Exxon Web Video

Exxon Web Video from Kevin Co on Vimeo.

Here's a video produced and edited by Chris O'Leary of WWF to commemorate the 20th Anneversary of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. Some of my Bristol Bay footage was licensed to be used in this piece. Check out the scenes of BB in the last half of the video. The WWF is working hard to create the links between the tragedy of 1989 to what could happen out in Bristol Bay in the near future, and I'm honored to be a part of this campaign.

I'm also really psyched to be building more partners into our Bristol Bay film. WWF's request was to build up and license a b-roll tape to be used as part of a news package that has been delievered to major news outlets.

Following is the reel itself. Enjoy watching the highlights!


WWF Bristol Bay B-Roll Selects from Kevin Co on Vimeo.

Rough Cuts: Picking fish from our nets

Just to be clear, these videos I'm posting about Bristol Bay are rough scenes from a documentary film that I am currently editing (amongst other projects). It's my intention to get my vision of Bristol Bay out into the public sphere so that others can see what I've seen. That said, these initial scenes are just a few out of many many many that need to be cut and distilled into a finished form.

In 2006, the commercial harvest of red salmon was 44.3 million fish. This was the 8th largest return of fish in the last 50 years of Alaskan statehood. The wild salmon runs of Bristol Bay are unique in that this is the last place in the world where this natural phenomena exists.

All kinds of people depend on this valuable, sustainable resource. Native communities have subsisted on this fish for 10,000 years. Commercial fishermen have been here for the last 150 years and that tradition continues today. All fishing is still done by hand in a season that lasts for only 3 weeks.

Every fish that lands in the net needs to be picked out of the net by hand. In 2006, that means 29 million individual fish were killed by human hands.

Think about that as you watch this video.

Rough Cuts: Bristol Bay

This past summer, I traveled to Bristol Bay (western Alaska) to begin gathering material for a new film project. My film is an exploration of the people who depend on wild Alaskan Red Salmon, and the major issues that threaten our salmon resources and salmon cultures (Native and Commercial)

Major thanks goes out to the fishermen who took this filmmaker aboard, the families of Bristol Bay who took me in, and the Rasmuson Foundation for giving me the initial funds to begin this project.

I have finally made the time to go through and begin to edit! I'll be posting rough scenes as I go along, so that this project can get out there and I can start hearing some feedback.

I'm using Blogger to handle the video because it's user friendly, but the streaming video isn't the nicest looking or sounding. Keep in mind that all of the footage was shot on HDV.

In this scene, we set our nets aboard the F/V Teal and wait for fish.