People changing the face of Southwest Florida
After earning a degree in film making at the University of South Florida in 1980, John Biffar joined the staff at the CBS television station in Fort Myers, Florida. His unique on-air news features and special programming gained him numerous industry awards and national recognition while there. In 1983, Biffar founded his own independent production company, which expanded in sales and reputation and has since evolved into the current, Dreamtime Entertainment. As President, Biffar has expanded the studio’s client base to encompass national and international clients.
John and his staff have produced award winning documentaries, series programs and feature films. "Captiva Island" the company’s first feature film, won a Silver Telly award and aired on HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Encore and Starz networks. "Children of the Fourth World", a documentary 10 years in the making, originally aired on PBS, went on to win four regional Emmy Awards, as well as the First Place Gold Camera Award and Best Documentary Award in 1999. The year 2000 marked the release of Biffar’s documentary, "Uncommon Friends" which won the Wolfson Television Award and was considered for an Academy Award. Fireboats of 9/11 Open (2002) & "The Nazi Plan to Bomb New York" aired as an episode for History Undercover, on the History Channel in early 2003.
Biffar’s company has also produced series programming for The Discovery Network (The Travel Channel) such as "Freeze Frame", "Wildlife Encounters with host, Ali MacGraw" and "Water’s Edge". Dreamtime has a long history with PBS, producing the documentaries, Pope John Paul II: A Saint For Our Times (2007) & Under the Sea With Al Giddings (2008).
Over the past twenty-two years, John has served as a director, producer, writer, photographer, and on-air talent. He has directed such notable talent as Ernest Borgnine, Arte Johnson, Norma Miller ("Sanford & Son"), Bill Cobb ("Northern Exposure", "The Gregory Hines Show"), Ali MacGraw, Walter Cronkite, Dorothy Hamill, and Jacques Cousteau.
We are proud to have John and his company as the production and video team for Gourmet Girl Magazine and all the great videos you see on the magazine are shot and produced by John, his son Sean, and the great staff over at Dreamtime.
It is our distinct pleasure to bring to you our friend, John Biffar
Interview April 28, 2008
GG: When I spoke to people in the community about who they felt were the people changing the face of South Florida, your name came up time and time again. I know you grew up in Amityville, New York. When did you leave that area and come to Florida?
John Biffar: I was 10. I'm the youngest of 7 and my father was the Chief of the New York City Fire Department. When he retired, 2 of my siblings of the seven, moved lo Fort Lauderdale. So I grew up on the beach there.
GG: So you were an east coaster then. How did you get over to the west coast?
JB: I took a job out of college, I graduated with a film degree from the University of South Florida in Tampa. I then took a job as a one-man band working at WINK. I was a shooter, photographer, editor and had to negotiate to get $175.00 a week. I thought I'd stay here a year and then go to the next biggest market. Instead I started my own production company and never left.
GG: At what point did you decide that video was for you? What was the catalyst in your life that made you decide that is what you wanted to do?
JB: When I was in high school, I was a surfer. My sister bought me an underwater still camera and I'd go and shoot surf photos of my friends and sell enough to buy more film. We'd go to the American Legion and watch surf movies. I saw them put together the music to the images and I was like, "That's it!" I knew that's what I was going to do.
L: You first developed surfing films?
JB: My first films were surf films.
GG: In the infancy stage of videography?
JB: It was film back then.
GG: Oh that does date us, doesn't it?
JB: (Laughing) We were shooting 16mm film way before video even came out.
GG: Do you have one of those films that stands out more than others?
JB: No. The first student film I made we used to show in a bar. I had a job as a projectionist in a local bar. My friends would come by and we'd show our movies. (Laughing) I can remember somebody coming in and saying, "Not more films about these guys." (Chuckling all around) My favorite film is the next one, or the one we are working on. I'm not too nostalgic about any of them. It's always what we are doing now?
GG: So, what are you doing now?
JB: We're just finishing, today actually, a film for PBS about underwater cinematography, one of my heroes actually. Al Geddings. Finishing his life story for PBS. When I was a kid I used to see his films. Then he did a lot of features like 'The Deep,' partnered with James Cameron on 'The Abyss,' and they co-produced 'Titanic' together. I knew him from other films that he'd done. Films he did on whales and stuff.
GG: This is a question that is an aside because I'm hearing a lot about water and I know you are a nature lover too. Growing up on the beach obviously added to that love of the water. But what else nurtured that love? Some of the films that you have done, are in extremely remote locations.
