BLUE Ocean Film Festival & Conservation Event: see, learn, and appreciate the marine world

Across the globe there are a variety of underwater film festivals and ocean conservation events - all worth attending if we had the time and the airfare.  But very few bring together films, conservation, and the big names within both the ocean movement and the documentary industry quite like the BLUE Ocean Film Festival & Conservation Event does.

Based now in Monterey, California, the BLUE Ocean Film Festival & Conservation Event (September 24-30) began just a few years ago, in 2009, in Savannah, Georgia, and in very short order BOFF has established itself as a major player in bringing together the great names and works of leading ocean filmmakers for the general public to enjoy.  When not planning for the next bi-annual event, the festival takes its work on the road with BLUE On Tour, providing educational mini-festivals for communities and academic institutions around the world.

This year, there will be a wide range of films for the public to see, from spectacular new works from major studios and networks to the films of emerging, next-generation filmmakers - no home movies or what-I-did-on-my-vacation videos here, but real first-class productions; films with a message that our oceans are amazing and need to be protected and preserved.

Along with the films, BOFF offers an industry conference complete with panel discussions, master classes, and seminars that include some of the biggest names in the nature documentary field.  If you are an aspiring filmmaker or simply someone who would like to meet and pick the brains of such great talent, it's a wonderful opportunity to do so in a relaxed, congenial atmosphere.  This year, James Cameron, Capt. Don Walsh, and members of the Cousteau clan will be on hand and that's just scratching the surface of what's planned.

And finally, there are the ocean conservation events planned, with keynote addresses from such notables as Drs. Sylvia Earle (SEAlliance), Greg Stone (Conservation International) and David Guggenheim (the "Ocean Doctor") and other experts in the field who will be tackling the tough issues and discussing solutions to the many threats to our marine ecosystems.  Frankly, there is so much going on at BOFF, the greatest challenge is how to take it all in.

I have been fortunate and honored to have been a participant in the festival from it's beginning, moderating shark conservation panels or conducting underwater video workshops.  I will be there again this year and I always look forward to catching up with colleagues I haven't seen in a while or meeting new people, new ocean advocates.  It helps recharge the batteries of enthusiasm and commitment.

There are various types of ticket passes available depending on your interests and schedule, from one-day passes to the whole enchilada.  Monterey is a lovely destination all by itself, so if you are looking for a pleasurable and informative few days along the Central California coast, check out the BLUE Ocean Film Festival & Conservation Event website. 

Visit the BOFF website.

Disneynature Oceans & The Crimson Wing: fishes and feathers in Blu-ray

In the world of nature documentaries, wildlife filmmakers had for many years resigned themselves to the fact that their professional lives would be bound to very tight budgets with distribution limited to television and nature film festivals. Not that this would condemn them to inferior product, but the opportunity to express their passion to a large audience utilizing the power of the large screen experience, for the most part, eluded them.

In 2008, Walt Disney Studios formed its Disneynature division for the purpose of bringing nature films back to a mainstream audience in a big way. Disney has a past history in nature documentaries - cute stories of lovable bears or foxes that were both entertaining and fashioned within the mold of Disney family fare. With Disneynature, the studio has returned with several sweeping theatrical productions that are also taking advantage of today's advanced home entertainment technology in the form of high definition Blu-ray and Internet connectivity.

Set for release on October 19th in Blu-ray/DVD combo packs, Disneynature's Oceans and The Crimson Wing are two remarkable films with stunning visuals but different approaches in storylines to motivate audiences to appreciate nature. One engulfs you with the breadth of biodiversity, while the other focuses on a precarious annual journey of survival.

Oceans, a follow up to Earth, Disneynature's first global-oriented release, takes a sweeping look at life in the sea. From majestic humpback whales to quirky, pugnacious mantis shrimp; to humongous, thunderous storm waves; to Isla Guadalupe's great white sharks (some familiar toothy faces from my years filming there), the film ladles one impressive scene atop another to paint a picture of spectacular variety in shape, color size, and temperament. Pierce Brosnan provides a narration that is not too wordy, avoiding competing for attention with the images on the screen.

