own reviews in the comments section.

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Two of my favourite things, Blue Sharks and the Balearic islands (video)

I was sent this video the other day by a good friend who knew I would be interested, of course because it has a shark in it but also the location, Menorca.

I am a  lover of the Balearic islands, Spain and the Spanish people and culture, my first ever film, "Behind Blue Glass" was shot in Mallorca and was to a large extent, about Mallorca, at least its history with the Great White Shark (ahem, available to buy very soon from a selected outlet, check here and sign up to the mailing list for further info)...

I love Blue Sharks, they're a beautiful animal, the vivid blue hue you see in this video is nothing compared to when you actually get up close to one in the water, they're magnificent, graceful animals and one of the shark species I feel to be truly "iconic." This video is an interesting one for a couple of reasons.

First of all, the Blue Shark is very much a pelagic species, that is, it generally speaking spends most if not all of its life in deep waters, miles offshore, traversing thousands and thousands of miles of ocean each year and is the archetypal ocean nomad. It is unusual to see Blue Sharks as close to land, in shallow waters as this shark is in the video but it's not that unusual in the Balearics and off the coast of Spain...

 

I've just done a search for the pics I have seen in UK and Spanish newspapers of Blue Sharks appearing in shallow waters close to shore and this popped up, apparently a film from 1977 where the cover depicts a Blue Shark, is called "Blue Shark" (Tintorera in Spanish) yet then says Tiger Shark...Bit weird but no doubt I'll be trying to find a download of this later. Anyway, where was I?...

Oh yeah, Blue Sharks close to shore. It happens pretty much every year in the Mediterranean, particularly off the Spanish and French coast, a Blue Shark turned up in Palma Port a couple of weeks after I left this year (typical), Barcelona sees this fairly regularly also and I remember a story a few years back about a windsurfer being surrounded by up to a dozen Blue Sharks off St Tropez in France.

I'm not going to try to give an all encompassing, generic explanation for each and every instance as we just don't know what will motivate lone individuals to venture so close to shore, even beach themselves. Large groups can be more rationally explained as reacting to a movement of prey or environmental factors perhaps but we don't know what's going on in the mind of an individual shark or what has caused such unusual behaviour although I'm pretty sure at least someone on the internet will try to say it's to do with some apocalyptic environmental event to help attract numbers to their Facebook group (yes there is some bile still left over from the last blog...)

 

So, the video. First off, contrary to the appearance of a fishing rod, I don't think the shark has been hooked at any point, nor do I think they people in the video are trying to hook it, it looks to me like they're actually trying to shoo it away and help it on its way, contrary to the belief that everyone who owns a fishing rod is some kind of bloodthirsty murderer. I don't speak Spanish though, aside from various shark names, swear words (of course!) and knowing how to find a toilet, I am pretty useless, if anyone out there does speak Spanish, any chance of a basic idea of what the people in the video are saying? At least the running theme anyway?

The shark itself doesn't look in great shape to me, it looks disorientated, sluggish and confused and it's repeated 180 degree tuns whilst hugging the wall could suggest it's trying to find its way out to deeper water, which would also in turn suggest its got lost somehow, again, we won't know for certain but it's a decent hypothesis. If you look closely, it has a fairly pronounced wound on its head/snout. Now, this shark looks like a female to me but I can't be sure, I'm basing that on only getting a topside view but that wound is not a mating scar.

Aside from the head wound, the shark actually looks in decent shape, aesthetically anyway, but in its movements, it doesn't look like a Blue Shark normally would. They are wiry, agile, fast moving sharks with an elegant grace accentuated by it's sleek, narrow build, this one just looks drunk.

The head wound could be a part of this, has it taken a whack from another shark? A boat perhaps? Maybe...

The shark is in what looks pretty much like a typical Mediterranean small fishing port, could it be that this shark has followed a small fishing fleet back to the harbour, got trapped and is disorientated, trying to find its way out to deeper water? The stories you may have read about commercial and small fishing fleets being followed for miles by sharks, you can be pretty certain that in most occassions, the sharks following them would have included Blue Sharks, it's just something they do.

We have seen when aquaria try to house Great White Sharks it just doesn't work and the major factor in that is the White Shark's natural tendency to roam large areas of sea, the Blue Shark is not dissimilar, in the videos from Monteray Aquarium when they have housed juvenile White Sharks, you see elements of disorientation in their behaviour, hugging the walls, nudging them to the extent they severely damage their snouts, it looks to me that this Blue Shark is clearly looking for a way out and is not fully compus mentis, a side effect of the head wound? The relative confinement of the environment compared to its normal surroundings or both?

That head wound doesn't look too serious to me, these are hardy, tough animals so this could be a temporary straying off course and after the video ends, the shark finally finds her way out to more familiar surroundings. There is a temptation to raise the subject of the almost total annihilation of fish life in the Mediterranean making it harder and harder for sharks of all species resident or regularly to occassionally  occurring in the Med, fifty-three since records began in 1758, to find food meaning that what may ordinarily be a relatively minor wound which would cause no real impact to a shark elsewhere in the world, could actually have amore drastic effect on a shark in the industrially ravaged Med but that would be mere conjecture, it just as likely has absolutely nothing to do with it, than it has any relevence to this particular shark.

Hopefully this particularly beautiful shark made it out in the end and is happily swinning around one of the world's most beautiful cluster of islands.

