Tag archives for South Africa
Nat Geo WILD: Rehearsal Pictures
Posted by Alison Walsh of National Geographic Channels in Shark Attack Experiment LIVE on November 25, 2011 
Are you watching?! The challenges that a show like this faces are huge and numerous, and the production team has been working tirelessly for three months, against all odds, to pull it off. Here are some pictures from the final moments leading up to the live event, including technical rehearsals, when the crew tests the…
Posted by Live-Broadcast director, Peter Cilliers, gives a tour of the control-room and describes the “insane” sharp pictures — the HD live footage — we’ll be getting from underwater at dawn South Africa time — one of the unique and difficult technical challenges faced by the production team on this show.
Nat Geo WILD: Only 30 Minutes to Go Until ‘Shark Attack’ LIVE!
Posted by Alison Walsh of National Geographic Channels in Shark Attack Experiment LIVE on November 25, 2011 Aquavision, a world class non-fiction production company based in South Africa, is producing ‘Shark Attack Experiment LIVE with Nat Geo WILD. Aquavision’s Head of Production, Steve Eder shares his hopes for how the show will help diminish the fearful perception of sharks.
This video was pulled from the live feed coming from our floating TV studio anchored just 6km offshore. This video is about an hour and a half old at this posting. As you can see it is crowded and chaotic on board the boat as crew and on-air experts prepare for the live broadcast. Seen…
If you’re outside of the US, you can watch ‘Shark Attack Experiment LIVE’ , well, live! We’re streaming it live-online – the behind-the-scenes pre-show just started and the show itself will start streaming at 9P et. Our international viewers can see it all here: http://natgeotv.com/int/shark-attack-experiment-live If you’re in the US, keep it tuned here for…
Nat Geo WILD: Rehearsing in the Hotel Pool
Posted by Meg Gleason of National Geographic Channels in Shark Attack Experiment LIVE on November 25, 2011 
Due to weather issues, the Shark Attack team has had to think on their toes. Instead of testing the equipment in the rough South African waters as planned, they resorted to Plan B… the hotel pool. Here are some pictures from the divers’ impromptu swimming pool takeover.
Scottburgh, South Africa is not known as a mecca of television production. No studio was available near our beach-shore location, so the ‘Shark Attack Experiment LIVE’ crew built one at the hotel which is serving as the show’s command center. A full studio and control room were set up earlier this week in preparation for…
‘Shark Attack Experiment’ diver Olivia Symcox and shark-attack survivor and surfer Todd Endris spent part of yesterday riding the storm-tossed waves at Scottburgh South Africa. They are both passionate supporters of shark conservation, and as you’ll see in the video below, they are hopeful that tonight’s show will help reduce the general public’s fear of…
So as the hour grows closer to the live show the challenges continue to mount for the team here in South Africa. It seems that our days have either started well and gone downhill or the opposite, but there have been no completely smooth days from the beginning. Such is the nature of a live…
As our on-shore co-host, Anna Gilligan is going to be making sure viewers meet our cast of experts, scientists, divers, and shark-attack survivors . Anna worked as a web producer and on-air talent at the Fox News Channel, where she hosted a weekly career segment called “The Fast Track” for Fox Business. She has made appearances…
Nat Geo WILD: TV Studio On a Boat
Posted by Bob Sitrick of Bob Sitrick Productions in Shark Attack Experiment LIVE on November 24, 2011 
I spent the afternoon and evening on the Catamaran that will serve as the dive platform and at-sea studio last night. Now I am no stranger to expedition ships and have spent months at sea on other programs. That said, the conditions here were some of the toughest I have seen and gave me a…
Nat Geo WILD: Almost There
Posted by Bob Sitrick of Bob Sitrick Productions in Shark Attack Experiment LIVE on November 23, 2011 
It has been a very long but very productive day. Both at the studio and on the boat we had enough good weather and good luck to work most of the major kinks out that had been keeping some up at night. The transmission path from ship to shore is stable and they achieved many…
Each morning the Nat Geo WILD production team in South Africa has been getting together to review the issues, challenges and technical concerns in the lead-up to the show. This morning, several concerns were still on the table. Fortunately, the weather forecast for Friday, the day of the show, has been steadily improving. Bad weather,…
