Historic BEYOND THE BOLEX We’ve come a long way in the world of underwater cinematography over the past four decades. This retrospective takes an inside look at a few of the many and varied advances in subsea filmmaking technology Text by Neil McDaniel
must admit to being more than we wound our way up the inside with 400 ft (120m) magazine and a bit bemused when I see divers passage as far north as Port Hardy. was hired to shoot underwater hitting the water nowadays with I didn’t have much experience scenes for several episodes 4K GoPros on selfie-sticks. How at the time but Jack was a patient of CBC’s international hit The did we ever get to this? It seems mentor, encouraging me to shoot Beachcombers and Danger Bay. like only a few years ago (alright, behavioral sequences with the Paul is a very meticulous shooter it was actually several decades!) Jordan Klein Arri-M housing that and always took the time to Ithat I shot my first roll of 16 mm Gary Bridges and I had acquired. thoroughly rehearse everything film underwater on a hand-cranked We dived like maniacs for three on the surface before we dived so Swiss-made Bolex movie camera. straight weeks and shot everything that the actors and support divers I had a chance to work with some from tiny nudibranchs to killer knew what to do. Paul continues outstanding cinematographers and whales. to have a distinguished career as a gradually became more interested Jack’s camera housings for cameraman, director and producer. in shooting movies as well as stills. his Eclair NPR and Milliken high- In 1989, commercial diver and In 1981 Jack McKenney came up speed camera (which could run photographer Gary Bridges and I to film in BC waters. Jack was a at up to 400 fps) were designed incorporated Subsea Enterprises very personable guy and I was and built by his friend Bob Hollis, and began working on underwater impressed with his professionalism the founder of Oceanic Products. films under the name Wet Film and determination to get the shots Bob had also designed unique Productions. We acquired an he needed. underwater housings for Arri-S 16 eclectic array of used 16 mm film In 1987, Jack asked me if I would mm cameras which he modified equipment such as some spring- assist him on a PBS NATURE to accept compact 400 ft (120m) wound and electric Bolexes, an documentary about the marine life coaxial film magazines. Jack Arri-M with a Jordan Klein Mako of BC entitled Under the Emerald and Bob used these extensively housing and an Eclair NPR. Sea. Of course, I jumped at the during their crazy dives to the 700 As the years passed video chance to work with him and gifted ft (214m) long wreck of the Italian became more efficient for much of writer Barry Clark. In early 1988 liner Andrea Doria, lying in 235 ft our underwater work and we used a he and John Crother drove up (72m) of water 50 miles (80km) off long list of 8 mm, High-8, mini-DV, from California in his van jammed the coast of Massachusetts. (The DVCam, HDV and HD equipment. to the roof with camera and dive full, hair-raising story is a must- Cameras came and went as equipment. We somehow manage read: see Jack’s book Dive to technology and image quality to stow it all aboard the charter Adventure, published by Panorama improved at a stunning pace. It was vessel Oceaner, and with Larry Publications, and Gary Gentile’s Opposite page: nearly impossible to keep up with Mangotich at the helm, headed feature last issue of this magazine.) This precision- the latest and greatest. off on a three-week expedition. Another professional underwater made cast Over the years we used many Using his well-travelled Eclair cinematographer I worked with in aluminum beauty different cameras, housings and NPR 16 mm camera and various the early days was Paul Mockler. housed a ‘new’ lights, each of which in its day was portable lighting systems, we filmed Paul had a custom-made housing (introduced 1959) a marvel of technology. Here are a
Photo: Russell Clark at dozens of prime dive sites as for his Bolex EBM 16 mm camera Bolex H16 REX few of the notables:
32 Magazine www.divermag.com 33 Historic
The spring-wound, The Bolex REX had a Mako housing #112 all Swiss-made H-16 Bolex three-lens rotating gussied up with a ‘signal movie cameras first turret and a reliable orange’ paint job appeared in 1935 spring-wound clock- work motor
The compact Arri-M 16 mm camera with a 400 ft (120m) magazine attached
Our reliable 16 mm topside Jack McKenney’s underwater The beautifully engineered film camera, the Eclair NPR, housing for his Eclair NPR Hugyphot housing fitted with the 12-120 mm camera, which he used for most for the Bolex EBM of his underwater work
Bolex H-16 M motor and a beefy bayonet mount 1955 to accommodate the spring- Stan Waterman, who used it on sync sound recording. It also and aperture drive-train in order This Swiss-made movie camera that accepted the heavy Vario- wound H-16 cameras. It was rated many documentaries, including the featured a rotating viewfinder to accommodate the much wider came out in 1958 and had a Switar zoom lenses. It could be to 330 ft (100m) and weighed 22 lb classic Blue Water White Death. with a respectable reflex image, variety of lenses that Directors of spring-wound motor and parallax- used with 100 ft (30m) film reels (10kg) without the camera installed. This system, which we dubbed adjustable shutter angle from 45 Photography (DPs) insisted on. correcting viewfinder. It accepted or 400 ft (120m) magazines and In 1958, you could buy one for the Ocean-Eye 16, was a real to 180 degrees and innovative, The Arri 35-3 is a very reliable a single C-mount lens, 100 