JB: Yeah, who doesn't like to be at a remote location? My first love has always been photography. When you are able to go around the world to Fiji, Alaska or wherever it is. You have these amazing images everywhere. That's what turns me on.
L: I've seen some of your pieces from WINK. One of the ones that stands out is your skateboarding. You were quite young (we all laugh here).
You told the story about being at a fruit stand with Walter Cronkite and the guy recognizes you and not him. That's hysterical.
JB: It was pretty funny. I pretty much grew up on television. Since I was 19 or 20, when I first went on air. A good friend of mine, Greg Luft, and I were on TV all week and at that time we thought we were international superstars and everyone would know who we were (Laughs here). Fortunately, the more time you spend on air, the less it means to you. You realize it really has nothing to do with who you are as a person or what you are about. It means very little to me at this point.
GG: How did you get that job?
JB: They were very desperate obviously. (Winks) I was probably the only guy who would do it for that price. I 'd come out of college and had a degree. You know, it was really that I knew how to shoot and edit. There were a lot of people that were supposed reporters and so forth. I had no reporting background. A photographer I was with said to me, "Just remember it's usually: who, when, what ,where, and why. If you can remember that the reporting part is easy." But I don't think I would have gotten the job today. I think the standards are different, you know what I mean? Back then, this was 1980, if you could shoot and edit and work for that amount of money, then you got the gig.
GG: Where did the name Long John Biffar come from?
JB: Hmmm. My buddies used to call me that back in college. Obviously because I'm so short (6"8"). (One can't help but laugh at his wonderful sense of humor). I had a segment called Long John's Journals. We'd travel around the world and do stories, feature stories. I had one called Tall Tales, there was a comedy segment that we ran. The stuff we used to run on WINK, I couldn't believe it was actually on TV.
L: Were you a little bit ahead of your time?
JB: We just had a lot of fun. I was fortunate to work for a news director by the name of Jim Bennett, who appreciated humor. This is a guy that probably did more stories in Vietnam than any other reporter in the network. He appreciated the lighter side of a feature and thought there was a value, at the end of the newscast, to leave people with a smile. And that's were my gig was.
GG: How did you land at NBC?
JB: I worked in Tampa at NBC as a cameraman, worked with a guy named Bob Hite who just recently retired. He and I started a production company. I was in Tampa, still going to college. He gave me a job. Which consisted of me scraping barnacles off his boat and him telling me how once we get this boat in shape we're going to sail around the world and tell these stories. (Broad grin and laughter) After about a year of scraping the barnacles, I figured I'd better find another routine. He was quite the Tom Sawyer. He's a talented guy and actually we have done a lot of work together since then, on projects all around the world. Got arrested together in Panama, doing a documentary sailing the big tall ship, The Bounty. Got into Panama and were arrested for illegal entry into the country, which is a whole other story. Bob and I have had some high adventures together.
L: I love that aspect of what I hear from and about you. I love that "going out there and experiencing life." It is prevalent in everything that you do. You're out there and you're looking for it. What's the next adventure type of thing.
JB: There's no promise of tomorrow. yesterday's history and so you have to work on now.
Dreamtime Entertainment Film and Video Production in Fort Myers Florida
GG: What laid the ground-work for Dreamtime?
JB: I was in Australia doing a film about these two guys that had quit their jobs as teachers and they became gold diggers. They’d go out into the Outback searching for gold. If you found a big rock you could retire. So we are with these guys and a bunch of Aboriginies, sitting around a campfire eating kangaroo tail, start to tell me about "the Dreamtime." The Dreamtime is where everything is created, where things come from and of course there’s Ayers Rock. I thought, "What a cool name for a company." So that’s where Dreamtime came from. If you look at the animation in our demo reel, you’ll see a kangaroo, Ayers Rock, the digerdoo. That’s where all of that came from.
GG: Who were you working for when you were doing all this?
JB: Myself. I had started my own company after I moved here. I was working at WINK for about a year and one day I walked into the comptroller’s office and I gave her a check for $5000.00. She asked "What’s this for?" I said "That’s your cut." "My cut of what?" I said, "Well I went out and made a film about tourism for Lee County and I used your equipment. I calculated what I should have paid you, this is your cut" She looked at me and she said, "Don’t ever do that again," But, she cashed the check! (Laughter)
Then I figured, "Okay, I can’t use your gear but I’ll buy my own. So I continued to work the gig at WINK and rented a place downtown off Hendry Street and had offices there. Still worked at WINK and did that for many years. Eventually, I was making more in an afternoon with my business than I would all week there, and they suspected I was going to quit. They approached me and said, "Well you know, why don’t we just buy the segments from you and at least continue to give us one or two stories a week?" So I did that for 10 years or so. Then I got into the medical thing. It was on CBS originally, then I took it over to NBC, then went back to CBS with it. Now I’m back on NBC.
