Bob Cranston (Underwater Camerman)

Bob Cranston has 20 years experience as a camera operator and director of photography in multiple film formats. A specialist in underwater photography, he has filmed giant squid, sharks, sunken ships and myriad ocean subjects for award-winning film and television productions, including for BBC, National Geographic Explorer and PBS. Cranston began his film work with Howard Hall on the very successful Wild Kingdom series for Mutual of Omaha and later they photographed the highly acclaimed documentaries “Secrets of the Ocean Realm” and “Jewels of the Carribbean.” In addition to Coral Reef Adventure, Cranston worked on The Living Sea with MacGillivray Freeman Films. His other giant screen credits include: Island of the Sharks, Into the Deep, Ocean Oasis and Cirque du Soleil.

	Interview with Bob Cranston "My Role in the Film"
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Brad Ohlund (Director of Photography, Topside)

Brad Ohlund has worked in the large format industry for 25 years. Ohlund attended Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California and, beginning with the classic film To Fly!, has worked on 28 other large format films. His broad and varied assignments include filming underwater reefs in the South Pacific and primitive tribes in New Guinea and Borneo. He has filmed from a plane through the eye of a hurricane and captured on 15/70 large-format film the fury of an approaching tornado.

	Interview with Brad Ohlund "Importance of this Film"
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In 1996 Ohlund was a key member of the MacGillivray Freeman Films Everest expedition. During that three-month expedition, he served as the Photographic and Technical Consultant to the climbing camera team. He was also responsible for filming numerous scenes including the exciting and dramatic avalanche and blizzard sequences. He was directly involved in the rescue efforts during those tragic and historic days in May. Ohlund was most recently Director of Photography for MacGillivray Freeman’s recent films, Dolphins, Adventures in Wild California, and Journey into Amazing Caves.

Chris Palmer (Executive Producer)

For 20 years, Chris Palmer has produced wildlife films for television screens and IMAX® theaters. Films produced under Palmer’s direction have won over 100 awards, including two Emmys. His movies, music videos, documentaries and computer software have all focused on documenting threatened species and habitats, exposing damaging commercial enterprises and practices while celebrating environmental success stories. His work has been described as one of the “great success stories of the modern environmental education movement.”

As President and CEO of National Wildlife Productions, Inc., Palmer leads the television, film and multimedia programs of the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), the nation's largest member-supported conservation group with over four million members and supporters. Palmer has also produced TV specials and series for the Disney Channel, TBS Superstation, Animal Planet, Home and Garden Television, The Travel Channel, The Outdoor Life Network, and for the Public Broadcasting System. In addition to working with MacGillivray Freeman Films on Dolphins, with NWF Palmer produced and distributes the giant-screen films Whales, Wolves, Bears, and India: Kingdom of the Tiger.

Chat Reynders (Executive Producer)

Born in New York City, Charlton (Chat) Reynders III now lives and works in Hamilton, Massachussets. Chat is a partner with Lowell, Blake and Associates, an investment advisory firm in Boston that develops partnerships between private and charitable groups. With Lowell, Blake and Associates and as president and founder of Highwood Productions, Chat is an avid supporter of nature and wildlife documentary films. In addition to Coral Reef Adventure, Chat worked with MacGillivray Freeman Films on the Academy-Award nominated film Dolphins. Prior to his involvement with Lowell, Blake and Associates, Chat served as Executive Director of the renowned Whale Conservation Institute.

Jack Stephens (Narration Writer)

As a marine life enthusiast, Jack Stephens has dived and flyfished the ocean waters of Central America, the Caribbean basin, the South Pacific and Southeast Asia, where he’s been both pleased and concerned by what he’s seen firsthand. As a writer, his 1990 book Triangulation was praised by the L.A. Times for being “what you hope a first novel will be, and hardly ever is.” He has contributed poetry, fiction and articles on travel, outdoor sports and connoisseurship to magazines as diverse as American Poetry Review, Sports Afield, Travel & Leisure, and Men’s Journal. A poet and a generalist with a science background, Stephens has a gift for rendering the complex, technical, and arcane in lyrical and easily graspable terms which underscore the wonder and beauty of science. For MacGillivray Freeman Films, he has scripted and consulted on Journey Into Amazing Caves, The Magic of Flight, Adventures in Wild California, and Coral Reef Adventure, and is currently writing the company's next IMAX theatre feature, Top Speed.

