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THE FIRSTS CONTINUE

My year of first continued into the fall of 1974 as three other channels one by one, channels 50 and 58,  went live and added to the network with Channel 52 that would cover most of NJ. Channel 23 would come online next to complete the coverage map.

Along with our weekly directing duties, Doug requested that each of the producers work on a special project.  I wrote a proposal and got the OK to produce and directed the first documentary film done at the network and once again my focus was on South Jersey and a subject I knew about. The Seafaring Farmer explored the Delaware Bay’s diminishing oyster industry and documented why it was in serious trouble.  The content of this half hour film would be recognized as one the reasons that this historic Jersey endeavor made  a remarkable comeback.  Apparently,  many of the state’s decision makers saw the production and passed a funding grant to Rutgers School of Agriculture grant to study the "oyster drill" parasite which was decimating the oyster beds.  

We shot the whole process from dredging to shucking starting with interviews with the schooner captains whose families had worked the bay for generations.   Our last filming shoots were in early December's bitter cold leaving at 4:AM from Port Norris on the Maurice River and out to the bay passed the East Point Light.  We were on what was once a sail-powered schooner captained by John King family for generations and now he was the last King that would harvest the unpredictable bay.

My cameraman was a veteran cinematographer Garret Schenck who was unexpectedly the first of the crew to get seasick looking through his lens at the rolling bay.  The rest of the crew started to look green as Garret hung his head over the rail. The last days of fall  had kicked up big rolling waves.  I had been on many cruises with my grandfather and loved the motion but watching my crew got to me when I started to shoot some film while they recovered their “sea legs”.  Captain King just smiled and kept us heading to his bed markers far from shore. After about an hour pounding our way far from shore the hands came on deck and worked a very hard day to earn their pay.  As I watched them work in the wet and cold, I was thankful once again that I was able  to go and graduate from college.  At dusk we returned with a massive pile of oysters on the deck - it was a good day on the bay.  The next day we filmed the “shucking” of the catch while the schooner went out again for another haul.

Back at the studio the following week Garret and Denise Mathews, a  film editor and I worked together cut the film - I needed their help for sure as this was my first time working in the film medium and it was so much different then editing video - for one thing finding the right "take" (shot) out of hundreds of feet of film was a real challenge.  Thankfully Garret remembered most of the takes of our shooting than I did.  I wrote the narration to link the interviews together and hired a young musician who created a really excellent guitar track for our film.

The film was part of the programming aired on the first broadcast day of Channel 23 and many times again for years after - I was very proud of it and went on to produce and direct 13 more films during my stay at NJN.  But like everything in life and TV production - the first one always seems to be one of the best.

TO BE CONTINUED --

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