GG: Where did the medical thing come from? That’s the Health News Network ?
JB: I had a buddy that sat across from me, Randy Smith, he was a sports guy. He took a job for the hospital and I had the production company. I said, "Why don’t we pitch the hospital on producing some news stories and give them to the TV station?" That’s how that got started. From that, eventually now, here we are creating a network just for hospitals. It grew over the years.
GG: Is the Health News Network statewide or national?
JB: Right now it is in 40 hospitals in the state of Florida and we are live in Georgia and Nashville. We just signed a contract to put it in 23 states across the country.
GG: In a nutshell what is it?
JB: It’s like CNN, only it’s a cross between CNN and Entertainment Tonight. Health News with a lot of entertainment and celebrity angles, etc. The juxt of it is a thing we came up with called Carevertising. Carevertising is the next level, I think, of advertising. A Carevertiser, you pay to be on our network, but you pay to promote a non-profit. At the end of it, the spot, your logo will appear as a Carevertiser supporting the efforts of XYZ organization. What the spot does is, it educates the general public about what the non-profit does, how they can get involved and contribute.
GG: That sounds like what we hoped to do with Candlelighter’s.
JB: You basically run it on the network and at the end the promo comes up and there is the company logo.
GG: I'd like to talk a little bit about the process and the creation of Captiva Island. How did that evolve for you?
JB: I always wanted to make a film and I thought that we have so many great things here we could highlight and showcase. One of them is the beauty of this area and so forth. I had a buddy who had a very large furniture company, he was nationwide. He and a couple of other friends ended up putting up the money that would make it happen. Worked with a writer, Bill Schreiber, we just went out and made the film. Have you seen the film?
GG: No
JB: I could show you a little of it? (winks)
GG: That would be wonderful. The one I have seen that was very moving for me was "The Children of the Fouth World". The accolades are everywhere for that production.
JB: Well it should go to Carrie who is an angel. She is a Mother Teresa without the church. An amazing lady.
GG: You have 10 years that you take to develop this film. Why was is such a long process?
JB: I didn’t start off saying "I’m going to take the next 10 years and make this film." It happened over a period of time. I was looking for something with meaning. I’d been to every beautiful beach in the world. It still left me at the end of the day hollow inside and it wasn’t doing it for me. I wanted to do something of significance to give back and feel like I was making a contribution that went beyond entertainment.
That’s when Jerry Ritter, a developer, came into my office He'd always wanted to be a film maker, but instead he ended up being a fabulously successful developer. He’d hang out and show me pictures of wherever he’d been. One day he said, "Oh ,I got a new girlfriend, let me show you, I just went down to Guatemala and he's showing me all these pictures of him and his girlfriend. And then they end up in the dump with this woman with this kid on her lap saying, "Oh, he got bit by a rat and we’re cleaning that up. His father was killed in a machete fight and was an alcoholic and can’t take care of him." I asked, "Well, who’s this?"
Well, that’s my girlfriend’s girlfriend Carrie, and she’s an American girl. He said, "Listen, my girlfriend’s father is running for President of Guatemala and he needs a commercial done and he wants something a little higher end. Would you do it?" I said, "I’d do it if I could meet Carrie." And that started a 10 year relationship. We then got Ali McGraw, who I was doing another film with in Alaska at the time for The Travel Channel. I told her about Carrie and she wanted to meet her. She flew down to Guatemala with me and she said she wanted to be involved with me. I said, "Great, why don’t you be the host?". So now the film's played in I don’t know how many countries.
In Alaska with Ali McGraw
L: How did you develop those connections to Hollywood?
JB: I started producing shows on spec, because I wanted to do long format programming. I started doing these shows and pitching them. Eventually the work got noticed and looked at and you’d meet the next guy, and if they think you are capable of doing the show, then you get the gig.
Once you get that gig, one thing leads to another. The bottom line is, when you are young, you think you have to make it happen and when you get older you realize you just have to let it happen.
