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30/05/2008: ""AQUARIUS - (People of the Sea") ....... Documentary poster"

The travels mentioned this month were filmed, mostly with a hand-wind Bolex 16mm. A one-hundred foot roll of film lasting 2 minutes 44 seconds.

In retrospect this meant short stories in the final product. Lots of them need to make 90 minutes of edited film. Then A&B roll edits and a release print to screen. Magnetic sound track proved cheaper and better quality than expensive optical soundtracking for a one-off print.

Today's video cameras making story gathering a whole lot easier. What to do with the finished product?

I trust the following stories will be inspiration for other young adventure-seeking film makers. If I'd have known how difficult it was going to be, my project would not have got off the ground.

Our inspiration was the Californian surf movie by Bruce Brown called The Endless Summer. Filmed with the same equipment as what I used it was later released around the world on 35mm theatrical prints.

The problem with going down that road was "too many other people handling the box office money".

Film distributing companies were not benevolent toward film makers either. Many filmmakers who tried this method failed to make much of a profit - apart from Bruce Brown.

Aquarius must have impressed a few people in it's day. I had a letters of introduction to a major film studio and another to Screen Gems (TV) in USA yet didn't pursue either.

Also an opportunity to appear on a New York TV tonight show. Alas, I was homesick.

Did not follow up any of these or other opportunities.

They would have changed everything - not necessarily for the better either.

No regrets ever.