Filming Aquaponics Secrets
Over the last 10 months we’ve been busy filming part two of Murray Hallam’s Aquaponics Made Easy video series. We believe in giving people a lot of quality information in our DVDs and the response from people who have bought Murray’s previous DVD has been overwhelming. Yesterday we spent the entire day with Murray who has devoted years trialling and testing innovative advances in Aquaponics equipment and techniques and is now sharing his knowledge with the public. The problem for us is no sooner than we film a segment on a specific topic than we hear Murray chirp out, “I got another secret for you and I got this secret from an old fish farmer who lives down the road. I tried it now for about a month and I can tell you it works!” And so it goes. The good thing is that when Murray gets on a roll – the information just tumbles out in his customary fast paced delivery – full of exuberant enthusiasm. Murray claims he’s killed his fair share of fish through experimentation and trial and error and he’s not ashamed to admit it. But along the way he’s amassed a vast amount of knowledge that he’s now happy to pass along.
We were surprised to discover that his Paw-paw tree he planted last year is still bearing fruit as is featured in the photo shown left. The sweetest fruit is at the very top he says and its what he puts in his grow beds that make all the difference. Forget expanded clay balls and fine gravel media. Murray advocated using rocks no smaller than an inch or 20mm in length. He says that secret is why his 4 year old grow bed has never clogged up and keeps producing enormous cabbages, broccoli and heavy nitrogen feeding plants. His grow bed are always full of fat juicy worms. When Murray dug down into this grow bed he spotted an old worm wriggling like lightning to try and get away. They are absolutely huge and a testament to the thriving vitality of his mini eco-system.
The challenge for us is how to cut hours and hours of great footage and informative comment into a compelling 90 minute story on this amazing topic.
We’re also using a 12 foot camera crane to get a bird’s eye perspective on Aquaponics. Using a Sony High Definition EX1 camera and a 12 Kilo counter weight to balance the extended crane rods, we got some great shots taken from above the roofline of the house looking down at a growing aquaponics system. The challenge was plunging down into the fish tank and not frightening the fish swimming in the water as the camera breaks the surface! Well, okay -we’re not that dumb…we used trick photography to get that effect! Those cameras cost a lot of money…
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