Ocean Keepers

What it was

Ocean Keepers is a 180 degree stereo film made for The Nature Conservancy. It follows Jaimilee Cruz and Jamal Galves, two Belizean conservationists, as they work to save Kat, a manatee in crisis, and it takes the viewer into the water with her. Meryl Streep narrates.

The Nature Conservancy puts the case plainly. About 600 manatees remain in Belize, and an estimated 30 to 40 are lost each year. A manatee population that is thriving points to healthy seagrass, and to the fish and the communities that depend on it. The film looks at what is at risk and what can still be protected, and at how long-term funding through Nature Bonds pays for that protection.

Lindsay Branham directed. Vision3 produced and post-produced the film: the crew on the water and under it, the stereo supervision, the edit, the online and the finish. The Nature Conservancy published the film in June 2026 and showed it at Mountainfilm in Telluride in VR headsets.

Technical approach

The shoot ran for ten days from 24 September 2025, starting at the Wildtracks rehabilitation centre at Sarteneja and moving on to the mangroves off Belize City, to Gales Point, and out to Caye Caulker and Turneffe Atoll, with a water camera specialist and a dive specialist alongside the camera crew for the work underwater. Post ran in London from March to May 2026: an 8K conform, then the depth grade and the colour grade of the stereo 180 picture, the narration and the original score, then the tracklay and the final mix. Delivered as the VR180 film, a sixty second VR trailer, a thirty second social cut and a flat 2D version, with the footage and the project files handed over.