Veteran producer, actor and TV host Mark Thompson will be taking to the air live on Friday, November 25th to lead us through the ‘Shark Attack Experiment’. Stationed in the middle of the action, Mark will be on board our TV-Studio at sea — a tricked out catamaran, 6km off the coast of Scottburgh, South…
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Blacktips are known for their stout bodies and moderately long, pointed snouts. A migratory species, these sharks are widespread in tropical, subtropical, and warm, temperate waters around the world. They’re bottom-dwellers and will on occasion gather in small groups with other blacktips. The largest blacktip caught on record was just over eight feet in length.…
Nat Geo WILD: Setting Up for Live Broadcast
Posted by Bob Sitrick of Bob Sitrick Productions in Shark Attack Experiment LIVE on November 23, 2011 
Any time you try to pull off a project as ambitious as this one there are going to be problems – especially when boats and the ocean are involved. Even without that part, going into a remote area of a foreign country and trying to build a full-fledged live production studio is an enormous challenge.…
Nat Geo WILD: Documenting Wild Sharks at Dawn
Posted by Alison Walsh of National Geographic Channels in Shark Attack Experiment LIVE on November 23, 2011 
By Vic Peddemors, scientific expert on Shark Attack Experiment: LIVE World-wide, the mantra for reducing potential shark attack is ‘don’t bathe at dawn and dusk’. But is this based on fact or fiction? The Shark Attack Experiment: Live program will provide a unique opportunity to test whether bathers and surfers are potentially more at risk…
Nat Geo WILD: Challenging ‘Sharkist’ Stereotypes
Posted by Alison Walsh of National Geographic Channels in Shark Attack Experiment LIVE on November 23, 2011 
By Mark Addison, shark expert, logistics adviser and “human bait” on Shark Attack Experiment LIVE: This project has been a great opportunity for the team to investigate some often held misconceptions about sharks and shark attacks. In a year which has seen an increase in fatalities from shark bites it could not have come at…
Nat Geo WILD: Admiration for ‘Shark Attack’ Crew
Posted by Bob Sitrick of Bob Sitrick Productions in Shark Attack Experiment LIVE on November 23, 2011 
I don’t usually give my blogs names but this one deserves a title, “Admiration.” I am feeling a huge amount of admiration for everyone involved in “Shark Attack Experiment Live” and want to share. First, I have a huge amount of admiration for any Network with the courage to undertake such a difficult and risky…
Durban Climate Talks to Aim for Pragmatic Results
Posted by Leon Marshall of Environmental Journalist, News Watch South African Contributor on November 23, 2011 The annual United Nations meeting to assess progress in dealing with climate change convenes in Durban, South Africa, next week. The meeting is known formally as the 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 7th Session of the Conference of the Parties serving as…
Nat Geo WILD: ‘Shark Attack’ Q&A with Dr. Vic Peddemors
Posted by Alison Walsh of National Geographic Channels in Shark Attack Experiment LIVE on November 23, 2011 
Dr. Vic Peddemors is one of the lead scientific experts on Shark Attack Experiment: LIVE. In the hectic days leading up to the live event, we had a chance to ask him a few quick questions about the project. Why is what we’re doing here with Shark Attack Experiment: LIVE so important? Vic: Because what…
Nat Geo WILD: From ‘Shark Attack’ Expert Ryan Johnson
Posted by Alison Walsh of National Geographic Channels in Shark Attack Experiment LIVE on November 22, 2011 
From Ryan Johnson, marine biologist, shark expert, scientific adviser on Shark Attack Experiment LIVE: Like many people, my initial attraction towards sharks was driven by a combination of fear and fascination of a genuine man-eater. They were the atypical predators of the ocean, and like all kids growing up in the island nation of New…
Three days and counting until the live event and weather is one of producers’ top concerns. And it won’t take a raging storm to scuttle production – even heavy chop and rough seas are enough to seriously endanger our divers and our ship-board studio. If the weather doesn’t cooperate, we could be facing some difficult…
Nat Geo WILD: We Need Your Shark Questions!
Posted by Alison Walsh of National Geographic Channels in Shark Attack Experiment LIVE on November 22, 2011 Shark experts Ryan Johnson, Mark Addison, Dr. Vic Peddemors, and Andy Casagrande are standing by to answer your deepest, darkest shark questions!
So what about sharks are you dying to know?
Post your questions to the comments section of this blog post!
