Water based shoot samples

[Lee Kelly]

Some may argue that there is already an underwater bubble blowers thread on here, however I am thinking that enough people shoot Red beneath the surface and this might be a place to showcase their wares.
Feel free to include some shoot details if you like, as everyone loves to see behind the magicians curtain sometimes.

This was shot in one night, in a Sydney dive pool.
The gorgeous Tania Lambert was DP http://www.tanialambert.com

We shot on two Red Epic bodies with me doing the wet stuff and Tania going for some long lens coverage from the side of the pool. During the tighter water angles on the surface, I was literally getting blown away by the rain fx! I couldnt take a breath as there was so much water blasting into my face. I got the shits because I couldnt monitor what I was shooting at my eyes were being blown with water! I knew all that rain was hitting my lens and it actually turned out really nice with all the mini flares.
Abbie Cornish is the lead actress in this clip and did a great job interacting with the camera in the dark after many takes in the cold water.
For the underwater shots, I was using a custom Dave Kelly housing with a PL Tokina 11-16mm in a flat port, with video link to Tania and director Melvin J Montalban http://www.melvinjmontalban.com/
They were able to talk to me via a two way, wireless underwater comms setup from OceanReef. http://www.oceanreefgroup.com/
For the surface water shots, we used Ultra Primes and mostly shot at about 2.8. Big fans and rain fx were used while the band played on some megadecks setup in the 5m deep pool.
We shot most things at 100fps so we were chewing through data and having to stop to reload often which meant me getting dry-ish and taking the rig apart to reload. I just didnt trust the assistants with that task and then having to put my camera back in the water. Doing it all myself meant I knew it was all legit. Production were very happy with that for their insurance etc.
Tania used Zac Murphy as gaffer and Josh Hamil as grip and they setup underwater kenos and blacked out the sides of the blue pool and also using a 6k head above water, bouncing off a 20x20 ultra bounce for a soft light for the surface shots. I cant remember what was used as fill, as by then I had been underwater for 1000000hours and my mind was fried.

On a sad note, only a week of so after our shoot, our safety diver Fill Gray, was killed doing a technical trimix dive. We had such a fun shoot that it was a terrible way to welcome to edit to the world.
Despite the sad end to this post, I hope you other water operators will contribute to this thread and share some of your thoughts and experiences.

 

[Bob Gundu]

Fantastic work. Loved the song too. So sorry to hear about Fill Gray.

 

[Dominik Muench]

Epic work Lee. The lighting is just wicked !

Love shooting underwater with the Epic, I have only done a couple of shoots so far but as an avid scuba diver I absolutely love taking the RED for a dive.

This was a spec ad we did a little while ago, this was on Epic Mx before the dragon upgrade.

Tthe first shoot I did after my Dragon upgrade and quite difficult for me as DP.

This was my first test shoot with the EWA Marine splashbag, Dragon, shot on the 35mm Rokinon.

 

[Lee Kelly]

Absolutely? I see what you just did there!!!
Nice one. I especially like the first clip with the two people underwater. Its amazing how much more difficult it is than what non underwater DPs and directors appreciate.

 

[Lee Kelly]

This was a film I worked on wearing multiple hats. I was the sound recordist and water operator, for Caught Inside by director Adam Blaiklock http://filmgraphics.com/directors/adam-blaiklock/
We spent 4looooong weeks on a boat in the maldives shooting this film sequentially, as in from the start of the script, til the end, building the natural tension that a bunch of people living in such close quarters would encounter. My room was actually on the boat we were working on so I never got any escape from set. 24/7 for 4 weeks!!!

One story that springs to mind was when Damian Wyvill (DOP) http://www.damianwyvill.com sat down to watch some of my rushes at the end of the day and he was offering constructive criticism, saying stuff like, oh you couldve done this or you should hve done that etc. I offered for him to swim out with me the following day to guide my framing and screen direction for each scene and he agreed.
The surf was not big by my standards and Damien not being a surfer or even a regular swimmer came out and we set up on the very edge of the wave zone. I was shooting while sitting on a bodyboard to get my camera at head height and not looking up the noses of the talent. Then a 'big' wave popped up and caught us inside! I bailed the board and dived under and popped up to see poor Damien white as a ghost in a bit of a panic, like he had just seen his life flash before his eyes ha ha we got him back to the boat and later that night, while watching rushes he had a new appreciation for how hard it is to shoot a proper dialogue scene in and around the water. He was full of praise saying stuff like oh that shot is great, oh amazing angle etc. It was a pretty funny trip and we had a great, albeit hard time. I was grateful to learn a lot from Damian on that film and he has since shot second unit for Baz Luhrmann's Australia and Great Gatsby.
The film was screened in many festivals around the world and may have won the odd award, I cant remember.
We actually shot this with another camera brand (it was 2011)

