FILMS IN PRODUCTION

RED Grab Frame Howard Hall / MacGillivray Freeman Films

Howard Hall Productions is currently consulting with MacGillivray Freeman Films on the preproduction of the "One World One Ocean" project. This is a major undertaking including multiple IMAX 3D films, a Digital Cinema Feature Release, and a series of television specials.  In recent months we have filmed in the Arctic Circle and scouted locations including South Australia and Indonesia.  For more information on One World One Ocean visit the website: http://www.oneworldoneocean.org/

 

Howard Hall Productions' last major film, Under the Sea 3D, was released in February 2009. For those interested in the trials and tribulations of filmmaking, my log from the five expeditions we conducted to make Under the Sea 3D follows.

UNDER THE SEA 3D
A FINAL PRODUCTION UPDATE - March 20, 2009

As I write this Michele and I are returning to California after opening the film in Sydney and Melbourne Australia. The response to the film, both in Australia and in the US, has been extremely gratifying. Many have said the film is our best yet.   The critical reviews have also been almost overwhelmingly positive. And, most importantly, our clients at IMAX and at Warner Bros seem very pleased with early box office receipts.   During the last month, Michele and I have opened the film in Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, Indianapolis, Fort Lauderdale, Boston, Melbourne, and Sydney. We still have a few more cities to visit as the film continues to be rolled out at IMAX theaters worldwide. But for us there is definitely light at the end of the Under the Sea 3D tunnel. By all accounts, our latest fish film is a success and we can now begin to put this project behind us.   Following are some of the more important reviews of the film. And following the reviews is my Journal. To the many people who worked with us and supported us throughout this long production Michele and I want to off a final “Thank you.” Michele and I are not sure what is next for us, but I can be certain that at some point it will involve the serenity of once again diving deep beneath the sea surrounded by the ocean’s wonderful inhabitants.   Field production for UNDER THE SEA 3D consisted of five major month-long expeditions to five different locations. Our first two expeditions were to New Britain and Milne Bay in Papua New Guinea aboard the diving live-aboard, Star Dancer. For our third expedition we moved south to the cold waters of South Australia with Rodney Fox Shark Diving Expeditions aboard the Princess II. After South Australia we filmed on the Great Barrier Reef aboard the Undersea Explorer. Our final expedition was nearly six weeks in length aboard the Indonesian live-aboard Sevens Seas. For a who’s who of those contributing to UNDER THE SEA 3D check the following pages: Field Production Crew List Film Credits For additional information about the film as well as theaters near you opening UNDER THE SEA 3D, check the UNDER THE SEA website at: www.imax.com/underthesea   My field production journal follows:

Papua New Guinea Expedition #1
Walindi Resort and Star Dancer

Preface

Much of our success during this first expedition must be credited to the extraordinary logistical performance provided by the wonderful people who operate the Walindi Resort and the Star Dancer live-aboard dive boat. Max Benjamin and his staff at Walindi went to great lengths to help us solve major logistical problems. Alan Raabe, who operates Star Dancer, did a stellar job preparing the boat to handle our 8,000 pounds of gear including the 1,300-pound camera. In addition to all the logistical help, the Star Dancer provided wonderful food and service. And the stateroom Michele and I had on the boat was simply the best stateroom we have ever had at sea. Our double bed faced a large picture window allowing a magnificent view with our heads comfortably propped up on our pillows.

Our first expedition was to Linden Harbor on the south coast of New Britain. Both Star Dancer and FeBrina visit the south coast during the winter when weather patterns make diving practical there. Our IMAX underwater team found the diving there to be both interesting and productive. The reefs are very different from the Kimbe Bay area and quite beautiful.

During fifteen days of diving at Linden Harbor, I logged 76 hours on my rebreather and we shot 44 braces of 70mm film (a brace is two 1,000-foot rolls of film, one roll for each “eye” and weighing 20 pounds). Although I haven’t yet seen the processed footage, I’m sure some of it will be quite spectacular. Certainly, we must share the credit for our successful results with both Walindi and Star Dancer.

Our next expedition will be to Milne Bay, also aboard Star Dancer. The logistics will be much simpler for that trip since Alan will simply load the gear aboard Star Dancer in Walindi and then meet us in Alotau. We’ll have to ship film ahead, but that will be a minor logistical issue compared to preparations for our first trip.

Following is my journal written as it transpired.

January 11, 2008

As I write this, we are at 30,000 feet leaving the north coast of Australia en route to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Today is now one year and three days since Michele and I began pre-production on this our most ambitious IMAX 3D film production ever. And believe me when I say, “I’m more than very glad that most of the office drudgery of preproduction is behind us.” The logistical challenges have been daunting. The planning included numerous film permits and work visas, chartering and modifying four different boats (all the boats required modifications to handle the 1,200-pound camera), hiring crew, hiring science advisors for each location, writing a script, scouting each location (sometimes more than once), building a variety of specialized camera equipment, and arranging to ship over four tons of film production and technical diving equipment to some of the most isolated places on Earth. But Michele and her IMAX team in Toronto have come through with a stellar performance and I find myself in absolute awe of the detailed planning that has resulted from the efforts of Michele and her Toronto team. However, no matter how carefully you might plan, anticipating every imaginable contingency, nature often has a way of sending a large white pelican soaring high overhead to drop an enormous deposit of wet and pungent humility right on the top of your head. We received our aerial bombardment just two hours before leaving our Del Mar home for the airport.

Our carefully conceived plan for Expedition #1 was to have all the equipment shipped to Port Moresby via Brisbane, Australia. Then from Port Moresby it would be taken via a very expensive air charter Dash 8 aircraft to Rabaul on the Island of New Britain. Since our 8,851 pounds of gear exceeded the capacity of the Dash 8, our shipping agent, Tonia Epstein, wisely sent some of the gear ahead to Rabaul via commercial aircraft. All of these preparations were brilliantly choreographed and so far have worked more efficiently than I ever could have imagined – except for the volcano. Yes, the volcano.

Two hours before we left Del Mar, we received a rather distressed phone call from Tonia saying the volcano in Rabaul is erupting. All flights into the village are cancelled.

As you might imagine, this threw us for a loop. We have crew converging on Rabaul from all over the world. Stuart Macfarlane is en route from Kuala Lumpur, Dylan Reade from Canada, Drew Fellman from Australia, Jeff Wildermuth from Monterey, California, Burt Jones and Maurine Shimlock from Singapore, and Peter Kragh, Mark Thurlow, Dave Forsyth, and Richard Herrmann from Southern California. And tomorrow Alan Raabe and the Star Dancer are scheduled to depart the Walindi Resort on the north side of New Britain for Rabaul. Rabaul, which is now being covered with volcanic ash! How can you plan for something like that? Of course, the logical thing is to divert to a different location to pick up the boat, probably in Walindi. Unfortunately, Tonia wisely sent some of our gear ahead knowing that the Dash 8 couldn’t handle all the weight of our entire package. This means some of our stuff is being covered with ash in Rabaul as I write this. Stuff that we really do need.

So, here we are at 30,000 feet flying to Port Moresby and then on to destinations unknown. But, heck, why should this film be different from the last one? Our first expedition for Deep Sea 3D included two trucks breaking down while hauling our production package to Santa Rosalia, Mexico. Then once we arrived and had loaded the Solmar V, we received word that hurricane Javier was hurtling up the gulf to welcome us. So we unloaded the boat and spent three days waiting out the storm. So, heck, what’s a little volcanic ash and a few aerial boulders? In fact, a shot of an active volcano is on our shot list. Maybe the fire gods are just trying to be helpful.

I remember the trepidation I felt as we flew toward Santa Rosalia for Deep Sea 3D knowing a hurricane was brewing and heading our way. I remember the sense of dread I felt at facing the unknown challenges nature can thrust at you. Surprisingly, I don’t feel that way now. Maybe now, rather late in my career, I have come to believe enough in myself to know that, no matter what, I have always come out with an acceptable film. In fact, I feel oddly ‘up’ and optimistic. In recent days, with preproduction behind us, I have grown increasingly excited about the project. I can’t wait to get my hands on the ridiculously huge camera and slate it with camera brace #1. At this moment, I’m not quite sure when or where that will happen, but happen it will and I am enthusiastic and ready. Soon I’ll be making that first dive and, for me, that’s what it is all about. I’m feeling a bit like Bilbo Baggins, enthusiastically starting an adventure by placing one foot ahead of the other.

January 15, 2008

I’m sitting in my stateroom as beautiful jungle-covered rock islands sweep by
my stateroom’s large picture window on the starboard side of the Star Dancer. This is certainly the best stateroom I’ve ever had. What a view! And I don’t even have to get out of bed! We’re just rounding the eastern tip of the island and expect to arrive in Rabaul in mid-afternoon.

Things have improved rather dramatically since my last journal entry. Michele and her production team did some major last minute scrambling to adjust our logistical plan to accommodate the erupting volcano in Rabaul. Instead of flying to Rabaul, Michele and I flew to Hoskins on the north side of New Britain and moved into the Walindi Resort. The rest of our film crew arrived in small groups. Peter Kragh and Jeff Wildermuth stayed behind in Port Moresby for a couple days waiting for various items of lost personal luggage. The rest of us enjoyed a couple days of splendid Walindi hospitality, wonderful food and some of the most spectacular rainstorms, thunder, and lightning I have ever witnessed.

The 1,200 pounds of 70mm film arrived at dawn yesterday and Michele got up at 5am and went to the airport to pick it up. She and the Walindi crew loaded the film into the back of a truck and carefully covered it with tarps. But the rain was crashing down so hard there was simply no way to keep the water off the cardboard boxes and they arrived at Walindi a soggy mess. Of course, the film is in metal cans inside the boxes so no harm was done. But we need the boxes as containers for shipping the film home. So Stuart and Dylan, our IMAX technicians, have unpacked the film and are drying the boxes in the engine room.

Yesterday afternoon I returned to the Hoskins airport with Michele and witnessed an amazing sight. A Dash 8 aircraft circled over the field, entered the downwind traffic pattern and landed carrying over 7,000 pounds of production equipment including the huge IMAX 3D camera housing. Of course, this is precisely what Michele and her team had spent the last year planning for, but it still seemed quite amazing that it happened as planned. All that equipment had left several locations in North America, was air freighted to Port Moresby where it cleared customs without a hitch then was loaded on the charter Dash 8 that now was magically dropping through the rain clouds to land at this tiny airstrip in the middle of nowhere. Within a few minutes all the gear was accounted for and piled on the wet grass next to the runway – except for the camera housing. Getting that out of the aircraft would require a forklift. We had been assured that there would be a forklift at the airport and, indeed, there was one sitting next to the wooden shack that passed for the airport terminal. Three-foot high weeds grew all around it and through the engine compartment. When I asked one of the airstrip attendants where the forklift was he helpfully pointed it out and said, “Ah, but it’s buggered.” So we all stood around looking at the aircraft trying to figure out how to get the thousand-pound wrecking ball of a housing out of the delicate hatch and into one of the waiting trucks. This was eventually accomplished by backing a small dump truck up to the Dash 8’s hatch and sliding the housing out and into the truck using rice power. Rice power is what locals call strong New Guinea muscle.

By late yesterday evening, the Star Dancer was loaded and we had begun our long voyage to Rabaul where we would pick up a thousand pounds of C02 absorbent and a generator that had been shipped in before the volcano became a nuisance. This afternoon we hope to slate the camera with Camera Brace #1 and grab a shot of the volcano from stern of the Star Dancer. Tomorrow morning we’ll load the C02 scrubber, the generator, and twelve large oxygen storage tanks and then depart for the largely unexplored reefs on the south coast of New Britain.

Our adventure has finally begun.

January 16, 2008

It’s 6:00 am in Rabaul and we’re at the dock waiting for our rebreather scrubber and oxygen to be delivered. The sky is dark and though it is not raining at this moment, I’m sure it’s only a temporary break. It blew and rained so hard all night that there was no dry place on the Star Dancer deck. For many years my crew and I have traveled with our gear in Igloo coolers. These are lightweight, shock resistant, insulated, and almost waterproof. Almost. When they get significant spray or rain, water seeps in beneath the lid so we have always tried to keep them out of the rain and spray if possible. For this project, we finally replaced our trusty coolers with Pelican boxes and I am so glad we did. Now much of our gear is on Star Dancer’s upper deck and has been repeatedly deluged with rain. Not a drop gets inside. If Pelican ever needs a public endorsement, they can have one from me for free.

