Nautilus Productions

About Us

RICK ALLEN co-founder Nautilus Productions, broadcast video producer and videographer has been diving the oceans of the world and shooting video since 1983. As a video producer, director and videographer his work has appeared on ABC, A&E, BBC, CBS, Discovery, The Learning Channel, 48 Hours, ESPN, Lifetime, National Geographic, Turner and more. He has traveled from Cuba to Kazakhstan with the US Military, weathered live broadcasts during hurricanes and gone nose to nose with 14 foot Great White sharks during underwater expeditions. After 12 years in broadcast television Allen opened his own video production company in 1997 focused on documentary production and providing freelance videography and underwater video services to broadcast clients. Allen is an avid wreck diver and shark lover who can be found most weekends diving the Graveyard of the Atlantic.

CINDY BURNHAM (Still Photographer) - Cindy's twenty years of photojournalism reflects the extremes of humanity and nature. From the intensity of the warfare reflected on an American soldier's face, to the surrealness of an underwater morgue of an Atlantic shipwreck, her images have appeared on the covers and pages of Newsweek, New York Times, and the Time Life book, Sky Soldiers. Additional publications include, Army Times, USA Today, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and numerous other monthly, weekly, and daily periodicals. She is the co-founder of NAUTILUS PRODUCTIONS, a freelance photography and video company, as well as the assignment editor and senior photographer at the Fayetteville Observer Times. Her work has repeatedly been recognized by both North Carolina and South Carolina press photography associations.

KIM ESLINGER, MA - Maritime Archaeologist and Historian. Eslinger graduated with a BA in History and a minor in theatre from Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia. She holds a Master of Arts from East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina from the Program in Maritime Studies. Her research for the last several years has focused on the S.S. Commodore, an ocean going steam tug that was illegally running guns to Cuba and sank in 1897 near Ponce Inlet, Florida. Eslinger has worked in the archaeological community since 1998. She spent two years with North Carolina's Blackbeard Shipwreck Project, three years with the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse Association as Principal Investigator for the Commodore Project, and two years with the St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum and the Lighthouse Archaeological Maritime Program as Field Director. Her underwater work has taken her all along the East Coast, Gulf of Mexico and Great Lakes on projects ranging from Colonial American to World War II sites. Presently Eslinger works as a Maritime Archaeologist for C&C Technologies in Houston, Texas where she works on undersea surveys and interprets survey data in the Gulf of Mexico. Eslinger is also an avid tech diver and equally at home in either zero vis or blue water.

LAWRENCE TAYLOR - Producer, Writer, Videographer & Biologist. Taylor's photographic career began at the knee of his freelance cinematographer father in Toronto where he also worked as a commercial stills photographer. After completing a BSc degree and diving certification at the University of Guelph, he taught science and math at Pickering College, Newmarket, before moving to Halifax to complete his MSc degree at Dalhousie University. After graduate school, Lawrence developed his underwater videography skills during a three year scientific scallop project in Lunenburg and created Biodiverse Canada Inc. Since then, and 1,000 hours diving and snorkeling later, Lawrence has surfed the technological digital wave in underwater filming, non-linear editing, word processing and Internet communications to film, write magazine articles, host TV shows, produce Industrial Environmental videos and marine related radio pieces. Since 1997, Lawrence has filed "Under the Sea", a monthly radio column on "Information Morning", CBC, Halifax and continues to give lectures and public video presentations: Dalhousie University, U. of Maine, Ontario Science Centre and Boston Sea Rovers. Lawrence still remains tightly associated in the field of science and continues his research on Atlantic Salmon towards a PhD. Taylor lives by his motto "If you rub enough talents together, you're bound to get smoke" which sparked the creation of Biodiverse Canada Inc. and has fanned the flames of a decade and a half of exploration in the Canadian Maritimes. Biodiverse Canada Inc, is based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia and has been the only scientifically based production/filming company in the Maritimes since 1989. The company's specialty is Natural History productions above and below the water line in dry suits to manned submersibles from the Arctic to Haiti for clients like CBC LAND & SEA/COUNTRY CANADA, Survival Anglia, and Discovery. BCI also shoots for dramatic and documentary productions like Paramount's SIGHTINGS, Salter Street's LEXX: THE DARK ZONE and Eco Nova's THE SEA HUNTERS. National and International producers like Real TV, Office Kei, New York Time Television, Omni and Primitive Features have also dipped into BCI's diverse marine and freshwater digital stock footage library. http://www.biodiversecanada.com/

JEFF NEWTON - Writer, Photographer & Videographer) - Covering war, conflict and the U.S. military has been Jeff Newton's job for the last ten years. At 24, he covered the Bosnia war, three years before the Dayton Peace Accords were signed and American soldiers were permitted on the ground. His first war might have been his last, as he was shot at, shelled and held at gun point on his very first assignment -- covering a peace rally on its way through the war zone from Split, Croatia to Sarajevo. His work has taken him from Nicaragua to El Salvador, Panama to Afghanistan and everywhere in between. Newton writes for print, shoots video for broadcast and edits and writes scripts for television. He also is quite comfortable with a still camera because his assignments require him to not only file stories but shoot photos as well. Currently he is on assignment for 60 Minutes in Afghanistan & Iraq covering stories about Afghan warlords, trekking into the rugged Afghan mountains with British Royal Marines on combat operations, joining U.S. Special Forces raids on Taliban and al-Qaida safe houses and documenting all night military missions.

SABRINA DAVIS - (Producer & Writer) - Davis has more than 14 years experience telling people’s stories. Her career began as a news/talk radio host, anchor and news reporter. The ability to use words and sound to create images in the mind made her writing, when adapted to television, more powerful. She has worked in local and national television news and as a documentary researcher, writer and producer and as a print reporter and editor. In addition she spent time as a nonprofit marketing manager and assistant dean in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Davis is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill with degrees in Journalism and Mass Communication, and Political Science. Davis continues to work in television and print media as a freelance reporter, editor and producer. Through a partnership with Davis's Cambridge Communication, cambridgecommunication.com, we provide clients with clear, concise and accurate communication to help corporations, medical practices and nonprofits tell their stories through writing, production and design of creatively crafted marketing materials.

RIC HASE - (Audio & Lighting) - Since 1978, Ric has been involved in the acquisition side of video and film production. After graduating from Syracuse’s School of Newhouse Communications, Ric landed a job with WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh as an Associate Director /promotions writer. In 1987 Ric left the sequestered protection of studio production to explore the world of freelance, and in the following 6 years acted as grip for numerous feature films being shot in the Pittsburgh vicinity. He also freelanced as a sound tech for various production houses in Pittsburgh before moving North to the chillier climes of Upstate New York and Cornell University. For five years, Ric was on staff with Cornell University’s Media Dept. as a videographer. Eventually, the harsh winters got to him, and he decided to move down to warmth of the people and climate of North Carolina. There he took his first position as a broadcast re-seller, helping solve his client’s various video, sound and lighting needs. However he missed the joys of freelance and in late 2001 took a sales position with Technical Video Systems, where he is currently allowed to split his duties between sales and freelance production. Ric takes his mantra that he is “There to make his videographer and producer look good” to heart and is a valuable asset to the Nautilus crew.

LUCKY - (Mascot) - Lucky joined the Nautilus Productions staff in February of ‘04. After a brief stay on doggy death row his sentence at a local animal shelter was commuted and he became the official Nautilus mascot . His primary duties consist of initiating tug-of-war matches, going for rides (his favorite) and taking the staff on forced marches at the end of each day. Lucky loves watching television, sleeping under the edit desk and greets all visitors with much gusto and tail wagging.

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