|
Welcome
You've browsed your way to The Mark Ritts International Access Portal. Here, you'll find professional updates, information on television programs to which I have contributed, like Beakman's World and Court TV's North Mission Road, topical links, and even never-before-seen photographs. In short, if you're looking for taut, gripping entertainment, you've found it. |
|
|
Latest News January 21, 2008 -- Cast Off for Mexico is now available at amazon.com and arriving at more and more marine retailers every day! December 15, 2007 -- Cast Off for Mexico is completed and at the duplicator. The first run of DVDs should be completed by the end of the year, and with any luck, you'll be able to buy a copy at your local marine supply store or Amazon by the end of January. The main presentation is 45 minutes long, and there's another 55 minutes of informative bonus materials on the disc. Altogether, that makes 100 minutes of mesmerizing entertainment. You'll want to run right out and buy a bigger boat, a Spanish-English dictionary, and a barrel of hardtack! October 11, 2007 -- Cast Off for Mexico is nearly edited, awaiting only final music and some map sequences. Next come the Bonus Materials. With luck, we'll be ready to master by the end of this month. Meanwhile, I'm creative directing an exciting February annual meeting for Carlson Worldwide Hotels, produced by Dallas's Laura Thomas Productions. It's quite an extravaganza, with a 90-foot set and 50-foot screen, for an international audience of about 1600 at Las Vegas's charmingly understated Bellagio Hotel and Casino. We'll have some dazzling live talent on stage, along with equally dazzling visuals and special effects. September 12, 2007 -- The main documentary presentation for our upcoming Cast Off for Mexico DVD is now a little more than half edited; we're at the 30+ minute mark. The finished product will be more than two hours long, including extensive bonus materials featuring detailed interviews with Mexican cruising experts and even Ensenada's Port Captain. June 17, 2007 -- Last week in San Diego, we completed interviews with US Customs and Border Protection officials on Shelter Island and took a ride aboard the 39-foot "Midnight Express." It's the hair-raisingly fast launch US Customs and Border Protection agents use to interdict boats entering US waters from Mexico. Check out the new pictures on the "Photos" page. We also interviewed Pat Rains, author of the virtually Biblical (to South of the Border cruisers, at least) Mexico Boating Guide. May 21, 2007 -- We just returned from a successful four-day shoot in Ensenada for our upcoming retail DVD for boaters, Cast Off for Mexico. Take a look at how we got there and what we saw on the "Photos" page! April 30, 2007 -- Last Friday, we began shooting Cast Off for Mexico at the start of the annual Newport to Ensenada Sailboat Race. Nearly 500 boats competed in the event, and at the rate they started off on their journey southward, they may still be enroute now. Winds were very light. But it was a beautiful, sunny day, and we got some spectacular footage from our bobbing vantage point aboard the luxurious 67-foot private yacht that served as the press boat. For a few pictures, click on "Photos" above. April 22, 2007 -- We've almost completed a proposal document and audio demo for a new, 90-second radio feature called The Last Word. It features world class logophile Charles Harrington Elster and is co-moderated by Mark Ritts. A logophile is a lover of words. Charles has written a stack of fascinating, entertaining books about the English language and is one of America's leading authorities on word derivations and usage. He was also the author of the well-known vocabulary-building course, Verbal Advantage. With any luck, we'll sell The Last Word to a major national sponsor (or lots of local ones) and become Rulers of the World. Here's a sample. And another. April 4, 2007 -- Our "camera platform" for Cast Off for Mexico will be Shaka, a spectacular, brand new Riviera 40, made in Australia. Actually more than 46 feet long overall with a 15-foot beam, she's a superb fishing boat as well as a comfortable home at sea, with twin 490hp diesels delivering an easy 25-knot cruise. We'll do some serious angling this time and try to better our disappointing (actually nonexistent) catch during the making of Cast Off for Catalina. Our Captain will be Shaka's owner and accomplished seaman, Dana Point developer Duane Fitzgerald. You can catch a glimpse of his day job here. March 23, 2007 -- We've just confirmed that we'll be shooting video aboard the official press boat at the start of the annual Newport to Ensenada Sailboat Race on Friday, April 27. More than 400 private yachts are expected to enter the competition. The footage we capture will be used in Mark Ritts Productions' upcoming retail DVD, Cast Off for Mexico, a guide to enjoying the northern Baja Peninsula aboard your own boat. One of Ensenada's biggest yearly events is the race's finish, attended by thousands of private boaters. March 14, 2007 -- Just completed a script for the annual sales meeting of Celgene Pharmaceuticals, a maker of cancer drugs. I was hired by the New York office of InVision, a large business communications firm based in San Francisco. |
     |
|
|
