Exciting New Media at Sea Studios

Sea Studios has embraced Web 2.0! Please explore some of our new media ventures:

We have our very own YouTube Channel called Strange Days Action. Go to: www.youtube.com/strangedaysaction to see many of our films.

We have also started several social networking communities and causes on Facebook and Myspace. Please click on any of the following:

Strange Days Facebook Cause: Make Waves
MySpace Strange Days Action Cause
Wastephobia
Save the Coral Reef
Stop Trashing the Ocean: The Great Garbage Patch

We are involved in an online movement called Drop the Plastic Bag. Please visit: www.droptheplasticbag.org to join forums, to find resources, and to take a number of actions.

Go to the The Green Guide to see our "Bag the Bag" video, starring Edward Norton.

And finally, go shopping at our interactive supermarket. Go to: www.pbs.org/strangedays/getinvolved/

Television Premiere of Strange Days II

We are counting down the days to our broadcast premiere! Please join us by tuning in to PBS on April 23rd (Wednesday evening) to see "Dangerous Catch" and "Dirty Secrets".

Also check out our brand new interactive Strange Days PBS website: www.pbs.org/strangedays

Photos from the "Strange Days on Planet Earth" screening in Washington, D.C.

Mark Shelley, Executive Director of Sea Studios Foundation, Justin Brashares, Assistant Professor, Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley - also the terrestrial ecologist featured in the Ghana story of "Dangerous Catch", and Gretchen McClain, President of ITT Fluid Technology, sat on the panel following the screening to discuss their work and take a few questions from the audience.




In the lobby of Grosvenor Auditorium at the National Geographic Society where guests were greeted for the screening of Strange Days...

Two new web videos by Sea Studios

Dr. Sumaila, director of the Fisheries Economics Research Unit at the University of British Columbia Fishery Center, talks about overfishing, its impact on the Ghanaian economy, and the global ramifications of a fish shortage in Africa.


Captain Charles Moore, founder of the Algalita Research Institute, highlights some of the problems of plastic contamination.

Strange Days on Planet Earth Premiere in Washington DC

After weeks of color correction and sound mix at the Skywalker Ranch, we are finally ready to show our film at the Environmental Film Festival in Washington, D.C. We arrive to find the lobby of National Geographic decorated with large Strange Days posters; the ticker outside the building invites people to come and watch. Overwhelming, exciting and a bit unnerving. Then we begin to worry whether we will fill the auditorium.
We worry in vain.
In front of a full audience, Strange Days displays all its glorious colors, sounds and exciting scenes. The audience gasps at the sight of albatross chicks bellies full of plastic and responds loudly at scenes that excite them.
The final credits roll at a thundering applause. Yes. It is a success! Now we must spread the word: watch April 23rd on PBS.

Here's a taste of what's to come on Season II of Strange Days on Planet Earth:

Finishing Strange Days on Planet Earth

We are in the final stage of our film: color correction, sound layback and mastering and sound mixing.

Video Arts in San Francisco is where we are doing Visual FX, Color Correction, Sound laybacks and Mastering. Video Arts is a 20 year old post production house that specializes in high definition post production and finishes documentaries for PBS and Theatrical release on a regular basis.
Next week, Skywalker Ranch for the soundmix.

Strange Days on Planet Earth Host Shoot

Well it finally happened...we filmed our host, Edward Norton in LA. We would have filmed him earlier in the month, but a freak storm put an end to that plan.

The second planned shoot went very smoothly. Our line producer, Brook Holston spent weeks working on the pre-production plans. We only had two days, but we managed to film all of the scenes starring Edward Norton for both new episodes of "Strange Days on Planet Earth". "Dirty Secrets" and "Dangerous Catch" will be premiering on PBS in April 2008 (the day after Earth Day).

This shoot was especially exciting for me because I was brought on as the still photographer. This was the first time I had been on a crew where it was my sole responsibility to take photos. Normally, I am a PA (production assistant), so my job usually consists of doing whatever anyone tells me. Plus, I always take photos anyway. But this time I had the pleasure of focusing on just the photography. Also, someone hooked me up with a headset so I could listen in to all the production-speak. I am a scientist and a photographer by background, so the whole LA film scene was new to me. We had a 40 person + film crew this time. There were assistants for the assistants! Everything had to be perfectly choreographed so that we could film Edward Norton at all of the correct locations in the perfect light. We shot at a pier, a culvert, a fish market, a parking lot, a beach, and a water treatment plant.





Imagine getting that many people set up, tore down, and moved around in just two days. Kudos Brook!