We actually shot our first brace of film late yesterday afternoon. As we steamed past the volcano to enter the harbor in Rabaul we stopped and shot a brace on the volcano. The sky was overcast and bland as we approached the volcano and it looked to be an almost useless shot. But a scene of an active volcano is on our shot list, so I thought a volcano in hand is worth two… It wasn’t raining at the moment and I thought it could begin ceaselessly pouring tomorrow morning negating any other opportunity. We might find a volcano in Indonesia during our last expedition but we might have to travel out of our way and who knows what might prevent the shot. So despite the awful conditions, I asked Alan Raabe to swing Star Dancer in for a close shot of the mountain. Magically, as the boat swung into position and Dylan Reade held out his light meter to take a last reading, the sun broke through the clouds and lit up the volcano and the plume of white gas rising from the crater. The camera rolled flawlessly and we had our first shot in the can. I hope this kind of luck is a harbinger of good things to come.

Actually, Peter Mantz, our second captain, told me that the mountain is all but inactive at the moment despite having closed the airport only a few days earlier. He told me the volcano can get spectacularly nasty very suddenly. A few months ago as he steamed through the same area the volcano coughed and spit out Volkswagen-sized rocks that landed on either side of the boat. Although such a display might have been quite spectacular on film, I did not wish quite so dramatic an expectoration to happen for ours.

We expect to leave Rabaul around noon. We’ll take another look at the volcano and perhaps try to improve over yesterday’s shot if the mountain is acting up. Then we’ll head west along the south coast of New Britain toward the reefs where we will begin our diving. We should be in the water tomorrow morning.

January 18, 2008

We are now in Linden Harbor on the South Coast of New Britain. We spent yesterday and much of today scouting the black sand area along the beach. We didn’t find much. Combined, we’ve seen a couple of cuttlefish, lots of lionfish, some Panda anemonefish, and several ghost pipefish. But water visibility is about 25 feet with lots of snot-like material floating in it.

I did manage to shoot brace A1. We shot with the 80mm mostly of a dark pair of ornate ghost pipefish in a dark crinoid. The shot sucks along with conditions, but at least we’ve officially started underwater ops. I logged 4.25 hours today not accomplishing much.

Alan has had a tough trip so far. He is recovering from septicemia that he contracted from an abscessed tooth. The tooth has been removed but he is weak and hardly himself.

January 20, 2008

This morning we made a 4.5-hour dive before lunch. We spent all that time shooting a 40mm scene of garden eels. The eels don’t like our lights, but that’s hardly unusual. We got a good shot, but the scene has far more potential and is worth repeating along with an 80mm cutaway should we find eels in clearer water. It would also be worthwhile shooting these eels without lights and I may decide to come back to do that. Presently, however, we’re moving across the bay to a coral reef area where we expect to find clearer water and where Burt and Maurine will show us a nice ghost pipefish and perhaps a frogfish if it is in a position were it is shootable with the tripod.

We had a good day yesterday. We shot two braces on a new species of lionfish. As the camera rolled the lionfish cooperated by repeatedly feeding on small fish. It’s a great shot for the film not only because the action is great, but this species of lionfish is really something special. It was discovered in Indonesia two years ago and Gerry Allen has just recently described it. Our sighting from PNG is a range extension.

Yesterday we also shot a scene of ghost pipefish swimming against the current as the mucaloid plankton swept by. It should be a decent shot of the pipefish, but a better depiction of current.

Late this afternoon we moved the boat to a mooring out on the reef.
We planned to do a scouting dive, but Joe immediately saw a large and colorful crown jellyfish (Netrostoma setouchianum) drifting by in the current. We put a diver on it, suited up fast, and Mark and I swam down stream and bagged the animal in a large plastic garbage bag. Dave pulled us back to the Star Dancer against the current with a scooter. We launched the camera and shot it with the 40mm lens. We were out of film in 30 minutes. Our first brace this morning took 4.5 hours and was mediocre. This shot is spectacular and took 30 minutes. It pays to be ready for anything.

January 21, 2008

We dived the offshore reef and found it to be really excellent. Our day was mixed. It started out great as we shot a wide scene of a beautiful coral head with lots of crinoids and a beautiful ornate ghost pipefish hovering about. Then we went back to shoot it with the 80mm lens which looked drop-dead gorgeous. But after we had been back on the boat for an hour or so I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to converge the lens. Convergence is idiosyncratic of 3D and determines where the image will seem to float in the theater. Of course, we went back to redo the shot, but the fish was gone. I felt quite sick about it. Maybe our IMAX postproduction team will be willing to scan the images and adjust the intraocular, but that will be expense. Otherwise, we’ll just have to shoot another set-up or two to get the sequence. I never once made a convergence error during Deep Sea 3D, and so this poor performance was very distressing.

The day got better when in late afternoon we found a crocodile fish and managed to get a shot of it lunging straight at the lens in an attempt to catch a blue chromis (which got away). It’s a lovely shot and probably an improvement over anything like it we got for Deep Sea 3D.

While working on the crocodile fish the current came up and visibility went from 80 feet to 30 feet. Getting the gear back to the Star Dancer was a challenge and a good initiation for the launch and recovery crew. Fortunately, Dave was smart enough to come down with the safety line to insure we got the camera back to the boat. Surface swimmers helped guide the rest of us back. It worked out fine, but there were some tense voices heard on the underwater comm as the divers struggled in the turbulent current and terrible visibility to find their way back to the boat with all the gear.

January 22, 2008

We made two dives today to film a spectacular cabbage coral colony that had several lionfish feeding above it. The first dive was three hours long. The second dive was four hours. We had lunch during the break. The shots are nice and could have been done easily during a one-hour dive with a small video camera. In IMAX 3D it took all day. Even though lionfish are rather common, they should make excellent IMAX 3D subjects. The cabbage coral colony had lots of colorful crinoids clinging to it and made for excellent negative space. We shot five braces of film during our seven hours underwater today – four braces with the 40mm lens and one with the 80mm lens.

The species of lionfish we filmed is a common variety. But the sequence of these guys hunting should make a good introduction to the shots of the recently discovered species of lionfish feeding that we filmed a couple days ago.

The current has been changing every day around noon. In the morning we have nice clear oceanic water pouring into the lagoon. When the current switches to outgoing, it gets really murky. Visibility changes from almost one hundred feet to about thirty feet.

Tomorrow we hope to film some beautiful coral reef habitat with a large school of banner fish moving over the corals. In the afternoon we’ll probably begin working on cuttlefish.

Drew had an interesting moment today that raised everyone’s spirits. We have been finding very large beetles on the deck in the morning. These guys crawl into everything and are about an inch and a half long. Drew has found them in his dive boots and gloves. Today after pulling on and zipping up his wet suit he suffered several minutes of pure panic as he sensed an uncomfortable object moving in the tight crotch of his suit. He pulled the neoprene away from his sensitive parts and screamed for help. He couldn’t let go of his crotch to unzip his own suit, so was in a panic to find someone to unzip it for him. Jamie (one of our dive masters and Star Dancer’s cruise director) finally came to his rescue. With great care they managed to unzip and pull down his wet suit to discover his glove inside. The Velcro on the glove provided the disquieting sensation. Jamie retold the story over dinner, resulting in sidesplitting laughter from all.

Burt and Maurine spent all day searching various locations for another ghost pipefish without success. Their failure to find one makes me all the more disappointed in myself for botching the shot a couple of days ago.

January 24, 2008

Yesterday was a long day. We started out making a one hundred foot dive in the lagoon pass and tried to film schools of bannerfish around coral reef seascapes. The reef was beautiful but, of course, the bannerfish didn’t like our movie lights. Few animals do, and most simply go away. The bannerfish would swarm around us beautifully until we turned the lights on, and then they would go away. However, we did see lots of potential for other shots in this area. There were many beautiful fish species and lots of reef color. Our dive was 90 minutes including decompression.

We then moved into the beach where we have been working in murky water on black sand animals. We began by trying to film a tiger mantis shrimp feeding on a tiny lionfish. After an hour or so of false starts on the camera, the shrimp closed his den and went to bed. Then before we surfaced one of the boat guides found a wonderpus octopus. It’s a spectacular animal, if a bit small for the IMAX format. We shot a brace using the 40mm and a second brace using the 80mm lens. The dive took 4.25 hours to finish both braces of film. By this time it was late afternoon and with almost six hours underwater we decided to call it a day. I was really looking forward to a stiff rum and coke (purely for its anesthetic medicinal qualities). I had showered and dismantled my rebreather when Drew and one of the guides surfaced to say there was a tiger mantis shrimp out of its den and digging a new hole. This is very unusual. I had never actually seen one out before. And so we were back in the water fifteen minutes later.

We spent another two hours in the water and shot another two braces with the 40mm lens and the 80mm lens respectively. Hopefully this will be used as part of a sequence of the tiger mantis shrimp spearing a fish. They are amazing animals and are twice the size of the California mantis shrimp (which is a mollusk crusher).

We surfaced around 8pm after more than seven and a half hours underwater for the day. I had 14.5 hours on my CO2 scrubber (which we rate at 12 hours).

Today we didn’t accomplish much. We spent all day trying to get better shots of the garden eels. But each time we set up the camera then gave the eels 90 minutes to acclimate, the current changed and wrecked the shot. During the last of three attempts, a big thunderhead covered the sun and the light died completely.

We did do a night dive tonight hoping to film lionfish feeding. We never got them actually catching a fish, but the shots are amazingly beautiful.

Earlier this afternoon we had a bad scare. Peter Manz, our second captain, picked up an extension cord that had fallen in the water. He was barefoot on the metal deck and got nailed with 240 volts. He went down screaming and only after hitting the deck was he able to dislodge the wet plug from his grasp. He’s okay, but it gave us all a major fright.

January 25, 2008

Today was a much easier day. We started by making a dive in the lagoon pass and spent 90 minutes filming beautiful coral reef seascapes. After twenty minutes of decompression, I called an end to the dive. After surfacing I was a bit sorry we hadn’t asked for the camera for another brace. We had lunch and by the time everyone was done eating, the current had shifted and visibility was roiled up by water flowing out of the lagoon.

Instead of making another dive we decided to begin working on our mangrove sequence. Peter, Dylan, Stuart, Drew and I loaded the skiff with the camera and went into the maze of mangroves. We did a few nice shots despite the lack of bright sun, and did capture a nice scene of rain clouds over the mangroves, which is in our script.

Tomorrow I hope to begin working on a frogfish sequence. We’ll have to get a bit lucky for what I have in mind. We will also do more seascapes in the pass when the water is incoming. It’s a beautiful spot and I don’t want my executive producers to think we went all the way to Papua New Guinea to shoot scenes of mud, however interesting the animals may be.

Alan Raabe has had a relapse. Another tooth has become infected and he is quite miserable. Fortunately, our cook, Bernadine, is also a dentist. She hopes to pull Alan’s tooth once the infection is under control with antibiotics.

January 26, 2008

Today we only made one dive, but it was a long one. We entered the water at 9:00 am and actually shot four braces of film during the dive and completely blew by lunch. I climbed out of the water just after 2:30 pm after more than five and a half hours underwater. We’ll skip the night dive tonight.

The focus of our attention was a little green frogfish about five inches long and his two-inch long black mate. We’re assuming the tiny black frogfish was a mate despite the size difference and the fact that they looked nothing alike. But they were obviously in love. When separated the little guy would slowly crawl across the sponge to find the larger mate. The larger green frogfish was obviously distressed when the little guy was not in view. Of course, we repeatedly separated the pair to see the little guy return to his lost love. Burt and Maurine first thought the two fish must be different species, the larger being a warty frogfish. But after watching the behavior, Burt now thinks they must be the same species. Sexual dimorphism is common, especially in anglerfish.

The pace of this frogfish love affair is painfully slow. To allow it to be cut together we shot the “action” from several angles. I hope it will turn out to be an acceptable sequence. It is certainly more beautiful and more interesting than the frogfish we featured in Deep Sea 3D.

During the dive conditions changed repeatedly, sometimes dramatically. The current was strong when we started, dropped to zero, then reversed direction and became a murky undersea gale. The launch and recovery crew did a great job getting the camera down to us using two scooters, five divers (including some of the boat’s dive masters), and a safety line they strung from the stern to the dive site.

During this long dive one of the dive guides located another crocodile fish. I hope we can find it tomorrow to continue building our crocodile fish sequence. We already have the money shot as it lunges for a pretty little blue fish. Now we need the rest of the sequence, which should be easier assuming we find the croc again.

January 27, 2008

We made two dives today. The first was a 3.5-hour dive to one hundred feet (including forty minutes of decompression) and the second was a 2.5-hour dive to 57 feet. We’re certainly racking up our bottom time. On the first dive we filmed coral reef seascapes with the 40mm lens then shot an 80mm brace on little blue fish to go with a variety of predation sequences.

Our second dive was more interesting. Burt and Maurine found a large frogfish. The good news is that the fish was about ten inches long and about six inches tall. He was about as large as frogfish get. The bad news is that he was jet black. Despite his lack of color, he looks pretty good sitting on an orange sponge. He was also hungry and as our camera ran (first with the 80mm lens then an hour later with the 40mm lens) he ate two pretty little blue fish. It should make for a good ninety-second sequence.

