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Email from a Shark (Sharkbay Films)The Blue Experience (Scuba Scenes)Fathom 1 (Ambrosia Productions)
Email from a Shark (Sharkbay Films)The Blue Experience (Scuba Scenes)Fathom 1 (Ambrosia Productions)
What makes John Boyle such a good underwater film producer? First, he chooses great subjects. He scripts and shoots them sensitively and assembles the results with care. There are no frills or gimmicks, obtrusive music or ponderous narratives. He tells the story and leaves viewers feeling they have been entertained and expanded their knowledge into the bargain. Would-be underwater film-makers should watch and learn.
They might well start with a new DVD which combines Boyle's recent E-mail from a Shark with his six-year-old and still very enjoyable The Shark Feeders, in which he tried his own hand with feeding-spear and chainmail suit in the Bahamas.
E-mail sheds genuine new light on the basking shark as a very British phenomenon and shouldn't be missed. It was favourably received in Diver when it came out on video, and Boyle says of Brendan O'Brien's review: 'You commented that it would sell well in the gift shops in Cornwall. Good idea, mate! This DVD is the result.' We'll happily take our share of the responsibility.
The Blue Experience is a 45-minute promotional DVD by Pete & Suzie Millar designed to attract divers to the Maltese island of Gozo, and if we were to judge that destination purely on this footage, we would reckon it a world-beater right on our doorstep.
Don't expect to see everything shown here on one trip, because this footage has clearly been harvested over time. But permanent features such as the Blue Hole, the Chimney and the Inland Sea, and wrecks in the vicinity such as Stubborn, the Blenheim and the Rozi will always be there to enjoy. And you might be lucky and see those huge shoals of barracuda, amberjacks and sardines, the groupers, morays, flying gurnards and octopuses.
Catch the rays and the mating seahorses as well and you'll know you've have had one hell of a Mediterranean holiday. A well-shot and edited film to get your fins twitching.
While The Blue Experience is an unashamed promotional device, Fathom 1 is an odd one.
Launched as the first of what we are told is a quarterly series of diving DVDs, this one is centred on east Africa. It comes over mainly as a collection of hotel/dive centre promos dressed in objective 'magazine' clothing.
The underwater footage is OK but tells you less than you might want once the dive guides' talk-overs have finished.
There are a couple of cursory equipment reviews by local dive staff, some free-diving leftovers from an earlier DVD about a competition in Cyprus, a Borneo slideshow and a Dali-esque underwater short. Are divers getting their £20's worth? Not really.
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Email from a Shark (Sharkbay Films, www.fourthelement.com) £15
The Blue Experience (Scuba Scenes, www.scubascenes.com) £15.75
Fathom 1 (Ambrosia Productions, www.fathomdvd.com) £19.99
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