Randy Olson

Randy Olson lived a whole life as a marine biologist before changing careers in the 1990s and becoming a filmmaker. He spent the 1980s earning his Ph.D. (Harvard University, 1984), lived a year on Lizard Island on the north end of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, spent a month in Antarctica diving under the ice, spent a week in the undersea habitat Hydrolab living at 60 foot depth in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, and spent a day hanging out with the late Captain Jacques Cousteau when he visited the Australian Institute of Marine Science in Townsville.

After feeling like he had fulfilled his major goals as a marine biologist, he began sharing his experiences and perspectives through a series of humorous award-winning short videos including a music video about the sex life of barnacles titled, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd7o6ytz_LM "Barnacles Tell No Lies"] (1991) which is still popular with biology professors. By the mid-90's he realized his interests in filmmaking exceeded his interests in sea creatures so he changed careers.

In 1994, he resigned from his tenured professorship at the University of New Hampshire to attend film school at the University of Southern California. His student film at USC, a 20-minute musical comedy, You Ruined My Career, was selected for the "Filmmakers of Tomorrow" showcase at the Telluride Film Festival and chosen as one of the Top 100 Student Films in the history of USC Cinema School. After film school, he teamed up with one of his heros from the marine biology world, Dr. Jeremy Jackson of Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Together they produced the short film, " [http://www.oceanrx.org/ Rediagnosing the Oceans] ," in which they recommended viewing ailing coastal ecosystems as being like medical patients for which you need to know the "medical history," before making a diagnosis. This partnership lead to the Shifting Baselines Ocean Media Project which they founded along with veteran Hollywood movie producer Gale Anne Hurd, and fellow marine biologist Dr. Steven Miller. For Shifting Baselines Randy Olson continues to write and direct short films and commercials which have included such comic talents as Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Henry Winkler, Tom Arnold, and the Groundlings Improv Comedy Theater. He has also produced Flash videos for [http://www.surfriderfoundation.org Surfrider Foundation] (2005) and the [http://www.pugetsoundpartnership.org Puget Sound Partnership] (2008).

In 2006, he directed the feature documentary, "". The film drew on both his evolutionary biology background and his Kansas upbringing as he visited the controversy raging over evolution in his home state. "Flock of Dodos" premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, in April 2006, and since then has played at film festivals all over the U.S. and abroad. The film is currently in rotation on Showtime TV in the US and available on DVD.

His newest production, the feature mockumentary/reality/documentary "", follows in the same tradition of "Flock of Dodos", mixing irreverent humor with scientific discussion. As the title implies, the film explores the ongoing debate surrounding global warming. "Sizzle" premiered on July 19, 2008 at the Outfest Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in Hollywood, California.

References

* cite web|url=http://der.org/films/filmmakers/randy-olson.html
accessdate=2007-02-15
title=Randy Olson
work=www.der.org

External links

* [http://www.der.org/films/filmmakers/randy-olson.html D.E.R. Filmmaker Profile]
* [http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/biosci/faculty/olson.html USC Staff Profile]
* [http://imdb.com/title/tt0800334/ IMDB Profile]
* Dean, Cornelia. (2006.) [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/11/science/sciencespecial2/11prof.html?ei=5090&en=f84443674b496547&ex=1302408000&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss&pagewanted=print Eager to tell the stories of science, a biologist evolves.] "New York Times", April 11.
* Sorensen, Eric. (2007.) [http://www.conbio.org/cip/article81peo.cfm#Olson Randy Olson: An evolutionary biologist in Hollywood.] "Conservation" 8(1).

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*John Marshall
*Robert Gardner
*Tim Asch