Great News: Paul Wesley in Huge “Vampire Diaries” Series Premiere

TV Guide today is reporting that the Vampire Diaries Premiere last night on CW
“became the most watched series premiere in network history”, with 4.8M viewers.

This is VERY good news for us because BTB’s Paul Wesley stars in the series and such a strong premiere clearly means the show is destined to be on the air for quite awhile. To give you a concrete indication — Paul’s IMDB “Starmeter:” rating was 5,800 when we cast him in BTB; it now stands at 848 (meaning out of everyone in Hollywood, he’s cracked the top 1000. And last night, during and after the premiere, I was surfing the message boards at IMDB, CW, and elsewhere — and there were lots of posts along the lines of “who’s the actor playing Stephan….he’s HOT”, etc — so we’re expecting upward movement in the coming weeks and months.

In setting up BTB, we consciously wanted to make sure the film had an up and coming “hottie” (sorry, I cringe writing the word, but you get it) to play the role of Craig — who is Alyssa’s first love interest, etc. And now we’re able to be pretty sure we made a good choice. (We always knew Paul was great in terms of ability….this is about marketability, though.)

Here’s a screen grab of the starmeter list showing who Paul’s neighbors are at his current level. Not bad company to be in for a young actor on the way up. Congrats, Paul.

Taiji Update: The Slaughter Will Continue Despite Delays

I previously passed along an update from Ric O’Barry in which he reported that becasue of “The Cove”, the Japanese media for the first time descended on Taiji on the supposed first day of the annual dolphin slaughter — and the slaughter didn’t start.  Unfortunately — and we expected this — it looks like a delay, not anything more than that. Here’s a new update.l  Sorry about the graphic photo but ….. it’s important to see.  Note that we are coordinating with various groups about things like this — and the Sonar issue — as we get Beneath the Blue in alignment with the groups out there who are concerned, as we are, with this type of thing.

REPRINTED FROM ECOWORLDLY
by Daniel Hohler

Last Tuesday, EcoWorldly Staff Writer Bryan Nelson wrote an article on the suspension of dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan. The suspension came off of Japanese local media swarming on Taiji, after the award winning documentary film “The Cove” put the spotlight on the small Japanese village that slaughters thousands of dolphins every year.

Ric O’Barry, the dolphin trainer and activist who brought the location to the attention of filmmakers, returned to the site of the slaughter this week, just as the annual “hunt” would normally begin. However, this time with all of the media attention, no dolphins were killed in the first 2 days of the season.
“It has been an exciting morning and the people here are very hostile, but as long as this goes on and we keep the pressure on, they cannot hunt the dolphins.” -Ric O’Barry

Sadly, O’Barry admits solemnly, this is only temporary. O’Barry keeping a watchful eye on the dolphin fishermen, has managed to disrupt the first two days of the annual dolphin hunt in the Japanese town of Taiji, but accepts that as soon as he leaves the fishermen will resume the killing.

“It’s very expensive for me be here and I can’t stay for the whole six months of the season”-Ric O’Barry

According to the Japan Fisheries Agency, around 20,000 dolphins will be killed all around Japan this season. The documentary revealed that dolphin meat is often sold illegally to the Japanese school system, and that school children often have no idea that what they are eating is dolphin meat. Dolphin meat has been shown to have high levels of mercury, which can be a huge problem for developing children.

On the coast of Japan, fishermen set out in dozens of boats and chase down a pod of dolphins. They then surround the pod with their boats, and create loud noises with metal poles, to frighten the dolphins into a net at the mouth of the bay. They leave for the day as the dolphins struggle within the nets frantically. The fishermen come back the next day to find “worthy” specimens. Fishermen tie a rope around the dolphins tail fin, and literally drag the dolphins to the coast for slaughter. The crystal blue ocean water turns crimson with the blood of the dolphins, as their necks are slit one by one and thrown onto an awaiting boat.

Dolphin fishermen will not just give up easily because of a little media attention, as each dolphin sold for meat will net them around $500 apiece. Each dolphin that they believed can be trained for aquariums can net them $150,000.

O’Barry is only staying in town for a week, and has already encountered angry locals at what they perceive to be interference in their industry. On Tuesday morning, as he tried to enter a grocery store, the head of the fishing union blocked the door and refused to allow him to buy any food. As soon as O’Barry leaves Taiji, media attention will wane, and the dolphin slaughter will continue.

