Boston Science Communications
"Abandoned in the Arctic"
"Filmmaker Gino Del Guercio describes his craft, "Documentary filmmaking is an exciting and challenging blend of journalism and Hollywood. It requires both the left and right side of your brain. On the one hand films have to be exciting and enjoyable to watch, on the other hand they have to be accurate and meet strict budget and time constraints. It's also very much of a group effort with dozens of creative people. And when it works well the final product is always far more than the sum of its parts."
Discovering Matrox MXO during production of his feature "Abandoned in the Arctic" helped Del Guercio meet both his artistic and budgetary goals. The film was shot on DVCPRO HD and edited using Final Cut Pro. The MXO was used to output to a studio monitor for color correction of all the footage which was shot in a variety of lighting conditions.
More importantly on the "Abandoned in the Arctic" project, however, Del Guercio realized that he was able to use the MXO connected to his MacBook Pro to output the film directly to an HD projector. "This circumvented the very expensive process of outputting to HD tape and then renting an HD tape deck to input into the projector. At the premiere, 'Abandoned in the Arctic' was projected onto a 100 foot screen in an 800-seat art deco theatre called the Music Hall in Portsmouth, NH. It looked fantastic! We sold out the theatre and there was a line at the ticket office a block and a half long."
"Matrox MXO is a handy little monitoring and output device that should be part of every Final Cut editor's tool kit. It saves me time and money on all my projects," said Del Guercio.
"Abandoned in the Arctic" is a feature documentary about a young man, James Shedd , who goes up to the high Arctic to follow in the footsteps of his great great grandfather, Lt. Adolphus W. Greely. In 1881, Greely was sent to Ellesmere Island, just 450 miles from the North Pole, with 24 men to take scientific measurements for two years. When the Army was not able to send a ship to retrieve him and his men, they were forced to make their way 250 miles south in small open boats. During a horrific eight months with very little food or shelter, 19 of his 24 men died. Many people blamed Greely and accused him of cannibalism.
James Shedd followed his ancestor's path with five other explorers in two-man kayaks in an attempt to determine for himself who should have been held responsible for the tragedy. The expedition discovered a place of incredible beauty and danger, populated by seals, walrus, musk ox, and polar bears. Massive cliffs of rainbow colors drop thousands of feet into deep blue fiords with huge icebergs floating in them. At one point the fast moving current pushed an ice floe several miles wide against the shoreline and pinned the party in their kayaks. One of the members was crushed and very nearly killed. He had to be airlifted out by helicopter.
Gino Del Guercio has produced and directed films for PBS, NOVA, A&E, and Discovery Channel for many years and was part of the team that developed and produced Discover Magazine. Specializing in science and history, he has received numerous awards for his work including an Emmy, two CINE Golden Eagles, the Chairman's Prize from the International Scientific Film Festival, and an AAAS Science Journalism award for Television - the top US award for science television.
"Abandoned in the Arctic" is currently being shown at film festivals and Del Guercio and his production partner Geoffrey E. Clark, M.D. of Cocked Hat Ventures, LLC are in negotiations for wider distribution.
For more information about "Abandoned in the Arctic" visit at www.cocked-hat.com