In my world it’s about faith and God. He’s real. When you can relax and realize that He’s really in charge, then you can just enjoy the moment and be less anxious about making it happen and just let it happen.
GG: Getting back"Fourth World" for a moment, there has to be one thing during the course of the creation of that film that really stands out, that you’ll never forget."
JB: There’s probably more than one, (laughs) but I will never forget the commitment and the love that came from that woman. Selfless. You know, what I had to do was really easy. Go down there, blow into town for a few days, hang out and shoot images, do interviews and connect. What Carrie has to do, day in and day out, is care for those kids. Feed them and bathe them. Ship them back and forth from that dump. Deal with people that are lost and that get killed. These kids have lost their lives, for a number of years in the dump. That one kid, they found him hacked up, sliced up by a machete. That was the emotional downer of course, but the emotional upside was, going to the kids and seeing this one boy who I followed from a little kid, graduating and getting a job as an architect.
GG: He got out of there.
JB: Yeah, he got out of there. I was there for the day that he graduated. He knew that he had a job that was the emotional up. The other part of it was that we started airing news stories in Southwest Florida. We ended up filling up an entire cargo plane at Christmas and flew it in there, a DC3 or whatever it was. From donations from people in Southwest Florida. Filled up a cargo plane. NBC 2 was involved in that.
GG: And without your film they would not have even been aware of the situation there.
JB: Well that’s the power of the media. That’s the great thing about this medium.
GG: Share a little bit about "Uncommon Friends."
JB: Jim Newton was a guy the I met when he was just coming out with the book. I did a story on him and his book for the local news . I kinda bugged him about doing a documentary, cause I saw a bigger picture there. He didn’t want to do it. The reason he didn’t want to do it was because he had promised those guys, or himself, that he would never make money or profit from them. What, I guess I did was, successfully talk him into the fact that there was a bigger story there that was important for the public to hear that wouldn’t be told without him. He’s the thread connecting all these people. He eventually agreed. I just think it was a film, once again about people, Jim at the center of it all, but about friendships, and a side of these people that you never knew. A side of their work world. It was really a film about integrity and values as well. The things that they did for one another that you don’t hear about. And the values that they all shared that I think are still pertinent, or should be, today.
GG: You get a little of it in the book, but you don’t get it on that larger scale that you were able to do.
JB: Yeah, we were able to get Walter Cronkite to be the narrator and that gave it a little bit more credibility. The story had credibility on it’s own, but it gave it a much broader base. That went out nationally on PBS as well. Did real well.
GG: When you think of integrity, Walter is a man that is synonymous with the word.You can’t get around that.
JB: Well what’s funny, a story about that is, he considered doing it, but he called back and said, "This is made up." He didn’t believe it. He had his staff research it and they got back with him and said, "No, this is true." Jim Newton is like Forrest Gump, the real deal. By the way, I love that movie. 9referring to Gump) I have another new one I love. Have you seen Across the Universe? Go see Across the Universe. Amazing. It should have been nominated. I think it got best costume this year, but I thought it was the film of the year. Fabulous film. Do yourself a favor and see that film. It’s like a new art form, not like any film you’ve seen.
L: We like ‘You’ve never seen it this way before.'(winks and smiles)
JB: You can see it’s never been done that way before and it shouldn’t have been done that way (laughter all around).
John with Bill Boggs in Fiji
GG: You did a video of your trip with Bill Boggs. How did that come about and what was the most memorable experience of that adventure?
JB: I did a few films with Bill. The first time I met him, we did a film in Switzerland.
L: How did you meet him?
JB: He was talent for a show I was directing called Freeze Frame. The Travel Channel show about how to go on these high action adventure trips and vacations and take photos. Our jobs was to teach people how to take the photos. He and I kind of co-hosted that show together. And then we did another film in Fiji, that was the same thing.
Bill and I have had some great fun adventures. He’s a wonderful guy. He’s Mr. New York. Every time we go to a restaurant, I don’t think he ever pays for a meal (laughing). Hopefully he leaves a tip. I don’t know.
GG: You were drawn to REACT TV story, because of that David and Goliath aspect.
JB: Yeah, I don’t know, that whole reality show thing, had a not so wonderful ending. It’s one of the very few, obviously, that I'd like to forget. That’s all I’ll say about that.
GG: We weren’t going so much to talk about that show. were wer alluding to the fact that you seem to admire people that have vision, new ideas.
JB: I like the underdog.
GG: What appeals to you about the underdog?