	Interview with Jack Stephens "My Role in the Film"
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Osha Gray Davidson (Script Writer)

Pulitzer Prize nominee Osha Gray Davidson co-wrote the script for Coral Reef Adventure. He is the author of five books, most recently "Fire in the Turtle House: The Green Sea Turtle and the Fate of the Ocean." His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Nation, The New Republic, The Progressive, and many other publications. His book about coral reefs, "The Enchanted Braid" was a Natural World Book Prize finalist. He is the founder of the Turtle House Foundation (www.conserveturtles.org), which supports research to save endangered sea turtles. He lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Learn more about Osha and his work at www.oshadavidson.com.

Steve Wood (Composer)

Mr. Wood has been scoring films with Greg MacGillivray since Greg's surfing cult classic Five Summer Stories in 1975. Since then, he has worked on over a dozen IMAX films including The Living Sea, Discoverers, To Fly!, The Magic of Flight, Everest, Dolphins, and most recently Adventures in Wild California. Steve worked with Sting on both The Living Sea and Dolphins and worked with George Harrison on Everest.

Mr. Wood was Kenny Loggins' musical director for 9 years and has written many songs with Loggins including "If You Believe." He composed the instrumental interludes for Loggins' "Return to Pooh Corner." He has played with artists such as The Pointer Sisters, Michael McDonald, David Crosby, and Graham Nash. Woods' music has also appeared in other films such as Why Me? starring Christopher Lloyd, Boiling Point starring Wesley Snipes and Dennis Hopper, and Greedy starring Kirk Douglas. He also worked with Stevie Wonder on a Clio-award winning television spot for Hansen's Soda.

Scoring giant screen films has allowed Mr. Wood to develop his interest in and knowledge of diverse ethnic music including Indonesian, Caribbean, Chinese, Tibetan, and Irish styles. He has also recorded folk music in Fijian locations. He recently completed production of a CD for Mario Frangoulis on Sony Classical and is currently working on a CD featuring Salvatore Licitra and Marcelo Alverez.

Richard Pyle (Advisor and Film Character)
http://hbs.bishopmuseum.org/staff/pylerichard.html

Rich grew up in Hawaii and when he was 8 years old, set up his own aquarium and began collecting specimens from tide pools near his home. During a field trip to the islands of Palau when he was just 13, he found an unusual angelfish that had never before been seen in the Pacific Ocean. In high school, he discovered a new subspecies of butterfly fish. He was hooked! He enrolled in a Zoology Program at the University of Hawaii but a diving accident at depth left him paralyzed below the neck. It took one year for him to recover. He soon became interested in diving technologies and how to make his explorations in the deep reefs safer. He’s now known as a pioneer in deep-diving technologies. Rich will soon receive his Ph.D. in ichthyology (fishes). He specializes in dives to the “Twilight Zone,” the little explored deep coral reefs 200 feet or more from the surface. Rich and his team are currently discovering an average of seven new species per hour of exploration time – the highest rate of new fish species discovery anywhere in the world. He lives with his wife and two children in Hawaii.

What motivated you to become a marine scientist?
I've been interested in fishes, and marine fishes in particular, for as long as I can remember. When I was less than 2 years old, my family had a small saltwater aquarium in our living room, so that may be where it began. All I know is that I've had an insatiable curiosity about marine fishes since my early childhood, and to this day it has never left me.

