VANCOUVER, Canada  - World Oceans Day has taken on new meaning to the production team at Parallax Film Productions. After spending months filming their latest project called Bahama Blue, a bunker oil spill occurred in their hometown Vancouver, just as they were delivering the final episodes.

“We just have a new appreciation for how catastrophic an event like this can be. We know how vulnerable many species are to manmade pollution,” says Director and Executive Producer Ian Herring, “It’s a shame that we only truly appreciate wildlife when it’s threatened or gone.”

The team chose a different theme for their series, though, to capture the beauty and diversity of wildlife in the Bahamas. “We’ve taken a page out of (David) Attenborough’s book,” says Herring, “the best way to motivate people to protect the environment is to inspire them, not just lecture them.”

Parallax started by focusing on the classic A-List Species: sharks, dolphins and whales, but quickly learned that just like there are no small roles, only small actors, the Bahamas were filled with countless extraordinary creatures: rare species of iguana found nowhere else on earth, tiny tree crabs who need to stay wet to breath and a type of comb jelly that predates the dinosaurs. The series blends rich 4k cinematography and macro photography, that allowed the team to film creatures ranging from tiny thimble jellyfish to giant sperm whales. Its signature ‘tide lapses’ and intimate aerials set the creatures in their environment: a view of the Bahamas beyond the beaches.

The series is something of a departure for the Parallax team who is best known for its science and history programming. Their most recent project, Battle Castle, blended computer-generated images, beauty location footage with battle reconstructions to tell the stories of six great castles and their sieges. But Herring believes he’s recapturing something of an art lost to many Canadian filmmakers and he’s convinced that Canadian viewers want to see it. He cites a recent survey they showed that 63% of Canadians or nearly 17 million people obtained their information about Nature through visual media in the previous year, narrowly surpassing those who got information from print sources.[i]

Bahama Blue premieres in Canada on Love Nature Wednesday, May 6 at 10 pm Eastern. Love Nature is a premium nature and wildlife channel, which showcases the animals, landscapes and wonders of our world in a commercial free, family friendly format. Herring likes its placement on a commercial free channel. “We want to take the audience with us on a cinematic journey to this unique spot,” he explains, “without the ads, people stay immersed in the stories.”

Love Nature also sees the power of episodes to inspire. “Bahama Blue lets us see nature in a spectacular new light with beautiful 4k content,” says Marcia Martin, SVP, Original Content, Blue Ant Media.

“Airing this stunning new series on the Love Nature Channel allows us to further connect people to the beauty and wonder of nature.”

World Oceans Day is June 8, just before the sixth and final episode of Bahama Blue. Parallax intends to support the worldwide event by sponsoring a Twitter chat with one of Bahama Blue’s underwater cameramen, Andy Brandy Casagrande, to discuss his role creating images that inspire ocean conservation.

Bahama Blue will broadcast in French Canada in the winter of 2016.

Bahama Blue is also scheduled to air starting

· May 5 in Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa (EEMA) on Animal Planet

· May 24 in Italy on On Focus.

Other international broadcast dates are forthcoming.

Bahama Blue is an innovative six part television series that explores the islands of the Bahamas in a search for wildlife with award-winning producers Ian Herring and Maija Leivo of Parallax Film Productions.

Past the white sand beaches and beneath idyllic turquoise water lays one of the fiercest natural habitats in the world. Its picture perfect beauty draws us into a world where life and death unfold in natural and sometimes horrifying order.

The series focuses on how this struggle plays out within the unique geographical features of the Bahamas including Mangroves, Deep Blue Water, Sand Flats, Coral, as well as Caves and Blue Holes; features that both define and interact with the diverse wildlife. The range of creatures include many species of sharks like the Oceanic Whitetips, Tiger Sharks, Bull Sharks, Hammerheads and Nurse Sharks, sea turtles, iguanas, dolphins, whales and flamingos all of whom have special relationships with the geography as they pass through their life cycles.

WATCH THE TRAILER

BAHAMA BLUE SEASON ONE EPISODES:

1. Mangroves

More than a tangle of roots growing out of swampy muck, the Mangroves are nurseries for the marine life of the Bahamas. More than 90% of the species of the Bahamas spend some part of their lives here. This is where baby sharks learn to hunt and young lobsters learn how to hide. The roots of these salt-water tolerant shrubs are also home for some remarkable creatures: from the tiny seahorse to the resilient tree crab. Even the iconic Flamingo gathers here to feed on the crustaceans that give them their pinkish hue.

2. Blue Holes and Caves

Hidden away beneath the surface of the Bahamian archipelago is a magical world millions of years in the making. The Caves and Blue Holes of the Bahamas house some of the most spectacularly beautiful geological formations in the world. The species that reside in the watery depths are evolutionary anomalies and above ground the variety of bats and other creatures that make their homes in the caves are astounding.

3. Coral

An amazing underwater metropolis; the biodiversity of the reef is critical to species living in the Bahamas. Diverse and colourful marine creatures seek food and shelter among the complex coral structures in this interdependent environment. Every day they negotiate and to share the space and interspecies interactions abound. Schools of cleaner fish whom preen their neighbours in assigned cleaning stations or quick twists of fate can turn the predator into prey.

4. The Sand Flats

Beyond the iconic and pristine white beaches of the Bahamas, the Sand Flats are home to fierce Iguanas, camouflaging stingrays, and the beautiful bottlenose dolphin. All of this sand is the surprising waste product produced by resident parrotfish nibbling on coral, producing one tonne of sand per fish every year. Each species relies on the surprising abundance in the sand flats both onshore and off. Green sea turtles spend most of their lives grazing on the sea grasses of the sand flats. Stingrays use incredible electro sensitivity to locate crustaceans hidden away in the sand. The creatures of the sand flats have unique skills for turning seemingly desert conditions, in to an advantage.

5. Open Water

Open Water makes up nearly half of the area of the Bahamas, but houses its most elusive species. These creatures must be able to swim far or fast, to search for food, mates and shelter. These iconic species: Oceanic White Tip Sharks, Sperm Whales and even the reclusive Blainesville Beaked Whales are some of the deepest hunters on the planet. Schools of fish and flocks of birds exploit every advantage in this environment, whether a patch of seaweed or a rocky outcrop.

6. Wonderland

From the coral that formed the Bahamas, to the mangroves that protect its sand flats from tropical storms, each eco-region, and many species of the Bahamas, depend on each other to survive. Together these interconnected ecosystems and species embody the magic of the Bahamas. Explore the creatures that play surprising roles in one another’s lives and the intricate food web that connects them all. Measured by the incoming and outbound tides and the dramatic shifts from day to night, we spend a magical day in Wonderland.

http://parallaxfilm.com/