While many nature film-goers may have seen similar underwater scenes in other films, the sheer variety all brought together in Oceans is overwhelming. As a nature filmmaker, I knew a lot about what went into the making of this film, produced by French-based Galatee Films: high definition video, 35mm film, elaborate underwater lighting rigs, camera cranes arms working from small boats, even remote controlled model helicopters mounted with cameras - enough technical wizardry to make any major action film envious. And yet, knowing this, I still found myself thinking over and over, How did they get that shot?

The Blu-ray transfer of the film is excellent and nothing is modified from the original wide-screen theatrical format - so even on a large flat screen, the video is letterboxed to match the theatrical original. The Blu-ray disc also provides an interesting variation on the "director's comments" found with many DVDs by offering Filmmaker Annotations which provides behind-the-scenes footage and backstory while the video is running.

With such a mosaic of dramatic aquatic images, the film's one weakness is the lack of a more cohesive storyline. The film is literally and figuratively all over the map, from big to small, from one side of the globe to another, there were brief scenes that, while probably taking many days if not weeks to shoot, seemed to be mere placeholders. So the "story" of Oceans is that of spectacular eye candy. It is a marvelous achievement visually and home viewers, particularly those unfamiliar with the ocean's biodiversity, will be as impressed as theater-goers were.



While having advance knowledge of what to expect with Oceans, I was totally unfamiliar with The Crimson Wing. It is the story of Africa's flamingos and their annual migration to the lakes in northern Tanzania to breed and raise their babies. Flamingos? Those goofy-looking pink birds? This couldn't hold my attention as a feature film.

I was more than pleasantly surprised. I was stunned.

Produced by Natural Light Films and Kudo Pictures, The Crimson Wing is a remarkable example of nature filmmaking. Capturing the birds in flight or congregating in the hundreds of thousands, the filmmakers transform the image of a silly plastic ornament on a Florida lawn into a graceful creature determined to flourish in an insufferably hot and hostile environment.

The Crimson Wing focuses on Lake Natron, where flamingos arrive following brief rains that breathe life into the shallow lake in the form of red algae - remarkably, the source of the birds distinctive color. As the summer heat increases, salts separate from the evaporating waters and literally form a salt island where the birds go to build nests; mounds of salty mud. The babies that hatch must then withstand an arduous trek to the lake shore marshes where they will feed, grow and ultimately take flight as the flocks disperse across Africa, only to return again the next year, the cycle repeating itself.

While there are plenty of Disneyesque scenes of cute baby flamingos stumbling through their first steps or nestling with their mothers, the film doesn't pull its punches in showing the precarious nature of their lives. Stalking predators like giant storks or a hungry mongoose are shown taking their fill - a reminder of the cold brutality of survival. Not avoiding this hard reality of nature only adds to the mystery and miracle of the migration, and the filmmakers succeed in maintaining a balance in tone: beauty in the face of severity.

While containing stunning visuals, The Crimson Wing also benefits from a more cohesive and personal story, one that is propelled by chronological events. The close interaction between mother and chicks helps to maintain focus as these flamingos go through their own "Circle of Life" - to borrow from another Disney film. Again, the Blu-ray transfer is excellent and so you have an entertaining combination of state-of-the-art visuals with a compelling story. This is what one would hope all nature films could attain.



In addition to the video of the original theatrical release and the Filmmaker Annotation feature previously mentioned, both Oceans and The Crimson Wing offer interactive menu features that, when the Blu-ray player is linked to the Internet, provide additional nature and conservation information that is updated via the online connection. Part of the strategy to promote adoption of the Blu-ray standard is the incorporation of the Internet - in essence, your Blu-ray player becomes a computer - and I expect we will see more and more creative uses of this interactive capability in the future.

Disneynature's Oceans and The Crimson Wing are worthy reasons for adopting Blu-ray as the next home video format. Enlightening viewers to the beauty, importance, and fragility of nature is a worthwhile mission for technology. As a conservationist, I am hoping that technology will provide solutions to help protect the planet. It can also help by simply showing us what we can not afford to lose.

Available on Blu-ray/DVD on October 19, 2010.