JB: Well they say that all this stuff stems from your childhood. Maybe being the youngest of seven. It’s not easy to stand out and everyone’s telling you what you can’t do. (Laughs) It may not be healthy, but I think it has served me well over the years. That attitude of, "I’ll show them" kind of a thing after being told you can’t do something. I think it’s a great thing for our kids to learn. I tell my kids they can do anything. Hopefully it doesn’t have the reverse affect. I think in the long run it served me well. Being the youngest of seven was not easy.
GG: What’s drawn you into believing that Gourmet Girl Magazine has something to offer?
JB: Speaking with Lou on the phone was probably the thing. I knew that you would succeed. I determined on that phone call Lou is somebody that had the passion and the excitement. And the motivation to take it to the next level. I had a short conversation with my son about Lou. "Yeah dad, this guy is into every detail. Sean said that and he liked that. He said, "He’s a New Yorker, he’s going to make it."
GG: Out of the mouth of babes.
JB: And to be honest I think that there is a niche in the market. I know some of the other people out there doing things with food, CRUSH, the Gilchrists. Love ‘em, great people. But very different from the what you’re doing. Yours is all web-based right?
GG: Yes.
JB: I think it is really well done, and fun, and different. And I’m sure it’s only going to get better. You have to have passion and vision and believe in it.
GG: Is there one thing that Dreamtime has done to date that you are most proud of?
JB: If you look at the collection of films and documentaries that I have done, I like to think there is a theme and a brand. You’ll find a story about love with Chip Newton, with Carrie, with the one we just finished with Pope John Paul for PBS. To me, I want Dreamtime to have a brand that means something. If I had to pick one film I would have to say "Children of the Fourth World." Pope John Paul is also an amazing story, but to see an individual without the support of anything but her faith doing amazing things.
GG: You were quoted as saying that the highlight of your life was the birth of your three boys.
JB: Living with my three boys. Of course there birth was exciting. But as a parent you worry how they’re going to turn out, what’s going to happen to them. I’m so proud of them, they all have such great hearts. They are just great people.
GG: Sean’s following in your footsteps, how about the other two? Scott works here full time too.
JB: David is just the rock star. He’s the super model, a big surfer and now he’s just getting interested in photography, but I never pushed that on any of them or even suggested it.
When you go to college, it’s not that just the fact that you’ve learned to set lights up or learned how to do a camera. You learn social skills way above anything that happens in that classroom. Sean, I see the classic example of the student that outperforms the master and nothing can make me happier. He’s wheeling and dealing and doing his own films. If Sean likes it, I know it’s great. But I would have heard about it if the client didn’tthinks so. Either way I’d find out.
GG: I’m curious about why you picked this side of Florida to live ?
JB: It happened really by chance. Right now I also have a place in Miami (South Beach.) I love going there and hanging out. It’s a whole different world. This ended up being my base when I started my company. I’ve always had lots of employees. I’ve always loved living here. I like it more because I have balance, because I do get to travel. But I love coming home here and I never get tired of going on the boat and taking it out to Useppa Island and hanging out. It always feels like a vacation when I’m on the water. I’ve been here for 9 years. I love this area. People used to laugh about it being a cultural wasteland. Hey, it’s up to you to make it not that. There are people that will sit back and complain, and then there are people that will make things happen.
GG: How have you seen it change, just in the last ten years?
JB: More difficult to see it day by day. The recession, Some people are using the word depression. I think there are opportunities no matter what the supposed economy is doing. Ford’s line, "If you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right." But I think at different times there are different opportunities. I think it’s a lot more difficult for somebody, in fact I don’t even know how it’s possible, to work for somebody. You are limited. You can only make X. Being an entrepreneur, for me, I laugh because I say "I’m self-employed because otherwise I’d be unemployable." There’s truth to that. But when you are given the opportunity to go out and do whatever you can think of doing, I think that’s the only way I could survive.
GG: Unless you are a well established business and have everything in place, it’s so volatile right now.
JB: I think it’s really volatile for people that are on fixed incomes. But if you are an entrepreneur, you look and see opportunities and you go make them happen. But if you’re on a fixed income then you’re much more susceptible to changes.
At this point we stopped taping and continued talking about people John thought were also changing the face of Southwest Florida. He spoke very highly of quite a few people and we hope to bring them to you in the on-going installments of this feature.
We thank John for his continued support of Gourmet Girl Magazine and look forward to a long working relationshoip with John, Sean and Dreamtime.