The film “The Cove” has gone a long way in raising awareness. You can check to see if their are any screenings of the film in your area here. Spread the word. If enough people around the world know about what is happening in Taiji, O’Barry will no longer be the lone voice of protest that stands between the dolphins and those that wish to slaughter them.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk, The Cove

Image Credit: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

Great News From Taiji

Just got this in from Ric O’Barry (courtesy of Ken Levasseur–thanks, Ken)  from Taiji, site of the annual dolphin slaughter that is depicted so powerfully in the documentary The Cove, which is out in theaters now generating tremendous buzz and a likely Academy Award nominee if not winner.  Check out The Cove Website if you are not familiar with this great film.  Here’s the poster by the way.

Here’s Ric’s update — very exciting and encouraging:

URGENT UPDATE FROM TAIJI

September 1, 2009: A Good Day for Dolphins

By Richard O’Barry, Director

Save Japan Dolphins Coalition

Today is September 1st, the first day of the dolphin slaughter season in Japan.  But when I arrived today by bus from Kansai Airport with media representatives from all over the world, the notorious Cove from the movie was empty.  There were no dolphin killers in sight

So today is a very good day for dolphins!

I vowed to be back in Taiji when the dolphin killing began.  I’ve often been here alone, or accompanied by a few environmentalists.  Sometimes, I was able to talk a major media organization into sending someone.

But the people of Japan never learned about the dolphin slaughter, because none of the media in Japan (with the exception of the excellent Japan Times) have ever sent reporters to the killing Cove.  Until today!

When I got off the bus at the Cove this afternoon, I was accompanied by my son Lincoln O’Barry’s film crew, a crew from Associated Press, Der Spiegel (the largest magazine in Germany), and the London Independent.

No dolphins and no dolphin killers.  We would not have had a story at all, except for the police who were there, waiting all day for us to appear.  Nine policemen came to talk to us.

Now, I have said this repeatedly:  Unlike the Cove fishermen, the police from this Prefecture have always acted professionally, courteously, and fairly.  I have never been mistreated or threatened by the police here.  I think they are a microcosm of the people of Japan – the very people I am trying to reach about the dolphins!

And as I was talking with the police, as the international journalists stood around listening, suddenly a camera crew arrived from Japan!  And then another!   And then still another!

You have to understand that this is SO IMPORTANT.  These TV stations have REFUSED to cover the story in Taiji for years and years.  NOW, for the first time, they have shown up, with cameras rolling.  The head policeman talking with me even said, for the cameras, that the police are not there to support the dolphin killing fishermen.  We shook hands, and they left.

As I said, it is a good day for the dolphins.  And for me personally, as the police only wanted to talk with me, not arrest me!

“The Cove” movie led to the strong action by the city of Broome, Australia, in suspending the sister-city relationship with Taiji.  So now, the Japanese media are sitting up and listening, for the first time.

And I’m telling them:  “This tour is to show journalists the GOOD things about Taiji.”  You see, with “The Cove” movie out now, we don’t have to show the BAD things about Taiji.  Soon, the whole world will know about the Taiji dolphin slaughter.  And all Japanese will soon know about the cover-up that has occurred by the government in refusing to stop mercury-contaminated dolphin meat from being sold to unsuspecting Japanese consumers and children.

But Taiji can change this image of shame, if they want to.  I will be telling them that the town of Nantucket used to be the capitol of the whale killing industry in the US.  Now, it uses its history of whaling combined with whale-watching to market tourism very successfully.  Whales and dolphins are worth more alive than dead.  Taiji can do this, too.  But the killing has to stop.

Yes, today was a good day for dolphins.  Tomorrow, I will take journalists with me around town to show them Taiji.  Tomorrow, too, I predict will be a good day for dolphins.  Every day that we are here and the fishermen KNOW we are here, will likely mean no boats going out to round up dolphins for the killing Cove.

And because of “The Cove” movie, the dolphin killers must now fear hidden cameras and microphones, even when they THINK we are not here.

And soon the world spotlight from “The Cove” will shine a very bright light on Taiji.

US Navy Press Release Regarding Sonar Effect on Whales

Interestingly, on the same day that the beaked whale died in Florida after becoming stranded on a beach in Hollywood, the Navy has put out a press release about two studies it has recently conducted on sonar effect on whales, particularly beaked whales. The press release is interesting on a number of levels. Note that one of the two tests was conducted by AUTEC, the Atlantic Undersea Testing and Evaluation Center on Andros Island in the Bahamas that figures prominently in “Beneath the Blue”.