January 29, 2008

Yesterday we spent the morning in the mangroves shooting topside scenes from the skiff. Drew, Michele, Peter, Dylan, and Stuart were on board with me. Unlike our last attempt, the sun came out and stayed out most of the morning. I think we captured some nice scenes to go with our general mangrove sequence. Unfortunately, the mangroves look simply terrible underwater. So we hope to do the underwater work in Milne Bay or Indonesia.

In the afternoon we filmed scenes of crocodile fish to go with the nice predation shot we got several days ago. We now have a variety of shots of the fish on different substrates. In one scene the fish leaves about twenty seconds into the shot.

We’ve been working in significant currents. And during a typical three-hour dive the current will rage, slacken, reverse directions, and then start over again. In the same dive visibility often ranges from eighty feet to thirty feet. Our dive team has been working nicely together, but we have had our humorous moments. Yesterday Mark couldn’t get down due to an ear problem. Dave’s rebreather failed. Richard got his microphone caught in the scooter propeller eliminating his ability to hear. As he came over the dive site carrying ten-pound bags of lead shot, I frantically yelled through my comm and pointed out that he was about to kick the crocodile fish. He saw where I was pointing and thought that was where I wanted him to drop the weights. Fortunately, he missed the fish by a couple of feet, and the crocodile fish didn’t seem to mind.

I noticed that the tripod had not arrived ten minutes or so after calling for it so with Mark out of commission I went back to the boat to see if Jeff needed help. I found him clipping all the extra weights to the tripod below the boat on the hang line. I helped him neutralize the weight of the tripod with the lift bag and began swimming against the current toward the dive site. After several minutes I looked up to notice that we hadn’t moved. I signaled to Jeff to drop down to the bottom where we could move upstream in the lee of the reef. Apparently he missed my signal. I deflated some air out of the bag and we began to drop. Jeff, not understanding what I was doing, put air back in. I deflated more air. Jeff, now quite tired and over-breathing his rebreather, pulled on the dump string by mistake and we plummeted one hundred and ten feet to the bottom. This was where I wanted to be to begin with, but the out-of-control descent rather freaked Jeff out. After we got the tripod neutralized again and rested a bit, we easily moved it up the slope to where the crocodile fish remained waiting for his shot.

When the time came to recover the camera many of our best divers were topside with problems, leaving recovery to Richard and the relatively inexperienced Drew. The current was raging by then. Getting everything back on board was a bit of a mess, but it all worked out in the end. The various mishaps provided for good evening story telling afterwards.

We spent much of the day today filming cuttlefish. We shot two braces with the 40mm including some shots of emperor angelfish. Then we planned a night dive to try and film cuttlefish feeding. I just got back from the night dive an hour ago. It didn’t go well.

It was beginning to rain as Peter and I jumped in and began our underwater swim to the Ema, the small aluminum boat that had the generator and lights on it. Ema was moored over the site where we had filmed cuttlefish earlier, about one hundred yards from Star Dancer. The plan was for Peter and me to evaluate the current before calling in the camera. After about forty minutes we had found a cuttlefish and since the current was mild, we called in the camera. While we were waiting for the camera, the cuttlefish caught a fusilier, which was about half its size. Obviously, he was done dining for the evening and so Peter and I began searching for alternate subjects. By the time we had found another cuttlefish the camera was down and Dave, Jeff, and Richard were struggling to mount the lights in a building current. By the time the camera was ready the current was strong enough to make filming impractical. Michele called down from the surface to say that it was pouring rain and the boat had been inundated with a swarm of insects so dense that a film change was impossible. This had to be an almost impossible quantity of bugs! In addition, birds were crashing into the boat by the hundreds and the deck was littered with dozens of them, each of which had regurgitated copious quantities of fish barf.

Peter and I found a cuttlefish and followed it down stream for a while struggling in vain with the massive camera to compose a shot in the building current and the rapidly deteriorating visibility. Eventually we were all but tumbling across the bottom. Then we stumbled across the bumpheads.

Bumphead wrasse can reach four and a half feet and over one hundred pounds. Disturbed by the lights and noise, two of them burst from the reef at warp speed and slammed into the camera, Peter, and me. I ended up with a bruised left leg and left arm. The camera survived okay, but one of the underwater lamps was busted.

Almost immediately after the bumphead wrasse encounter, I lost all interest in filming cuttlefish feeding at night. We aborted the dive, having rolled only fifty feet of film, and returned to the Star Dancer where I am recovering rapidly with the help of some 99-proof rum. Drew said that after the bumphead ran into me, it crashed into the reef and then acted rather stunned. I do hope it now has a nasty headache.

As I finish this writing, Drew and Dave are looking out the window trying to count the birds that are on the deck between the door and the Captain’s cabin. Best estimate was about fifty. There are dozens more all over other parts of the boat. All of them have regurgitated their last seafood meal, making a terrible mess.

January 30, 2008

We shot three braces on cuttlefish today during two dives of ninety minutes and 3.5 hours respectively. We have tentatively high hopes for a brace we shot with the 80mm lens. It will either be too close or it will be truly spectacular. Normally we measure the distance to the subject very accurately to get the subject distance to within 3 to 3.5 feet. That wasn’t possible with the moving cuttlefish so we gave it our best guess. If we’re not too close during the best shots, it will be really be a really amazing 3D image. We have seen both courtship and feeding behavior, but have been too slow with the big camera to get the lens on the action. Strong currents have further compromised our efforts to get the behavior. Nevertheless we have a good start on a reef cuttlefish sequence.

We have one more day here in Linden Harbor. After diving tomorrow we begin the long trip back. We’ll be stopping in Rabaul to drop off the oxygen tanks and take a last look at the volcano. Then we’ll head to Hoskins and begin the trip home. Everyone is safe and healthy and our team has been working well together.

Alan Raabe provided a bit of entertainment this morning. With Michele holding his head tightly, Bernadine shot Alan full of anesthetic then, using nice stainless steel pliers, yanked his tooth out. Alan felt better almost immediately. Almost.

February 1, 2008

I would like to say that we finished our last day of filming by shooting four braces of something really spectacular. But our first Expedition for Under the Sea 3D (now the official title) ended with something of a whimper.

We spent an hour and a half underwater on our first dive futilely looking for the cuttlefish we had filmed yesterday. The current was so strong that bringing the camera in the water was not practical anyway. At the end of the dive Mark had found a blue spotted stingray and we decided we might try a shot of it coming out to feed when the current backed off.

After lunch we went back down and discovered that the ray was still sleeping under the reef where Mark had found it. We decided to bring down the camera with the 80mm lens then use some bait to wake up the ray. Hopefully he would come out and begin digging in the sand. We had shot something similar in Saudi Arabia a couple months ago and it looked great.

By the time we had the camera down and set up, the ray had awakened and left town. So with the 80mm lens on I decided to try another brace on garden eels. During the three hours I waited for the eels to come out after being disturbed by the approach of the big camera and lights, Burt and Maurine and our Star Dancer dive masters had discovered another crocodile fish, two cuttlefish, a spectacular scorpionfish (that I would have broken off the garden eel set-up to film had it been in an approachable position), and a variety of other interesting subjects. In the meantime, the garden eel shot began to look promising. Unfortunately, we had to leave our anchorage for the long trip to Rabaul by 4pm (allowing us adequate good light to see our way clear of the reef system around Linden Harbor). So I shot four takes of the garden eels. None of the takes looked really spectacular, but it will be very interesting to see how this works with the 80mm. If there are no convergence problems (eye strain problems on eels behind the point of convergence) then I will certainly try this again.

At the beginning of the day I was rather sure we had milked Linden Harbor for all it was worth. But by the time we left, I was rather wishing for a couple more days.

We are now steaming for Rabaul in good weather. We have had powerful rainstorms every day usually in the afternoon while in Linden Harbor, but today we seem to be getting good weather that looks like it may last all day. This is wonderful luck since it has given us a dry opportunity to pack up our 70+ cases of equipment and get them sealed without mold-precipitating moisture inside. Since rain poured on our gear every day while in Linden Harbor, I am exceptionally glad we invested in our Pelican cases.

We’re on our way home now having shot thirty-seven braces underwater and five above-water. We hope to grab one more shot of the volcano in Rabaul tomorrow morning if it looks more active than the shot we took at the beginning of the trip. But essentially we are done and on the long road home

February 2, 2008

Well, I thought we were done. But today we really blew through our film budget. We arrived at Rabaul last night and this morning steamed out across the bay to have a look at the volcano. With the camera up and running and Dylan at the controls, the volcano went off with several massive explosions. To say these shots will replace the volcano shots we did at the beginning of the film is understatement. We may have to change the title from Under the Sea 3D to Under the Volcano 3D with Fish. We’d better test that title before switching however.

Not only did the volcano erupt, but suddenly it started raining. Then I noticed there were no rain clouds in the sky. Captain Peter Manz came down and yelled, “That’s not rain folks!” Indeed, it was pebble-sized ash rocks, that completely covered the deck turning the white Star Dancer dark reddish-brown. Unfortunately, Dylan and Stuart were desperately trying to load the camera and protect the mechanism from falling ash when the “rain” started. Nevertheless, we got great shots of the volcano erupting. It was a good morning indeed.

February 4, 2008

We’re in Walindi and all the gear has been packed into a bungalow that will eventually become Alan’s office. It’s air-conditioned and it should be quite safe there. We also left six braces of unexposed film that will live in Max Benjamin’s office. The air conditioning should be more reliable there. The housing is still on the boat but is supposed to come off and go into an air-conditioned shipping container this afternoon.

Already our little production team is beginning to disperse. Burt and Maurine left on the dawn flight. They were lots of help and good company. The exposed film left with Burt and Maurine and is now in Port Moresby. Tomorrow it will be flown to Brisbane and then on to LAX, to be processed in LA once it clears customs.

I have nothing to do now but slowly make my way slowly home and get some computer work done ahead of time. I’m looking forward to driving out to the Borrego Desert to do some flying and listen to the sounds of the desert in winter.

Papua New Guinea Expedition #2
Walindi Resort and Star Dancer

Preface

We have now finished the second of five month-long expeditions for Under the Sea 3D. Once again we visited Papua New Guinea aboard the M/V Star Dancer. This second PNG trip was even more productive than the first and leaves us comfortably ahead of expectations this early in production.

I can’t say enough good things about the Star Dancer, her owners, her crew, or the Walindi Resort. The boat has been a superb work platform for IMAX 3D production. It’s very comfortable. The food and service was fantastic. Alan Raabe gave us a great team to work with. Jamie Quesenberry, our Cruise Director and divemaster, did an amazing job making our production tasks easier. Peter Manz and Greg Bell were excellent captains. Jamie along with Digger, Joe, Martin, Lloyd, and Josie, were enormously helpful in both finding the animals we were interested in filming as well as helping our crew when launch and recovery operations we most difficult. Max Benjamin of Walindi and Vilia Lawrence of the PNG Divers Association were invaluable in overcoming the bureaucratic obstacles we faced getting our crew and equipment into the country. Bob and Dinah Halstead also played pivotal roles in opening the gates at PNG Immigration. I hope all these people have a chance to see our film someday and take pride in their significant contributions.

The diving in PNG is simply fantastic. Not only are the reefs spectacular, but we found many of the animals we had expected to find only during our Indonesia expedition – including wonderpus, flamboyant cuttlefish, frogfish, and more. That we found so many interesting creatures in PNG takes much of the pressure off finding these critters during our Seven Seas trip. Unfortunately, visibility during much of this last PNG expedition was unusually poor. We simply didn’t get lucky with the weather. When conditions are even average, however, this has to be some of the best diving in the world. Of course, that’s why we chose to make two expeditions to PNG in the first place.

Our production team has only three weeks to recharge their batteries and dry-out their ears. In mid-May we leave for Expedition #3. This time we will visit the colder waters of South Australia aboard Princess II.

For those interested in the details of our last expedition, my journal follows.

UNDER THE SEA 3D: Expedition #2
Howard Hall

April 1, 2008 Dinah’s Beach

The Star Dancer is moored at Dinah’s beach resting in mirror calm water. The dawn sun is bouncing diamonds off the placid surface in a dazzling display of tropical aquatic paradise. There’s no swell, no wind, no current. A hundred feet from the stern, verdant jungle rises along steep mountain slopes. Village cook fires leave blue-grey smoke hanging in dank, motionless clouds beneath the towering jungle canopy.

Michele and I are finally back at Dinah’s Beach near Milne Bay. It’s been thirteen years since we were here filming an episode of our TV series, Secrets of the Ocean Realm, aboard Bob Halstead’s boat Telita. Bob is with us once again, acting as our guide. Today is day #1 of our second Under the Sea 3D expedition and all is well with the world as far as I am concerned.

Our trip did not begin easily. We had no volcano erupting to interrupt our travel at the beginning of this trip as we did in January. In fact this time the obstacles were arguably more traumatic than erupting volcanoes. This time the trauma came in the form of an almost unimaginably inefficient and intractable PNG immigration department.

