Local beach creates perfect atmosphere for 'River Monster' promo

BOMBAY BEACH — The eerie pre-dawn haze over the deserted Salton Sea shoreline created the perfect haunting apocalyptic atmosphere for the filming of a promo for Animal Planet’s series “River Monsters.”

Known for coming face-to-face with mysterious flesh-eating river predators, Jeremy Wade, biologist and extreme angler, spent Tuesday in Bombay Beach among a crew of 40, creating their season five promotional video to entice anxious fans.

“It’s all about atmosphere and the wait for the big fish and not knowing what it is, when it is on the end (of the fishing line),” Wade said as he prepared for the next scene Tuesday.

Bombay Beach’s ghostly shoreline became an essential piece for the post-apocalyptic theme envisioned by Charles G. Barron, the series’ on-air marketing, writer and producer.

“It’s amazing out here; there is really nothing else like it. That’s what drew us here,” Barron said.

The beach is one of three local settings the crew will be shooting at this week.

“It all starts with a concept and the concept for this season, season five, we thought it would be interesting to almost put him in a future setting where he’s caught almost everything that’s been made to catch in this world, but now what else is out there?” Barron explained.

Continuing with their concept, the crew met at the beach’s shoreline early Tuesday morning to start shooting the initial clips.

“It’s really him walking into a post-apocalyptic time and this location it deals with finality and kind of like the next stage; so it was like a no brainer,” he said.

The crew will finish shooting Thursday, with the finished promo commercial, featuring the local coast, airing sometime in March and the series’ season five airing on the Animal Planet channel later this year.

Staff Writer Celeste Alvarez can be reached at 760-377-3442 or at calvarez@ivpressonline.com

To comment on this story click here to be directed to Facebook.