What do you enjoy most about your work?
Without question, the most enjoyable part of my work is the act of discovery. Often this happens hundreds of feet below the sea surface, when I first spot a new kind of fish that I know nobody has ever seen before. But sometimes the discovery happens in the lab, when I finally realize something that I had never noticed before. There is an indescribable thrill -- an adrenaline rush -- that goes along with the intellectual satisfaction of filling in one more piece to the vast uncompleted puzzle of the natural world surrounding us.

What do you hope audiences will gain from the film?
I hope people begin to realize that their decisions really do impact living ecosystems thousands of miles away. It's not just environmental hype -- it's very real, and it's very important. Whether it's selecting which politician to vote for, or choosing a new car, or making an active effort to recycle, or just appreciating what incredible diversity is out there which continues to remain at the mercy of our actions -- people can make a difference.

Dr. Richard Aronson (Advisor)

Rich Aronson grew up in Queens, New York City. As a child he fell in love with marine biology collecting seashells at Jones Beach on Long Island. He received his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College in 1979 and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1985. He also studied and worked in England, at the Smithsonian Institution, and Rutgers University. Since 1994 Rich has been a Senior Marine Scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab, Alabama’s facility for education in the marine sciences. He has traveled extensively, has lived in the Bahamas and Britain, and has been diving all over the world. He teaches students of all ages both in the Caribbean and via the internet. Rich’s research focuses on the effects of global climate change on coral reefs and marine communities in Antarctica. In 2000 he published a paper on global warming and coral reefs in the international journal Nature and his work on reefs in Belize was featured in National Geographic Magazine. He is an avid underwater photographer.

What motivated you to become a marine scientist?
As a child I loved collecting shells on the beaches of Long Island, and I loved watching Jacques Cousteau’s underwater films on television. I’ve known I wanted to be a marine scientist since I was nine years old.

What do you enjoy most about your work?
I enjoy learning about how all the plants and animals interacted with each other in the past and like comparing it to what they do now. Some of these interactions are the same over millions of years and some are completely different now from the way they were before.

What is the most important thing for people to understand about coral reefs?
Coral reefs are in danger now for reasons ranging from fishing and cutting down tropical forests to global warming. It is not a hopeless case, but we must act now if we are going to prevent reefs from being damaged even more.
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Dr. Joseph Levine (Advisor)

Joe Levine earned a B.S in Biology at Tufts University and a Master’s in Marine Biology from the Boston University Marine Program. He completed his Ph.D. Research at Harvard. His research has been published in scientific journals and his popular writing has appeared in magazines such as Smithsonian and Natural History. He has taught Biology and Ecology at Boston College and in the Boston University Marine Program, and has designed exhibit programs for state aquarium projects in Texas, New Jersey, and Florida. Joe has dedicated the last fifteen years to improving public understanding of science -- REAL science, complete with all the excitement, relevance, challenge, and uncertainty of cutting edge research. He produced science features for National Public Radio and helped launch the Discovery Channel’s Discover Magazine. Since 1987, he has been a science advisor to NOVA programs, including the IMAX film, Cocos: Island of Sharks. With Kenneth Miller of Brown University, he has written best-selling high school biology textbooks for Prentice Hall, and a college biology text for non-majors.

What motivated you to become a marine scientist?
When I left home for college, my family understood that I was preparing for medical school. Then, during the winter session of my freshman year at Tufts, I was whisked off to a marine field station in the Bahamas. Within a few days of studying tropical marine biology in the Caribbean, I was hooked!

What do you enjoy most about your work?
I now write textbooks, work with high school teachers and students around the country, and consult on science films and television programs. I love all this work, so it is hard to say what I enjoy most. I feel enormously lucky to be able to help so many young people appreciate the wonders of coral reefs, rainforests -- and the environments in their own backyards. The talent and dedication of the teachers I have worked with give me hope for the future of education in this country. And the documentary filmmakers I am privileged to advise are among the most creative and innovative people I have ever met.

