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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

The Gentleman's Underwater Bubble Blower Thread

Johnny Friday said:
Nice stuff Michael,
Seems Isla Mujeres is HOT this year. Breath-holding will put us all to the test. I have a shoot there end of August but with actors interacting with the sharks. I see you were with Howard and Michele there....saw some of his shots today....you guys had great water.....
Click to expand...
Thanks Johnny!
It was crazy in the last weeks: so many whale sharks and mantas.
Mobula rays, cownose rays, rough-toothed dolphins....
A friend of ours even saw an Orca!

We had one day of good viz. The other days were not so good.
Unfortunately Howard and Michele, Ellen and myself couldn't get our schedules fixed in the same period.... so we missed each other by one day :-(
I'm dying to see Howard's footage!

Do you have (some of) your footage from last year online?
Would love to see it!!
 
None of my footage online....but that's because i have not been there in a few years and in fact have not been to the whale sharks there....only the sailfish and some bull sharks just off the beach. I have a pile of whale sharks from Galapagos, but nothing online. Well, hoping for decent weather, but i'm at the tail end of the calm winds.....i'll be there late Aug.

...who did you go with Michael? Keen? or other?
 
Johnny Friday said:
None of my footage online....but that's because i have not been there in a few years and in fact have not been to the whale sharks there....only the sailfish and some bull sharks just off the beach. I have a pile of whale sharks from Galapagos, but nothing online. Well, hoping for decent weather, but i'm at the tail end of the calm winds.....i'll be there late Aug.

...who did you go with Michael? Keen? or other?
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Whomever you go with, just be sure they use "Solo Buceo" from Rodrigo Friscione Wyssmann.
His operation is second to none!
We were with Big Fish Expeditions but I can certainly recommend A Cotton Photo too!.
If you want more info, feel free to mail me :-)
 
Phil Holland is testing lenses on Dragon over on another thread, thought this might be of interest here;

"On the Tokina/Duclos 11-16mm - Now that's worth testing out. I have a stock Tokina and it does indeed cover FF35 at 16mm. I'll add that to the list of zooms to test. The Ruby 14-24mm should be tossed in too even though it should cover 6K Full. Maybe something happens in the conversion process that might change this. I'll take a look."
 
2013 VW - Discovery - Sharkweek Commercial

2013 VW - Discovery - Sharkweek Commercial

I thought i would share some frame grabs from the 2013 VW-Discovery/Sharkweek shoot. For the moment, i will only reveal a few photos and none with the VW Beetle in flight so as to spoil the still running commercials.

We shot the commercial once again in the Bahamas (same as the 2012 commercials). What was different from the 2012 commercials vs. 2013 is that we now making a road trip in the VW and its been converted to a Convertible Beetle. Oh...and of course biggest surprise....after adding a third thruster and aileron controls, the vehicle is not capable of sustained flight in the water column---not just for a moment, but actual sustained flight for as long as we have battery power.

Again, there were many challenges....and low light was the biggest of them. Hence having to work in as many shallow areas as possible. If anyone has seen the commercials that have thus far aired, you'll note as did i how the coloring was either non-existent or just not good. I've been disappointed at the lack of any color work by the agency that headed up the shoot. 2012 was the same....I don't think that any color work was even done. This is by far one of the biggest challenges we all face when working with RED and trying to tell production how or what is needed down the line. To make matters worse, it takes an underwater person to usually work side by side with a colorist to properly color the images. In the end, their client was happy, but as shooters it's hard to be satisfied when you know what it can look like with only a bit more work. The images below are only a slight example of a bit of tuning up on my laptop.

On the positive side of things....this is just another of many more to come. The success VW has found with this second year of underwater commercials and sponsorship of Sharkweek has dropped some light on the underwater craft we are involved with.




9382384660_792c13a7d3_z.jpg
[/url] Flight Success by RedCineUnderwater, on Flickr[/IMG]

9382383636_cd1550af21_z.jpg
[/url] Staging a shot by RedCineUnderwater, on Flickr[/IMG]

9379575719_43c0accdf5_z.jpg
[/url] Moondog Repositioning VW Beetle by RedCineUnderwater, on Flickr[/IMG]

9379565797_2e05da5daa_z.jpg
[/url] Luke at Controls of Beetle by RedCineUnderwater, on Flickr[/IMG]

9379564581_82249d2f7d_z.jpg
[/url] 2013 Convertible Beetle Revealed by RedCineUnderwater, on Flickr[/IMG]
 
Johnny,

How many scooters you running on the beetle, 3? Are they synchronized?
 
Running three scooters Rudi....They are all fly by wire to throttle via a well thought out throttle system, yet simple....just like gears/wiring on a bike.



Rudi Herbert said:
Johnny,

How many scooters you running on the beetle, 3? Are they synchronized?
Click to expand...
 
Nice grabs John, I did see the commercial and man you are right the colors are way off underwater. you would think being colorists that would have a handle on any sort of grading.
 
Would just here like to give a big shout out to Andy Casagrande, have been watching Discovery Shark Week, you just can't throw a rock without hitting a random screen that has either Andy's name or face on it, this guy is hooked up big time. Met Andy on the Bimini Hammerhead caper earlier this year, you'd never know, he's such a quiet and unassuming guy.

