Seeking Videos for 3rd Season of Underwater TV series

[stillhope]

You don't have to be David Attenborough. SEA-Inside: Pacific Northwest is looking for videos that highlight what's beneath the surface of PNW waters. Videos of any length from a few seconds to 20 minutes or so will be considered for this half-hour video-magazine style show. Note that I can only broadcast your video if you have all rights to everything in the video, including music and likenesses.

SEA-Inside: PNW airs on over 3 dozen cable-access stations, half on the West Coast and the other half from B.C. to Florida, from S. Calif to Washington DC -- oh, even to MA, VT, and NH. Most episodes are available on-demand on the internet -- so take a peek there if your local community cable station doesn't air it.

Any genre will be enthusiastically considered. I especially treasure, since I get so few, experimental, educational, and art videos -- go ahead, get wacky! For some examples of underwater art that has been rendered in video, see episodes containing the highly imaginative work of Karlista Rickerson, Karen Perry, and Jan Kocian.

As long as you've sunk all that money and time into underwater video, why not strut your stuff? For more info, visit: SEA-Inside: Home -- way more prestigious (and more bandwidth) than YouTube.,

 

[drbill]

John, kudos again for your efforts. I'm just starting to work on expanding distribution for my cable TV show about SoCal diving.

 

[stillhope]

Dr. Bill, thanks.

I just heard your interview today on the Underwater Video Podcast. Good one! I found it not only informative but fun to listen to. Congratulations on YOUR public access TV show! I liked the fact that you encouraged other divers in other regions to do something similar. Maybe we should start a separate thread here to fan those flames. In the mean time, I'd like to bounce some ideas off you that take that a bit further.

First, I'm a strong supporter of the notion of "community" and community TV and local interest. As a matter of fact, cable-access TV is facing some upheaval. Supporting them by providing quality content which will attract more, and hopefully more vocal, viewers will help ensure that some sort of meaningful community media infrastructure continues into the future.

Second, I often say what you said about the importance of exposing the general public to what's below the surface of our waters -- particularly our local ones.

That said, I've been quite surprised by how many of my DVDs about Puget Sound have sold to schools and libraries all over the country, places where Puget Sound is not a household name. Similarly, my TV series about the Pacific Northwest airs on many stations that are not even on the West Coast. This tells me that people's interests transcend their own personal sphere -- after all how many people who don't have motorcycles or even a workshop watch that stupid show about building motorcycles (or watch a show about the pyramids)?

So in addition to encouraging other people to create their own shows, maybe there's a way we can exchange some shows to air on our local stations (you show me yours if I show you mine). Maybe people in Catalina might like to see some cold, green water critters once in a while.

Or to go another step further, maybe those interested in this sort of venture can work together to share some of the overhead that seems so daunting to a single producer, but could be considerably reduced for each producer if shared on some sort of cooperative basis. Want to discuss ideas like this in another thread? Where would be a good place?

I've got one other proposal, but I'll PM you, as this msg is getting pretty long and it's probably not of general interest.

Thanks again for your encouragement.

 

[drbill]

Of course I think ideas like the ones you've proposed, and the efforts both of us (and others probably unknown to us), are important ones for those of us who love the marine environment... and should be of general interest.

Almost a year ago, I submitted an article to SCUBA Diving magazine about the need for underwater videographers, scientists and interested divers to form collaborative groups in their own areas and use the public access opportunities of their local cable network to spread the word about diving, marine ecology and the environmental issues in their region. It hasn't been published yet, but I hope it does.

Glad you listened to my interview on the Underwater Videographer podcast. I'll have to listen to it myself as I have not done that yet despite Marshall Karp having sent me the link. I've just been too busy editing a new show that will, hopefully, have commercial appeal and actually make some money to fund these educational endeavors that I've self-0funded for the last 7 years.

If we could get divers from the PNW (like yourself), SoCal (like myself), New England, the Eastern Seaboard, the South Atlantic States, Florida and the Gulf States to work cooperatively to develop shows first in their region... and then by collecting the individual efforts into a larger package to sell to cable networks through the States (or, dare I say it, the world?) I think we could have something.

 

[drbill]

Hey, John... I just started a new thread on this and mentioned our interest in cooperative efforts.

Let's hope it attracts some others who have similar interests.

 

[ozdownunder]

Hi fella's,

I'm interested in talking to you both about sharing info as I'm starting a tv series on diving in Western Australia,

please contact me on ozdownunder@iinet.net.au

Regards Terry