Pro Dive International recently posted its first in-house produced video on YouTube, garnering slightly under a thousand views in just one week.
The video, paying homage to Apple’s successful Mac vs. PC commercials, features Pro Dive Instructor Aram Der Hagopian as the eponymous “Pro Diver” and long-time Pro Dive photographer J. Christopher Gernert as “Not a Pro Diver,” in a series of vignettes showcasing “Not’s” ongoing scuba faux pas.
Co-Written, produced and directed by Pro Dive Media Director Ryan McClellan, the video series features technical camera work, green-screening, and computer animation by Angela Shaw and Ray Stranagan, Pro Dive’s Media Department interns from the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale.
“The purpose of the videos is to showcase Pro Dive’s commitment to serious, professional instruction, while acknowledging that we don’t take ourselves too seriously,” said H. Kelly Levendorf, Pro Dive Chief Development Officer and a co-writer of the videos. The thirty-year industry veteran, who holds multi-agency instructor certifications, was also quick to point out, “these are not in any way suggestive of one agency being better than another – we’re just showing how a Pro Dive trained Instructor does things vs. someone trained elsewhere – firmly with tongue in cheek.”
The first video features Not a Pro Diver chiding Pro Diver for preparing for Open Water class by reviewing his instructor manual, while advising that his own arm sleeve of certification patches proves he doesn’t need to prepare, with all subsequent evidence to the contrary.
Levendorf says that the videos are also intended to appeal to a younger generation of divers, who find scuba, especially when perceived as being taught by “old-school instructors” an unappealing alternative to other activities: “I had the chance to hear pro surfer Holly Beck explain why she had never wanted to get certified – she and her friends assumed all dive instructors were overweight, Speedo-wearing stereotypes. In our videos, we’re hoping to show that is clearly not the case…at least here at Pro Dive.” He adds, “Aram was perfectly cast to convey the image of the young, fit, accessible instructor with the right attitude; Chris was…well…perfectly cast, too.”
The second video in the series, featuring the proper way to don equipment, is now in post-production and will premier in early 2010.
Founded in 1975, Pro Dive, the world’s first-ever Career Development Center, has been recognized by PADI as “the most chosen CDC in the United States.”