Our efforts to acquire work visas began many months before the start of our first PNG trip. But the PNG Immigration Office in Port Moresby refuses to begin processing applications for work visas until 30 days prior to travel. Factor in weekends, Christmas and Easter holidays, and that leaves a matter of days to get visas processed – even if things go according to procedure. They did not. Although we were repeatedly promised our visas would arrive on time, just as they did on our previous trip, we became increasingly nervous as the day of departure neared. But we didn’t panic. In January our visas arrived 12 hours before our crew began boarding planes.

This time, on the day Michele and I were scheduled to depart, immigration promised our visas would arrive that very morning. But something went wrong. We called the embassy in Washington DC to learn the necessary letter of authority had not arrived by fax as promised. Because there is a twelve-hour time difference between Port Moresby and Washington DC, there was no way the two offices could ever talk in real time. Over the next few days the Port Moresby office promised the letter had been faxed four times. But each time the DC consulate opened the next morning (after the office in Port Moresby had closed), we learned it had not arrived. Our departure date was repeatedly delayed causing massive changes in ten airlines’ reservation, airport transfers, hotels, etc. It became a nightmare for Michele and Amanda Lee in Toronto, and Max Benjamin and Vilia Lawrence in Port Moresby (who were doing their best to get action from the Immigration office).

Eventually we appealed to Bob Halstead’s wife Dinah who has excellent contacts with the Prime Minister’s office. Finally a midnight call from the Prime Minister’s office to the Ambassador in Washington resulted in activity at the consulate. Two days after our scheduled departure the consulate opened to find a special IMAX courier sitting on their doorstep. He caught a noon flight to LAX where he met our crew with their visas and passports two hours before our flight time. We were on our way.

I am totally convinced the visas never would have arrived without the tireless efforts of Dinah Halstead, Vilia Lawrence, Max Benjamin, in concert with the countless hours invested by Michele and Amanda.

April 4, 2008

Observation Point

We have been diving day and night and it’s been difficult finding the energy to maintain my journal. We spent our first two days diving at Dinah’s Beach. During that time we captured a great shot of a tiger mantis shrimp attacking a cardinal fish and many nice shots of reef cuttlefish feeding at night.

Yesterday we arrived at Observation Point and it has proved extremely productive. We started yesterday by filming a lovely wonderpus – one of four we have seen in two days. But today we really got lucky. Today I think we captured our best sequence so far - after nearly breaking all records for bottom time and number of braces shot. It’s been a long day.

This morning we took the camera into the mangroves at 8:30 am using snorkels. Sky was overcast and, in fact, it was raining most of the time. We need sun to shoot in the mangroves, but since the mangrove shot will be difficult because of the extremely silty bottom, we wanted to get in there and practice our camera moves when disturbing the bottom would not be an issue. As we were swimming back to the boat from our practice run, someone yelled down to us that Digger had found three flamboyant cuttlefish and that they were mating. We immediately donned rebreathers and were back in the water in five minutes. I climbed out of the water 5.75 hours later. Most of that time was spent at about 70 feet followed by 40 minutes of decompression.

During that single dive we shot five braces of film. Arguably the first roll doesn’t count since Stuart and Dylan found significant perforation damage on one of the rolls and since during filming the camera jammed twice. To start with we needed to shoot that roll over again. So assuming the first brace was damaged, we shot three braces with the 80mm lens and one establishing brace with the 40mm. (note: later, after processing, we learned that the first 80mm brace was undamaged).

What we captured was almost certainly something really special. We filmed two small male flamboyant cuttlefish courting and mating with a large five-inch long female. No one on board had ever seen such a display, except Bob Halstead. Peter, who has filmed cuttlefish for the BBC in Indonesia has never seen a female so large and has never witnessed courtship. To say that the colors are spectacular is understatement.

We ended up having lunch at 4pm. Then, after a two-hour break, we went back in the water and filmed the large female hunting at night. We think we managed to film her catching two fish.

All anyone wanted for dinner was a bowl of soup and a stiff drink. It was a great day. I hope I didn’t screw it up. If I got it right, these cuttlefish will be in the film.

April 5, 2008

We didn’t expect to accomplish much today. We woke to dark overcast and wind. That soon developed into a constant rain that lasted all day. We put so much time in the water yesterday that I didn’t mind very much. The crew and I were pretty beat.

After a late breakfast, we took the camera down to film a rather pretty tube anemone that had a school of small fish hiding in the tentacles. Water visibility had deteriorated due to the run-off from the rain and the shot didn’t look as good as it might have yesterday. We rolled twenty seconds of the anemone then looked for other subjects that would work well with the close-up lens. Before I knew it, two hours had elapsed, visibility had worsened, and nothing looked to be worth filming. We decided to surface for an early lunch and then do some black sand habitat establishing shots with the wide lens. At lunch I told Peter that this is the sort of day that seems certain to produce absolutely nothing worthwhile then something unusual catches you off guard. I didn’t actually believe it myself, but it turned out to be a prescient comment.

We took the camera down to do the black sand establishers and noticed that reef squid had gathered over a small coral head and were laying eggs. We set up on the scene and turned on the lights. Predictably, the squid vanished. We waited two hours. The squid didn’t come back. So we moved down the slope and filmed the establishers. We had told the captain, Greg Bell (who replaced Peter Mantz from our first expedition), that we would be back on board by 4 pm so that we could leave the area during remaining daylight.

After we rolled out on the lovely establishers of mud, we moved up the slope and saw a dozen squid around the coral head. We shinned the lights on them expecting the squid to disappear again, but they stayed. I called for a film change and let the surface crew know that departure from Observation Point would be delayed.

We surfaced four and a quarter hours later, well after sunset and after shooting two spectacular braces of reef squid laying eggs.

April 7, 2008
Black and Silver Reef

We’re at a reef near East Cape called Black and Silver, which references the colors on the black coral trees here. It’s a great site and I remember filming beautiful anemones here for Secrets of the Ocean Realm fifteen years ago. Conditions haven’t been great. Visibility has been relatively poor and the currents have been strong at times. We scouted the area yesterday without taking the camera in the water. Today we made two very long dives – 3.25 hours and 3.5 hours respectively. During those dives we shot four full braces and 250 feet of a fifth. On each of these rolls we had planned to film anemonefish, but in each case we found something more rare and more interesting. We’ll have to get to anemonefish another time.

Before I jumped in on our first dive, Michele called down from the upper deck to say that Peter had discovered an epaulette shark (Hemiscyllium sp.). This is a small shark that walks on the bottom using its fins. This one, found only in the Milne Bay area, is actually an undescribed species – a very nice plus for us and our film. When I got down and we got all the gear set up, Mark created a bait trail toward the camera and the shark walked into frame as if it had rehearsed the scene. We then spent an hour or so trying to get a repeat performance, but by then the shark had retired from performance art. Still the first shot is a good one.

During the process of baiting the shark, we attracted a very large moray eel – nearly as large as the one that bit Mark in Saudi Arabia a few months ago. We captured some very nice scenes of the eel being cleaned by a several large cleaner wrasses. These are much better shots than we captured of the small eel during our last trip.

As we finished the eel shot, Bob Halstead reported that he had found a Rhinopias or Lacy Scorpionfish (Rhinopias aphanes). So before surfacing we shot a second roll of the scorpionfish. We hoped to get a shot of it feeding, but had to settle for a nice portrait with the 80mm lens. This is a very weird fish and was on our shot list as part of a scorpionfish montage.

After three and a quarter hours we surfaced for lunch. We went back in the water a little after 2 pm.
Using the 40mm lens, we tried to get a shot of a blue spotted ray feeding. The stingray did not cooperate. But while pursuing the stingray, we came across a different species of blue-spotted stingray buried in the sand. We used some bait expecting to entice the ray into dramatically emerging from the sand as the camera was rolling. It didn’t. The camera rolled and the ray did nothing. With the camera now turned off, Peter tried putting fish right in the ray’s face. It jumped up out of the sand and moved away a few feet and seemed to start hunting. I began rolling the camera and just as I rolled out, the ray unexpectedly and spectacularly buried itself again. I called for a film reload and we re-shot the sequence. The ray buried itself twice on film. We used the remainder of the roll to shoot scenes of current running through sea fans.

After returning the camera to the surface and while we were decompressing, Michele called down to tell us there may have been damage to the film load. Stuart and Dylan discovered perforation damage on one of the rolls. We’ll have to wait and cross our fingers on the ray shot. (note: again, we learned after processing that this roll proved undamaged).

After finishing a 48-foot deep stop, I moved up into 30 feet of water to finish my decompression. It was getting dark and the current was picking up. That is when I discovered the stonefish. This was a beautiful animal about the size of a football. It was sitting in a perfect position for filming with the 80mm lens. Somewhat guiltily I called for a film change and a lens change.

By the time the camera came down, the current was raging and the stonefish had begun to move. We did the best we could to capture some shots of this amazing animal, but after two short, but rather nice, takes the fish swam away. By this time the current was really raging and our three-man launch and recovery crew along with two of the Star Dancer’s divemasters were faced with a very challenging recovery. I watched from below as these divers beautifully choreographed a very difficult recovery in strong current and nasty wind chop on the surface.

So at the end of the day we finished with a nice shot of the epaulette shark, an improved moray eel shot, a couple of good shots of a lacy scorpionfish, a couple shots of a stonefish, and hopefully a nice shot of a ray burying itself (if the brace is undamaged). All in all, it was a very good day’s work.

Tomorrow we plan to drop film off at the dock in East Cape to be trucked to Alotau and then shipped on to Los Angeles for processing. I hope it all arrives safely.

April 8, 2008
Dinah’s Beach

We’re back at Dinah’s Beach. We went out to Black and Silver this morning but conditions were too rough to launch the camera. So we returned to this sheltered cove and the mud. We didn’t get in the water until after lunch. I took a couple shots of bleaching corals and some interesting examples of re-growth on a brain coral. Then we spent a couple hours trying to get a mantis shrimp to take a hermit crab – without luck.

Tonight we plan to shoot several species of lionfish that we saw here earlier. That should be productive if things go well.

April 9, 2008
Samarai Wharf

We seem to be chasing the weather a lot. Yesterday we spent all afternoon underwater at Black and Silver reef. During one 4.5-hour dive we shot four species of lionfish with the wide 40mm lens. Then, right at sunset, we set up on a school of Anthias hovering over a large staghorn coral. These are pretty orange fish that dart in and out of the coral. It looked to be a beautiful shot even though the visibility had decreased markedly. We spent considerable time setting the camera on the tripod, weighting everything down, adjusting the lights, etc. When we were all set and ready to turn the camera on, the Anthias began spawning. So, hell, I turned the camera on and we filmed Anthias spawning. It was easy. I moved the camera in a bit for a better frame and shot a second take. They spawned again. It was easy, but don’t ask me to do it again. I had never even seen it happen before, yet alone filmed it. It was a lucky shot. But, of course, the definition of luck is a combination of opportunity and preparedness. You can’t get lucky unless you are down there trying.

We were anxious to get back out to Black and Silver Reef to resume our work this morning. But when we arrived at the reef, visibility was terrible and the wind was howling. So Bob Halstead suggested we head south to Samarai Island where we hope to film catfish schools, convict fish, and possibly a manta cleaning station. We won’t arrive there until after noon.

Yesterday we dropped off 19 braces of film at a very primitive dock in the village of East Cape. I was encouraged that Lilly, from TNT shipping, arrived more or less on time and with a decent vehicle. In a country where many people have no word for numbers beyond 17 (beyond 17 is simply “plenty”) it is easy to become skeptical about logistical plans. But Lilly was a well-educated and capable lady and so I think most of my concerns were satisfied. In any case, the film is off to the lab a half a world away. I hope they don’t spill their wine on it. I think there are some good shots in there.

I didn’t expect to accomplish much today. The Samarai Island dive is a dive beneath the town wharf. It’s not a pretty bottom – plenty of old tires, beer and wine bottles, and over one hundred year’s accumulation of miscellaneous trash. But for some reason the animals seem to like it – especially weird critters like convict fish and catfish.

We shot three braces of catfish today and barring some unforeseen horror revealed in processing, several of these shots will certainly be in the film. The catfish school is a swarm of fish about twice the size of a basketball. The fish travel over the bottom like a living waterfall. It’s impossible to describe. You’ll just have to see the film. The action is spectacular. We shot two braces with the 80mm and one with the 40mm.

Tomorrow we plan to go out to the manta cleaning station about forty minutes away. I’m almost afraid to hope that we get lucky tomorrow. We’re pretty early in the season for mantas. But visibility here at Samarai is better than we expected and so perhaps the cleaning station will be clear and active.

April 12, 2008
Gonu Bala Bala Island

During the last few days we’ve been chased from spot to spot by wind, murky water, and/or current. We have already done so well on this trip that I suspect the last couple days just represents averaging our luck down a bit toward normal.