Shooting In The Wild: the ethics of wildlife filmmaking comes under scrutiny

Nature filmmaking is an important form of media arts, particularly in this day and age when environmental issues are becoming more and more the focus of politicians, policymakers and the general public. Nature films are visual literature that typically have a position or point-of-view they wish to express - even the most matter-of-fact presentations are intended to get the viewer to understand something about the film's subject that perhaps they did not know or appreciate before. So, by design they have an agenda.

But with that agenda comes an ethical responsibility toward accuracy and realism. And for the nature documentary filmmaker, who must contend with the logistical realities of the film process combined with the pressures of satisfying the demands of an entertainment media business, this ethical responsibility can sometimes be a challenge.

Shooting In The Wild (Sierra Club Books), written by veteran nature film producer Chris Palmer, takes an in-depth look at the world of wildlife filmmaking to expose the ethical dilemmas faced by filmmakers who manipulate, fabricate, and deceive - all in the name of presenting nature "realistically." The book has been generating a fair amount of media buzz with its recounting of staged animal sequences to coax certain behaviors, use of captive animals from animal farms or zoos, and even animal abuse - all for the sake of "getting the shot." In fact, ironically, while the book condemns over-sensationalism and attempts to establish a foundation for ethical responsibility in nature filmmaking, the majority of the media reporting has focused on the book being a tell-all expose that rips the mask of respectability off the nature filmmaker, showing them to be manipulative charlatans. Well, it makes for a good headline on the evening news, but I think it misses the point of Palmer's book.

The ethics of accuracy and realism exist throughout all forms of expression. We accept that fiction almost by definition is a manipulation or fabrication. And in non-fiction books and films, we accept fabricated dialog or scenes that convey the essence of historical truth. We even tolerate a measure of hyperbole from our leaders in their speeches and their political campaigns. Up to a point. . . and that's where the slippery slope of ethical responsibility versus manipulated fakery rears its head. Can a black and white line be drawn within what is often a subjective gray area?

This is what Palmer discusses in Shooting In The Wild by sighting many examples of nature filmmaking that deviate from precise realism: forced predations, unnaturally-induced animal behaviors, reproduced sounds, and even whether or not the use of music in a nature film is a manipulation of reality.

In describing a filmmaker's staged predation sequence between a king snake and a diamondback rattlesnake (as the intended prey), Palmer writes, "When the king snake ignored the rattlesnake, the filmmaker tried again and again to engage them in combat, with no success. Finally, a crewmate came up with an idea: he put the rattlesnake into an empty mouse cage for a day so it smelled like a mouse. Problem solved - the king snake soon seized and ate the rattler."

As engrossing as it is to read of these cinematic machinations, Palmer is not setting out to give nature filmmakers (or himself for that matter, as an accomplished producer of award-winning films) simply a black eye. Rather, he wants everyone, from viewers to filmmakers to network executives, to consider both the difficulty and importance in trying to find where one draws the line between truth and deception. It is an important topic to debate because nature films are too important of an educational resource to suffer from a lack of credibility with the audience.

As a filmmaker myself, I am continually having to make decisions as to how best to make my point, to fulfill my agenda as it were, without portraying animals in a false or deceptive light. Sometimes the decisions are dictated by the difficulty of the film process. Take sound for instance.

When I film underwater, it is virtually a silent world. Underwater camera housings often have hydrophones (underwater microphones) but the sounds they record are usually just the bubbles emanating from the cameraman's dive gear, which has nothing to do with what's going on in front of the camera. While topside, one can be filming an animal at a great distance, far beyond what the microphone can effectively pick up. So, a soundtrack is compiled after the fact using pre-recorded sounds or ones that are artificially produced. Palmer notes that opening and closing an umbrella can be a substitute sound source for an eagle's wings flapping. I often use sounds of splashing at a community pool for the sounds of sharks breaking the surface. Logistical necessity or deception?

