Industry | Television production |
---|---|
Founded | 1991 |
Headquarters | Fremantle, Australia |
Key people | Julia Redwood (MD) |
Products | Documentary Entertainment |
Prospero Productions is an Australian-based television production company based in Fremantle, Western Australia specialising in maritime documentaries and light entertainment.
Prospero Productions was formed in Fremantle, Western Australia in 1991 by Ed Punchard and Julia Redwood. It is now owned solely by Juila Redwood. [1] : 128
Their latest production is Ningaloo: Australia's Other Great Reef. [2] Using a mini-submersible, filming took place at Ningaloo Reef and features marine scientist Anna Cresswell. [2] The production is filmed in 4K and will be screened on dome screens. [2] The production premieres at the WA Maritime Museum in Fremantle in late December 2018. [2]
In early 2016, Discovery Channel would pick up two of Prospero's productions, Railroad Australia would play on Discovery Asia while Outback Truckers will play on Discovery Italy and Discovery Canada. [3] Outback Truckers would view on Canal D in Canada and on TVNZ in New Zealand. [3] In their production Martin Clunes in Islands of Oz, a three-part documentary series, featured on Channel Seven in October 2016 and explored the remote and spectacular islands around Australia. [4]
In 1998, Prospero was nominate for an Australian Film Institute Award for Best Documentary for its production of Paying For The Piper. Paying for the Piper would also feature at the United Nations Association Film Festival (2000), Golden Gate Awards - San Francisco Film Society (2000) and the International Festival of Maritime and Exploration Film (1999). [7] Prospero Production would win the 2007 Australian Government's Eureka Prize for Science Journalism for The Kindness of Strangers. [8] In 2011, Prospero won the AACTA Award for Best Documentary Series for its production of SAS - The Search for Warriors. The Eco House production would win an Australian Teachers of Media Inc award in 2007 and was a finalist in the United Nations World Environment Day Awards. [9] Diving School would play at the Golden Gate Awards - San Francisco Film Society in 2001. In 2015, Australia- Life on the Edge won a Gold Prestige Film Award for Short Documentary. [10]
On 4 June 2021, Julia Redwood won the business category in the 2021 West Australian of the Year Awards. [1] : 128
Survivor: The Australian Outback is the second season of the American reality television series Survivor. Broadcast by CBS, it was originally shown between January 28 and May 23, 2001. Filming took place at Goshen cattle station, on the bank of the Herbert River in northern Queensland from October 23 through December 3, 2000. The show was hosted by Jeff Probst and featured 16 participants competing over 42 days. It was the first and only season to have more than 39 days of gameplay.
Fremantle Limited, formerly FremantleMedia, is a British multinational television production and distribution company based in London. The company was founded as Pearson Television in 1993 when publishing and education company Pearson acquired the former British ITV franchisee Thames Television. Fremantle takes its name from Fremantle International, which was acquired by predecessor company All American Television in 1994. Pearson Television CLT-UFA from Bertelsmann merged in 2000 to form the RTL Group, with Pearson Television itself renamed that following year as FremantleMedia on 20 August.
Wolf Creek is a 2005 Australian horror film written, co-produced and directed by Greg McLean and starring John Jarratt, Nathan Phillips, Cassandra Magrath and Kestie Morassi. Its plot concerns three backpackers who find themselves taken captive and subsequently hunted by Mick Taylor, a sadistic, psychopathic, xenophobic serial killer, in the Australian outback. The film was ambiguously marketed as being "based on true events", while its plot bore elements reminiscent of the real-life murders of backpackers by Ivan Milat in the 1990s and Bradley Murdoch in 2001, both of which McLean used as inspiration for the screenplay.
Ron Josiah Taylor, AM was a prominent Australian shark expert, as is his widow, Valerie Taylor. They were credited with being pioneers in several areas, including being the first people to film great white sharks without the protection of a cage. Their expertise has been called upon for films such as Jaws, Orca and Sky Pirates.
The Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course is a 2002 adventure comedy film based on the nature documentary television series The Crocodile Hunter. It stars Steve Irwin, his wife Terri Irwin in her film debut, Magda Szubanski and David Wenham, and was directed by frequent Irwin collaborator John Stainton. Released in between the series' fourth and fifth seasons, Collision Course follows Steve and Terri attempting to save a crocodile from "poachers", unaware that the two men are actually American CIA agents on their trail as the crocodile has unwittingly swallowed a satellite tracking beacon. This was Steve Irwin's final film appearance before his death in 2006.
Over 1400 ships have been wrecked on the coast of Western Australia. This relatively large number of shipwrecks is due to a number of factors, including:
Tryall was a British East India Company-owned East Indiaman launched in 1621. She was under the command of John Brooke when she was wrecked on the Tryal Rocks off the north-west coast of Western Australia in 1622. Her crew were the first Englishmen to sight or land on Australia. The wreck is Australia's oldest known shipwreck.
Benjamin Cropp AM is an Australian documentary filmmaker, conservationist and a former six-time Open Australian spearfishing champion. Formerly a shark hunter, Cropp retired from that trade in 1962 to pursue oceanic documentary filmmaking and conservation efforts. One of his efforts for The Disney Channel, The Young Adventurers, was nominated for an Emmy award.
Shark tourism is a form of eco-tourism that allows people to dive with sharks in their natural environment. This benefits local shark populations by educating tourists and through funds raised by the shark tourism industry. Communities that previously relied on shark finning to make their livelihoods are able to make a larger profit from diving tours while protecting the local environment. People can get close to the sharks by free- or scuba diving or by entering the water in a protective cage for more aggressive species. Many of these dives are done by private companies and are often baited to ensure shark sightings, a practice which is highly controversial and under review in many areas.
Discovery is a television channel available on cable and satellite television in Australia and New Zealand. The Australian version of the US variant of the channel was previously operated by XYZnetworks, who also own the exclusive distribution rights for the channel.
Roger Anthony Swainston is an Australian painter, naturalist and zoologist. He is one of the most recognised artists of the underwater world.
David Louis Mearns, OAM, is an American-born United Kingdom based marine scientist and oceanographer, who specializes in deep water search and recovery operations, and the discovery of the location of historic shipwrecks.
Bill Bennett is an Australian film director, producer and screenwriter.
Lee Robinson was an Australian producer, director and screenwriter who was Australia's most prolific filmmaker of the 1950s and part of the creative team that produced the late 1960s international hit television series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo.
The Society for Underwater Historical Research (SUHR) was an amateur maritime archaeology organisation operating in South Australia (SA). It was formed in 1974 by recreational scuba divers and other persons to pursue an interest in maritime archaeology and maritime history. The SUHR was renamed as the South Australian Archaeology Society in March 2012 as part of a plan to expand its activities beyond maritime archaeology to include other archaeological disciplines.
Martin Clunes: Islands of Australia is a three part Australian documentary television series produced by Prospero Productions for the Seven Network. The series is hosted by Martin Clunes and will follow Clunes exploring various islands off the Australian mainland.
The film industry in Western Australia encompasses a wide range of productions and a wide range of filmmakers.
Outback Opal Hunters is an Australian factual television show which follows opal miners across various sites in the Australian states of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. The series is produced by Prospero Productions and began on the Discovery Channel on 8 February 2018. The series has been a ratings success and has been broadcast in over 100 countries including the United Kingdom and United States.
Graeme Henderson is an Australian maritime historian and maritime archaeologist. Since the early 1970s he played a leading role in developing maritime archaeology and maritime museums in Australia, having assisted in, or led the investigation of wrecks in the Fremantle area as well as on the Western Australian coast, on islands offshore and in the Eastern States. Henderson was the first Director of the new Western Australian Maritime Museum on Victoria Quay from 1992 to 2005.
Valerie May Taylor AM is an Australian conservationist, photographer, and filmmaker, and an inaugural member of the diving hall of fame. With her husband Ron Taylor, she made documentaries about sharks, and filmed sequences for films including Jaws (1975).