Capturing marine wildlife behavior in IMAX 3D can be easy, when the action and conditions are totally predictable or when the action and conditions are serendipitous. The problem is that it’s not easy to tell which is the case at hand. In fact, it can be impossible to know when action happening in front of the camera is an easy shot, reproducible any day of the week and probably done better tomorrow when water visibility may be better, or when behavior happening in front of the camera happens to be a once-in-an-expedition or even a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Case in point. Day before yesterday we arrived at Gonu Bala Bala Island, where there is a manta ray cleaning station. It was late morning and the water was calm with a mild current. Visibility was not great but Halstead said it look surprisingly good for this time of year. And there were mantas swimming all around the boat. We put the camera in the water and pulled it over to the cleaning station with the scooter. Peter and I set up the camera as mantas swam over us. We elected not to use lights due to the high ambient light level. After we were ready we immediately filmed several mantas as they entered the cleaning station. It was easy. Due to the mediocre water visibility the shots may not be great, but you can clearly see small cleaner wrasses pecking at the mantas as they pass the rock (which serves as the cleaning station).

After several nice and very easy shots the current abated and the mantas went away. Mantas only come to the station when there is current since current allows them to hover over the rock as the wrasses do their work. We had 500 feet left in the camera so we hung around for another couple of hours without seeing mantas then returned to the boat with big plans to nail the sequence tomorrow. We planned to be up at dawn and in the water before 7:30 am. We would shoot the hell out of it and be on our way back to the Black and Silver Reef by mid-afternoon.

You may have guessed where this is heading. The mantas never showed up today. We were down shortly after dawn and stayed for hours. Eventually, we turned the camera power off to conserve battery power. One manta swam by as we feverishly tried to power-up the camera. We were ready for a second pass, but the manta never came back.

We arrived back at the Black and Silver Reef in time for a late afternoon dive. Visibility was terrible and we never took the camera in the water. We had planned a night dive, but aborted that due to the visibility and current.

We plan to move off to a different reef system tomorrow where we hope to find better water visibility. We need to stay in this area for a while to facilitate a film drop day after tomorrow. Then we’ll head back north to try working in the mangroves again.

April 15, 2008
Calypso Reef

This morning we were at the dock in Alotau where we took on fuel and dropped off fourteen braces of film. We have been diving at Calypso Reef for the last couple of days. We had hoped to find clear water there, but conditions proved to be no better than at the other reef system that includes Black and Silver Reef. Visibility has been around 50 feet with lots of suspended matter. That’s not bad for California water conditions, but it’s terrible for here. That water visibility is so poor is a shame because these reefs are truly remarkable. Our trip is not over yet and there is some evidence that the wind direction is shifting which might bring in some clear water.

In the meantime, we have captured many of the sequences we had hoped for. During the last couple of days we have been concentrating on convictfish. These small fish form enormous swarms numbering in the many thousands. They look like catfish and, in fact, when I have seen them in the past I assumed there were catfish that behaved oddly. They don’t form balls that roll over the bottom feeding like the catfish do.

The cool thing is that the entire swarm lives in a burrow. At sunset they dive into the burrow like liquid flowing through a funnel. It’s quite impressive. Night before last, we shot the behavior with the 40mm lens. Last night we got it with the 80mm. I would like to shoot one more scene of the swarm itself with the 40mm to complete the sequence. We hope to do that tomorrow night.

In addition to the convictfish, we have captured some interesting images of Calypso Reef. Two things are interesting about this reef. One is that it is now experiencing a mild bleaching episode. We have shot a number of scenes that well demonstrate coral bleaching.

The other interesting thing is that, according to Bob Halstead, this reef bleached completely in 1996 and all the hard corals died. Now, just twelve years later, the coral cover is nearly complete and there are table corals here that span more than six feet in diameter. Should we wish to, the footage we captured can show how quickly coral reefs can recover if water conditions change favorably. If we’re looking for a positive way to end the film, this may be it.

The other good news is that we scouted a very nice mangrove area yesterday. By the time we finished our scout, the tide was too low to shoot. But if we get good sun tomorrow, we should be able to knock off our mangrove sequence tomorrow. Of course, it’s raining now as we sit at the dock.

After dropping off the film, we steamed across the bay to the wreck of the Muscoota. This American-made 1873 steel-hulled sailing boat was used to transfer coal to warships during the war. It sank here in a small harbor. Michele and I filmed anemonefish and shrimpfish here in May 1995 when the water was quite clear. Today the water was the same color and quality as Santa Monica Bay. That is to say it stunk. We made a long dive looking for subjects that might look good filmed in murky water but, not surprisingly, couldn’t find any.

Tonight we will steam back to the harbor with the nice mangroves. We certainly need sun and will need just a little luck to get it.

April 17, 2008
J Bay, Normanby Island

This morning finds us back in J Bay on Normanby Island after a rather rough five-hour crossing from the Muscoota, night before last. During the crossing it rained all night accompanied by roaring winds. We awoke to more rain. Our mangrove shot was out of the question so we did some very nice shots of rain on the surface with mangroves in the background. We did this by lowering the housed camera on its cable until the lens was only inches above the surface. We tried several altitudes, but I think keeping the lens about 12 inches above the water is ideal. The shot looked quite good. I hope we get a chance to shoot a sunset the same way but I’m beginning to feel like I would settle for any kind of sunny day period. It has been pouring rain now for 36 hours.

After filming rain in the mangroves, we went out to the reef hoping to film some simple shots of corals and colorful fish. Water visibility was really terrible until we got down below 90 feet. Then it was clear but dark. We decided that 90 or 100 feet was too deep to sit for hours waiting for an angelfish to swim into the lights. That can take hours.

We returned to Star Dancer after our scouting dive to find an increasing wind and building seas. We decided to wait it out hoping for a break in the clouds and better conditions for launching the camera and filming after lunch. Instead it got darker and rained harder. It rained so hard that the rain knocked down the wind chop and it got rather calm. So, we filmed another rain shot with the camera hanging from the cable. I was glad to get this shot. Now we have what should be very visceral shots of the ocean surface in rain both in the mangroves and in open ocean.

A comment I have heard repeatedly over the years is how great the second shot in Into the Deep is. It was a shot taken in a California kelp forest from the swim step of the Conception. We did similar shots for Deep Sea 3D but they never seemed to have the same impact. I think the difference in impact has to do with the subtle difference in distance between the lenses and the water surface. Since Into the Deep we have never managed to get the lenses so close to the water. Well we’ve fixed that. With the housing hanging from the hoist cable, instead of sitting on the swim step, we have been able to lower the camera so that the lens is less than twelve inches from the surface. I think these shots will be great. Now if we can just get conditions allowing us to do a few nice sunset shots in the same way.

During our last trip and during the first portion of this trip, we often scrambled to get a rain shot each time a squall approached. In all cases we failed to get the camera ready until the deluge had passed. Now I can’t believe I ever wished for rain. It has been raining very hard since night before last – 36 hours straight. We had hoped to film sunshine dappling through mangrove roots this morning. Not only do we not have sun, but the water has turned reddish brown with rain run-off. Going out to the reef is a non-starter due to storm conditions out there now. So we have the morning off, perhaps longer if this rain doesn’t stop.

But now for the good news. Last night we filmed the convict blennies again. I wanted to get shots of the swarm separate from them entering the den. This would allow us to cut between the 40mm and 80mm shots of the fish streaming into their burrow. These swarming shots look great. We also noticed that at certain - and we think predictable - times the adult emerges from the den to signal the swarm that it is time to come in. We actually got a shot of this monster with the 40mm, but he is certainly too far away to be very exciting. So, if conditions improve out on the reef, we’re going to go back out with the 80mm and try to get a shot of the adult sticking its head out as the babies swarm in.

The relationship between the adult convictfish and the juveniles is one of the really weird things in the animal kingdom. Adults are two feet long and a couple inches in diameter whereas the juveniles are never seen longer than a couple inches. The adults never leave the den, so what do they feed on? Do they eat their young? Do the baby convictfish feed the adults? How to juveniles reach adulthood? Among ichthyologists, these are real mysteries. If we get a good shot of the adult, we’ll be able to illustrate the mystery. I prefer the rather romantic notion that the babies come home each night and some sacrifice themselves to nourish the adults. Very icky, don’t you think?

April 19, 2008
Dobu Island

Yesterday we went four hours north to Dobu Island. Bob Halstead had told us about some interesting underwater volcanic vents there. Although we scouted a good location for filming vents in Indonesia, we decided to take a look. It turned out to be a good move. We found rather spectacular venting with hot gas bubbles rising right through healthy corals. In one shot, gas is bubbling up through the bottom right next to a clown anemonefish. We shot one brace with the 40mm and half a brace with the 80mm. Now we can skip the location we planned to visit in Indonesia, which will give us at least an additional day to focus on other things.

After filming the gas vents we descended further down the slope and set the camera up on a giant shrimp goby. These are spectacular animals about ten inches long with a symbiotic shrimp about the size of a crayfish. Not surprisingly, as we set up the camera the fish retreated into its hole. We waited for about an hour for the fish to come back out, but during that time, its den spontaneously collapsed. We never touched it. It just collapsed. I couldn’t believe it. So we moved further down slope and found a second goby. An hour later it was beginning to get dark and the fish had yet to re-emerge. At sunset we gave up and filmed a couple shots of a fire urchin with a group of fish hiding among the spines.

We left Dobu in early evening and returned to J Bay hoping for sunshine and good conditions to film in the mangroves. The crossing from Dobu was rough during the night and we woke in the bay to near gale-force winds. The good news is that the sun had finally come back to the blue sky, and for the first time in days there was no sign of rain.

Peter scouted the mangroves early in the morning as the tide receded. Visibility was terrible mostly due to the outgoing tide and the waves kicked up by the wind. We debated moving the boat back up to Observation Point, but decided that this could be our last chance to film in mangroves. We never found a better location during our scouts to Australia or Indonesia. So we decided to wait for the tide to turn and hope for a break in the wind. Meanwhile, the crew has begun breaking down non-essential gear and performing end-of-trip maintenance. With wind conditions as they were, there was nowhere else to go and nothing else to do.

The tide went out all day. By evening we realized we needed to shoot the mangroves in the morning even though the tide would already be falling.

April 20, 2008
Black and Silver Reef

This morning we shot another brace in the mangroves. There should be a shot in there that we can use to transition our film from mangroves to the silt and sand slope beyond where we have filmed so many interesting creatures. After our mangrove shot we left J Bay and headed out to Calypso Reef. As we passed over it, we didn’t even consider stopping. Visibility had gone from terrible to worse. So we decided to continue heading back toward Alotau and have a look at Black and Silver Reef on the way.

We arrived at Black and Silver just after lunch. Conditions were poor but workable. We decided to make a long dive to film stingrays hunting in the sand. This was one of four requests Toni made after viewing the first batch of footage in LA.

Visibility was terrible down to about one hundred feet. So we spent an hour in deep water doing our best to approach stingrays. We never got a shot of one feeding, but we did get one nice shot of one sitting beneath a black coral tree and then leaving as if on cue.

With decompression time piling up fast, we moved into shallow water where Dave spotted a Lacy Scorpionfish. This turned out to be the same Lacy we filmed several days earlier. But we took a couple short takes of him anyway. Additional Lacy Scorpionfish footage was number two on Toni’s list of four requests. Number three was more shots of the Milne Bay Epaulette Shark.

Since Epaulette sharks are nocturnal, we decided to make one last night dive in hopes of filming these guys out feeding. It seemed like a good idea at the time. But as we watched the sun fall below the horizon, we could see that the current was getting strong. We already knew that visibility was terrible. I told the crew that our four rebreather divers would go down and call for the camera if conditions were workable and if we saw a shark.

When I reached the bottom I almost landed on a shark. Despite the ripping current, I called for the camera.

It was not a successful dive. It took two divers to hold the light cables against the current and it was everything Peter and I could do to move the camera. The shark split as soon as the lights came on. Peter offered it bait, but it was not interested. Two other sharks were sited by Digger and other crewmembers. But the sharks simply wouldn’t cooperate and Peter and I simply couldn’t move the camera over the reef effectively. After an hour or so, I called the dive and the launch and recovery crew came down to recover the camera. Drew hooked the scooter to the camera and then turned down current and sped away from the Star Dancer. Everyone was yelling through their comms, “Drew, you’re going the wrong way.” Eventually, I ended up with the scooter and started pulling the camera back toward the boat. As I led the group back toward Star Dancer I realized that I have almost no experience recovering the camera. The other guys have had five or more weeks of practice. And due to the terrible water visibility and strong current, I wasn’t exactly on track for intercepting the stern. Fortunately Digger came to my rescue and guided me back to the stern saving me some probable embarrassment.

This night dive may have been the first dive we made in PNG where we failed to roll any film. Ironically, it is also the last dive we will make in PNG for our film.

