David G. Conover

David Conover at sea

David G. Conover is an American documentary film and television director. His production company, Compass Light, based in Camden, Maine, is most widely known for producing Sunrise Earth for HD Theater.

Biography

David Conover was born and raised in a New England family with strong ties to the sea and a tradition of active storytelling. Both grandfathers were amateur filmmakers in the 1920s and 30's. Upon graduating with a degree in comparative religious studies from Bowdoin College, David worked as a professional seaman—he has extensive experience in the Atlantic and Pacific. He did a double-handed transatlantic crossing while filming Passage. He spent five years designing and teaching sea courses for kids age 14–18 at the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School in Maine and in Florida. This was followed by a master's degree in Education at Harvard, where David studied moral development and then a second year as a teaching assistant the Kennedy School in Leadership Studies. In 2014-15, David was appointed as a Coastal Studies Scholar at Bowdoin College. As of 2012 he served on the Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership Board of Directors (Chair from 2019-22) and The Ocean Foundation's Advisory Board. David lives in Camden, Maine.

Compass Light

Conover has been making film and television show for nearly 30 years, focusing on the sea and the outdoors. Conover's production company, Compass Light, grew out of his early work, and the studios moved to the seaport of Camden, Maine in 1994 in order to be closer to the ocean and the stories being produced. The company has produced over 80 films for broadcast and educational clients. Awards include the National Outdoor Production Award, a Blue Ribbon by the National Educational Media Competition, and two nominations for a National Emmy as Outstanding Director & Outstanding Science and Technology Program.

Experiential TV - BlueMarvel

Conover's team conceived and developed a new format of television, called “Experiential TV" and subsequently “Slow TV,” in 2003. This is a radically observational and carefully crafted aesthetic, which makes the most of the HD format and is exemplified by the nature series Conover’s team created in 2004, called Sunrise Earth, in which not a single word is spoken and features picturesque remote locations as the sun rises in real time. In 2007, Conover co-founded BlueMarvel, an aggregator and distributor of the Experiential TV format. The format was called “Slow TV” by Geir Berthelsen*, the Norwegian founder of the World Institute of Slowness. Slow TV is usually grouped within the “slow movement.”**

The Sunrise Earth concept is simple: place a camera somewhere and record the view and sounds of the sunrise. According to David Schaefer of Discovery Channel it took on “something of a cult status among people with high-end televisions.” Andrew Sullivan, of the Daily Dish, writes “this devastatingly simple project soothes the soul.”*** Sunrise Earth is a broadcast series that aired every morning on Discovery’s HD Theater channel. Compass Light produced 50 episodes for Discovery HD by October 2006, when Sunrise Earth International began to air, featuring scenes from exotic locations in Asia, Europe, and South America.

On completion of production in 2008, Sunrise Earth became a 65-hour series that has aired two hours a day on domestic and international Discovery Channels since September, 2004. The series makes the claim to the only long-running broadcast series in which not a single word is spoken.

A distribution label named BlueMarvel was launched in 2007 to license experiential TV content produced by Conover and others. This start-up was led by entrepreneur Des Fitzgerald (CEO), until it was purchased by Compass Light in 2010. In 2022, the content was available in over 28,000 rooms in 192 hospitals across North America.

Conservation Media Group 2014-2020

Between 2014 and 2020 Conover founded and served on the Board of the Conservation Media Group, a Maine-based non-profit.. Conservation Media Group built capacity and connections through grant funding, workshops and consultation, so ocean and energy leaders could create compelling call-to-action campaigns with measurable impacts. The mission of this 6-year effort was to support the production of educational films and related media that lead the way toward conservation solutions. CMG supported filmmakers and organizations who created impact in three focus areas: providing sanctuary for marine life, reducing ocean plastic at its source, and transitioning to a low-carbon economy. Seed funding was provided by the visionary Alan Lewis, the Lewis Family Foundation, and the Grand Circle Foundation.

Conservation Media Group's pilot effort supported the campaign of the Appalachian Mountain Club and the Society for the Preservation Of New Hampshire Forests, in their "Bury or Stop Northern Pass." The campaign petition generated more than 10,000 signatures opposing the plans for a 187-mile overland power line from hydroelectric facilities in Canada, proposed by Northeast Utilities. A second effort supported the Ban Deep Sea Trawling campaign of Bloom Association.. Subsequent media campaigns that CMG supported include: The People's Climate March 2014, The People's Climate March 2017, Rise for Climate 2018, Peoples Climate Mobilization, 5 Gyres Microbeads Action Campaign, Disobedience by Kelly Nyks & the Break Free from Fossil Fuel Campaign (which involved 30,000 participants and 20 escalated actions over 6 continents), Pew Global Shark Conservation Campaign (20 highly valued species successfully received international trade restrictions via CITES as a result), Save Gokova Bay Campaign by the Mediterranean Conservation Society, Their Future is Our Future Campaign by LAMAVE (The Large Marine Vertebrate Research Institute Philippines), the Campaign for Whale Heritage Sites, the campaign for Safe Passage in the Salish Sea by the Friends of the San Juans and media-maker Jessica Plumb, The NT3 Campaign of Sailors for the Sea, Campaign for Net Metering: Towards Renewable Transition with media-maker Shalini Kantaya, Save Mobula Rays campaign of the Manta Trust, The Plastic Vagabond media campaign of Noé Sardet and Tierney Thys (Think Beyond Plastic), Mermaids Against Plastic campaign, and over a dozen others.

ArcticEarth Expeditions

In 2020, ArcticEarth Expeditions set sail. This was a 6-year commitment by Compass Light Productions to position a wind-powered vessel and a professional crew in the new Arctic, extending 30 years of filmmaking work in the area. The highly specialized 56′ vessel and crew are also available for full vessel charter by other media-makers, field scientists, & small groups of explorers. The goal is to deepen engagement and access to Baffin Bay and the Labrador Sea -plus the southern gateway that is the Gulf of Maine- within a planetary context. The focus of all films produced will be "Arctic and Earth."

Films by David Conover

• ReelEarth Collection, 2019-2022
• Big Picture Earth 2017
• Behold the Earth 2017
• Islands in the Wind 2011
• Creating Synthetic Life 2010
• Sunrise Earth (Series) 2004–present
• Cracking the Ocean Code 2005
• Live from the ISS 2002-3
• Mid-Water Mysteries 2002
• Quest for Captain Kidd 2001
• Fishing for the Future 2001
• The Vikings 2001
• Uncovering a Pirate’s Graveyard 2000
• Search for the Giant Lobster 2000
• Coral Heaven 1999
• The Viking Saga: L’Anse aux Meadows 1998

Awards

• National Outdoor Production Award
• Blue Ribbon – National Educational Media Competition
• Nominated for a National Emmy as Outstanding Director
• Nominated for a National Emmy as Outstanding Science and Technology Program

External links

• ArcticEarth
• Compass Light
• HD Theater's Sunrise Earth page
• David G. Conover at IMDb
• BlueMarvel
• Behold the Earth