A Tale of a Lake Superior Shipwreck Adventure

It all started in the spring of 2002, with a desire to explore and film the shipwrecks around the Apostle Islands of Lake Superior. Michael Hladilek, who is an Independent Media Producer and owner of Inner Ear Productions, had a fresh idea about uncovering some very old shipwrecks. An underwater camera housing was his first task at hand, so with assistance from Dean Marschke and Mike Spanjer, his initial design was completed. Two of his scuba diving certifications were obtained that same year and the summer of 2002 marked his first dives to the shipwrecks in the Apostle Islands. Accompanied by Kimberly Bakken, Michael dove the wrecks while Kimberly tended the boat and snorkeled above the wreck sites. On their way back from one of the trips to the islands, Kimberly asked Michael how he was going to do the work of writing, research and filming all by himself. His reply was, "Well, I could use some help", so Free Spirit Great Lakes Media was born and the decision was made that Kimberly would also become a certified scuba diver and assist in the production of the shipwreck program. Her diving certifications were obtained in the spring of 2003 and the production work continued. Later, both were also certified as Technical divers, trained in decompression procedures and mixed gas diving, allowing them to extend their depth and bottom time. Also during that year, a separate underwater lighting housing was built and the camera housing was redesigned for greater depths with innovative assistance from Carl Marschke.
The original idea has evolved into the CQD Shipwrecks - Lake Superior Series, which will eventually be a six-volume set of docudramas; each highlighting selected shipwrecks around the circle tour of Lake Superior. The docudramas include creative narrative, archival photography, extensive underwater videography, historical accounts, and the use of 3D animation to recreate the events that lead to each vessel’s tragic ending.
All research and writing, as well as dive footage, is the result of many hours of work for Michael and Kimberly. Michael completes all editing, graphics and animation at his studio.