DOPLHIN TALE tells the true-life story of a Dolphin named Winter (playing herself in the film), who is rescued after becoming stuck in a crab trap and transported to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium. A group of compassionate strangers band together to help Winter overcome her disability, at the same time inspiring viewers to challenge the way we look at both humans and animals with disabilities. THE MAG recently caught up with David Yates, producer of DOPLPHIN TALE and C.E.O of the Clearwater Marine Aquarium located in Florida.
Hi David, how are you doing?
Good, how are you doing?
Not too bad, thanks, and how is Winter doing?
Well, Winter is doing great! Listen, Winter doesn’t have too many bad days, life is good, life is happy, I call her my little Dolphin diva. She is doing fantastic.
Cool, and does she have any plans for Christmas?
Well you know it’s funny you mention that, not exactly, she’s not going on tour so she will be staying in in Clearwater for Christmas, but actually, the next phase in her life is that we have a baby Dolphin named Hope that was rescued almost exactly 1 year ago, and Winter is paired with an older Dolphin named Panama, who is kind of her adopted mom, well Hope will be paired with Panama in a couple of weeks just after Christmas, and Winter will have her new lifetime adapted sister, so that is her Christmas plan, getting ready for that right now.
That’s awesome, great to hear. What is it like being a Hollywood producer in comparison to being the CEO of the Clearwater Aquarium?
Well, I started out working in Network TV in the 1990s, so I worked the TV side for a number of years, but I had not worked on a major motion picture until this movie itself, so I had a little bit of experience in the nuances of production, on the TV side, so I knew that pretty well but it was a brand new experience, obviously we do things kind of differently, but the collaborative nature between Alcon [Production Company who made DOLPHIN TALE], the way they let us be involved to the extent that we were, was frankly very unique and just a great experience for us, just an awesome experience.
Are you going to be working on any other films anytime soon, or is that top secret?
Well, with Alcon we haven’t announced anything yet as far as a formal second feature project, but there are definitely some possibilities out there. In the meantime, we do produce videos, fairly routinely, and we do have a documentary going out in a few months. But look, animals just make great video! People want to hear stories about Dolphins, and Winter, in video format. But this has just been a great project, and Alcon has been great to work with. I would guess there is a good chance you might be watching new things in the future.
That’s great to hear! Movies inspired by true stories are always very inspirational to watch. Do you have any favourites, other than of course DOLPHIN’S TALE?
Oh yeah, well, quite a few! As a matter of fact the first one that comes to my mind is THE BLIND SIDE. One reason I think DOLPHIN TALE has done so well is the real life aspect of course, and when we hear from people across North America, and around the world now, is the final 2 ½ minutes of the movie, where we roll the real life video of Winter being rescued. That’s the point where, if people didn’t cry yet, now they cry tears. So the real life aspect, like you mentioned, really is what makes this movie tick, but if it wasn’t real life, it would still be a very powerful movie, but the fact it is based on real life, really raises that bar, raises that element. We’ve had audiences from Michigan to Vancouver to San Francisco stand up and applaud at the end, so that real life aspect was very important to this movie without a doubt.
Absolutely. And obviously a few minor things were changed, but overall you were happy with how close it stayed to the true story?
It’s very accurate, let me tell you what we did, for the original screenplay Karen Janszen who wrote FREE WILLY 2, and then Charles Martin Smith took over writing about 2 years later, so both of them, intentionally, we said don’t “write it”, come and spend some time with us, so they both came out and spent three, four, five days with us, but we told the real life story in great detail, so a lot of what you see in the movie is not only is the vast majority very accurate, a lot of what you see you might not even know is accurate, such as, some of the nuances of the pool, that was the exact size, the exact same pool that Winter was rehabbed in, the bottle she was fed with was the same kind we fed her with in real life, so a lot of nuances were in there, that a lot of people don’t realize were real life, but they are. Charles [director of DOPLHIN TALE] did a very good job. We made sure; we all agreed up front – Charles Martin Smith, Alcon, and the Clearwater Aquarium, that we had to stay true to the real life story. And they did a great, great job of making that happen.
Where can we find information to help out, or to learn more about real life situations about Dolphins like Winter?
The number one place we do that is on our website – www.seewinter.com As a matter of fact if you go to our website, which is actually highlighted in the movie itself, you can see that we have a kids section. And a lot of things they can do, they can learn about what goals we have in this, we are a non-profit, our mission is to promote environmental education, so the movie itself was a platform to teach kids, and to also be a tool for teachers , to teach kids about these things and the environment, what I call “inspirational education”, you can talk to kids about subjects and life, but if you inspire them about those subjects, then they listen, then they get engaged, so that’s what we do. Kids go to our website, we have a number of key things for kids they can do, they can learn, and also for teachers, for them to incorporate some of the things that we do.
That’s brilliant. David, thank you so much for making such a great movie, and for all that you do to help animals and the environment.
Thank you, I appreciate you having me on.
DOLPHIN TALE is out on BLU-RAY+DVD+DIGITAL COPY Combo pack today! Click here to read more about Winter and the Clearwater Marine Aquarium.