Worlds 1st EPIC-M #008 underwater footage from "Extinction"

[C.H.Haskell]

Haskell, you made my day, great shot!

Are you planning to shoot more of this?
Get the light underwater and reflect it from the surface.
But I would really like to take EPIC to Dos Ojos Cenotes.

Andrew! I have a film that features a large part of the cenotes in mexico....I am happy you posted this cause in all my life of exploring the world below the surface I would have to say that the cenotes in mexico left a major impression on me....not as a shooter, or a filmmaker...just as a human, it was magical....yes, magic exist in this world! The truth is I have had this vision in my head for a long time coming, over 5 years...but what you posted here is basically what I was wanting to recreate in an abstract minimalist realm that reflecting life....in its most natural state. There is nothing like the candle in the sky and the way we interact wth it...its my end all be all inspiration.

Hope we can meet up in this sacred place! Best

C

 

[Michael Hastings]

What is the max depth rating on your housing? Could you make one to go to 1000mtrs +?

The deph rating is usually dependent on the endplates not the body - standard is 225 feet but it is pretty easy to get up in the 300 - 500 range with special end plates and ports. Stock ports may be able to go deeper but nobody has really done the testing/research to verify.

1000 meters would not be that hard for a custom Epic M housing, but much greater cost.

I assume you are talking mounting on a ROV or submarine?

 

[Vince Doran]

I assume you are talking, mounting on a ROV or submarine?

Yep, ROV, have contacts in the oil-gas industry and am very keen on exploring more of the deep with an Epic. All I need is the basics, on off and record. Only problem is the time it takes to dive so deep, the ROV's I've worked with are HUGE and take a while to deploy and descend so a time delay record switch would be ideal, about 1 hour after closing the housing and deployment, not sure of battery issues either.
Just throwing the idea out there, might never get to go that deep but would like to if asked, so far my max is 308mtrs and i got some nice rare images of amazing critters, the deep ocean is the last frontier for explorers

 

[Martin Heffels]

Mycket bra! Thanks for the lovely footage.

 

[Nick Ambrose]

Haskell, you made my day, great shot!

Are you planning to shoot more of this?
Get the light underwater and reflect it from the surface.
But I would really like to take EPIC to Dos Ojos Cenotes.

You are not the only one

 

[Andrew M.]

I have EPIC-M on order since the first day it was announced.
Once I get it I am heading south to film the beauty of the underwater caves.

I was there many times just to see it again and again.

It is how I imagine the havens are and I want to put it on the 4K so when I will be old and will not be able to dive anymore at minimum I will be able to turn my 4K display and watch it.

 

[C.H.Haskell]

This was taken on my last trip to mexico a few months back, its one of the 1st destinations I am hitting with the EPIC.

 

[Kwan Khan]

I'm working on my Buoyancy control to hover over, under or by an object in the water (expecting myself to be ready by this summer).

I have some question, I will start with few,

@Michael
1- Is this Mechanical housing or electronic housings (Does it demand a whole heck of a lot of maintenance)?
2- Does This housing have internal UR Pro filter for blue water.

@ Clay
1- how difficult was it to keep a shot steady while simply breathing in and out.
2- How hard was holding the housing still.

 

[Steven Dean]

Absolutely Gorgeous!

 

[AnthonyFlores]

A little less than for the RED1 ~$5700 PVC or $7900 Alum - with the addition of about $1000-1200 for the REDMOTE control in a separate case. That would be for the same basic configuration as Clay used (except with an Acrylic dome rather than the glass one he had):

Body (aluminum or PVC), aluminum frontplate, acrylic dome, power and trigger controls, simple friction focus, iris, zoom controls, camera and LCD mount, cable ports.

Options would include:

Focus and iris control servos using the servo motors Pawel Achtel designed and I have manufactured: Focus/Iris set of motors, mount, and control: $1595.
(some users for RED1 have set up their own Heden and other high end motors, as well as manual gear systems.)

6", 8" acrylic dome ports, macro ports, extension ports for longer lenses, Glass dome are all available. Other options include: Surface cables, external LCD, High Powered LED lighting, Ocean Reef U/W communications, etc.

May make a glass dome standard which normally would raise the cost by about $1700 but if I make all of them might get the added cost down to only about a little over half of that.

I'm taking $1500 deposits to hold your place in line - PREORDERS OPEN AS OF NOW, with balance of 50% deposit due within 3 weeks. Delivery will be 2 to 3 weeks for PVC/5-6 weeks for aluminum AFTER I receive my epic-X SN 206 or Epic-M. If you can supply an epic that can be sped up.