Here is the Navy story:

[August 11, 2009]
US NAVY: Navy Continues its Commitment to Science through Marine Mammal Studies
Aug 11, 2009 (M2 PRESSWIRE via COMTEX) — By Tracey Moriarty, Chief of Naval Operations Environmental Readiness Division WASHINGTON (NNS) — The U.S. Navy and its partners recently completed two studies that monitored marine mammal responses to military exercises.

The studies were conducted April 20-May 20 on the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center (AUTEC) in northern Bahamas, and July 15-July 28 on the Southern California Offshore Range (SCORE) off Coronado, Calif. Both studies used small dart tags with satellite transmitters to track the movements of whales before, during and after unit-level and larger battle group exercises that included the use of active sonar. Additional data is being collected during biological and behavioral studies of marine mammals in the western Mediterranean Sea project currently underway off the Spanish Mediterranean coast and in the Tyrrhenian Sea to the west of the Italian mainland.

These studies are a part of the Navy’s research program to understand the effects of anthropogenic sound on marine mammals. Follow-on studies are expected to be conducted at AUTEC and SCORE as well as the Navy’s other at-sea ranges during the next five years.

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Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center, Bahamas The AUTEC study took place during a Submarine Commanders Course (SCC) and was performed by scientists from Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC), the Bahamas Marine Mammal Research Organisation (BMMRO) and the The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center. David Moretti, principal investigator for NUWC’s Marine Mammal Monitoring Program, led the Navy’s effort to use AUTEC hydrophones to help determine behavior of whales on the range with and without active sonar present.

“The hydrophones are used to listen for vocalizations from the animals,” Moretti said. “Over the years we’ve been able to detect those animals, send trained observers to their locations and identify them. It has enabled us to associate vocalizations with particular species.” Moretti and his team monitored a screen display of 93 hydrophones on the 500 nautical mile AUTEC range. When a hydrophone detected vocalizations, the NUWC team would contact the researchers waiting on the University of Miami’s vessel, F.G. Walton Smith, and give them an approximate location of the whale. The research team would then race to the proposed location in hopes of deploying satellite tags and for photo-identification and biopsy work.

John Durban and Bob Pitman of NOAA Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center worked with their Bahamian colleagues on the tagging effort, made difficult by unpredictable weather conditions. This collaboration successfully deployed nine satellite tags on three different species on and around the AUTEC range, including three Blaineville’s beaked whales, a Cuvier’s beaked whale and five sperm whales. Biopsy samples were also collected to obtain information on the genealogy, population structure and diet of the whales.

Scientists believe that beaked whales are sensitive to sound.

“The mere presence of these species on a Navy range is counterintuitive to the perception of beaked whale reactions to sonar,” said Moretti. “Given that this is an active Navy range where sonar is used, you wouldn’t anticipate this species to be present in this particular location if you believed the popular press.” Diane Claridge, director of BMMRO, was already leading a multi-year study to observe the distribution, abundance and population structure of beaked whales in the northern Bahamas. The timing of this year’s survey happened to overlap with the SCC.

“From working at AUTEC for previous projects, we have been photo identifying beaked whales in that area,” she said. “The animals are moving in and out of here, and one of the things I’m interested in is whether or not that movement is related to the activities taking place such as the SCC.” Though the team is still reviewing the data for this project, beaked whale monitoring during previous SCC events has shown a decline in acoustic detections of beaked whales during active sonar exercises. Beaked whale detections increased following the end of the multi-day exercise, leading to a hypothesis that animals moved off the range during exercises. However, this hypothesis remains to be tested, and the extent and distance of any movements remain unknown.

“We believe they avoid the sonar by moving off the range, and they return after operations are finished,” said Moretti. “We have opportunistic data based on acoustics that supports that idea. Once they’re off the sensors we really don’t know where they go. I can’t say definitively that the animals that leave the range are actually the same animals that come back.” The AUTEC study hopes to answer some of these questions.

“I think the most important thing is that it’s still very early,” said Durban. “Like any study, it’s tempting to want results straight away, but often the key results are only obtained from continued long-term monitoring of abundance and movement patterns. Only by having that background monitoring data can you detect any key responses. So in some sense, we’ve just started, but it’s been a good start.” Claridge agrees.

“We’re really on the cusp of what we’re going to learn because we’re just getting into the analysis of all survey data.” Researchers intend to return to AUTEC prior to the SCC event scheduled later this fall.

