FCCJ Actress Christina Christensen, FCCJ Videographer/Editor Mark Basse    Photographer: Rusty Gardner, FSO-PV / VE    Location: West Marine, Orange Park, FL    Filming Flotilla 14-8 Life jacket video

Podcast…iTunes….Streaming video…Not terms you’d normally expect to hear tossed around at a United States Coast Guard Auxiliary meeting. But they’re exactly what you may hear during meetings of Flotilla 14-8 in Jacksonville, Florida. You see, we’re working on ways to reach out to young boaters, so we’re embracing new technology and learning to speak their language! The number of young boaters is growing, and there are plenty of lessons they need to learn. So, to reach these young adults, we plan to create an innovative series of safe boating videos. The problem is getting people to watch them, so we knew we needed to step out of the box a bit.

The project started out simply, but like many things, took on a life of its own as we discovered how much is involved in creating a professional video. Scriptwriting, producing, shooting, editing, music, post-production – the list goes on. It soon became obvious that this wasn’t something we could do with a home video camera and a PC; we needed a professional video crew. And professional costs money!

So we started trying to secure funding. Our first stop was a grant request. When that didn’t pan out, we started searching for alternate funding sources. It turns out that our answer was right in our own backyard. Florida Community College at Jacksonville (FCCJ) has agreed to write and produce our videos as a community service, which means they’re working for free! Technical advice is provided through Coast Guard Auxiliary members, Robert Strong, FSO-FN, Debra Inlow, FSO-PA and Ralph Little, VFC, who act as subject matter experts and review text and visuals throughout the process. Robert Westcott, D7 DSOPA, provides public affairs oversight on the content and advises on product use.

Our first production focuses on life jackets. Targeting our intended audience, FCCJ hired twenty-something student actors and set up a real-life boating situation on the water.

Working with a crew of producers, cameramen and talent, as well as our USCGAUX advisors, we spent an afternoon on the water of Doctor’s Lake, a cove of the St. Johns River south of Jacksonville. Making sure we were being safe without actually looking safe on video, we sent a student actress flying off the back of Rusty’s 23 foot Yamaha Jet Boat Salt Shaker and into the water without her life vest. Another actor provides commentary on the event and a transition to a solution. The next time we see our now-warm and- dry actress, she’s looking lost in the aisles of West Marine, trying to figure out which life jacket she should have been wearing out on that boat. With a little help from our trusty narrator, she takes a store tour through the five categories of life jackets, learning the high and low points of each type, and how they would – or wouldn’t – have worked for her situation.

FCCJ Actress Christina Christensen, Katie Smith, Matthew Smith,      Rusty Gardner, FSO-PV / VE Photographer: Chrystal Wickline, FSO-SR      Location: Doctor’s Lake, Jacksonville, FL      Filming Flotilla 14-8 Life jacket video

 West Marine was even kind enough to allow us to deploy an inflatable vest, much to the surprise of the actress wearing it! Now that this first video is completed and on its way into the hands – and iPods – of young boaters, we’re working on scripts for future pieces. Delivery methods for all of these videos will include traditional DVDs, as well as streaming media and podcasts. As we envision it, this video will be accessible from anywhere at anytime; whether you’re in your living room, at your computer, or on your boat watching from an iPod. A copy of this video will be available to all USCGAUX flotillas for replication and distribution.