thebahamasweekly.com - "Gus Outdoors", family entertainment at BIFF

D I R E C T O R ' S S T A T E M E N T: Inspiration for Gus Outdoors: Most people, when they have a child, want to show them the world. Everything is fresh, new and waiting to be 'discovered.' Gus Outdoors is my way of sharing the world's curiosities with my son Gus and more recently, my daughter Talus. The early stages of Gus Outdoors was just that, a home movie of Gus on an adventure. I sweetened it up with a little iMovie editing and some 'borrowed' music and had a real hit with Grandma. Then Grandma shared it with other Grandmas who passed it on and so forth until the unbiased feedback started rolling in... and it was encouraging! It took a while, about two years, for me to get it in my head that it was a good idea! The value of Gus Outdoors: One of our goals for Gus Outdoors is to enable children to seek out their own adventures in nature. Watching Gus, a 6-year old, only makes it that much easier for the message to get through. The message from Gus is; if I can do it, you can do it, so get outside! We also want to make sure kids walk away from Gus Outdoors feeling like they had a personal encounter with an animal and learned something of value about them. We want to help kids get to know an animal.The value of kids outdoors: Children need nature in many different ways. The most important reason is health. Exercise, fresh air and sunlight promote happier and healthier children. But nature needs children too. A child that learns to respect nature will most likely grow into an adult that will want to protect it. As humans we have put ourselves in a mighty tight situation with our environment. In the decades to come, nature is going to need a lot of help!

SEAN NIGHTINGALE

DIRECTOR AND PRODUCER - GUS OUTDOORS

P R O D U C T I O N N O T E S: P R E - P R O D U C T I O N: Sean Nightingale decided to make Lizard Town based on his knowledge gathered over two decades of visiting the Bahama Islands. He knew he could capture the creatures of the Bahamas in a short time frame without completely ruining his family vacation. The key principal of Gus Outdoors is enjoying nature with your family so much of the filming was planned to be captured during family excursions.

P R O D U C T I O N: Lizard Town was shot over two, 3-week periods from 2008-2009 during family vacations. The filming took place in the Exuma Cays located in the central Bahamas. The majority of production took place in the Exuma Cays Land & Sea Park. Scenes that include Nightingale's son and host Gus were to be shot in 2-3 hour increments to minimize workload.For Lizard Town, Nightingale shot on HDV using the Sony FX-1 camera filmed in 1080i (High Definition). For the underwater sequences a Light and Motion Bluefin HD housing was implemented and filmed entirely with natural light.During a 2010 vacation a decision was made to include Gus' four year-old sister Talus as a future co-host to share in Gus' workload and include the entire family in producing Gus Outdoors future episodes.

P O S T - P R O D U C T I O N: Editing of Lizard Town was done in Apple's Final Cut Express HD by Sean Nightingale For the majority of the soundtrack, Nightingale enlisted Adam Theroux to create the atmosphere for Lizard Town, fun and up beat. Tim Mueller was the contributor of the 'Steel Drum' track.

C R E W L I S T
Host......................................Gus Nightingale
Director................................Sean Nightingale
Producer.............................. Sean Nightingale
Co-Producer........................Amy Nightingale
Script....................................Sean Nightingale

F I L M M A K E R S' B I O G R A P H I E S:

S E A N N I G H T I N G A L E (Director and Producer) created Gus Outdoors as a way to spend more productive time with his son Gus. Through their adventures together they learn about many different creatures and places. Gus Outdoors was inspired by the BBC's David Attenborough natural history programs.Sean's film background ranges from National Geographic documentaries Lost Subs and The Shape of Life to many independent New England films such as The Spitfire Grill, Where the Rivers Flow North and A Wake in Providence. Sean's skill set is in production, but he enjoys capturing the beauty of our natural world from Gus' point of view with his HD camera.

G U S N I G H T I N G A L E (Host) is naturally drawn to nature and enjoying the outdoors. He and his family spend most of their available time doing many different outdoor activities such as snorkeling, fishing, skiing, snowshoeing and hiking. His first project in his young career was the first episode of Gus Outdoors, Gull Island. Gull Island takes you to a small, uninhabited island off the coast of Rhode Island where a rookery of nesting seabirds is found. Gus enjoys his role as host of the Gus Outdoors and is excited to work on his next episode about water and all the fun you can have in, under and on it.