Wakulla Springs

mean, even before that, I was involved with AI applications in diving.

I mean, when you think about the dives that we did in the 1990s at Wakulla Springs with the three-dimensional mapper, that is now a fully autonomous, artificially intelligent robot cave explorer.

So it's able to go into a cave independently, swim for itself, navigate the darkness, map in three dimensions and come home without a tether, without instructions.

So that's a project that started way back in the mid-90s that's now a fully autonomous AI vehicle.

Wow.

The film's production was split between Universal Studios in California and Wakulla Springs, Florida for the underwater sequences.

Ah, that makes way more sense.

Yeah.

Okay.

This is this place.

What is this? Wakulla Springs.

Yeah, it's a springs.

This is our creature feature episode.

We're just coming back from a birthday slash writing retreat, mermaid adventure, creature of the Black Lagoon road trip at Wakulla Springs in Florida.

And we wanted to chat about two films with misunderstood monsters that are rocking our worlds right now.

Little Death from Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.

So this movie, I originally got into it because it was filmed, parts of it were filmed in Florida.

So in 1953, 1954, they filmed this in parts of Florida.

And I say that because it's very controversial, not controversial, but it's like some was filmed in Wakulla Springs, which is where we went.

And some was in different Springs that people will fight you about this.

We'll hear from the creature himself, Ricou Browning.

We shot in the wintertime at Wakulla Springs, and, uh, water temperature was about 51.

The air temperature at that time was 49, so it got pretty chilly.

We'll discuss the overlooked accomplishments of Ponce de Leon.

It was a little awkward, but once I got into the water and started using it, I forgot I have it on.

It was sponge rubber covered with latex, and I had to wear lead weights, chest plate, thigh pads of lead, and lead around my ankles so I'd sink, because it was made of rubber.

And, uh, we shot in the wintertime at Wakulla Springs, and, uh, water temperature was about 51.

The air temperature at that time was 49, so it got pretty chilly.

And what we spent most of our time on was doing exploration on the far side.

The 24-hour stuff was largely associated with a place in Florida called Wakulla Springs.

where we had the benefit of being able to put in some infrastructure.

The state of Florida allowed us to put in a floating habitat system that used what commercial diving units used for what they call helium saturation diving.

Yeah

... at Wakulla Springs, and like we used to hang out at Wakulla Springs a lot.

So I just kept thinking about, like, what if the creature was there the entire time, and then, like, reading more about how they had two different people playing the creature.

They had ...

And I was like, hey, I wrote a lot about Florida.

Creature is basically, if you're from Wakulla Springs, he's like your hometown hero.

So I wrote letters to politicians in Florida.

And I was like, hey, this is fucked up.