David Hannan - Producer, Cinematographer, Filmmaker

David Hannan and Plankton Productions are currently releasing the '20th Anniversary Collectors Edition' of 'Coral Sea Dreaming - A Celebration of Reefs' with MLJ-Network. He is also exploring exciting ways of seeing his imagery as 'Virtual Ocean Displays' and developing several new projects.

Filming in High-Definition since 2001, he has amassed one of the worlds largest and most coveted independent tropical marine footage libraries and also an extensive archive of Antarctic subjects on HD.

David's now classic 'Coral Sea Dreaming - an Evolving Balance' was first released in 1992, shown in over 60 countries and still remains the best-selling natural history program ever produced by an Australian filmmaker.

Since then, David has produced and been principal cinematographer on many other international, award-winning programs. They include 'Sex on the Reef', 'Raptures - an Undersea Odysee', 'Australia's Marine World' and 'Crown of Thorns - the Monster from the Shallows'.

Several HD programs, 'Antarctica Dreaming - Wildlife on Ice', 'Serenity - Southern Seas' and 'Ningaloo - Where The Desert meets the Sea' were produced and released with ProCam in Brisbane, Australia. The 6-part TV series 'Undersea Edens' for Smithsonian Channel won a prestigious award for 'Best Series'.

David Hannan's cinematography is featured in some of the world's most successful natural history feature films, television programs and series. These include the BBC's 'The Blue Planet', National Geographic 'The Shape of Life' and 'Great Migrations' series and David Suzuki's 'The Nature of Things'.

David was Australian producer and cinematographer on Rob Stewarts feature documentary 'Sharkwater' about shark-finning which has won more than 34 International Awards. A new feature, 'Revolution', is due for release late 2012.

David is currently in post-production on the feature-length documentary 'The Cauldron of Life' and he has also completed significant contributions to 'Planet Ocean', a film by the producers of 'HOME'. Other recent endeavours include principal cinematography for 'Coral: Rekindling Venus', a major new work in full-dome format by Lynette Wallworth and visuals for projection onto the new dance performance piece 'Okeanos'.

David Hannan is a founding Director of Ocean Ark Alliance, a non-profit organisation focussed on open access education reference resources and pioneering conservation initiatives.

Pete West - Supervisor of Diving & Underwater Photography

Pete West has been a commercial diver and professional mariner since 1972. In that time he has participated in and supervised many facets of the international diving industry. His experience and certification includes working in offshore oil fields around the world, heavy marine construction, hyperbaric medicine, photography, submersibles, salvage, defence force liaison, film and television. In addition he is certified as a USL Master Class V, with several years experience navigating vessels between Australia and Europe.

Pete prides himself on his versatility, equally comfortable supervising major marine productions or operating and maintaining a range of camera, lighting and diving systems.

With international certification and a comprehensive credit list, his credentials are verifiable and his experience proven.

Pete has had many years experience in ‘Technical Diving’, having been trained and certified in the use of a variety of military and recreational semi-closed and closed circuit rebreathers. This experience allows him to perform cost/benefit analysis to establish the most practical and economically viable equipment for the task at hand.

Trained and employed as an EMT/Diver by Oceaneering International. Pete has the knowledge and experience to ensure safe diving practices are adhered to and most importantly is experienced in identifying the signs and symptoms of diving related illnesses and initiating treatment.

 → For more information check out also Pete's website at: www.numa.com.au

Toni Houston - Writer, Editor, Director

Toni recently scripted the Voice Over narration for Coral Sea Dreaming. She has worked in the film and television industry for over twenty years. She has worked as researcher, writer, editor and/or director for major Australian TV networks (Channel 10, Nine Network and the ABC Natural History Unit) and independent documentary companies. This culminated in her directing a 1 hour special - Atlanta's Child - for Seven Network Australia.

For 5 years she traveled the world as onboard film-maker for National Geographic Lindblad Expeditions, producing short documentaries on eco-tourism and expedition travel, for which she was cinematographer, director, editor, writer and narrator. She wrote, directed and edited Antarctica Dreaming, an HD feature on Antarctica. Toni is now developing Aqua with Plankton Productions. She is also a published prose writer, diver, fire-breather and proud mother of two.

Nate Scripture - Field Producer, Reigndrop, LLC

Based in Washington DC, Producer Nate Scripture provides regular consulting and liaison services to Plankton Productions and the International documentary community.

Nate produced several specialised field shoots in Papua New Guinea with David Hannan for National Geographic Channel's epic natural history series Great Migrations.

During 2009, Nate's company Reigndrop LLC and Plankton Productions produced the award-winning Undersea Edens, a 6 x 1/2 hr HD series of programs for the Smithsonian Channel.

See the News item titled Undersea Edens wins 'Best Series' award at IWFF.

Watch this space for announcements !

Lucy Trippett

The filming of fascinating subjects requires a lot of other production work and creative thinking behind the scenes in organization and management. Lucy Trippett is an Environmental Scientist, Diver, Photographer, Writer, Production Manager, Researcher, Producer, Art Director, Publicist, Creature Collector, Travel Agent, Critic, Aquarist, Bookkeeper, Visionary, Ship Master, Marketing Co-ordinator, Designer, Comedienne, Host, Director and Executive - often all at the same time!

