Maser Films

Sony x SeaLegacy | Andy Maser, Director

Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier set sail from the East Coast aboard SeaLegacy 1, a catamaran rebuilt to serve as a floating base for ocean storytelling. The plan was years at sea, documenting the places where the ocean is still thriving and the people working to keep it that way. Sony counts Paul and Cristina among its Artisans of Imagery, and wanted the journey on film.

I directed the series. Paul, Cristina, and their crew lived aboard for months at a time, with a small team documenting life on the boat around the clock. I joined at each stop to direct and shoot the key chapters: the Bahamas, Cocos Island off the coast of Costa Rica, Coiba Island in Panama, and the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador.

In the Bahamas, Paul and Cristina spent days trying to film a pod of wild dolphins without much luck. The breakthrough came when they started moving the way the dolphins moved, swimming alongside them and letting the pod set the terms of the encounter. Their conservation work follows the same instinct. Wherever they go, they immerse themselves in the culture and learn the ecology first, then work alongside local communities to build solutions that serve the people who depend on that place.

The series ran on Sony’s Alpha Universe, and the eight episodes have more than 1.7 million views. All eight are above.