April 22, 2008

Our diving for the Papua New Guinea portion Under the Sea 3D is now over.

Star Dancer is tied up to the wharf at the Alotau International Hotel. It is very kind of the hotel management to allow us to use their dock to organize and off-load our gear. All the gear is now in a shipping container sitting on the grass behind the hotel bar. The hotel manager assures us the location is secure. The container is behind a gate that is locked at night and there is 24-hour guard service. Doug Maskelyne suggested the container will be safer here than at the shipping dock in Alotau. It will be here for five days before being loaded on a boat to Port Moresby. From Port Moresby it will be shipped via air cargo to Adelaide. We hope to see our equipment again in Port Lincoln Australia in just about three weeks time.

It seems that film expeditions most often end with a flurry of good filming opportunities. There is a logic to this. By the end of a trip, a film crew is always more familiar with the diving conditions and the marine life and this experience usually leads to enhanced opportunities. This trip has been an exception. We got quite unlucky with the weather. Visibility was not great when we started and got progressively worse as the trip progressed. This is a shame because these are some of the most beautiful reefs in the world. Despite the poor conditions, we captured great 3D images during our Milne Bay trip. But it could have been much better if the weather had not been unusually nasty.

Expedition #3
South Australia aboard the Princess II

Preface
We have just returned from a great shoot in South Australia. We were lucky with both the weather and the marine life, and we came home with even better images than I had hoped for.

We spent three weeks aboard the Princess II, which is used exclusively by Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions for running three and five-day Great White Shark trips. But the boat is well equipped to support much longer liveaboard diving expeditions and was perfect for our IMAX 3D charter.

Rodney’s son, Andrew, runs the company now and leads the expeditions. He and his crew did an excellent job of preparing the boat to handle the underwater 3D camera system. Ian Paterson (Pato) and Andrew’s wife, Silvy, were both extremely helpful in preparing for our charter. Once at sea, Pato spent most of his time in the galley. In addition to being a professional diver, he is also an excellent cook. Pato’s brother, Tim, was along as a deckhand and spent many long hours out bobbing on the wind-swept waters in the inflatable that supported our generator and deployed our underwater lights. Jennifer Taylor (Tinker) was aboard to help and to capture video of our operation. Andrew and Tinker also did more than their fair share of time out in the inflatable.

Our captain was John MacLaughlin (Mulga), who ably steered us through near gale-force winds as we traveled the southern waters off Cape Catastrophe. But our most celebrated crewmember was Rodney Fox himself. Despite being the world’s most famous shark attack survivor, Rodney has devoted his life to the popularization and the protection of the great white. Many an evening was spent listening to Rodney as he regaled our crew with stories from a lifetime of diving adventure. He is one of those rare members of the diving community who seems several inches taller when wearing a wet suit. Rodney’s familiarity with the South Australian marine habitat was invaluable during our trip. Rodney also did time in the inflatable and out on the swim-step helping Andrew keep the chum slick going when we were filming sharks.

The first portion of our charter was spent 150 miles north of Port Lincoln in the Spencer Gulf. There we met Dr. Mark Norman, who guided us through the courtship behavior of the Giant Cuttlefish. These are the largest cuttlefish in the world – sometimes exceeding four feet in length. During the spawning season, thousands gather in the shallow waters near Whyalla to mate and lay eggs. The threat displays between competing males was especially spectacular.

After four days of filming cuttlefish, we moved south and around the Yorke Peninsula and then north to Wool Bay. Here we spent several days filming Leafy Sea Dragons. Carey Harmer was our guide at Wool Bay. He has spent thousands of hours underwater studying the dragons and he knows the entire resident population by name. During our scouting trip last September, Carey showed us two new juveniles who he named Michele (after our able field producer) and IMAX. Now, nine months later, both IMAX and Michele had become splendid adults. Appropriately, they became the subject of our Leafy Sea Dragon sequence. In addition to being our guide for the sea dragon sequence, Carey stayed aboard the Princess II to help with launch and recovery operations during the entire voyage.

After filming the Leafys, we moved to Hopkins Island to film Australian Sea Lions. These are the most photogenic sea lions in the world owing largely to their blonde fur. They are also among the most endangered. The sea lions were so enthralled by their own reflections in the large IMAX lens port that Peter and I had to repeatedly shoo them away to capture their 3D image at minimum focus.

After filming the sea lions, we traveled out to North Neptune Island where we filmed Giant Stingrays and Great White Sharks. Before putting bait in the water we spent a day diving in the cage to practice the techniques we would use to get the camera down to the bottom and back to the surface (the camera is too big to practically operate from inside a shark cage). We also practiced the methods we expected to employ while operating the camera and lights from the special three-sided shark cage Rodney’s crew had prepared for us. All of our carefully thought-out techniques functioned as planned. The only step we hadn’t previously worked out was the attaching and releasing of the camera from the winch cable. With great whites lurking below, putting a diver in the water to do this would be risky. Fortunately, Dave Forsyth came up with an innovative procedure avoiding the necessity of putting a diver in the water. The next day Peter, Mark, Jeff and I made a long dive and captured some excellent scenes of great whites. The day after that, the wind began to blow forcing us away from the Neptunes.

During the next few days we filmed Weedy Sea Dragons at Kangaroo Island, including nice shots of the dragons feeding on swarms of mysid shrimp that hovered above the reef. Then after the wind subsided we returned to the Neptune Island for an additional two days filming Giant Stingrays and Great White Sharks. In the end we captured seven braces of film of the Great White Shark – far more than we will need.

I want to once again thank Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions for an incredible trip. And, of course, I want to thank my own crew of world-class divers who continue to make working with the massive IMAX 3D system possible. We are all now looking forward to our Undersea Explorer trip to the Great Barrier Reef and the Coral Sea in just over five weeks from now.

Following are my log entries for our South Australian Expedition

UNDER THE SEA 3D: Expedition #3
Howard Hall

May 20, 2008
Adelaide, South Australia

Our third filming adventure for Under the Sea 3D really started at the warehouse in Adelaide, South Australia where Michele and I stopped on our way to Port Lincoln to make sure all the gear was there and ready to be trucked south. The last time we had seen the nearly 8,000 pounds of gear was when we apprehensively left it in a beat-up shipping container on the grass behind the hotel in Port Moresby, PNG. So it was with some comfort that we saw the stuff neatly stacked in the back of the warehouse in Adelaide where Tonia told us we would find it. However, it would have been considerably more comforting had the two IMAX 3D cameras been stacked among all the rest of the gear. That most everything was there except for the two multi-million dollar cameras was a bit of a mystery and immediately threw us into a minor state of a panic. I began to wonder what might be accomplished during a three-week trip aboard the Princess II if the cameras couldn’t be found. I also began to wonder how much an unethical entrepreneur might get for the cameras if they were sold for parts. Probably a couple hundred bucks at best.

Fortunately, the panic was short-lived as one of the warehouse attendants soon found the gear we were missing and used a forklift to move it over to join the other stuff. I wondered, had Michele not insisted we go by the warehouse, if the two IMAX cameras would have been included in the shipment to Port Lincoln.

May 23, 2008
Whyalla
Black Point (Cuttlefish Site) 32 59 586 S 137 43 381 E

We arrived in Port Lincoln in pouring rain and cold wind. The sky was dark and it seemed like we were much closer to the Antarctic Continent than a few thousand miles. We soon learned from Rodney and Andrew Fox that it had been raining and blowing off and on for weeks. The terrible drought that South Australia had suffered for many years seemed to have broken just in time for our arrival. The following day, however, we woke to a beautiful sunrise and clearing skies.

Yesterday we spent all day loading the boat. Since the Princess II is smaller than the Star Dancer, we needed to unpack and store many of our shipping containers ashore. We began working at dawn and the process took the entire day, leaving everyone exhausted. Peter, Mark, and Jeff went straight to bed without dinner. My back was in terrible shape by evening, and I began to worry that I had exacerbated the old surfing injury I suffered in the early 1970’s that kept me mostly off my feet for nearly a year. This morning, however, I woke feeling fine as the Princess II steamed north through the Spencer Gulf on our way to Whyalla.

Today started off with seemingly hopeless prospects, then ended with an enormous surprise. As the Princess II steamed up the Spencer Gulf Peter and I stood on the bow under a cloudless sky watching bright red jellyfish drift by beneath the boat. Occasionally, bottlenose dolphins would race up to bow ride. The bad news is that visibility was terrible. Even out in the middle of the Gulf visibility was entirely unworkable. As the dolphins jumped and dived in the boat’s bow wake, they would disappear only six feet beneath the surface. Apparently, all the recent rain has either stirred up the bottom in the Gulf or fueled a massive plankton bloom. We desperately hoped visibility would be better off Whyalla when we arrived there late this afternoon. But it seems like bad water visibility is following us around the world like some sort of malevolent and ghostly presence that is growing more cruel with each trip.

Just after noon we picked up Dr. Mark Norman on the shore near Whyalla. Dr. Norman is a world-renown cephalopod expert and has spent hundreds if not thousands of hours studying the giant cuttlefish off Whyalla. Meanwhile Thurlow, Wildermuth, and Forsyth made a dive below the boat just off the beach where we hoped to film the cuttlefish. They surfaced to report a very murky ten-foot visibility. The situation looked very grim indeed. I asked Carey Harmer, our sea dragon expert, to call over to Wool Bay to check water visibility there should we decide to abort the cuttlefish and make the 36-hour trip to Wool Bay to start filming sea dragons. His friend in Wool Bay reported six-foot water clarity there. Prospects went from grim to dismal.

Of course, we had to swim over and scout the cuttlefish location despite the water visibility before making a final decision to commit ritual suicide. That’s when we got the big surprise. Inexplicably, water visibility was a workable fifteen feet when we dropped down on the reef. Cuttlefish were everywhere mating and fighting. And while we were down, visibility improved. After a half hour or so, we moved to a second site and visibility there was almost forty feet. To say that I was surprised and relieved is astronomical understatement.

So we ended the day with big plans to feed the huge IMAX camera enormous quantities of 70mm film tomorrow.

May 24, 2008
Whyalla

We shot four braces today during two dives. Our first dive was 2.75 hours and the second was 2.25 hours. Typically, the first day of dry suit diving with all the bulk and heavy weights, is exhausting. That was certainly true yesterday despite water temperatures being a modest 62 degrees and the depth only being 15 feet. The water is so shallow that the launch and recovery guys are bringing the camera to us on snorkel and when we need to communicate beyond the practicality of mumble comms, we just stick our heads above the surface.

The weather was great with wall-to-wall sunshine most of the day. And the cuttlefish performed beautifully. The giant cuttlefish are the largest cuttlefish in the world. Even with the wide 40mm lens they pretty much fill the frame when 3 feet away. The big males approach four feet in length. We filmed mating behavior and lots of threat displays by males competing for females. To say that these threat displays are spectacular is simple understatement. As good as the flamboyant cuttlefish sequence is from our second PNG trip, I suspect this footage will absolutely steal the show.

That the weather was so good today is, of course, ominous. It means it can only get worse. This is, after all, wintertime in South Australia. Due to the short days here, we pretty much dived dawn to dusk hedging our bets against the probability of a weather chance for the worse tomorrow.

May 26, 2008
Whyalla

The weather didn’t get worse. In fact, the sun stayed out most of the time and the wind entirely died today leaving the surface oily calm. Both Carey Harmer and Mark Norman commented on the almost magical luck we have had with the weather.

After two extremely productive days filming giant cuttlefish, we began this day awkwardly. We planned to descend with a half brace of film left over from yesterday and film close ups of cuttlefish camouflaged in the kelp with the 80mm lens. While waiting for the camera to come down I tried to find the source of a small leak in my right dry glove. In the process, I broke the seal and flooded the glove. Then after the camera arrived, Peter noticed that the 40mm lens was on rather than the 80mm. The director must have neglected to tell Stuart and Dylan what lens to mount. After discussing the situation for a couple minutes, Peter and I decided to skip the close-up and try to film a cuttlefish catching a swimming crab that Carey had caught next to the boat. Peter put it out the sand and I switched on the camera. What ensued was a spectacular battle between crab and a cuttlefish. The battle ended with the cuttlefish happily chewing his meal just as the camera rolled out. It was lucky shot indeed.

When Stuart and Dylan broke the camera down for a film change, a large moth flew out of the housing. Hopefully it wasn’t perched on the lens during the shot! (Note: It was an unlucky morning indeed. The damn moth was in the shot. Incredibly, it had spent the dive on the port right in front of the IMAX lenses. It is possible that the moth may be removed by a postproduction process, however.)

After the morning dive filming the cuttlefish/crab battle, we moved the boat to an area where dolphins are always seen hunting over the bottom. The dive is a slam-dunk; a sure thing; completely predictable and reliable according to the local divers. The dolphins didn’t show up. So we didn’t bat 1000 on the cuttlefish sequence, only 990.