 

[Lee Kelly]

Director Daniel Askill from Collider http://www.danielaskill.com
and DP Stefan Duscio http://www.stefanduscio.com
made this clip for Seafolly. I was there to shoot underwater plate shots to comp in the girls later. We spent a couple of days up at Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsundays with pretty terrible weather. Amazing what some filtration and a good grade can do!
As the weather was terrible, the option to shoot plates underwater was pretty slim but thats what I was there to do so off I went. I got dropped off the edge of some island and the current was raging. I couldnt see my hand infront of my face, the surface or the bottom and just dangling there holdong the bow line not knowing how deep it was going to be. Eventually I got to the anchor and let go of the chain and instantly got dragged along the sandy bottom. I was on my knees and still getting dragged and dragged by the current. It was that serious! I could not see a thing, not the sun on the surface or anything infront of me and so I slowly made my way to the surface. I was about 300m from the boat and luckily I had a whistle on my rig to get his attention! We headed to a more 'protected' area and down I went again, only to be faced with the same issues! I was getting dragged along the bottom and it kept looking like another 5m further would be clear so I kept going onto to find it was still a blizzard of fine silica sand. Then all of a sudden there was a massive animal that took off infront of me. I will assume it was a big ray because I just saw a blur and then a massive plume of sand and I pretty much had a heart attack! It could have been a 3m tiger shark!!! I was over it! I shot what I could and then headed to the surface and swam to the island and cheated me plates in very shallow water, getting some splits and stuff.
The crew then took off to New Zealand for the winter shoot and that is where they shot the tank elements.
This campaign was very well received the Seafolly girls were complete pros. It was cold and wet and we didnt have any infrastructure out on the beach to keep everyone warm and cosy.

 

[Dominik Muench]

Absolutely? I see what you just did there!!!
Nice one. I especially like the first clip with the two people underwater. Its amazing how much more difficult it is than what non underwater DPs and directors appreciate.

hahah tell me about it, unfortunately people dont realise what's involved in even doing a small shoot. for this simple spec ad we had 5 people in the pool.
there is far more to it than just jumping in the water with a camera. I recently turned down a job here in Queensland where a production company needed some pickup shots for a feature film because the producers had outrageous demands and simply didn't understand what an underwater shoot entails.
They didn't want to spend the money on a safety diver to be in the water with me and the two actors....wanted to shoot at dusk, at a creek near the ocean and in murky water in a spot that is well known amongst the local dive community to be extremely populated with bull sharks.
Even though its exciting, sometimes its better to just say no.

 

[jake southard]

^^^ Wow hahaha yea screw that I'm out with the whole shark thing :nono:

 

[Zeb B]

Director Daniel Askill from Collider http://www.danielaskill.com
and DP Stefan Duscio http://www.stefanduscio.com
made this clip for Seafolly. I was there to shoot underwater plate shots to comp in the girls later. We spent a couple of days up at Whitehaven Beach in the Whitsundays with pretty terrible weather. Amazing what some filtration and a good grade can do!
As the weather was terrible, the option to shoot plates underwater was pretty slim but thats what I was there to do so off I went. I got dropped off the edge of some island and the current was raging. I couldnt see my hand infront of my face, the surface or the bottom and just dangling there holdong the bow line not knowing how deep it was going to be. Eventually I got to the anchor and let go of the chain and instantly got dragged along the sandy bottom. I was on my knees and still getting dragged and dragged by the current. It was that serious! I could not see a thing, not the sun on the surface or anything infront of me and so I slowly made my way to the surface. I was about 300m from the boat and luckily I had a whistle on my rig to get his attention! We headed to a more 'protected' area and down I went again, only to be faced with the same issues! I was getting dragged along the bottom and it kept looking like another 5m further would be clear so I kept going onto to find it was still a blizzard of fine silica sand. Then all of a sudden there was a massive animal that took off infront of me. I will assume it was a big ray because I just saw a blur and then a massive plume of sand and I pretty much had a heart attack! It could have been a 3m tiger shark!!! I was over it! I shot what I could and then headed to the surface and swam to the island and cheated me plates in very shallow water, getting some splits and stuff.
The crew then took off to New Zealand for the winter shoot and that is where they shot the tank elements.
This campaign was very well received the Seafolly girls were complete pros. It was cold and wet and we didnt have any infrastructure out on the beach to keep everyone warm and cosy.

Real nice Art Direction on this one