Edit: I have just been informed by a Gibraltan friend of mine that the gist of what the guys in the video are saying is general amazement and shock that the shark is there, they dare the one with the fishing rod (jokingly) to try and catch it, at which point the shark almost snatches his rod, the general shock and awe continues and one says he thinks it's staring at him, again, semi serious. Shortly after, the shark swims off.

Another edit: The trailer for Tintorera!

 

Just a quick word about the last blog. Yes it was a bit controversial I suppose but the feedback I have received has been 100% positive. I lost a couple of people off the Facebook group but over on Linkedin, it seems the marine biology and science community seem to want to read more of the same from me. What is thoroughly encouraging is that the people who contacted me to register their approval are entirely made up of people who know sharks, work with sharks and whose opinions are the opinions I would make an effort to hear myself so that's good. It certainly seems to have hit the mark as it is still being read no less than three hundred times a day so it's nice to know I wasn't just speaking to myself or addressing the ether.

Thank you all for the kind words and re-blogging, it means a lot.

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Behind Blue Glass, Ongoing projects and some cool stuff!

 

Hello!!

It's been far too long since I last did a blog to let you know what's going on in my world so here is a long overdue update...

Behind Blue Glass

Remember the film I shot in Mallorca about Great White Sharks and the flip side to shark/human interaction you normally see in the media? Things have been dragging a bit due to the "Of Shark and Man" shoot, post-production on that and some other projects that have come my way so as a way to refresh your memories, watch this ninety second trailer:

 

Full size version here

I know it says on the trailer it was due to be released in the summer but sometimes, things don't always go as quickly as you'd like. The good news however, is that this is almost ready for release, meaning you can buy a copy on DVD for yourself. I have pretty much confirmed a distributor and agreement, the film is being subtitled into Spanish and the behind the scenes bonus stuff, DVD packaging and authoring of menus is now being done. I am hoping it will be made available by the retailer online and when it is available, you will be the first to know!

Of Shark and Man

The editing of a film like "Of Shark and Man" is a pretty epic task, more so when you're doing it on your own, even more so when you're negotiating your way around various technical problems that are a product of putting something like this together in the way I have! However, if you saw the private teaser trailer then you will have a fair idea of how good this film is going to look and hopefully you will have also notice a refreshing change from the usual modern approach of treating an audience like idiots and titillating them with shark porn or boring them half to death, I'm trying to capture the excitement and adventure of the 70's and 80's heyday of shark film-making and to also tell a story that you don't already know. If you haven't seen the trailer yet, why? The only excuse you could have is that you don't have internet and if that's the case, you won't be reading this anyway. If you do want to see it and if you like sharks, you should, all you have to do is sign up to the mailing list here (scroll down), it takes about ten seconds and your details are secure and you will not be spammed. Because I'm nice, I'll be sending out the link and password in the next bit of news I send to subscribers and not just that, you might even be getting some more cool stuff to see before anyone else (more on that in "other projects"...)

If you don't already know, you don't just come back from a shoot and start putting everything in a timeline and voila, you have a film. What I have been doing since August is the very unglamourous but essential part of being a film-maker. Almost 3TB of footage needs to be painstakingly separated, catalogued, pre-edited, encoded/converted and logged so when it comes to the edit I have specific content and shots ready and easy to find so the best of the best is going into the film. To put it into perspective, there are folders like "Bull Sharks closeup swimming left to right," that means going through hours of footage to find scenes where Bull Sharks are closeup swimming left to right and for every left to right, there has to be a right to left, non-closeup, good viz, bad viz...You get the idea. In one five minute clip there could be shots that fit every criteria I need so that clip needs to be edited and catalogued over and over and over again. This takes a hell of a lot of time and effort but means when the edit starts it will be a much easier task.

I have also started shooting the UK scenes in my beloved Manchester in all its grey and overcrowded glory, the only things left now are storyboarded shots for the film's intro and a specific shot I want to open the film but I need to find somewhere which has what I need to film and will allow me access in private to do so.

I am really, really excited about this film and I hope you are too, I am confident it's going to be something pretty special!

 

Ongoing Projects

As well as everything to do with Behind Blue Glass and Of Shark and Man, I have been working on two other short videos in support of something I can't say anything about yet, but it's something about which I am very passionate. It's also not my story to tell but these two videos will help support the telling of this story and breaking of the news when hopefully, they (the amazing people in the thick of the action) are in a position to do so. The intention is that one will be used as an internet viral type PSA, the other for broadcast on national television.

It's early doors at the moment, nothing is 100% guaranteed but it's all positive so far, as usual, mailing list subscribers will be the first to know as, when and if I am able to break the news so go sign up because you don't want to miss this if it happens.

Cool Stuff

Finally, here's some cool stuff which I rather enjoyed, some shark related, some nothing to do with sharks but brilliant nonetheless, think of them as a bit of an apology for my enforced silence this last couple of weeks!

An epic and thoroughly justified rant

A dead cert for an OSCAR surely? Thanks to Mike for the heads up

(Click this link) - Great band, great tunes and all for free! Check it out

The 21st century prophet yet again, speaking the truth, very funny, very true (warning, some blue language!)

Enjoy the cool stuff and I'll be back soon hopefully with yet more good news and delightful goodness for you!

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