He Uses Cameras to Help Kids Focus

David Grober has spent the past 17 years producing water sequences for more than 1,100 films, television shows and commercials, among them “Splash,” “Star Trek: Generations,” “The Winds of War” and “Overboard.”

But the stars aboard his 31-foot powerboat this sunny Saturday morning are six high school students and a crew of teachers. The project: shooting footage for an educational music video to a song called “Mammals of the Ocean,” which suggests that man may be descended from marine mammals as well as primates.

About a mile off the El Segundo shore, the boat pulls up and stops by a buoy where sea lions lounge, barking and growling. As the music plays, Grober--who also sings background--mans the video camera, directing the students in a dance to the beat. Twice more he finds suitable sea lion backdrops, choosing students to sing and mime to lines of the song. Back at his Marina del Rey dock, he tapes an opening shot with the kids, who are tired but still enthusiastic.

Afterward, the students agree that viewing and singing about sea life is an easier way to retain facts about science and marine biology than reading a book.

The chance to aid that learning process is the reason Grober donated his time, expertise and equipment--one of myriad ways he has been helping students since a fateful encounter at a dinner party shortly before the Los Angeles riots in 1992. At that party, Grober met science and multimedia teacher T. H. Culhane, who was then working at Jefferson High School in Los Angeles. Culhane expressed his frustration at the lack of support for using nontraditional methods such as songs and video production for instructing low-income, at-risk students.

Grober immediately offered his services and began to regularly visit the school, helping to teach film production and donating equipment--his own and machinery solicited from various companies--to establish a multimedia center.

“If a kid were about to be marched down to the principal’s office and out of school, T.H. would say, ‘I’ll take him,’ ” Grober, 45, recalls after the boat shoot. “They began to learn. They were bright kids. It became evident that I was becoming an avenue to the film production community, so that the kids could see there was something outside the inner city. If they don’t know what there is to aspire to, they won’t aspire to it. They’re learning a marketable skill, and learning about the creative process.”

Grober also brought a group of students to visit the closed set of the television series “seaQuest DSV,” where they were able to speak with the cast. He has arranged for free attendance at entertainment industry luncheons.

Since 1993, he has provided students a booth at Show Biz Expo, an annual Los Angeles trade show, where they can exhibit their work; Grober paid for the booth for three years, and expo organizers donated it this year.

“The kids go around, see cameras and other professional equipment, see occupations in the industry,” he says. “I tell them to look at people’s badges and talk to them.”

Grober is establishing a multimedia center at Hollywood High School, where Culhane transferred 18 months ago. Grober produces a thick notebook of letters written to heads of corporations and entertainment industry members, soliciting equipment--he particularly needs an editing system--and monetary support.

Says Culhane: “Dozens of people helped us after the riots, but Dave is the only one who stayed. I couldn’t fight the battles with teachers and the administration and the low self-esteem of the kids without a helping hand in the real world.

“The kids felt they weren’t doing anything significant, that no one would pay attention to them,” Culhane says. “As soon as they saw that they could interface with other people who are professionals, their attitude changed and they rocketed forward.”

A veteran of two “Mammals of the Ocean” shoots is Cecilio Vega, 18, a Jefferson High senior taking classes at Trade Tech college.

“I was doing really bad in class. I met T. H. through a teacher, and the next thing I knew I was doing videos,” Vega says. “It gave me motivation. I think I’d still be messing around and being a high school dropout. . . . It gives you a chance to express yourself, set yourself free.”

For his efforts, Grober, who is also a Jewish Big Brother, was nominated by Hollywood High to be an Olympic torch runner last April. “I was running on the course in Marina del Rey, and everybody was screaming and yelling,” he says. “And I thought, ‘What did I do to deserve this?’ It was nice.”