by
MIKE VALENTINE BSC
Underwater Cinematographer.
The first underwater photograph was taken in 1856! Photography itself was still in its infancy–so this really was no mean feat. Actually the photograph was taken by an Englishman, William Thomsen, who lowered his camera 6m to the sea bed at Weymouth.I have a copy of the photograph and it is really quite good. The undulating waves of sand and seaweed can clearly be seen. I am sure there was a lot less pollution around then, than there certainly is now!
Colour photography did not get its feet wet until around 1918, with some early experiments using autochromes. But what about takinga film camera underwater to record images of this new found kingdom? In 1913, two early pioneers rose to the challenge and decided to shoot and release short feature films using the mysteries of the hidden depths to thrill their audiences.As their subjects, they used shipwrecks, sunken treasure and native divers wrestling sharks. They obviously had no problem with their imagination, but how to take their film camera underwater? The answer was amazing. They started by building a large diving bell which was fitted with a huge viewing window. This contraption could be lowered to the seabed attached to the boat above, with a large flexible tube. The cameraman could then climb down a ladder and operate the camera. There was even room for a secretary to sit next to him with a typewriter, who took continuity notes!
The next pioneers, who would become household names, were the couple Hans & Lotte Hass. Lotte was Hans’s secretary and it was not long before he realised that his early black and white photos, books and films would be enhanced with a beautiful blond haired foreground subject. He promptly married Lotte and it is really worth trying to find some of their old books to appreciate the quality of their results.
Probably, the biggest and most well known name, even now 50 years on, is obviously Jacques Cousteau. Many people think that Jacques invented the diving tank known as the aqualung. Actually, this is not true, for people had been compressing air and putting it into cylinders for many years. His invention was the valve and regulator, which allowed the compressed air to be fed to a diver safely by detecting the surrounding water pressure.This simple device has become the key that any of us, at almost any age, can use to unlock the hidden beauty of the underwater world. In fact Leni Riefenstahl lied about her age on a diving course and took up diving in her middle 60’s and became an accomplished underwater photographer. I once had the pleasure of meeting Leni at an underwater festival in Cuba and was bowled over by her passion for her new found hobby, which she had taken up in her autumn years.
I was able to talk to her about her amazing early work as an actress and in particular as a director, probably her most notable film being “Triumph of the Will”. Unfortunately, for some reason, she did not want to discuss anything that happened
during the war years! The technical problems that we have to overcome to shoot underwater are still the same now as the ones confronting those early pioneers. Just to survive down there we have to take our air supply with us. The pressure of our Earth’s atmosphere pressing down on us at sea level, is about 15lbs/sq inch in old money or 1kg/sq cm. Just 10m
down, the pressure doubles and continues to increase every 10m the further down we go. But it is what happens to light that really interests us as film makers.
Colours from the sun’s rays are progressively absorbed the deeper we dive. Starting with the red end of the spectrum at about 3m down, red is almost completely absorbed. What does this mean in practice? Well anyone who has taken photos in a pool on a summy day will notice that people look pale and washed out. Skin has a large red content and that is why we have to take down lights underwater – not so much to lift the light levels, but to replace the lost colour.The problem is not just vertical but horizontal. If your light source is more than 3m or so from the subject the same problem occurs. If we track back from say a girl’s face,the red becomes absorbed with distance and the same problem occurs. One way round this effect is to shoot closer in on a wider than normal lens.
Shooting closer also has the advantage of reducing the particles in the water and therefore increasing clarity.Typically, when shooting on 35mm, I use a 16mm lens. It is amazing how an audience can accept the slight increase in distortion of such a wide lens- perhaps because people do not have enough experience of angular perspective or distortion, for we crawled out of the oceans eons ago! Another problem that we have to overcome is the refractive index of air/glass/water.When we look at a shark whilst snorkelling on holiday through a dive mask, the shark is not actually as big as it appears. Physics dictates, because of the refractive index being 1.33:1 when looking through a mask, objects appear 25% closer and 1/3 bigger than they really are. A camera suffers the same problem when shooting through a window or housing with an optical flat, along with pin cushion distortion and chromatic aberration.
But fear not ! For help is at hand in the form of a dome port. Using a dome port returns the lens to its true angle and removes all of the above distortions. It creates a virtual image just in front of the dome which our lens has to focus on. It may mean adding a dioptre to the lens, but the optical results are vastly superior especially when projecting onto a huge screen.The camera housing itself has also progressed over the years, from a simple, hopefully watertight box, to something that now incorporates all of the advantages of modern digital control. For years I was frustrated by the housings available from the rental companies. Many of them were poorly designed and mechanically unreliable and compromised in their operational design.
Well some years ago, I decided to put my money where my mouth was and half a million pound later will try and forget that particular visit to the dentist! I had my housing designed around the Arri 435 body and reasoned that I wanted to use the
same advantages of the Arri lens control system and remote control unit, as if the camera was on dry land. Solving the mechanical, optical and electronic problems was a six month challenge,but with a lot of ingenuity and a big hammer, I now had a camera system which could be called state of the art.
I operate the housing in a similar way to a steadicam. Theon board colour monitor allows much smoother moves, than looking through an eye piece. Also, when the video assist is played back on the surface, everyone underwater, including the actors can see playback. Focus and iris are controlled from the surface by my focus puller who stays dry up top, with the LCS and RCU controls sending their digital signals down a 50m umbilical cable. I use Zeiss Ultra primes from 10mm to 85mm which are all fully corrected. When shooting Anamorphic we can use Panavision’s older C series and also the great looking newer G series lenses. Underwater lighting has also moved forward in leaps and bounds. Equipment is now much safer and more reliable.