Southern California Offshore Range On the West Coast, the SCORE Marine Mammal Research Project involved collaboration between NUWC, SCORE, NOAA Fisheries Southwest Fisheries Science Center, Cascadia Research and Scripps Oceanographic Institution. Whales on the instrumented Southern California Antisubmarine Warfare Range (SOAR) are monitored on 83 hydrophones mounted on the ocean floor at an average depth of 2,000 meters. Like AUTEC, the phones are used to monitor an area in excess of 500 square nautical miles. Cetaceans are photo-identified, biopsy sampled and electronically monitored to examine their response to military exercises.

The on-water tagging effort is led by Cascadia Research Collective’s Greg Schorr and Erin Falcone.

“We are experiencing success tagging species in this region, especially beaked whales – beyond what we initially thought possible,” said Falcone. “The combined experience of collaborators on this project, from this and other regions, is allowing for continuous improvement in our data collection.” Eight animals were successfully tagged in eight days during fieldwork in July, including a Cuvier’s beaked whale, bottlenose dolphin, Risso’s dolphin and five fin whales. These tags supplement data collected from one Cuvier’s beaked whale and three fin whales tagged at SCORE in 2008.

Scripps High Frequency Acoustic Recording Package (HARP) buoys are used to monitor locations off-range. By combining these data from the multi-sensor SOAR range, satellite tags and HARP buoys, the spatial and temporal distribution, movements and vocal behavior relative to active operations is being investigated.

“With each study, we’re moving closer to answering the big questions relating to health of populations,” said Moretti. “We’ve made great leaps in knowledge from when the Navy started studying beaked whales 10 years ago. Back then we didn’t even know what they sounded like, let alone the nature of their vocalizations. We now have preliminary data predicting how these animals move in sites of intense study, which we are beginning to interpret in an effort to answer those big questions.” When researchers return to SCORE this fall, they will be testing a new “fast and light” weather dependent model for studying beaked whales in offshore waters of the Pacific, which frequently experience high wind and swell conditions. Beaked whale dives can last more than an hour, with the animals only surfacing briefly and keeping a very low profile. Because of this, any unfavorable weather compromises the researchers’ ability to locate and tag the animals. The “fast and light” model will mobilize researchers more quickly in favorable weather conditions to increase the amount of data collected.

Mediterranean Sea Unlike the SCORE and AUTEC studies, the Mediterranean tests are being conducted through controlled exposure experiments, in which the animals’ behavior is measured before, during and after specific sound exposures planned by the researchers, rather than sonar sounds generated during naval exercises. Researchers for this project, referred to as MED-09, include representatives from the NATO Undersea Research Centre, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Genoa Aquarium and several other international scientific and academic organizations.

The researchers are studying whales with tags that can record sound, animal orientation and depth measurements. These “Dtags,” short for “digital acoustic recording tags,” were developed by WHOI and are invaluable in the study of beaked whales and other species that dive deep and seldom visit the sea surface. Dtags are attached using non-invasive suction cups.

“In MED-09, we’re duplicating the experiments from 2007’s behavioral response study at AUTEC,” said Moretti. “The difference is that unlike the AUTEC animals, these animals are na’ve to sonar. We don’t know if they’ll behave the same way as animals that are accustomed to sonar exposure.” The scientific results expected from MED-09 will contribute to a greater understanding of marine mammal biology and oceanographic features in the western Mediterranean. The data will be provided to local and regional government, conservation and educational organizations to increase public awareness and appreciation of these areas and species. Specialized information obtained regarding the baseline behavior of beaked whales and their response to manmade sounds will be integrated into ongoing Navy environmental planning for exercises and also be made available to science organizations worldwide to support their research efforts.

MED-09 began in late July and lasts until early September.

Beaked Whale Dies; Calf Euthanized

The two beaked whales that became stranded yesterday near Hollywood, Florida are dead. The mother died yesterday afternoon, and the calf was euthanized shortly thereafter. There are multiple media reports now reporting this. No accusations of Navy sonar are being made yet, but as noted yesterday this is almost certainly the cause of the stranding. There has been no mention in the articles yet as to whether a necropsy will be performed.

This article from the Daily Mail has some heartwrenching photos of the rescue attempt.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1205741/Mother-whale-dies-following-stranded-calf-Florida-beach.html

Breaking News: Beaked Whales Stranded in Florida

CNN is on the air reporting about the stranding of a Cuvier’s Beaked Whale mother and calf on the beach near Hollywood, Florida.  Here is a picture of the rescuers working on the mother — note that these are not, for the most part, just casual beachgoers.  Some are wearing NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and others are clearly pros, so they know what they are doing.

