Company goes to great lengths, and depths, to get the shot!

Philosophy of “Do No Harm” Sets Tone for Underwater Protocol

Read the interview with Paul Dymon, of Paul Dymon films, inc reveals his company’s capability and technical advantage producing underwater imagery in the era of higher resolutions.

Las Vegas, Nevada – March 19, 2008

Paul Dymon films, inc. is a high definition production company with underwater camera specialty. The entity established in 1999 was recently retooled from the ashes of Bad Dog, Inc. The Bad Dog name was promptly changed to Paul Dymon films, inc., due to bad publicity and the socially unconscionable behavior of infamous Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick. His Bad Dogz Kennel is notorious for recent animal abuse violations.

The corporate name “Bad Dog” was a joke, an oxymoron, because the Dymon family has a proud history of raising dogs for people with disabilities. “In light of the Michael Vick situation, it is no longer funny,” says Dymon, a 22-year Las Vegas resident, video editor, and instructor of Advance Editing and Compositing at the College of Southern Nevada’s Cheyenne Campus. He adds, “We are not abandoning the domain baddoginc.com in hopes of donating it to a watch-dog group (no joke) to help put a stop to the atrocious business, sport, hobby and crime of dog fighting. There are no bad dogs but lots of Michael Vicks.”

Ironically, the Dymon’s know much about ‘good dogs’. They have raised four Golden Retrievers for Canine Companions for Independence (http://www.caninecompanions.org/), and received the Governor’s Proclamation for training Nevada’s first licensed service dog. The Dymon’s also fostered a Capuchin monkey for Helping Hands (http://helpinghandsmonkeys.org). This group provides highly skilled monkey helpers to disabled human partners. Recently the Dymon’s have committed a percentage of revenue to Island Dolphin Care (www.islanddolphincare.org) and they feature the group’s ‘therapy dolphins’ in their recently released DVD titled: HD2O™ ~ The Keys, available on the company’s web site. (http://hd2o.tv/)

But back to Paul Dymon films.

Underwater Cinematography

Back in the day, producing underwater video was largely a waste of effort because chemical-based film was not practical and analog video was not capable. Only well funded scientific research could afford the cameras and crew. With the recent shift to High Definition standards, pro-HD cameraflyers, like Dymon, can produce results in a full color spectrum truly representative of the beauty found only in living ocean corals, which are actually animals.

Philosophy

Paul Dymon films operates to the philosophy; “Do No Harm”. They are adamant about not disturbing the environment, the subjects, and they do not create any expectations of human visitors. “We are aliens, underwater trespassers, totally foreign and totally inefficient underwater.” Dymon professes, “We have no rights or position in nature to touch, disrupt, influence, or alter anything in that environment. Something as trivial as satisfying our morbid curiosity; a simple finger touch on certain oceanic beings can cause a slow death, which in turn can damage the delicate balance of the surrounding coral community.”

Accepted as human behavior is the right to touch everything we see. It’s human desire to scientifically explore our world and expand our knowledge of space, earth and even oceanic frontiers. That kind of beneficial scientific inquiry has been valuable to mankind. However human contamination of space and earth has yet to prove [to man] that this kind of behavior must be curtailed. Today, protecting and preserving the precious, albeit strained and threatened underwater coral reef environment must become a high priority for all people and nations, including explorers, adventurers and casual visitors. Dymon concludes, “It should be easy to do our part: Be mindful of Nature, and DON’T TOUCH!”

Cameraflyer Paul Dymon

Part of the “Do No Harm” philosophy is never touch anything! There is no reason to touch or disturb or agitate the environment. This requires a combination of utmost patience, excellent scuba buoyancy control, and physically managing a 60-plus-pound camera rig. Coral is a living animal. Once damaged odds are it will not survive. Coral reefs throughout the oceans are in big trouble. Many endangered corals, such as the beautiful Elkhorn Coral, already stressed by earthly and manmade conditions gets another shove toward extinction from seemingly innocent human intervention either by curiosity or recklessness.

Invisible Oceanic Observations

Dressed in black wetsuits in a best effort to blend, Dymon’s filmcrew makes every effort to be near invisible within this sensitive ecosystem. Sensible and totally non-intrusive techniques allow the “cameraflyer” incredibly close observation of behavior as the residents move about naturally with a degree of caution as crewmembers observe them and their underwater realm. Dymon’s crew has successfully filmed species at their most vulnerable moment, at rest, including parrotfish and shark.

Save our Coral Reefs

Many non-profit groups actively work to educate the public about the devastation of the past 25 years. Some areas have suffered 97% losses and Dymon feels the trend could be reversed. Reef systems occupy only 1% of the vast ocean shoreline, very few people, only 2%, will ever experience first hand the unparalleled beauty. He helps raise awareness to preserve and protect it for those who wish to visit in person and those who wish to visit through video.

Las Vegas Desert Based? How ironic…

For this Las Vegas based company all technology elements have come together at the right time. Executive Producer Paul Dymon focused his business on postproduction during the decade-long maturation of HD, building skills and a reputation as a compositor. His HD postproduction studio specializes in design and FX. Services are available to local and national clients, advertising agencies, designers and those seeking visual objectives just beyond the cutting edge. Perhaps it is living in the desert that keeps Dymon’s perspective open to the magnificence of the sea. Either way it’s a bit like going home for this former Coast Guard Rescue Swimmer. It took 30-years for his dream to come true.

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Tags: HD Underwater Camera, Ocean Fun Facts, Press Releases, Scuba