Thanks for this Michael, much appreciated. I am very interested, however, as a Stage 3 Epic person (probably end of summer, barring no more issues) it feels so far away with the recent supply issues Jim noted.
But hopefully when the time is right and I have my Epic, you won't be too backordered and I can place the order.
For me, underwater won't be a big part of my shooting -- this would be much more for fun and passion of capturing some truly amazing scenery.

Thanks!

Anthony

 

[Pawel Achtel]

...I'm working on my Buoyancy control to hover over, under or by an object in the water (expecting myself to be ready by this summer)....

Something like this?

The housing can take Red One, Sony HDCAM and, of course, two Epics for 3D...

 

[Pawel Achtel]

What is the max depth rating on your housing? Could you make one to go to 1000mtrs +?

The biggest problem is the optical port and mounting. Traditionally sealed ports would crush at 1000m. I have designed a port that would go this deep. Expect to pay about $20-$30k for high quality large dome optics with a mount capable of 1000m. If you are interested, send me an email at pawel.achtel (at) 24x7.com.au

In regard to the housing, as Michael said, the end ports require a fair bit of design and manufacturing costs. Most metal tubular housing bodies can withstand 1000m. I'm sure Michael can make one.

 

[Vince Doran]

One of my housings has 50mm thick acrylic flat ports and the cylinder is an ex scuba tank, flat ports are not ideal of course but it works. I am interested in your dome Pawel, I will have a chat to my contacts and see if they are interested as well.
A documentary on ROV work would be good fun to produce and having the deepest capable high quality camera system would be the ducks nuts

 

[C.H.Haskell]

Hello everyone. There is such vision behind this shoot and look forward to filming/editing the rest of it for you to see. It's been a dream collaborating with Clay again on this... The abstract art film is based on a speech that I give detailing the most pressing environmental issues and positioning them on my lifeline - from birth to death...to showcase that these changes are not happening 200, 500 or a thousand years from now, but are happening within one lifespan. You'll see how it all comes together soon . . . and of course, have had a little help visualizing it with the EPIC..

Anytime Summer calls me up I know I am in for some experience...what in the hell is she cooking up now I think to myself! What I really appreciate about Summers projects is what I end up taking away from the project. I over heard one of my crew say "its refreshing to know that this is not for vanity sake, that there is a great deeper meaning behind all this". My sentiments exactly. Check the 1st page of the thread I am updating some behind the scenes images.

Cheers.

 

[Michael Hastings]

I'm working on my Buoyancy control to hover over, under or by an object in the water (expecting myself to be ready by this summer).

I have some question, I will start with few,

@Michael
1- Is this Mechanical housing or electronic housings (Does it demand a whole heck of a lot of maintenance)?
2- Does This housing have internal UR Pro filter for blue water.

@ Clay
1- how difficult was it to keep a shot steady while simply breathing in and out.
2- How hard was holding the housing still.

Kwan:

The housing Clay used was all mechanical, with very simple friction controls for the iris, focus, and zoom, power and trigger. I think most independents will use the RED canon mount and Redmote for focus and iris - the Birger mount on RedOne proved this to be the slickest solution. For situations where PL lenses are required either our low cost servo motors or higher end motors from Heden, Preston (hopefully viewfactor) etc. will be the preferred method. Our servo motors use very simple pots to control the motion so pretty reliable, and the servos are pretty inexpensive too so spares are very practical.

Filters: when using filters, we normally use them on the lens or a gel over the OLPF. With RAW shooting, many people prefer not to shoot with any filter at all as it has tremendous adjustment range. HDRx may make that even more practical since the only worry when shooting without a filter might be clipping the blue channel a little earlier - HDRx would handle that problem easily.

RE: holding shots. This is the classic tradeoff with underwater housings - the larger/more massive it is the steadier it will be and much more resistant to small movements. It can be perfectly balanced and neutral with small trim weights. The housing Clay used was 9" diameter (so about 2.35 pounds displacement per inch. Displacement is what the system has to weigh to be neutral - either through just the weight of the housing/camera package or with additionial weights) and 16 inches long so about 37 pounds of displacement. In my experience this is about a perfect tradeoff for stability underwater and ease of handling above water and traveling.