Or what of the lush music scores that accompany many nature films? As a former composer, I greatly appreciate the power of music to support the visual image or the spoken word. We seem to have no qualms about the impact that music can have on the many non-nature films we watch - the ability to make us laugh, cry, or jump out of our seats - but is it right for a nature film? Reality dictates that there are no Aaron Copland-esque refrains heard when we stand before a panoramic view of the Sierras, so is the use of music, as some cynics would say, a manipulation of our feelings? A cheap deception meant to further the filmmaker's agenda? Well, perhaps someone did not get enough hugs as a child.

While the use of sound may not be the most egregious of manipulations, the issue of artificially-induced behaviors certainly is one that can take a filmmaker down the slippery slope. Take, for instance, the practice of baiting or chumming for sharks. Many shark programs have been criticized for favoring sensationalism over reality by providing food stimulus that provokes the shark to act in ways that are not natural, except perhaps in the most extreme and infrequent of situations. The shark's exaggerated behavior is then portrayed as the norm and the stereotypical image of the malevolent predator is, once again, perpetuated.

In my first shark documentary, Island of the Great Shark, I went to great pains to film white sharks acting in as natural of a behavior as possible. Rather than edit together a series of powerful scavenger attacks on floating bait that would present an image of a voracious, aggressive predator continually on the attack; I chose images that made up the vast majority of what actually occurred time and time again, that of a wary and cautious animal that would gracefully move through the water - investigating, curious, but not hell-bent on devouring everything in sight. It was my call to portray these animals based on both what I actually experienced and what I had learned from speaking with recognized shark experts. But it also meant that a portion of my potential audience would be disappointed because I chose not to support the pre-conceived stereotype.

In Shooting In The Wild, Chris Palmer goes beyond listing past sins by nature filmmakers caught up in the struggle to capture images by whatever means necessary (and some, like animal abuse or staged predations, are certainly inexcusable). Palmer broadens the discussion with recommendations that amount to a road map to ethical wildlife filming. One of his recommendations is for filmmakers to work closely with reputable scientists. I couldn't agree more, but it's not always easy to do so.

Programs are typically pitched to networks and that pitch must resonate with executives who are concerned with audience appeal and ratings. And sometimes these program pitches are ideas that were hatched by production company staff members who are not scientifically-trained or oriented at all but know what will catch the attention of the network's program developers. It is then, after they have sold their idea, that they look for someone - a scientist or other subject matter expert - who can provide some credibility to the project. This kind of approach, where one backs into the science, can lend itself to an ethical dilemma for the producer who finds himself stuck between the expectations for what has been sold and what the scientists say is the actual reality. Again, I have seen this many times in shark programs and it has made more than one qualified shark expert leery of working with filmmakers because of some preposterous film premise or because of how they themselves were represented in some prior film.

Palmer writes, "But while a good scientist-filmmaker relationship can be mutually beneficial, it's important to choose partners carefully. Before they begin, the parties need to agree on both the goals of the project and the most ethical way to accomplish them."

Shooting In The Wild is a fascinating book for all the interesting stories that Palmer tells and for his examination and recommendations on the ethical dilemma that nature filmmakers routinely face. I would recommend it to all who appreciate wildlife films - filmmakers, conservationists, and just viewers at large. It serves as a guide for how nature filmmakers should conduct themselves and for what viewers should come to expect from this unique entertainment genre.

BLUE Ocean Festival: the importance of communing with your peers

So many films, discussion groups, and networking opportunities. Every time I attend one of these events, I come away recharged with new motivation, opportunities, friends, and just the renewed energy of knowing that what you are dedicating yourself to is worthwhile and supported by others.

Here is a link to a photo taken by Amy Schwab (one of the participants in my UW Video Workshop) of me with Stefanie Brendl, noted shark advocate who was instrumental in pushing through the recent Hawaiian anti-fin legislation, and Chris Palmer, one of the great producers of nature documentaries and a terrific speaker, motivator, and inspiration.

So many great people, swapping stories, and getting energized about the future and how to wrestle with all its challenges. If you are a dedicated conservationist, coming to these types of events reminds you that you are committed - that you don't need to be committed. You are not alone; you are among friends.

I must remember to use my iPhone - it does take pictures, doesn't it?

