Who Am I? Hopefully, more than the sum of my parts.
As a young child, I once read that water is the universal solvent.
Since then, whether in a pool, lake, ocean - or bathtub, I've spent the vast majority of my life trying to dissolve myself.
I grew up immersed in the arts, here in New York City. My father was a brilliant Abstract-Expressionist, and seminal video artist in the 60's, and I spent much of my childhood watching him paint and assisting him in the studio whenever I wasn't hanging around the Public Theater, where my mother worked in Production. Yup, I'm also a theater brat, so of course my first after school job was building scenery, and running shows.
That said, I was always a rabid science geek, and went to school for marine biology and oceanography. But adventure and travel was what I wanted, so I became a hard-hat deep-sea diver, which is where I started shooting underwater technical photographs of marine structures for engineering companies.
My career trajectory may on the surface seem at odds with itself, but considering all my experiences in the gestalt, it's unsurprising (except to me, still) that I wound up here. Looking at my work, one can see the strong influences of my past.
Want to know what I'm really, really good at? All the stuff below - and much more.
Specialties: Marine Film Production, Underwater Cinematography, Underwater Photography, 2nd Unit Direction: Marine, Safety & Rescue Diving, Underwater Construction, Water Stunts, Camera & Picture Boats, Script Analysis, Large-Scale Marine Art Installation Design & Construction.
I'm more well-rounded than the below bio alludes to. Ask me about my underwater cinematography, or theater and dance background sometime. But I want to work on my art now, so you'll have to ask me over cocktails - or wait till I'm interested in writing about myself again.
If you're really interested in me, keep reading. You can also see my film and TV work at: www.SilverScreenMarine.com
Background
Mr. Brown is a long established marine consultant and professional deep-sea diver. With over twenty five (25) years of experience on both domestic and international projects, Mr. Brown has extensive expertise in maritime and environmental port issues. He has developed a broad network within the maritime industry, acting as technical consultant and liaison between the public and private sectors on both large and small waterfront revitalization projects, helping to expand functional capacities for water-dependant and public access uses wherever possible.
Mr. Brown has provided comprehensive underwater services on major public works projects including the Fort McHenry tunnel under Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, and an 11-mile FDR Drive substructure survey for the City and State of New York.. In 1984 as a Diver-Medic, he specialized in hyperbaric medicine, treating diving-related injuries at the North American Hyperbaric Center – a subsidiary of International Underwater Contractors. In 1997 Mr. Brown founded the Not-for-Profit Working Waterfront Association, where in 2001 he developed a national information and communication web portal enabling the U.S. Coast Guard to communicate with port safety and security stakeholders.
In addition to forming SilverScreen Marine, which provides complete marine production, underwater cinematography, coordination, safety and underwater support services to the motion picture and television industries, Mr. Brown chaired a standing sub-committee of the Harbor Safety, Operations and Navigation Committee of the Port of NY and NJ.
Skills
Mr. Brown is a certified commercial diver with wide-ranging experience. While he is skilled in many areas of marine construction, he has spent the last 30 years specializing in the area of near shore underwater structural inspection. Mr. Brown has in-depth hands on experience as well as comprehensive project management and supervisory experience.
As an NBIS certified bridge inspector, Mr. Brown has conducted the underwater inspection of hundreds of bridges ranging in size from small culverts to large multi-span cable bridges such as the Commodore Barry in Philadelphia, PA. He has extensive experience in underwater condition surveys of bridges, dams, piers, wharves, bulkheads, pipelines, cable crossings, cribbing structures, and vessels. Additionally he has extensive quality assurance inspection experience.
He is trained in the use of heavy and lightweight surface supplied deep air and mixed gas diving systems; recompression chamber operations; steel, concrete and timber marine structure fabrication, installation and rehabilitation methods, ship salvage and repair; underwater welding and burning; the use of pneumatic and hydraulic dock building tools (i.e. chainsaws).
He has performed underwater welding and burning, installed underwater timber, metal and composite patches and underwater concrete formwork; placed underwater concrete and epoxies by hand, pumping, tremie pour and injection methods. Mr. Brown has installed underwater pipelines; worked on dams and their related appurtenances, and systems. He is skilled in underwater still photography and videography, and at operating a wide variety of watercraft from 8 foot skiffs to a 130 foot, 200 ton former NYC fireboat.