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01/01/2005: "'ISLANDS IN THE STREAM' .....A small essential part in making this film."

It was an era pre video cameras. If fishermen wanted a record of their expeditions in Australia, they'd hire a profesional cameraman. I did several weeks of filming giant black marlin tagged and released off Cairns, Qld. from aboard the gamefishing boat Avalon, with Captain Peter Bristow.

My professional gear was a French 16mm Beaulieu camera, with 9.5mm to 57mm Angenieux zoom lens, running mostly in slo mo at 64 frames per second. With lens set at 25mm, it was point and shoot without using the tiny viewfinder. Essential with action that could happen in any direction as the fish hit the surface quite fast and from all angles. The boat was moving at a few knots as well.

We had some spectacular marlin jumps 'in the can' and then dolphin appeared and made beautiful high jumps out of waves.

This action was in the channel between Ribbon Reefs No.4 and No.5. east of Cooktown. Beautiful territory for both snorkel, scuba diving and fishing.

This film material was purchased weeks later for blow-up to 35mm and edited into the then major Hollywood motion picture in final stages of production, Islands in the Stream (based on the novel by Nobel Prize winning author Ernest Hemingway).

The film production was a bit of a box office fizzer in Australia - lacking action/violence of the era in movies. It was an era pre digital special effects. But it was a brilliant story as one would expect from Hemmingway.

The film sale did change the direction for my life considerably - as major success does. Were my proceeds wisely used? A new car and 18 months of social activity in the northern and eastern suburbs of Sydney was a good start, followed by sell-out film shows in Queensland with my documentary Australian Seafari (featuring the same marlin footage but with sharks eating the catch).

If social experience, and a confidence boost is valueable - I did well.