The standard Epic housing may be a little shorter when we find out how long the Redvolt battery module is and of course could be made substantially shorter if custom batteries are used. We can also go to a slightly smaller tube - 8.63 diameter, which is also a standard size so cheaper but some lenses, like the Zeiss 10mm and Red 17-50 with its shade, might not fit.

For special applications, like Rudi Herbert's freediving and such we could reduce diameter even further by limiting it to only smaller lenses like the Canons.

 

[C.H.Haskell]

Wow... Breathtaking. God, I can't wait to get my deposit down...

Get your deposit in when ever possible with RED, you will never look back. Cheers.

Looks really amazing Clay.
The definition and detail underwater is beautiful.

Jason

Thanks Jason. Agreed. Crazy the water in the pool was loaded with Chlorine and appeared crystal clear to the human eye...EPIC captures textural elements in life we often overlook...ie particles, and for me this plays well into my work. For this shoot it I had to think like a sculpturer, EPIC helped me capture the entire block and it was my job to carve away. You will find yourself inventing new ways to work with this tool depending on the job. Thats exciting stuff.

Fantastic Clay ... only one word can explain what I'm feeling .......

MORE.

It's amazing the housing worked so flawlessly out of the gate, on such short notice.

Can't wait to see more from this shoot. Please keep us posted.

Thanks again,

Anthony

Thanks Anthony, follow this thread for more info and clips. I was pretty amazed (but not surprised) how effortlessly I was able to having never shot with the camera before,
crank it up, dial in my settings, and capture this. Not to mislead those younger filmmakers, there were many talented and experienced individuals involved in creating this vision.

Loved the definition and the light effect on the closer shots as she was near the surface. Some of the later wides her skin tone looked rather pallid. A beautiful piece though. Reminiscent of the underwater aspects of Ashes and Snow.

Thanks for sharing.

EDIT: I note in your original post you did a quick pass grade in RCX.

I was going for a blown out, over exposed look at the surface...the film is about extinction and I wanted to draw the life out of my subject. I enjoy projects with Summer that allow me to experiment and break the rules. This was not an HDRx shoot although I did play with the RAW in redcine out of curiosity to know what information I could dig up in my highlights and I was again beside myself when I could actually dial it all back, nothing was clipped! The DR sans HDRx is already taking a big leap forward from the R1.

Looks great Clay.

You mentioned no overheating issues. Can you compare this compared to the Red One? Do you find the Epic generates less heat?
Are you using an alloy or fibreglass housing?

Thanks in advance!
Cheers
Wes

Its better then an R1 in regards to heat. It was a non issue for me even with the R1 and I pushed it hard in the deserts of nevada and over the years
only had a single warning.
We pushed it pretty hard in this shoot, being that we left it running inside a small housing in a heated pool. It got warm but
we never got a warning or had any hiccups. Ketch was smart to take let it cool down when we re loaded media, everything has its limits...I have yet to find
one in EPIC.

Totally down for round two. We just have to add another model.

Our EPIC babies wrap HELLBENDERS on the day I fly to Vegas for NAB - so ... yeah - after April 15th - let's blow some more bubbles ...

Hell yes, see you at NAB.

Now this is what I'm talking about.

:cheers2:

 

[C.H.Haskell]

Reminiscent of the underwater aspects of Ashes and Snow.

I was invited to this exhibition in New York and was very impressed...what an incredibly captivating, powerful body of work. Very inspirational. Thank you Tim.

 

[Sanjin Jukic]

Dolphin Tale 3D

Dolphin Tale 3D

Dolphin Tale 3D

In our April 2011 NAB Edition, which goes live on April 11, Film and Digital Times takes a look at the title sequence of the underwater 3D film, Dolphin Tale,

which used a Zuccarini Watershot LLC Underwater Housing with a Paradise FX Corp 3D mirror rig and two 4K RED cameras inside.

There is lots of practical how-to advice from underwater cinematographer Peter Zuccarini, stereographer Max Penner, UPM Jim Bigham,

and camera housing manufacturer Steve Ogles, with gorgeous underwater stills by Tim Calver.

F+D TIMES>>>

The underwater 3D film, Dolphin Tale, which used a Zuccarini Watershot LLC Underwater Housing with a Paradise FX Corp 3D mirror rig and two 4K RED cameras inside.

 

[Kwan Khan]

thank you for clarification Michael
Thanks Pawel

 

[C.H.Haskell]

wow...I look forward to seeing this at NAB. Imagine Ketch's Deep ATOM rig. Looks half the size and packs twice the punch!