From the January/June 2000 issue of the Operating Cameraman

Making movies underwater has always been difficult. In the last fifty years, with the invention of scuba, portable cameras, innovative waterproof housings and versatile underwater lights, underwater cinematography is now approaching the flexibility routinely achieved above water.

The first divers were merely hunting for food. Working professionally underwater started with the ancient sea-faring civilizations, which used slave labor to salvage their sunken treasure ships. Needless to say divers didn't get hazard bumps, meal penalties were unheard of and the only retirement program was not making it back to the surface. The first underwater tourist was Alexander the Great, who in 332 BC had himself lowered to the bottom of the harbor of Tyre in a glass barrel so he could watch his diving soldiers destroy the Phoenician's underwater defenses.

Compressed air was first used to supply a diver in the eighteenth century, but the hard-hat system was heavy and cumbersome, and the diver was tethered to the surface by his air-supply hose. Nevertheless, as early as 1906 a Japanese diver shot still photographs underwater off California's Channel Islands. In the 1940s Jacques-Yves Cousteau and Émile Gagnon invented the self-contained underwater breathing apparatus known as scuba and man was freed to explore the seas like a fish.

The first underwater movie camera housings weren't much more than steel pots with portholes welded into the lids. As cinematography became more sophisticated, so did the requirements of underwater cameras. Today's underwater housings are well-thought-out, user-friendly pieces of equipment which allow the cinematographer full use of the modern motion picture camera underwater.

Until recently, underwater camera systems were usually one-offs, built for the particular requirements of a specific project. Ten years ago Pete Romano standardized his design of an underwater housing for the 35mm Arriflex III camera while shooting underwater sequences on The Abyss for James Cameron. With a dozen of his new housings, Pete opened HydroFlex Inc, which manufactures and rents underwater systems for 16mm and 35mm Arris, IMAX and video cameras, as well as camera splashbags, light meters, and complete underwater lighting packages.

This past summer, on July 24, 2000, the SOC along with HydroFlex and PhotoSonics co-sponsored the second annual Underwater Cinematography Seminar, held in a private community pool provided by SOC past president Stan McClain. Fifteen DPs, operators and assistants spent the morning going through a detailed training session on each camera housing, followed by an afternoon in the pool operating the cameras underwater.

Scott Greene of HydroFlex presented their three main 35mm Arri III housings: Surf, Shallow Water and Deep Water, along with their new torpedo-shaped Remote Aqua Cam housing for the Arri III, which was designed for remote-crane use primarily with the Libra III axis head, or to be hard-mounted on underwater vehicles. There is now an Arri 435 version available.

Tom Boyd of PhotoSonics presented their 16mm and 35mm high-speed cameras (10-200 frames per second) in lightweight hand-holdable reflexed video-tapped housings designed for surf and shallow water work down to 20 feet in depth.

Wayne Baker, veteran underwater assistant and operator, took the students through a typical shoot, from prep to filming, emphasizing the flexibility and resourcefulness required to deliver good footage in adverse conditions. He shared such tricks as using Rain-X on flat glass ports and Photo-flo or dish soap on flat acrylic ports, to shed water drops while doing surface shots. He went over the differences between dome and flat ports, and how to follow focus while underwater where refraction makes everything look a third closer and a third larger. Wayne explained the necessity for using an opaque-skirted face mask to avoid reflections in the finder, using rubber-coated weights to avoid damaging the bottom of pools, and how to re-route the underwater cameraman's bubbles when shooting straight up. He also went over precautions when filming explosions underwater: namely, get everybody out of the water, including the camera operator before setting off the charges.

Matt Brown and Scott Greene of HydroFlex went through their underwater lighting packages, including 650 Watt, 1-K, 2-K and 5-K tungsten lamps, 1200, 2500, 4-K HMIs, and Hydro-Flow Underwater fluorescent lamps which come in 2900, 3400 and 5500 degree color temperatures and in 9", 15", 2' and 4' sizes.

Safe and proper use of electricity in pool/boat situations was emphasized. The HydroFlex lighting systems have redundant Ground Fault Interrupters, but the weak point of poolside shoots is unprotected video power which can shock the camera operator by sending electricity back down to the camera through the video assist cable. Video assist operators should always power the decks and monitors by batteries, or through a GFI, which can be supplied by HydroFlex. Gaffers should run all their waterside power through Shock-Blocks.

Once the serious note-taking was through, it was time to hit the water. The pool soon filled with divers, tanks and cameras. Shallow Water and Deep Water housings crisscrossed the bottom of the pool as those participants who were certified divers got the feel of operating underwater. The Remote Aquacam made its free-swimming debut with a waterproof video monitor as a viewfinder. Veteran underwater cinematographer Mike Thomas demonstrated his watertop dolly, floating the Deep Water Housing across the surface of the pool as easily as a Fisher Ten on a dance floor. Each camera had a video umbilical to the deck and students could watch the high-tech underwater rodeo on surface monitors.

As the students took turns on each camera, they saw the plusses and minuses of working underwater. The housings weigh up to eighty pounds out of the water, but once below float almost weightless. At first, one is surprised at the ease of moving the big cameras, but soon it became apparent that the housings have a lot of mass and limited hydro-dynamics, and if you tried to move them quickly, you moved instead. As the participants adapted to working in the weightless environment, they came to realize why experienced underwater operators wear double-weight belts and ankle weights.

Assistants learned that it's not easy to see the lens markings while underwater and extra care must be taken when setting up the controls before sealing the housings. Operators discovered that the reflexed optical finders seemed dim in the bright pool, which is why HydroFlex offers video sportsfinders as an accessory.

Despite the use of underwater loudspeakers, communication is difficult and it quickly became apparent that extensive pre-planning of all shots is essential. Two-way communication systems are recommended if the job is elaborate or lengthy.

As the divers dried off and packed the gear at the end of the day, they all seemed invigorated, excited at the prospect of expanding their filmmaking challenges to the underwater world. HydroFlex, PhotoSonics and the SOC put a lot of effort into the seminar and it paid off. Fifteen talented cinematographers are now up to speed on shooting underwater with state-of-the-art equipment.