One small note of concern Andy, Shark Week this year seems really concentrated on bites and blood, lot of detrimental sensationalism, in my opinion anyways, you're the guy in the thick of it, any thoughts?

Best,

Tom
 
Tom Hamilton said:
Shark Week this year seems really concentrated on bites and blood, lot of detrimental sensationalism, in my opinion anyways, you're the guy in the thick of it, any thoughts?
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Tom, from the standpoint of ratings only and what makes $$$ to keep Discovery on air...well sharkweek is Discovery's #1 rated show i believe. I might be wrong by a show or two...but the ratings speak for themselves and this is what the Sharkweek audience wants.....regardless of what a few of % of people have to say....most of us on this forum are not Discovery or Sharkweeks audience....hence more blood and biting...Pretty simple and i'm sure you and everyone here gets it. I gag when i see what's put out there and think "REALLY"? But it's cheap to produce, people seem to be swarming to watch it and well, ratings=sponsorhip and $$. Simple stuff....and won't change as long as that's what the public asks for.....in fact their Snuffy the Seal campaignk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsjBfs-4svg .....took me by surprise when i first saw it and was a bit of a shock...but then i just had to laugh in that Discovery knows their audience all too well and don't care what the nay-sayers have to say.
....that said, i only wish they would get back to some blue-chip programing now and again....and have a really nicely done and well funded show in their week of circus shows.....
 
Nice rant Rudi....i'm sure many here echo your feelings to a degree....the reality however is just what we have now...produce it cheap and if the masses flock to it....then why change it. I doubt we'll see this change anytime soon. But as you say....nobody can/will compete with bbc programming in the usa when comes to nat. hist. docs.
...i recall submitting a doc to the us networks not long ago and it was biased to scientific, factual and a real live chain of events with a conclusion. One programmer (not to be named) told us they needed more human drama. This is one of the big guys telling us that....as you wrote---they have stepped away from the core values they were founded on and now they seem to copy eachother with reality programming.

Anyway, a very difficult nut to crack to actually get a documentary funded or picked up now in the US....unless you have some human angle in it and drama with same humans. Now, if you had a doc about guys going out to tag great whites while on crack......
 
Personally I have nothing against the level (or better: non-level) of programs many tv stations broadcast today.
It's not only an American trend, believe me... European channels also program the biggest crap since years.
I think there is a market for everything and everyone in this world.

I do get the point as to where a station as Discovery, which was founded on "scientific grounds" now broadcast BS because it has a higher credibility due to its past.
John Doe doesn't always have the capability to realize what's scientifically true, what's sensation, what's a twisted truth or what's simply fiction.
So in that regards it is bad since the stations create kind of "public myths".

Anyway, why I wanted to respond lies deeper than the crappy or non-crappyness of TV stations.
I care about sharks and am shocked what some stations do to them.
I'm not throwing names but I know it happens stations/filmmakers provoke sharks to do things which they normally wouldn't do.
In essence: they provoke attacks.
Now for scientific purposes I could live with that.
But stations then use that footage to project fear to people, forgetting to inform the public they had to provoke the shark to get him to do this fierce stuff.
That saddens me because that's not how sharks "in general" are :-(

On another note: tagging.... I know a "big name" who tags to shoot!?!
All in the name of science...
Come on... sounds like Japan and its scientifically whaling program :-(
Lately they were long lining sharks to tag them.... really?
I myself saw a shark with 3 (three) tags and a bad wound in its pectoral fin due to the long lining.

So.... if it weren't for broadcasting shark footage, that tagging wouldn't have taken place.
Kind of weird stuff I think. "Supply and demand" where the demand is created by the filmmaker?
I could never do that and I will keep on trying to help sharks in any way I can.
Their future is already uncertain enough.

Sorry for this "confession". I guess I saw to much Shark Week crap on Facebook this week ;-)
Have a great weekend guys and happy diving!

Rudi: I'm browsing my shark footage today and will mail you later :-)
 
Johnny Friday said:
Nice rant Rudi....i'm sure many here echo your feelings to a degree....the reality however is just what we have now...produce it cheap and if the masses flock to it....then why change it. I doubt we'll see this change anytime soon. But as you say....nobody can/will compete with bbc programming in the usa when comes to nat. hist. docs.
...i recall submitting a doc to the us networks not long ago and it was biased to scientific, factual and a real live chain of events with a conclusion. One programmer (not to be named) told us they needed more human drama. This is one of the big guys telling us that....as you wrote---they have stepped away from the core values they were founded on and now they seem to copy eachother with reality programming.

Anyway, a very difficult nut to crack to actually get a documentary funded or picked up now in the US....unless you have some human angle in it and drama with same humans. Now, if you had a doc about guys going out to tag great whites while on crack......
Click to expand...

nail on the head! Would love to say more but this is not the place.
 
Johnny Friday said:
Now, if you had a doc about guys going out to tag great whites while on crack......
Click to expand...

++ Would Watch at least Twice, Lets get this ball rolling Johnny!

But it is truth that we cant seem to get any decent showing of what animals do for animals. As I call it with what I do Sharks doing Shark Things.
 
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