We are a couple living on Sydney Australia's beautiful northern beaches and the two of us, James Sherwood and Danielle Ryan, make up Bluebottle Films.
https://bluebottlefilms.com/
Our film production work focuses on people's connection to the natural world and in particular the ocean.
Over the past few years we have had quite the adventure. We have filmed above and below the surface in some of the world's most beautiful and unspoilt locations. We have met with some of the most inspirational characters on the planet and have been lucky enough to film many of their achievements.
So we thought we'd share the journey with the Steemit community and create a blog about our adventures and share some of the stories and conservation messages that we've learnt along the way.
A few years ago we started this journey in our home state of New South Wales, filming stories about connecting people to the ocean in their backyard and the importance of having these special places protected. The film was called 'My Saltwater Sanctuary', and it kicked off our passion for these projects.
Soon after, we made 'The Sea & Me', a film about the scientific benefits of marine protection and their benefits to coastal communities. This film took us all around Australia to some of the most beautiful places we've ever seen. Places like Ningaloo Reef, the Great Barrier Reef and Mariah Island in Tasmania and amazingly these places are still rich in marine life due to their high levels of protection.
The following year, the opportunity came up to make another film, 'The Last Sea Treasure'. This film follows underwater cinematographer Julia Sumerling's quest to protect one of the most beautiful regions of the Coral Sea. It offers some of the best diving in the world, loaded with sharks and other large pelagic species and stunning coral reefs. The region has been an area of contentious debate over the previous few years with commercial and recreational fishers fighting proposed protection which is still in limbo today. You can watch the trailer of the film above.
These films and a few others made us realise there was far more to the story of marine protection, so we decided to embark on a new journey. To create a full length feature film about the birth and history of the marine protected area movement. Filmed all over the world and bringing together some of the biggest names in marine conservation, the film is called 'The Map to Paradise', and this blog will follow our journey to create our biggest and most challenging film yet.
To be continued...