ft (30m) provided passable reflex viewing. US$430 brand-new, complete with workhorse for about a decade instant clip-on coaxial magazines camera featuring a powerful 12/24 rolls of film and provided auto We used it primarily with the a spiffy wooden carry case. when we built a diverse library of that enabled film changes within a volt motor, shutter speeds up to threading and speeds from 8 to 64 Switar 26 mm lens, which was stock footage, and also used it few seconds. Paired with the 12-120 100 fps with a claw registration frames per second. ideal for shooting close-ups of Arriflex 16 M with for documentary work. Its most mm Angenieux zoom lens, this was system that ensures a perfectly marine life when installed in the Jordan Klein Mako housing prestigious gig was during the our go-to topside camera. steady image. For a few years we Bolex H-16 REX Hugyphot housing. The housing, This 16 mm movie camera was filming of The Legacy of Truk got plenty of interesting jobs for First released in 1959, the sturdy designed by Belgian engineer René produced between 1960 and 1969 Lagoon in 1994. With the super- Jordan Klein Mako housing the housing on such features as REX featured a three-lens rotating Hugenschmidt in 1957, was a thing by the acclaimed German camera- wide-angle Angenieux 5.9 mm lens for the Arriflex 35-3 The Edge, Deep Rising, Double turret for RX C-mount lenses of beauty: cast aluminum and with maker Arriflex. It is a compact mounted (which we acquired in a In 1996, we bought this well- Jeopardy, Reindeer Games and and a variable shutter. It had a sophisticated controls with slip camera that accepts gear-driven swap for one of our Bolex housings) travelled housing from Jordan Firestorm. But the much-improved spring-wound motor (an electric rings to register the lens aperture 400 ft (120m) and the impressive it was an excellent underwater Klein with the idea of servicing Arriflex 435 came along and was motor could also be attached) and and focus with the settings on the 1200 ft (365m) ‘rabbit-ear’ camera for its day. the growing need for underwater soon preferred by DPs. provided speeds from 12 to 64 housing knobs: a feature that was magazines. We acquired it in 1987 equipment in the Vancouver movie frames per second. far ahead of its time. along with a Jordan Klein Mako Eclair NPR 16 mm scene. The housing already had JVC VHS video system in housing from Rick Mason, a Toronto (Noiseless Portable Reflex) an impressive pedigree, having Jaymar underwater housing Bolex H-16 EBM and Bolex Paillard underwater cinematographer who This French film camera was first been used by Jordan to film the This was our first underwater video Hugyphot housing underwater housing had moved to Vancouver to work made in 1960 and was a favourite underwater scenes in Thunderball system, which we bought from dive This Bolex was first released in This robust, cast-aluminum in the feature film business. Rick of documentary makers because and Cocoon. We had to carry out buddy Nick Lawlor in 1986. The
Photos: Neil McDaniel Neil Photos: 1971. It featured a built-in electric underwater housing came out in had purchased the housing from its fairly quiet operation allowed many modifications to the focus system was comprised of three
34 Magazine www.divermag.com 35 Historic
Our first underwater video system; believe it or not, almost all of the bits and pieces flying in front of the Jaymar housing had to fit inside it
separate components, the JVC degrees Kelvin (tungsten). When it in series surrounding the bulb GZ-S3 compact video camera, the was feasible to have a generator on mount and a parabolic, peened TM-P3 colour video monitor and the surface, our favourite was the aluminum reflector that puts out a the recording deck which took full- Birns Snooper II light. These heavy- wide beam pattern. size VHS tapes. The playback deck duty lights were commonly used on Although the MLs came with was another separate unit. submersibles and rated to 10,000 ft The Legacy of an articulated arm, we used them It was quite liberating to be able (3,000 m). The Snoopers could be Truk Lagoon. hand-held where Gary would light to shoot for up to two hours on fitted with several different lamps Producers: Nick up the scene from a suitable angle. cheap media and to view the results including the powerful 120-volt, Versteeg and This was very effective at cutting shortly after surfacing. The quality 1,000 watt bulb and had a broad Gary Bridges; down on backscatter, the nemesis of the VHS images was only so-so beam ideally suited for use with Director: Eva of underwater shooters. We had Rated to 10,000 ft (3,000m), the Birns by today’s standards but it proved wide-angle lenses. Wunderman; a few mishaps with the MLs too, Snooper II surface-supplied light could Underwater DP be fitted with a 1,000 watt bulb, ideal for very effective for many commercial such as the time we accidentally and script writer: lighting up big underwater scenes inspection jobs and for documenting Farallon ML350 Portable Light Neil McDaniel left one turned on in shallow water shipwrecks along the BC coast. In 1989, we acquired a couple of when we climbed aboard the boat. used Farallon ML350 portable The intense heat from the lamp built Birns Snooper II Surface- lights. These impressive lights up inside the housing and melted supplied Light had been designed by Ralph a hole through the dome. The light Over the years we tried numerous Osterhout (who started Farallon then flooded in an instant; what an underwater lighting systems with and later, Tekna) and came on ugly mess that was. varying degrees of success. This the market in 1974. They have a While surfacing from a dive on was well before LEDs became sand-cast aluminum housing and the Nippo Maru in Truk Lagoon I Filming stunning soft corals available so most lights used some a polycarbonate dome. Inside happened to look behind me only to draping the wreck of the Fujikawa Maru in Truk Lagoon in 1994 for type of incandescent bulb with a is a removable plastic doughnut see one of our MLs sinking slowly A&E’s The Legacy of Truk Lagoon Photos: Neil McDaniel Neil Photos: colour temperature around 3200 containing 24 Ni-Cad D cells wired but surely toward the bottom 200 Fleetham David Photos:
36 Magazine www.divermag.com 37 Historic
Underwater the massive IMAX The Sony VX1000 video housing for the 2D IW5 camera went camera alongside the well- where it wanted; I sometimes felt like crafted Amphibico housing a remora attached to a whale shark
Designed by Ralph Osterhout in the early 70s, the Farallon One of the finest and feature- Phenom housing for the ML350 was the brightest rich underwater housings ever Sony Z1U camera portable light of its day made, Amphibico Pro Housing
feet (61m) below. While hanging off a built-in microphone, a standard attached, it provides excellent recording can be directly captured pounds in air. At 24 fps, the 1,000 The Amphibicam Pro Housing the side of the boat in the surface 74-degree lens with a filter slot, viewing without requiring an onto a computer and edited using ft (300m) magazine ran out in At the start of filming for Danny chop it must have unclipped an external plug so that a video expensive monitor. This camera any number of programs. only three minutes, making shot Mauro’s The Blue Realm in 2001, we itself and was about to become signal could be run to the surface system produces excellent images We housed the EX1R in a robust selection and set-up critical. Every started using this superb housing another deep wreck in the lagoon. by coaxial cable and an optional and served us well during the Gates housing that has manual time I pulled the trigger hundreds of designed by Val Ranetkins and Robert Fortunately I was able to catch up 100-degree aspheric lens. making of several episodes of controls for reliability and simplicity. dollars worth of film were at stake so Ruffolo at Amphibico for the full-size to it before it got away, but it was a Danny Mauro’s The Blue Realm and The housing is fitted with a superb it was more than a little intimidating. Sony HDW High-definition cameras. It close call. Sony Z1U and Amphibico many other documentary programs. SWP44C super-wide port that Typically I got only five or six takes was like driving a souped-up Maserati Our three MLs are now over 40 Phenom housing features 110-degree rectilinear per roll before having to swim back after shooting with Sony VX1000 years old but they still work just In 2005, we made our belated leap Sony EX1R and Gates housing wide angle field of view, full zoom to the boat for a reload. cameras, and the learning curve was fine—how’s that for long-lasting into High-definition video with Technology rapidly increased the through and distortion-free images. The massive housing handled a steep one. It took many dives to get equipment... the Sony HDR-Z1U camera that quality of video cameras, so much like a piece of plywood in a wind- comfortable with the multi-function features 1440 x 1080 resolution so that a number of fairly modestly IMAX IW5-A storm. On one dive at Sipadan electronic controls. Sony VX1000 and in 16:9 wide-screen format and priced High-definition cameras In 2002, I had an opportunity to Island, Malaysia, Jason Isley and While some of these older Amphibico VH1000 housing an excellent Carl Zeiss 12x zoom started to hit the market around shoot in the amazing IMAX format I were caught in a strong current cameras and housings are We started using this camera lens. It’s a versatile camera with a 2010. The Sony EX1R is a full High- during the making of The Sacred and despite digging our heels obviously outdated and perhaps system in 1995 and it soon proved wide variety of recording formats definition camera featuring 1920 x Planet, released by Walt Disney into the sandy bottom to try to seem even quaint by today’s to be a remarkable underwater and frame standards. Amphibico’s 1080 resolution and a 14x Fujinon Pictures in 2004. Shooting in this slow down, were blown right off advanced technological standards, image-maker. The camera feature-packed Phenom housing zoom lens. It records to solid state super-sized film format (the image the reef. I also found the housing each one represented a small produces 530 lines of horizontal was icing on the cake. The Z1U has SxS Pro memory cards at multiple of the 70 mm film frame is 10 times hard to hold level until I tied a but significant step forward in resolution, recording in the Mini- a top-mounted, flippable monitor bit rates, resolutions and frame rates. larger than 35 mm anamorphic) plastic apple-juice jug to the top the development of the art of DV format. The Canadian-made that can be viewed through a port The non-linear format is a significant was a daunting challenge. The of it and used it as a buoyancy underwater cinematography. Where Amphibico housing features on the top of the housing. With breakthrough since conventional underwater housing for the camera compensator. It looked silly but will we be in another 40 years? It’s Photo: Jason Isley Photos: Neil McDaniel Neil Photos: electronic push-button controls, Amphibico’s elegant pentaprism video tapes are not used and the is a beast, weighing several hundred worked like a charm. hard to even imagine...
38 Magazine www.divermag.com 39