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Hawai'i Wildlife Fund Video
(10 min, 63mb - Quick Time format)
by Lyn Gerner
 Director's Statement:
While my film highlights the work of HWF's dedicated scientists to the preservation of Hawaii's critically endangered marine species, what the film doesn't show is just how long they've been doing it --
for close to a decade now, many almost entirely on a volunteer basis. One example is biologist Cheryl King, who has personally shepherded every nesting female hawksbill turtle and every known nest of hatchlings on Maui, without compensation, for the last 8 years. For years before her, Hannah Bernard performed these
arduous tasks.
Also generous are the members of my filmmaking team: my assistant videographer, Chris Pickering, who took time out from his wildlife photography pursuits; and my percussionist friend and music educator, Sherri Pfaff; both gave their time, energy and creativity freely to make the film possible. Maui-based underwater videographer Ananda Stone also kindly donated her footage of adult swimming turtles.
Sleeping on a beach, night after night, watching for the chance to assist and film the hatching hawksbills, with Cheryl King and so many of Hawaii Wildlife Fund's wonderful scientists and volunteers, is an experience I will cherish forever.
I hope you will enjoy the results of the aloha spirit that this film embodies.
Sincerely,
Lyn Gerner, Filmmaker
About the Filmmaker
After 21 years in high-performance computing, and a
side-line in scuba diving and instruction, Lyn Gerner
is now completing a Master of Fine Arts in Science and
Natural History Filmmaking from Montana State
University - Bozeman's pioneering documentary film
graduate program:
http://naturefilm.montana.edu/
Production Notes:
Best Laid Plans
This film was supposed to be an intensive look at biologist Cheryl King's efforts to save the hawksbill on Maui.
We'd shot lots of people waiting anxiously, for four weeks, across two separate nest hatching periods.
By the end of that month, we still had no shots of hatchlings from natural birth processes, because they were all being trapped,
inches below the surface, by engulfing root systems of grasses. (Many grasses now growing behind the dune are not native to that
niche -- for instance -- Kentucky Blue Grass.) I also had been unable to obtain the intimate shots I'd wanted, of a nesting mother hawksbill.
Our film just wasn't happening!
So, four weeks into a 5-week shoot, we had to replan the whole script. We switched to a broad look at Hawai`i Wildlife Fund team members'
efforts: to educate, to research coral reefs and fishes, and to protect monk seals, in addition to their hawksbill activities.
I had three weeks left on-island when my husband Kenneth arrived for his (our) vacation. Well, it took all of the remaining time,
but we got our footage for the other subjects-- even got lucky enough to happen onto a monk seal at Ho`okipa. We'd gone there to just
watch the big waves coming in, but Kenneth had gently encouraged me to bring the camera-- just in case. There the animal was, with HWF's
Hannah Bernard watching over it, educating on-lookers. Only because of Kenneth's wisdom and generosity did I get everything I needed.
The Vagaries of Infrared Videography
I'd spent several weeks during pre-production, testing out various kinds of infrared illuminator technologies, in preparation for shooting the
hawksbill sea turtles at night, in the most animal-centric way possible. Visible light confuses their navigational choices when coming from and
returning to the sea, so I'd sworn to use only the invisible infrared spectrum.
When the turtles actually hatched, the night was very black-- new moon-- and my camera's viewfinder was extremely bright with the
greenish glow of the infrared images (before color-correction). This brightness completely destroyed my peripheral vision.
I'd planned some dynamic, moving shots, tracking alongside the turtles, but I literally couldn't move, for fear of tripping over something out in the blackness. |
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