As a Producer, Chandra daCosta wears many hats. She is a manager, financial analyst, filmmaker, and storyteller. It is the latter that she most enjoys in her role and combining creativity with business drives her. Development is a large part of the process, which entails finding interesting stories, people, or cultures, as well as coming up with new angles/spins on ideas that are already successful. In production, it’s all about details, logistics and ensuring things run smoothly and everything is taken care of. DaCosta excels at all aspects of producing, and her talent has led her to being a respected producer in Canada’s entertainment industry.

DaCosta finds herself drawn to the “Lifestyle” genre when it comes to her work, working on shows involving real estate, food, dating, and more. Such projects include Oxygen Network’s A Wedding and a Murder, Global TV’s The Stanley Show, and Animal Planet’s Biggest and Baddest.

“Chandra is a pleasure to work with. She is a skilled negotiator and effective producer. She knows the television industry well and is good at leveraging her many contacts within the industry. She is also a remarkable creative producer. She was the driving force behind Cruise Buzz from both a business and creative perspective in addition to being the on camera host,” said Lori Massini, who worked with daCosta on Cruise Buzz. “Chandra is intuitive and knowledgeable.  She brings skills as both a business and creative producer to her projects. She has a sense for what works and doesn’t work and has great ideas for content.  In addition to being a skilled producer, Chandra is magnetic on camera and makes an excellent host.  Cruise Buzz was a terrific show and I have no doubt Chandra will continue to develop and produce top-notch content.”

It was Cruise Buzz that daCosta calls the highlight of her esteemed career. It was her show; she created it, developed it, found a production company to produce it, and put all the teams together. She was in charge of all the creative and business aspects for the show.

“I remember being on the Windstar cruise in the middle of the ocean and realizing that this was all because of my efforts. It was a real sense of accomplishment because it seemed like we were faced with road block and road block, but I just kept ploughing through. Being on the cruise ship, shooting our pilot episode was epic to me,” she said.

Cruise Buzz highlights the world of cruising, from big ships to small river cruises, all over the world.The premise of the series was “there is a cruise out there for everyone.” daCosta truly believes that. There are so many different types of cruises and itineraries to choose from, and daCosta wanted to show viewers their options. From a River Cruise through China, to the Baltic Cruise on a luxury liner, there is something that can win the heart of any traveler. Whether they want to explore the ports of call or visit foreign ports from the comfort of their stateroom deck. It’s a great and safe way to travel.

“This project was one of the best and challenging projects I’ve ever done. The idea of a travel cruise show was the perfect way to combine my love for travel and TV,” she said.

Every day daCosta worked on Cruise Buzz was an exciting and unique experience. She began with working on the pitch documents, episode ideas and brand integrations. Everyone she approached about being involved was excited about the show.

When she was trying to decide where to shoot the pilot, it was important to daCosta that the pilot episode was shot on a cruise ship that wasn’t the massive passenger cruise. She aimed to find a cruise that had an exciting and exotic itinerary and also show another side of cruising. She ultimately chose the Windstar in the Caribbean, a ship for 300 guests rather than the usual 3000 on large cruise lines. The ship had great visual appeal on camera, complete with sails, and an itinerary that visited ports that were familiar to many travelers, and also some hidden gems.

DaCosta spent almost four years of her life working on cruise ships, and she is extremely passionate about travelling. Being about to share this passion with the world was extremely rewarding for the producer.

“Getting the pilot episode made against all odds was a huge accomplishment. It was such a great feeling to know that Windstar was highlighted in such a great way that appealed to so many different travelers,” she said.

You can watch the pilot of Cruise Buzz here.

Written by Annabelle Lee