It’s now late afternoon and we just sent Michele, Stuart, and Dylan into Whyalla with nine braces of exposed film to be shipped back for processing in California. The giant cuttlefish portion of our shoot is now over and I suspect this footage will prove to be the best thing we have captured in the film to date. The courtship and threat displays are amazing. And since these are the largest cuttlefish in the world, often reaching over four feet in length, they spectacularly fill the IMAX frame even with the wide 40mm lens. Because these cuttlefish are so large, it wasn’t necessary to use the 80mm lens, but we did anyway. These close-ups may simply be too intense for general audiences. With the 80mm lens, the faces of these cephalopods will appear nearly two feet across and less than three feet away in the IMAX 3D theater. The long tentacles will reach out to touch the viewer’s cheek. I hope I didn’t screw these shots up!

We will be traveling south all night and most of tomorrow to reach Wool Bay in the late afternoon. Sea Dragons are next on our list.

May 28, 2008
Wool Bay

Yesterday we spent all day traveling down the Spencer Gulf and around the Yorke Peninsula to reach Wool Bay by nightfall. And today we filmed Leafy Sea Dragons at the dark Stygian depth of ten feet. No concern about decompression sickness. I didn’t even bother entering the water with fins on. I do most of the camera work walking on the bottom anyway. At the end of each dive I simply walked back to the Princess II and jumped two feet to reach the dive ladder. Of course, the problem with working so shallow is that even the most gentle wind will create wind waves that are felt ten feet below the surface. Holding the IMAX 3D camera steady when the water is surging back and forth is a real challenge. But I’m not complaining. We remain blessed with good weather and predictions are excellent for the next few days. We know it can’t last, so we’ve been shooting film like there is no film budget.

Today we shot five braces on the Leafy Sea Dragons. We spent all morning concentrating on capturing a reveal of these spectacularly camouflaged creatures. It is my hope that the audience won’t know what there are looking at until it is essentially in their laps. This afternoon we concentrated on getting good close ups with the 80mm lens. Both of these shots have been difficult. I think we have the reveal nailed down, but I’m not so sure we have the close up. The depth-of-field with the 80mm lens is so narrow that it’s easy to lose focus at the critical moment. And we have been battling the awkward water movement typical of shallow water.

Tomorrow we hope to shoot more footage strongly backlit by the sun. My plan is to shoot another five braces. This may seem like too much footage for one animal sequence, but I believe the Leafy Sea Dragon may be emblematic for the film. There is simply no better marine life 3D image – if I get it right.

May 29, 2008
Wool Bay

What a difference a day makes. An onshore wind came up this morning. It has only been blowing about fifteen knots, but that’s more than enough to create wind waves and lots of surge in this very shallow water. Visibility decreased to less than a fourth what it was yesterday, maybe less. Jeff made a dive just before noon and reported terrible 10-foot visibility and lots of surge. The rest of us stayed on the surface waiting for the wind to die. It didn’t until almost sunset.

Late this afternoon Jeff made a second scouting dive and reported that conditions had improved dramatically. Over the underwater comm he reported that it was almost as good as yesterday. That was an exaggeration. But we were encouraged by the diminishing wind and so we took the camera in the water with the 40mm lens. We shot one brace of film trying to fill-light a strongly backlit subject against the setting sun. I suspect this brace won’t amount to much.

It’s very fortunate that we shot so much footage yesterday and that we left Whyalla when we did. I had considered staying in Whyalla one more day to try filming dolphins again. Had we done that, we would be filming dragons is these truly awful conditions today.

After sunset we left Wool Bay and the leafy dragons and headed south to Kangaroo Island. There we plan to film our Southern Ocean establishing shots, some endemic fish species and just maybe more leafy dragons. We plan to return to the site on Kangaroo Island that we scouted last September. There were supposed to be dragons there but we didn’t see them at the time. We were later told the dragons were just a bit deeper than we were looking. This time we will have the huge advantage of having Carey with us who seems to spot them easily thirty feet away. The rest of us can’t see them until we’re right on top of them and often not even then.

So, tomorrow we hope to wake up to calm condition at Kangaroo Island.

May 30, 2008
Wedge Island, North Island

Not. We got to Kangaroo Island at 2:30 am. It’s a long island oriented east and west. We approached the north side where we hoped to dive. Unfortunately, the wind had built all night and by the time we arrived at Kangaroo it was blowing hard onshore. We all gathered sleepily in the wheelhouse and discussed our limited options. We decided to abort our plans for Kangaroo and push further west to Wedge Island.

We reached Wedge at dawn and it didn’t look good. So we moved to a small adjacent island called North Island. There we found calm enough conditions to anchor the boat, but marginal conditions for launching the camera. No one on board had dived this particular site and so I had low expectations. In fact, I came very close to asking Mulga to pull the anchor again and push on to Hopkins Island (where we hope to film Australian Sea Lions). But the travel time to Hopkins would not have put us there with much time left to start filming operations today so I decided we would do an exploratory dive beneath the boat despite the marginal conditions. You’re never going to get the shot if you don’t make the dive to have a look. So off we went.

The dive was a surprise. Although the surge was quite strong, bordering on unworkable, the visibility was clear and the topography was impressive. What’s more, the anchor had landed next to a ridge that had a cave running through it that was large enough to get the camera inside. It looked like a potentially valuable shot, so we decided to launch.

Since we hadn’t really planned to do any filming on this site, it took the surface crew about forty minutes to get everything ready and send the camera down. With Peter hand-holding the lights and Mark and Dave on the cables, I managed to get several nice shots that look out from beneath the cave overhang and toward the algae-covered bottom. Lots of interesting fish swam in and out of the frame.

During the dive, conditions continued to worsen and by the time we rolled-out visibility had diminished markedly. So we only shot the one brace. But hopefully that will be enough to establish the character of the Southern Ocean continental shelf.

We reached Hopkins at sunset and conditions look quite good. There are far fewer sea lions here than I remember from earlier years but that is probably due to the season. Weather predictions for tomorrow are favorable and so with luck we’ll have all the sea lion footage we need by this time tomorrow. We’ve certainly been lucky so far.

May 31, 2008
Hopkins Island

Good news, bad news. The good news is that weather conditions at Hopkins were almost ideal all day. We shot four braces of Australian Sea Lion footage. The first was shot in overcast conditions, but the sun came out for the following three braces. The sea lions performed spectacularly. The algae-covered bottom was kaleidoscopic. Sometimes the sea lions were so close that we had to cut the camera and chase them away. They repeatedly put their noses right on the port enthralled by their own reflections. The camera seemed to work flawlessly.

The bad news is that I have no excuse for these images if they are not spectacular. Usually I can blame the surge, the current, the visibility, Peter, something. But today was nearly perfect. It doesn’t often get better. This puts a lot of pressure on me – having no excuse. I probably won’t sleep a wink tonight for worrying.

Our team went in the water around 10 am and we stayed down at the dark abyssal depth of ten feet for almost three hours shooting our first three braces. I didn’t dare stop shooting for fear conditions would change. It was too shallow and too bright to use lights so we shot everything with the 85 filter. The lab will have to print up the reds a bit, but the colors should be fine. We went back in after lunch and shot one more brace. I had thought to do a fifth, but conditions had become less than perfect and I couldn’t think of how to improve on what we had already done.

The Australian Sea Lion is among the most endangered of pinnipeds. There are only 12,000 or so remaining. They are also among the most beautiful of sea lions because their fur is blonde and their faces are exceptionally expressive. Their behavior lends itself well to the camera. They often sit still partially concealed by kelp fronds and allow you to photograph them from inches away. We did that. We often had the focus set at three feet or closer.

At sunset we went back in the water to film the setting sun as the camera was lowered on the winch. We did the shot twice exposing almost a half brace.

As I write this, we are just entering the harbor in Port Lincoln. The boat will spend tomorrow reprovisioning and some of us will drive down to the southern end of the peninsula to shoot seascapes. This time tomorrow night we should be on our way to North Neptune Island with shark cages tied down to the upper deck and a ton or so of frozen tuna in the freezer. At the North Neptune we hope to film wild flowers and great white sharks – not necessarily in that order of priority.

June 2, 2008
North Neptune Island

Yesterday the boat spent the day taking on supplies and fuel for the last and most exciting portion of our trip. While the boat crew was out buying stores, Peter, Michele, Jeff, Dylan, Stuart, and I took a van down to the southern tip of the Eyre Peninsula where we filmed coastal shots of Cape Wiles and Cape Carnot. Weather was sunny with calm winds and a gentle swell, not typical for this often savage area.

Today we made our first dives at North Neptune Island. Peter, Jeff, Mark, and I made the dives in the cage with no bait in the water. We had given a great deal of thought to safety procedures for filming white sharks here and we needed the day to test our ideas. Everything worked relatively well. But a rather powerful surge kicked up the bottom and made handling the camera much more difficult than I had expected if not impossible. It’s apparent we will need calmer conditions to actually film the sharks successfully.

To get the camera and all the gear down to the bottom is a real challenge. The four divers go down in a shark cage that has been specifically modified to operate the huge camera. Two large doors were installed that can be swung out to open up the entire front of the cage. Lights and other accessories are bungeed into the cage as we descend. The camera remains on the boat deck and is adjusted so that its buoyancy is about ten pounds positive. When I am ready for the camera, I call for it to be launched via the comm system. The camera is then launched from above and I pull it down via a rope which also acts as our safety line. The cage remains attached to the winch cable but plenty of slack is let out to prevent the rocking boat from tugging on the cage.

Our most vulnerable stage is probably as we pull the camera down, mount the lights, and add the ten pounds of weight. During this time Peter and I are mostly outside the cage and preoccupied with assembling the camera. Mark and Jeff watch over our shoulders to announce the presence of sharks and are prepared to use eight-foot prods (Mark calls them toothpicks) to push them off if necessary.

Once the camera is prepared and powered-up, we all back into the cage which leaves very little room for a shark to get to us without first eating about 1,200 pounds of IMAX gear. At the end of the dive we call for recovery then remove the lights and the ten-pound weight. The camera is then sent back to the stern via the safety line as Peter and I play it out from below.

That’s the theory anyway. In practice it was all more difficult than I had expected but we learned a great deal from our two practice dives and it can only get easier.

Unfortunately, the swell is supposed to pick up tomorrow which means that the surge will worsen. We’re going to need to get lucky with the weather one more time for this to work.

June 3, 2008
North Neptune

Today we made one three-hour dive at 47 feet. There were at least five great white sharks surrounding the cage and conditions were an improvement over yesterday. So, once again, we got lucky. During our three-hour dive we shot two and a half braces of film.

The shot I had wanted most was of a shark approaching from the distance and turning away only a couple feet from the camera. Peter and I moved outside the cage each time we saw an approaching shark. And there were several takes that seemed to be acceptable. There was one nice long take on the third brace that looks to be almost perfect. It lasted almost twenty seconds. As the shark turns (about three and a half feet from the camera) I managed to smoothly pan with it for several more seconds. Then the shark leaves the frame. I’m not sure how it could have been better. To smooth out the action and lengthen the scene we shot all but the last half of brace three at 32 frames per second.

Grab Frame from Imax Camera Video Viewfinder

At times the shark moved too close to the camera to film, and one time it moved past the camera and crashed into the cage just above my left shoulder rocking the cage and dislodging a tooth which then floated down to land neatly in my left hand – a terrific trophy!

Weather predictions for tomorrow are good and we hope to shoot three or four braces on one long dive. This time we will concentrate on interactions between the huge stingrays here and the sharks. But as of now, we have all the must-get sequences on our South Australia shot list.

June 5, 2008
Pissy Boy Rocks
Kangaroo Island

The surprisingly good conditions we enjoyed at North Neptune Island deteriorated rapidly after our one three-hour shark dive June 3rd. During the night a strong southeast wind began blowing – the worst possible direction for being at the Neptunes. Yesterday morning we moved the Princess II to South Neptune Island hoping for better protection from the building wind and swell, but we had no luck there either. It’s a shame too, because the water looked to be crystal clear at South Neptune and a large shark circled the boat soon after we set anchor.

Yesterday was spent bobbing at the anchor as twenty-five knot winds buffeted the boat. In the afternoon we received an updated weather forecast saying there would be at least two more days of strong southeast wind.

A southeast wind left us with few good options. I decided that the best of these was to return to Kangaroo Island. Pissy Boy Rocks on the north side of the island should be calm in a southeast. We had wanted to dive there after filming sea dragons at Wool Bay. But we passed the site during the night in rough northwest wind conditions and had to push on to Hopkins Island. So late afternoon yesterday evening we pulled up anchor and made a nasty five-hour crossing to Kangaroo Island that kept most of us uncomfortably bouncing in our bunks. Dinner was delayed until 10pm last night.