What do you feel is most important for people to understand about coral reefs?
Coral reefs are one of the greatest treasures of the living world -- and the most magical and beautiful collections of living things I've ever seen anywhere. Diving on a reef is like visiting a dream world of color, form, and movement ... except that this dream is real. For now, that is. Reefs may be the first marine ecosystem to be truly threatened with extinction unless people all around the world recognize reefs' plight and work to save them. If we can save them, reefs' beauty will be around for our children and their children to love. If we don't save them, all this beauty, all these extraordinary organisms, will be gone -- along with their potential to benefit humanity.
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Dr. Giséle Muller-Parker (Advisor)

Gisele is a marine biologist who studies corals, sea anemones, and other animals that share their lives with microscopic “plant-like” algae called zooxanthellae (pronounced: zoe-zan-thelly) that live in their hosts’ cells. She designs experiments to test hypotheses about the relationship between these symbiotic partners. Gisele earned a B.S. in Biology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and graduate degrees from the Univ. of Delaware (Masters of Science) and the University of California, Los Angeles (Ph.D.). She is a professor at Western Washington University with teaching and research responsibilities. She teaches classes in oceanography, algae, biology, symbiosis, and botany. She is lucky to travel to many parts of the world to do her research on corals. She hopes her research results will help guide conservation efforts to help coral reefs remain healthy and productive ecosystems. Gisele has a husband and two sons who are very supportive of her work.

What motivated you to become a marine biologist?
As a college student I was introduced to the fascinating animals that live in the ocean. I wanted to learn more about them. I also became a SCUBA diver and diving showed me new worlds I wanted to learn more about. To become a marine biologist I had to become a scientist and take chemistry, physics, and math classes as well as biology. This was a real challenge for me since I was an art major and had avoided science. However, I was motivated by my interest in marine biology and was able to get my college degree in biology. I enjoyed doing marine biology research as a graduate student, and still enjoy this aspect of my job. There’s still so much more for me to learn! I now enjoy working with college students, helping them become biologists and marine biologists.

What do you enjoy most about your work?
I get to keep learning new things about symbiotic relationships and underwater life in general. I am able to mentor students as future researchers. There’s a lot of room for creativity in designing research projects.

What do you hope audiences will gain from the film?
Jacques-Yves Cousteau said: “People protect what they love.” I hope the film instills an appreciation and love for coral reefs that will lead to conservation efforts worldwide.

Dr. Gerald Allen (Advisor)

Gerald (Jerry) Allen is a world-renowned expert on coral reef fishes of the Indo-Pacific region and freshwater fishes of New Guinea and Australia. He is the author of 32 books and more than 350 scientific articles. He received a Ph.D in marine zoology from the University of Hawaii in 1971. Since then, he has traveled extensively throughout the Indo-Pacific region, having logged over 6,000 hours of SCUBA diving in the process. He now works as the Science Team Leader for Conservation International after a 25-year career as Curator of Fishes at the Western Australian Museum. Underwater photography has been a long-time interest and several thousand of his photos have appeared in a wide variety of international publications. Originally from the USA, Dr. Allen and his wife Connie have resided in Perth, Western Australia for the past 30 years. They have two sons, Tony and Mark. Dr. Allen is a great sports enthusiast as evidenced by his favorite hobbies: bicycle racing (nine times State champion), rock climbing, and alpine mountaineering.

What motivated you to become a marine scientist?
My parents bough me a 5-gallon aquarium and a few tropical fish when I was 7 years old. This awakened me to the fascinating world of fishes. Later, I was very lucky in meeting some very influential people early in my university career. The most significant was Dr. John Randall of the Bishop Museum in Hawaii and the world's leading expert on tropical coral reef fishes. When I met and talked with Dr. Randall I knew I wanted to do exactly what he was doing and that's what I eventually did!

What do you enjoy most about your work?
The thrill of discovery when I dive or explore new locations, and especially finding new species of fishes.

What do you hope audiences will gain from the film?
That coral reefs really matter - that they are one of nature's finest creations - and there is a need to save them from various threats - especially global warming.