Behind the Scenes of a Public Service Announcement - by Jon Frank

Last week, actor and activist Adrian Grenier added his voice to Oceana’s call for greater protection of bluefin tuna. On March 18th we spent about 8 hours off the coast of San Diego to film a public service announcement.

Wednesday, March 17
3:00am (ET) – Rise and shine. My flight for San Diego left Baltimore at 6am and I had to first drive from my neighborhood in DC’s Adams Morgan down to Dupont Circle to pick up Michael King, Oceana’s multimedia designer and in-house digital media guru. Michael was in the Virgin Islands for Kate Walsh’s sea turtle PSA, so having his experience on this shoot was invaluable.

10:54am (PT) – Landed in San Diego. We had impeccable timing getting through security at BWI, grabbed… food at O’Hare and had our bags waiting for us at the baggage claim in San Diego. Matt Littlejohn, Oceana’s VP for Strategic Marketing and. Communications, rented a four-door Mazda to move us around – good call on the 4-door.

1:00pm (PT) – Settled at the Hotel. Why is it whenever you leave your office, you get pummeled with email?

2:30pm-7pm (PT) – Scrambled to get things done. I managed to get our photographer Tim Calver a free ride from the airport to the hotel and Tim paid me back by driving out to a local dive shop called Ocean Enterprises to pick up some dive gear. We got back to the hotel to try and work out logistics of the offshore expedition the next day, but there were more issues with wetsuits and I had to head back to Ocean Enterprises to pick up some AquaSeal (and other sealants).

8pm (PT) – Sleepy. I’d been up for 20 hours and my mind was definitely not firing on all cylinders. However, dinner at the Karl Strauss Brewery hit the spot and it was energizing listening to a few stories from the project’s renowned underwater DP, Pete Zuccarini, and safety diver Matt O’Connor. Pete told us a story about an Orca named Mel who is known for eating seals right off the beach!

10:30pm (PT) – Lights out.

Thursday, March 18
4:30am (PT) – Rise and shine. I got my gear, the TV and radio PSA scripts and we were out of the hotel by 5:45 and at the San Diego Yacht Club to load the boat by 6. The sun still wasn’t up and the weather was brisk, but it looked like it was going to be a beautiful day as we headed offshore.

The Shoot – The ride going away from shore was all about getting gear set up, talking about tuna and enjoying a few moments in the sun as we cruised along the open water. Once we arrived at our destination, I stayed behind on the main boat while the film crew, headed by director Klaus Obermeyer, took Adrian in an RIB (rigid inflatable boat) to where we’d find the tuna. I snapped pictures, watched and waited for the next few hours and in that time Adrian got in the water, got out of the water, got back on the main boat, got back on the RIB, got back in the water and—hopefully—got up close and personal with some bluefin. Late afternoon, the crew was finished with the underwater shots and it was time to capture Adrian’s voice for the TV and radio PSAs. I had the unheralded job of marking takes with a slate and in about an hour we managed to get it all recorded.

7:30pm (PT) – Almost done. Tired and wobbly from spending all day on the water, Michael and I went back to Ocean Enterprises to return the gear and checked missed emails from earlier in the day. One of those emails was about bluefin not gaining protections at the CITES meetings in Doha, Qatar (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species). According to the Economist, the night before the bluefin vote, the Japanese Embassy served bluefin tuna – it’s sad, but it makes our work all the more important. As for our dinner, we were back at Karl Strauss to enjoy a pint and some burgers.

Friday, March 19 – We spent a whole day traveling and missed the entire first round of the NCAA tournament – what a bummer.

Saturday, March 20
1:30am (ET) – Arrived in Baltimore. I was tired of traveling and I still had to drive back to DC. After dropping off Michael, I got back to my place in Adams Morgan right around 3am; about 72 hours to the minute when I got up to start this great adventure.