BLUE Ocean Film Festival & Conservation Summit: this summer's must-see event in Monterey

The BLUE Ocean Film Festival & Conservation Summit will be taking place in Monterey, CA from August 24th through the 29th - and, flat out, it is an event not to be missed for the dedicated ocean conservationist to the mildly curious.

Only in its second year, the festival has grown tremendously in scope and recognition because of the wide range of films, conservation events, and just plain fun and fascinating events for people to participate in. There are single and multi-day passes and industry delegate passes, so you can build your schedule accordingly - watch some of the very best ocean films from international filmmakers, take in premiere photo exhibits and discussion panels on a wide range of ocean exploration and conservation subjects, or you can even get out in the field or get wet with some of the top experts in their field.

This year, the festival's 2010 Dr. Sylvia Earle Award will be presented to Dr. Carl Safina, director of the Blue Ocean Institute, who is one of our most dedicated and eloquent environmentalists and who will be giving a special presentation on the status and future implications of the Gulf Oil Spill. There will be other great speakers, like Jean Michel Cousteau, Dr. Sylvia Earle, and many other recognized heavyweights in the field, along with a variety of important seminars and panel discussions. I am pleased and honored to once again be participating in and moderating a Shark Conservation Discussion Panel and I will be joined by Peter Knights (WildAid), Laleh Mohajerani (Adoptashark), Stefanie Brendl (Hawaiian Shark Encounters), and Dr. Greg Stone (Conservation International).

Also, for all you beginning or emerging underwater video filmmakers, I will be conducting an Introductory Underwater Video Workshop that includes 2 dives in Monterey Bay's famous kelp beds along with a classroom workshop.

The films that will be shown range from major productions like Disneynature's Oceans, National Geographic and BBC productions to short films and online-dedicated videos (I have one in this category that will be screened and two that received honorable mentions) - over 60 films total.

The festival events will be taking place in venues throughout the city, including the Monterey Bay Aquarium, one of the festival's major sponsors. So you can really plan quite a time for yourself.

The BLUE Ocean Film Festival & Conservation Summit. Come for a day, come for a week. It's going to be one heck of an event.

Shark Week 2010: how to balance against one particular perspective

It's Sunday and so begins Discovery Network's annual week-long programming of shark "documentaries" - Shark Week 2010. This event has been a ratings success (translating into advertising dollars) but exasperated shark advocates have reviled the network's reliance on over-sensationalism and distortion of the facts.

The programming usually consists of one large budget new program, several new smaller budget programs, and then the rest of the programming slate is filled out with selections from the network's vast library of shark programs they have amassed over the past 20+ years. This week's promotional spots for Shark Week seemed sharp-witted and exciting, so let's see what the new program lineup looks like:

• Ultimate Air Jaws - leaping South African white sharks seen in super-slow motion. Hmmm, could be interesting.
• Into the Shark Bite - Hmmm.
• Shark Attack Survival Guide - Hmmm.
• Day of the Shark 3 - HmmmMMmmm.
• Shark Bite Beach - HmmmMMMmmmhhhmmm.
• Shark Bites; Adventures in Shark Week with Craig Ferguson - Hmmm. Well, at least he's funny.

So, is there a counterbalance to Shark Week that helps to put things in some sort of reasonable perspective? Sure, in the form of blogs, shark conservation groups, and videos. Here's just a few, in no particular order or preference (and my apologies to any that I left out):

Blogs:

• Ultimate Thrills: Swimming with Sharks
• Best Shark Dive in the World
• The Dorsal Fin
• Why Sharks Matter
• And of course, RTSea Blog

Shark Conservation Groups:
There are so many (perhaps too many, as it leaves the movement highly fragmented), so in no particular order or preference. . .

• Shark Free Marinas Initiative
• Shark Research Institute
• Iemanya Oceanica
• WildAid
• Save Our Sea Foundation
• The Global Shark Initiative

Videos:

• Island of the Great White Shark
• Sharks At Risk
• Sharkwater

So, if you or your neighbors wonder out loud this week as to what all the fuss is about with sharks (Are they malevolent monsters out to get us? Or are they hapless victims of ruthless hunters and bad public relations?), check out some of the items listed above. When it comes to sharks, the truth is definitely more interesting than fiction.