My favourite lamps underwater are water proofed Kinoflos. These soft non directional light sources, which may be either Tungsten or daylight balanced really are a God send. It is now possible to evenly light huge areas of Green or Blue screen. On Tomb Raider 2 a 60ft x 40ft tank was constructed in C stage at Pinewood, where every wall and even the floor was painted blue. Once tracking markers had been placed, Angelina Jolie could hang onto an aluminium fin and be pulled around in any direction. Punching an 18ft shark on the nose certainly got a laugh from the audience and the only danger for Angelina was getting her hair wet!
Another blue screen shot was needed at the end on Atonement. We have to see Keira Knightley drowned and suspended inside a flooded underground station. Pulling from a close-up backwards to a full length shot, required a 20-ft square blue screen and for Keira to be tied down by the ankle with a thin fishing line. Keira was fed air by a safety diver and on action held her breath for over 30 seconds. Shooting off speed at about 32 fps also lengthened the apparent time that she could hold her breath, making for a long poignant shot.
Two other things really help when shooting actors underwater. The first is the temperature. Pinewood’s U stage has been designed with a state of the art filtration and heating system. The water is kept at a constant 90 degrees Farhenheight. Really this can seem to be a bit too warm, but imagine lying in your bath for 8 hours! You soon start to feel cold, for the water acts like a magnet drawing heat out of your body. If your core temperature drops by even a few degrees, hypothermia can soon set in.
Probably the best tool that we now use is our underwater loudspeaker system. This device is so clear that we can use it for playback underwater, with a pop group being able to perfectly lip sync to the track! However, it is usually used by my underwater co-ordinator and wife Françoise. Talking to the actors whilst shooting has taken us back over 100 years to the silent era, but it is really a step forward for us in shooting modern drama, for it can really be a very lonely place underwater if you are an actor!
For “Casino Royale”, Eva Green had to squeeze into a tiny lift 12 ft down underwater and appear to drown and even 007 in the form of Daniel Craig could not save her! In real life Eva is claustrophobic and unhappy in the water. She was therefore very nervous about the scene, but became relaxed as soon as she heard Françoise’s voice talking to her. Even though her safety diver was only a few feet away, there seemed to be something very comforting about a friendly voice which was sitting on her shoulder looking out for her.
This system also helped out Sharon Stone in “Basic Instinct 2” whilst trapped in a sinking sports car and Matt Damon in “The Bourne Supremacy”, trapped inside a four wheel drive. Actually, the vehicle for Bourne was tied down to the floor of the tank
and all the apparent sinking moves were created by tracking the camera past the vehicle.
The filtration system in U stage is designed to keep the water as clear as possible. This however, is not always correct for our continuity. For example, Sharon Stone’s sports car plunges into London docks. The water obviously, is disgusting and with
very little visibility. To recreate this look we added coloured food dye and a secret fluid which looks like smoke underwater. We then cut up huge amounts of broccoli into little pieces and added them into the water to complete the illusion (do you have a niece or a nephew mithering you for a job in the film industry? Send them over to me and after a day of slicing and dicing smelly vegetables, let us see if they are still so keen!) The cherry on the cake is the addition of a wave machine which also helps create beautiful light rays.
U stage itself has not only been used to shoot sequences for features. We have also used it for commercials & TV. In particular, “Dr Who” (a girl floating in space) and “Eastenders”. Here a sinking Range Rover, containing two small boys, was placed on a scissor lift to control the rate of sinking. Shooting inside the confined air pocket inside the car with the boys was a challenge. The smallest one, kept leaping across my light source and shadowing Phil Mitchell who was trying to rescue them. “Please try and keep still” I pleaded. “Sorry mister, I have a lot of lines and I keep forgetting my marks”. “Well” I said, “I will give you something to help you remember”. “What is that” he asked with big round eyes. “A PUNCH!” I replied. Phil Mitchell promptly said “What happens in the car stays in the car!”.
One of the more strange things that we have filmed underwater, is a spitfire aeroplane that rises out of the sea bed for a Smirnoff commercial. It was amazing to see the large model plane gracefully fly across the tank. The hydro dynamics of the water really seemed to re-affirm that RJ Mitchell’s great design was obviously so correct. Probably, the most exciting sequence I have been involved in was shooting a girl inside a safety cage in the shape of a Volvo four wheel drive, surrounded by three 5m Great White sharks off the coast of South Africa. Starting with the interior shots of the girl taking photographs of the sharks had presented no real problems, for the sharks were attracted by the rotting head of a 6ft tuna. However, when I had to get out of the cage to shoot the exterior shots in amongst the Great Whites with no
protection………….well, let us just say I am pleased that I had two sets of bicycle clips for my wetsuit, for the visibility was already bad enough!
Sitting on the boat watching the sunset after such an eventful day, gave me the opportunity of reflecting upon some of the amazing experiences that I have enjoyed whilst shooting underwater on over 80 feature films. Over the years I have learnt that the beauty of the underwater world belongs to all of
us and we should all do whatever we can to protect it.
Mike Valentine IMDb
Mike is going to be doing an interview for The Reelshow shortly. If you have a question you would like us to put to him then shoot me an e-mail
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
 Quote this article on your site | Print | E-mail
Powered by AkoComment Tweaked Special Edition v.1.4.3 |