Visit Ocean Art Alliance Gallery where you can view and purchase some of her photography.

Peter Simon

Peter Simon has worked in production and post-production on independent and mainstream TV, Video, Cinema, Multi-media and Web projects around Australia and the world since the early 1980's - starting when films were still made by hand.

Based in Northern NSW during the vibrant 1990's, Pete established facilities and managed services at 'Wollumbin Studios' where nearly 100 short and long-form video projects were completed including various TV Documentaries for ABC TV, SBS Independent and 7 Network.

During this time he also produced a 1hr TV documentary with Dean Jefferys 'Amazon: The Invisible People', a 1hr 'cyber-comedy' with Mick Coleman 'Trance Planet' starring Troy Planet and served on the board of community broadcaster Linc TV.

From 2001, Pete mostly concentrated on managing David Hannan's expanding footage library and guiding his long-form HD projects through early-adopter workflows at Pro-Cam DigiPost in Brisbane Australia - culminating with the release of Serenity - Southern Seas, 'Antarctica Dreaming - Wildlife on Ice' and Coral Sea Dreaming.

Peter is currently working mainly with other practitioners and disciplines on media projects where web, video and narrative increasingly intersect 'online'.

Sam Hannan - Anything Audio

Sam Hannan, commonly found lurking in dark rooms surrounded by many small blinking lights, is rumoured to have begun life in a sound studio!

Nowadays Sam is suspected of having pitch-perfect hearing and apart from being a musician himself, his activities include music production, recording, mixing, 5.1 surround mixing, programming, post production and mastering.

While occasionally admitting to a family connection, Sam is a regular fixture with Plankton Productions literally adding another dimension to recent projects especially Coral Sea Dreaming, Antarctica Dreaming - Wildlife on Ice, Serenity - Southern Seas. Usually the brief is simply 'Sam: Do the Sound'.

Sam Hannan continues to work independently with musicians, such as Mental As Anything, Brian Cadd, Russell Morris, Olivia Newton John, Delta Goodrem, The McClymonts, James Cruikshank, Weaponhead and Jez Mead to name a few.

 → For more information check out Sam's website at: www.samhannan.com

Jay Daniells - Website Design & SEO

Since 2003 Jay Daniells has been designing, developing and maintaining David Hannan and Plankton Productions web presences. In addition Jay also assists with website marketing consultancy.

He is a handy guy to have around, very reliable and a bit of an all-rounder specially when it comes to web usability, online trends and designing functional and aesthetically pleasing websites.

During the past 13 years Jay has enjoyed trained and worked in a variety of commercial design areas including several years working at a Film and TV facility in Brisbane, Australia. In 2005 Jay branched out to establish himself as a web design freelancer. He now also operates a small website solutions business.

Now in his early 30's Jay appreciates more than ever the opportunities he's been given as part of the Plankton Productions team.

 → For more information check out Jay's website at: www.jaydaniells.com

Tania Rose - Music for Life

Recently collaborating with Plankton Productions on the 5.1 music score for Coral Sea Dreaming - Awaken, Tania Rose has inspired millions around the world with music that reflects the Journey of Life within all of us.

For a window on Tania's thoughts while at work on Coral Sea Dreaming check out her video on YouTube:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxPvG0QbpXs

Eclectic in her influences, Tania's work ranges from instrumentals reflecting Renaissance flavours, to singer/songwriter ballads. Her broad range of creative projects (in particular film), also takes her work into more upbeat and occasionally industrial explorations. But regardless of her platform, Tania Rose's love of harmonies and delicately weaving melodies are her signature, an influence of both her classical singing experience, and her early passion for classical religious music.

To explore Tania's world of Music and Art check out her websites:

 → www.taniarose.net
 → www.artscopemusic.com.au

Rob Stewart - Sharkwater

Award winning filmmaker Rob Stewart is developing several new projects with David Hannan. They frequently collaborate as dive-buddies and filmmakers on fieldtrips and often share footage.

Recently, David was Australian Producer and Cinematographer on Rob's award-winning feature documentary Sharkwater, a remarkable story of courage and determination to save the worlds sharks.

"In Sharkwater, a beautiful but gripping true-life adventure, Rob Stewart explores the corruption endangering sharks. However, his strongest and most passionate argument in defense of sharks comes through the stunning cinematography."
For more information please visit www.sharkwater.com

Rob has been in the water since infancy and started photographing underwater when he was 13. His passion for sharks has led him to the most remote regions of the world, where his kinship with these enigmatic creatures allows him to capture stunning images.

This has resulted in an extensive marine & wildlife stock photo resource with over 15,000 images, used by the top wildlife magazines in the world www.robstewartphotography.com

Rob has also developed a wonderful wildlife information site for kids and non-commercial users. For more information please visit www.wildinfo.com

ProCam Australia

ProCam Australia are among leaders in High Definition.

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Continually striving to be at the forefront of HD technology has meant not only offering superior products but also the technical support services to achieve HD masterpieces.

Visit the ProCam Australia website →