A SANCTUARY FOR SEA DOGS

'A Sanctuary for Sea Dogs' is a stereoscopic 180° fly-on-the-wall VR documentary following the inspirational work that a small seal sanctuary in the North of England does every day to rehabilitate injured seal pups back to health, in hope of releasing them into the wild again.

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Filming took place in September of 2021 across four days along the coastline of North-East England. We had an idea going in of what kind of content we wanted to capture, and how to best tell the story, of the wonderful characters that would grace the screen during the film (human and non-human!). But we never anticipated some of the heart warming story beats we'd end up getting in the bag, so I found myself coming up with many ideas on the fly, which gave us a lot of flexibility in the edit.

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One moment I will always remember was when a seal pup that had been in captivity for quite some time was finally released back into the ocean again. The staff at the sanctuary went into ultra focus mode as the animal's welfare was, of course, of utmost importance over filming for the documentary. So that was run and gun to say the least, and 180° cameras aren't exactly known for their quick setup times! I have never had to pour so much sea water out of my shoes before, after trying to bury the dive camera into the sand with waves crashing against my legs!

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This is a project I love to show others in a VR headset...