Kyra Philips, CNN’s anchor at the moment, doesn’t seem to have any idea that this is probably Navy Sonar related.  Cuvier’s Beaked Whales (which are basically oversized dolphins in the same way that pilot whales and Orcas are actually dolphins) are especially sensitive to Navy Sonar.

Here is a link to a National Geographic Article:  Military Sonar May Give Whales Decompression Sickness.

And here is what comes up when you do a search “beaked whales sonar” — dozens of articles to read.

Hope this has a happy ending but I’m doubtful.  They’ve managed to get both animals out into the water far enough so that they could swim away if they were able to.  We’ll see.

Some Sample SFX Shots We’re Working On

I’ve mentioned in some recent posts that we are at the stage now where we are working on special effects shots, among other post production matters — and some have come in with comments that you’re curious about what SFX shots we have in the movie, since it wasn’t immediately clear to them what these shots would be.  I’ve got some pix here which give an idea of two of the shots — fairly simple ones, but each shot takes a little time and effort and there are over a 100 such shots int he movie.

In the story, Hawk goes to the island of Andros where there is a US Naval Base called “AUTEC” which stands for the Atlantic Undersea Test and Evaluation Center.   This is a real facility on a real island and is a naval facility that has been involved in testing of Active Sonar — so our use of it in the story is factually appropriate.   Although there are a good number of aerial photos of the facility available on the internet — it was only with some rather long and hard searching that we came up with a water level picture of the facility — but we did find one.  Here it is.

This gave us a good idea of what the facility actually looks like, so one of the first things we did with it was to rebuild the images in high resolution, creating a backdrop that is not an exact match for the “real” facility — but is quite close.

In the story, there is a marine mammal facility at AUTEC.  But we actually had to shoot the supposed AUTEC facility in a corner of the UNEXSO facility on Grand Bahama.  So below is a picture of our set at UNEXSO, without the AUTEC features added in.

And here it is after we have “roughed in” the AUTEC background.   This is not a finished product — but rather is a first draft of how it will look, just so that we can get the basic idea into the cut for viewing purposes.  The blending of images will be enhanced before we go to final — but you get the idea.

Another application of the same background images has to do with the various times in the story when Hawk or others approach Andros, or drive away from it.  Here is a series showing how this aspect of it works:

First, a photograph of a Naval Patrol boat supposedly coming out from Andros Island as it was actually shot:

And here is the boat with the island and a naval vessel inserted behind it.  Seen as a still — it’s basically a “photoshop” exercise –but in a motion picture where the camera is mounted on a boat and thus is not stationary, and the waves themselves are moving in the frame — getting the island and moored Navy vessel to “stay put” requires a bit of effort and specialized software. The image below is very much a work-in-progress — especially the island, which is too small and is being reworked and improved.

Anyway — as noted above there are more than 100 of these kinds of SFX shots in the film and we’re grinding through them one by one.

Samantha Jade Single Released in Australia

Samantha Jade’s new single was released last week in Australia and has already jumped to #2 on the Aussie charts. Samantha is in Australia promoting the single and her upcoming album which, according to her manager John Harris, will be released in November. We’ve also received a demo of the song (a very beautiful, appropriate ballad) which Samantha has written for the BTB soundtrack.

Here is the single

Important Note to Our Investors

Effective today we have begun emailing confidential investor reports for investors only to our email list of investors.  If you are an investor please make sure to enter the following email address into your address book:

• beneaththebluereports@gmail.com.

That way our messages will not get caught in your spam filter.  I will be continuing to post general ‘behind the scenes’ and completion information about the movie here …. however, we need a channel to communicate specifically with investors, and many of you have said that you would prefer to receive it via email rather than have to go looking for it in a blog.

NY Times Article on Sonar and Whales/Dolphins

The New York Times Magazine this weekend published an excellent extended article on sonar and its effects on Marine Mammals by Charles Siebert which is well worth reading.  Beneath the Blue deals accurately and intelligently with virtually all of the issues Siebert talks about. The article was the number 3 top emailed article from yesterday’s Times — so it has had a major impact already.  And the fact that the Times would devote a major magazine piece to this issue is a good indication that our film has a topicality and “newsworthiness” that should be helpful when we promote it.

Here is the link:  Watching Whales Watching Us