TV Series or Dramatic Thriller: A Whale of a Chance (working title)
One team’s fight to show the world why protecting and increasing the whale population of this planet can reverse climate change, how over the lifetime of just one blue whale, more carbon is sequestered than thousands of trees could do in their lifetimes. Whales further help the environment because their excrement feeds the phytoplankton on the ocean’s surface which produces over 52% of the Earth’s oxygen.
They struggle to enact laws to protect these precious whales and to assign carbon credits so that they will no longer be hunted, nor caught up in fishing lines and gear, nor struck by ships. They have to fight commerce head on with new legislation and protections. There are highly contested battles to overcome legally, politically and society-wise to show why whales need more protection, why their numbers need to be increased, and how to supplement those on the planet where whaling is a means of survival or current “right” to do so, as in Japan, with other means of support through carbon credits.
But big business is slow to change, and deadly tactics to silence the team are used. It’s a race against time. Will they be able to overcome all the obstacles, win those fights, and help the whales save the planet?
TV Series: The World of Seabiscuit & the Howards (working title)
Collaboration with writer/project owner Dr. John Osborne
In this historical drama TV series, Dr. John Osborne will create a four season script about the heyday of horse racing, when Hollywood celebrities were intertwined with the Howard Family through horseracing and the connection they all had to the incredible racehorse Seabiscuit, who was owned by the Howards. This series will bring to life the world of Hollywood and horseracing, the love and faith Charles and Marcella Howard had together, and when celebrities visit the Howard’s bucolic ranch in Northern California (the Home of Seabiscuit Ridgewood Ranch.) The backdrop is of an era when radio was king and the nation was struggling to survive in the Great Depression.
The series shows Singer Bing Crosby visiting Ridgewood over the years (in fact, so many times that the Howards assign him his own room where Bing carves musical symbols on the floorboards beneath the carpet) and how Bing creates a racing stables with Howard’s son Lindsey (Bing-Lin Stables.) Other scenes show actor John Wayne as he previews his movies in the Howard house, Shirley Temple as she learns to swim in the Howard’s pool, and Clark Gable and Carole Lombard as they visit Seabiscuit at Ridgewood. Throughout the series you will see the struggles they all endure amidst the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and the damage the Great Depression wreaks throughout the country and people of this great nation. It’s a heart wrenching and heartwarming series wrapped up in love, heartache, loss, strength and courage.
Documentary: A Labor of Love – The Joys and Struggles of a Filmmaker (working title)
Using select interview moments filmed over many years at the Mendocino Film Festival with actors, directors, and producers, we will give a “look behind the scenes” of filmmaking and the labor of love it takes to create documentaries and movies. From Director Harald Zwart, Producer Veslemøy Ruud Zwart, and actor Jonathan Rhys-Meyers the TWELTH MAN to TWENTY FEET FROM STARDOM actress Claudia Lennear (and backup singer to the Rolling Stones) to POISONING PARADISE co-producers Pierce & Keely Shaye Brosnan we hear the tales and toils it takes to bring their projects to life.
Documentary: The Creation of a Film Festival in a Remote Northern California Coastal City Called Mendocino (working title)
We will draw from footage from the very first film festival through several years after to show the many faces of this remote, coastal festival – The Mendocino Film Festival – now in it’s 18th year when they return in June 2022 after two years online during the worldwide pandemic (Sea Storm Studios is a premier sponsor of this next festival in 2022 as we want to support all the people who make this special event happen for all the filmmakers and actors in our world, and helped it survive these past two years.)
Documentary: Healing with Horses (working title)
The Transformative Connection Between Horses & Humans will show how both Equine Riding Therapy and Equine Guided Education can both help heal humans from trauma, grief, physical and emotional issues, and all kinds of special needs individuals coping with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, and other challenges so that they (like Seabiscuit) overcome the odds.
Movie: Trapped on Aspen Mountain – No Way Down, No Way Up (working title)
Out hunting for the day on horseback in late September, four friends get separated after winding down the steep descent on Aspen Mountain, the friends decide to split up to find which route down will take them to the bottom. Two make it. Two do not. Their path ends in a cliff. There is no way down, and no way back up. Too steep for the horses. Not prepared for the bitter cold that night nor the approaching storm, they work hard together to keep from freezing. When daylight returns, they must find a way home before they are trapped in the brewing storm, never to find their way back.
Documentary which becomes a Movie: Baron – Rescue Me (working title)
Before 
After
The story of Tiffany & Marjorie who (on a bootstrap budget) set out to save a severely neglected horse (whom she had previously owned.) What it took to work through the challenges, to retrieve him from a resistant, angry owner in denial, and restore his health through time, patience, love, grit and savvy.
