Lucy Marcus is one of the people you hear about and think to yourself, “Damn, I wish I were her.”

A couple years ago, this FilmschoolSF grad started her own business focusing on environmental filmmaking. From the Great Barrier Reef to Palau, Lucy has been traveling to some of the most amazing places in the world to capture the powerful beauty of nature on video. Called World Environmental Films, her firm is focused on “Creating Documentaries About Terrestrial and Marine Environments and Scientific Research.”

Her motto? “Movies help people love nature; people care to protect what they love.”

This dispatch came in via Electronic Mail from Lucy several days ago. We’ve left the content as-is but we’ve added a few links.

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I just got back from spending 2 months in Africa and filmed an educational science video on an island eco-resort! I went on safari in Kenya and Tanzania for a couple weeks before beginning a 1-month volunteer project on a tiny island eco-resort near Zanzibar. I was leading snorkel tours for the guests who came to stay and see the healthy coral reefs. The rangers who work on Chumbe Island (pronounced “Choom-bay) are Muslim and during the month of Ramadan, they are fasting (no food or drink) from dawn until dusk every day, so they can’t go in the water.

I also shot video of the island’s forest, wildlife, eco-buildings, solar panels, school groups visiting and did interviews with the rangers. I am now editing this video into a 10-minute educational piece to be screened in schools on the island of Zanzibar, before the school groups come to the island. I will have the finished video on my website in the next month, but there are lots of photos there now if you want to see big game animals and coral reef shots.

I happened to arrive on Chumbe Island when a BBC film crew was there filming an episode of a TV program World Challenge. Different ecological businesses around the world have an episode filmed about their project, then the viewers who see the shows can vote for which business will win a $10,000-Euro prize to help the best business. Chumbe Island, is not only an eco-resort, but they bring out local school groups and fishermen to teach them about sustainable architecture and marine and forest preserves. The BBC crew did not have a good underwater camera, and I did, so they asked me to film all the shots of the school students learning to snorkel and shots of the coral reefs and fish. You can see a few of my underwater shots (and vote for Chumbe) on the BBC World Challenge website. They were really grateful for my help and it was a great learning experience to see how TV crews work (This crew was actually quite simple – one guy!)

If anyone ever needs an underwater videographer, let me know!