This morning we woke to calm seas on the protected north side of Kangaroo Island. Unfortunately, it was pouring down rain. Our gear made the crossing well and I was relieved that the wrecking ball IMAX housing stayed securely fastened to the rear deck with our four 1,200 pound ratchet straps. It was also good to see Carey Harmer return from the dead this morning. He had been quite seasick for two days. I’m glad he’s back with us since we’ll certainly need him to help us find Leafy Sea Dragons at Pissy Boy Rocks.

As I write this, we are about forty minutes away from our dive site and the sky is showing some signs of clearing giving us some hope of being productive today. With a little more luck, we may improve our sea dragon sequence, get some more nice shots of endemic Southern Ocean species, and be back to the Neptunes for the last two days of our trip. I will be disappointed if we fail to get good shots of the giant southern stingrays there.

Grab Frame from Imax Camera Video Viewfinder

We made two dives today. Our first was at Pissy Boy Rocks where we spent two and a half hours searching for Leafy Sea Dragons without success. We ended the dive by exposing one brace on swarms of mysid shrimp hovering above the kelp.

Our second dive was at the cave just west of Pissy Boy. We spent another 1.75 hours looking for dragons. Mark finally found a weedy sea dragon just at sunset. We called the camera in and filmed it with the 40mm lens. This won’t be a great shot due to the bad light. But I felt we should shoot it in case weather drives us out of here tomorrow. Predictions are for more wind. We should be protected here on the north side of Kangaroo. But you never know. I’m hoping for another crack at the dragons tomorrow in better conditions.

June 6, 2008
Near Pissy Boy Rocks

We made one dive in the cove between Pissy Boy Rocks and the cave just to the west. We were down 3.5 hours in 62 degree water. We shot three braces of film of Weedy Sea Dragons, two with the 80mm and one with the 40mm. During the dive we occasionally saw the dragons feed on the swarm of mysid shrimp that hovered above the reef. We failed to get a shot of this and concentrated on just getting good shots of the dragon. But I see an opportunity to get this shot and if we did, it would really tie together our South Australia sequences.

Weather for tomorrow should be similar to today – lots of wind from the southeast. That’s okay with me. Much as I would like to get back to the Neptunes and the giant stingrays and the great white sharks, I would feel very conflicted about leaving Kangaroo without at least trying all-out to get the dragon feeding.

In addition to the dragon feeding shot, there is also an opportunity here to film blue gropers. These are big fish – about fifty pounds and they are quite spectacular. After finishing our last roll today, we had one almost eating out of our hand. We weren’t feeding it, but it seemed to think the orange fingers on my glove looked edible. I kept my hands to myself. I don’t know if he will behave the same with the bright lights on, but it’s certainly worth a try tomorrow.

Peter made another long dive after our late lunch. He succeeded in finding a pair of Leafy Sea Dragons. He described them as rather small and less colorful than those we filmed in Wool Bay. Fortunately, we had just received an uncharacteristically effusive email from David Keighley who had just screened our Wool Bay sea dragon footage in 70mm. He described the footage as “sharp, steady, and beyond incredible.” This is praise indeed from someone who looks at 70mm footage almost every day. The enthusiasm was also especially helpful at this time since it implies no need to shoot additional safety footage of the leafy dragons that Peter found today. It’s very easy to get the 80mm footage out-of-focus since the depth of field is extremely narrow. This is especially true when the shots are hand-held and focus distance is simply estimated. Without David’s report, I probably would have spent our next dives shooting additional and unnecessary close-ups of Leafy Sea Dragons.

So tomorrow we’ll be looking for feeding Weedy Sea Dragons and portraits of the Blue Groper.

June 7, 2008
Pissy Boy Rocks
Kangaroo Island

It remained dark and overcast most of the day. We delayed diving until after lunch while hoping for the sun to come out. After lunch we made a nearly three-hour dive. Most of that time was spent following a Weedy Sea Dragon and waiting for it to get hungry. After about 90 minutes, it began feeding. I turned the camera on several times anticipating the dragon’s move toward the overhead swarm of mysids. But it repeatedly aborted its approach. Then finally, with the camera rolling the dragon ascended and snapped up a mysid. Almost immediately the camera battery died. Of course, this is the kind of frustration one comes to expect when shooting in giant format. But that still doesn’t make it more palatable.

I sent the camera back for a battery change. Surface conditions had deteriorated as the wind direction veered from southeast to east. Apparently the recovery of the camera was quite challenging as the stern rose and fell in the pounding swell. Of course, I was unaware of this as I waited on the bottom at fifty feet. About twenty minutes later (and after the weather became considerably darker) the camera returned. In the meantime, Peter had found a dragon feeding aggressively. We both expected the critter to have long sated its appetite by the time the camera returned and we watched it feed with mounting frustration. But Carey brought the camera down with the scooter, Mark and Jeff assembled the system and passed it to me. Then I set the focus and aperture and moved in on the dragon. During one of the two last takes on the brace, the dragon feeds at least three times.

I don’t expect these to be great shots because they are rather far away and the water had turned dark. But they are important. The Weedy Sea Dragon feeding shot links many of our South Australian sequences together. We can go from establishing shots of the reef to shots of the mysid swarms to shots of the weedy dragon to shots of the weedy dragon feeding to shots of the Leafy Sea Dragon. Each shot nicely flows to the next held together with the feeding shot.

I’m a bit disappointed that I didn’t get the shot of the Blue Groper. It would have been easy but the failure of the battery and the deterioration of conditions made the attempt impractical. I should have made a morning dive to do the Groper.

June 9, 2008
North Neptune Island

The South Australian portion of our Under the Sea 3D adventure ended today with a long 3.5-hour dive at the Neptunes.

We arrived at North Neptune yesterday afternoon in time to make one 2-hour dive. During that time we shot two braces of film concentrating mostly on the giant stingrays. These are said to be the largest species of stingray in the world and, indeed, some are six feet in diameter excluding the long tail, which is often armed with multiple venomous barbs. These barbs grow to more than a foot in length and would easily go all the way through a man if the ray became belligerent or developed an antisocial sense of humor. With numerous great white sharks swimming around, it seemed all too easy to ignore the rays. But stepping on one could have been really serious. That didn’t happen.

Today we shot an additional two braces during our last 3.5-hour dive. Our first brace was mostly of stingrays. On the second brace we concentrated on getting very close to the great whites. We succeeded in both endeavors and especially so with the shark close-ups. In one take, two 14-foot sharks approach the camera and veer off so close that one shark’s pectoral fin brushes the port. Then as the monster shark turned away its massive tail smashed into the light bar bending one lamp back over the mount. Of course, this was very exciting made more so because all four of us were outside the cage. Being outside the cage was necessary since the camera is simply too big to operate from inside. Despite our vulnerability, at no time did I feel that I, or any of my crew, was at risk – except once.

No one saw the shark coming. Even though every one of us was rubbernecking like crazy, the shark showed up out of nowhere. The first moment Mark noticed the 15-foot beast it was four feet from my right ear. By the time I turned to see it, it was less that three feet away. That it got so close without us seeing it was very disquieting and certainly quite exciting. Of course, for something bad to have happened the shark would need to have been in the mood to bite something. They did so infrequently and not indiscriminately. Still, the incident gave us all a rush of adrenaline and left us giggling like kids.

Howard and Rodney

There will certainly be some spectacular shots on this last brace. However, the best great white shark shots will still probably be on the last brace of sharks we shot last week. Conditions were simply better then – sunny and clearer water. We also had more shark activity last week. Still I’m glad to give Toni so many white shark options to choose from during the edit.

As I write this, we are steaming north toward Port Lincoln. Our gear has all been washed and tomorrow will be spent packing it away to be shipped to Port Douglas. It is with a mixture of relief and sadness that I watch the Neptune Islands diminish on the horizon. I have long wanted to come here to shoot this sequence of Great White Sharks as experienced on the ocean floor. It has been a great experience and working with Rodney Fox again has proved a wonderful reunion. Still, what we did was not without risk, though the units do not exist by which that risk can be measured. And I am constantly and sometimes uncomfortably aware that I am responsible for the safety of my crew.

Producer and Director

Too few people have done what we just did to question our judgment. The sample size is too small to say for sure that it was safe or foolhardy. That we clung so closely to the cage will seem over-cautious to some. That we left it at all will seem careless to others. In the end, our technique must be judged safe by the only measure available. We survived without incident and captured great footage in the process.

Expedition #4 Great Barrier Reef
Aboard the Undersea Explorer

As I write this, our underwater crew is now on its way home after three weeks filming on the Great Barrier Reef. We have now completed four of our five filming expeditions for Under the Sea 3D and this most recent expedition has been a great success.

Our expedition boat, the Undersea Explorer, proved an excellent working vessel. The boat was comfortable, her crew was wonderful, and the food was great. I want to take this opportunity to thank the Undersea Explorer, her management, and her crew for making this successful expedition possible. And I want to thank our Barrier Reef marine life consultant, John Rumney, for his invaluable contribution.

I also want to thank Mark Spencer who joined us for our Barrier Reef Expedition and ably served as member of our launch and recovery crew. Mark’s diving skills, and the underwater images he captured of our crew in action are much appreciated. I want to also thank Mark for recommending the Undersea Explorer in the first place when I began communicating with him about a Barrier Reef portion of the film nearly two years ago.

Next up is Indonesia aboard the M/S Seven Seas. Just five weeks after leaving the Barrier Reef our team will be off to Bali to begin the last of our Under the Sea 3D adventures.

UNDER THE SEA 3D
Leaving Port Douglas
Expedition #4: Great Barrier Reef

Our crew arrived in Port Douglas very late the night of July 24 (Michele and I had an earlier flight). It seems their aircraft aborted its takeoff in LAX (nose wheel off the ground before engine shutdown). Then they spent four hours on the tarmac, missed their connection in Sydney, and arrived Port Douglas after almost 40 hours. Fortunately we have had two very nice days in Port Douglas to rest up and only began loading the boat this morning. Bob and Dinah Halstead came down to the dock this afternoon to see us off. It was the first time I had met Dinah after all these years and that was quite a treat.

As I write this, it is late evening and were are finally on our way out to the Ribbon Reefs where we hope to find Minke whales. Tomorrow we’ll begin diving operations on our fourth Under the Sea 3D expedition

July 28, 2008
Lighthouse Reef,
Great Barrier Reef - Ribbon Reef #10

We spent five hours underwater today filming Dwarf Minke Whales on a beautiful dead calm sea. It was a rather exhausting process, mostly because we didn’t start our trip doing something easy while getting back in diving shape. The whole day involved pushing the big camera around into position for whales that seemed to approach with a sense of humor. Minke whales found it easy (and perhaps entertaining) to swim up behind us, look over our shoulder and then be long gone before we could pivot the camera 180 degrees for the shot. In the end, we managed to shoot two braces of film and there are definitely some usable shots. The 3D effect won’t be very impressive because the whales don’t come much closer than about ten feet, but you can definitely see them clearly. I know for a fact that this is the first time any species of whale has been filmed in 70mm 3D.

The day was also pleasantly frustrating because we saw several other excellent sequences to shoot, but had to pass on them in order to pursue the whale sequence. We saw some great jellyfish and Jeff actually saw a green sea turtle eating one! We hope to film this sequence after we finish with the whales. A 3D shot of a turtle feeding on a large jellyfish would be beyond spectacular. Brendan Robinson, our Undersea Explorer divemaster, says the shot should be possible.

July 29, 2008
Challenger Bay,
Great Barrier Reef - Ribbon Reef #10

The wind began blowing last night and continued to build all morning. We found whales just before noon, but by then the wind was near 30 knots and launching the camera was quite out of the question. So we left the whales and headed for the protection of Challenger Bay. We hoped we would find jellyfish there.

It was my hope that we might shoot a pair of jellyfish braces then build on this sequence later when we return to Lighthouse Reef and the turtles that Jeff and Brendan had seen feeding on jellyfish there. I might have waited until the wind died and we were able to go back to Lighthouse before beginning work on the jellyfish, but experience has repeatedly proven that if you wait, the animals or conditions will change merely out of spite, and may not give you a second chance at even the easiest shot. So we went to Challenger Bay to film jellyfish because, at least for the moment, they were everywhere and getting the shot was a no-brainer. What could be easier?

As we set the mooring, I watched for jellyfish near the reef and didn’t see any. But Qamar, one of the boat crewmembers, said she had seen jellyfish as we approached the reef from deeper water. So with the mooring set, Peter, Mark, Dave, and I swam out into deeper water in search of jellies. The current was strong and strengthening.

Everyone had a large plastic garbage bag to capture a jellyfish with – except me. So, naturally, it was I who found one. By the time Peter and Mark located me, I had drifted nearly a quarter mile from the boat and was losing ground fast. Peter and I engulfed the jellyfish. But with the hugely inflated plastic bag, swimming back against the current was a non-starter. So we called Michele on the OTS comm and she sent the skiff out to tow us back to the boat. Eventually the skiff arrived and threw us a line. Like three “dopes on a rope,” we were then towed back in the direction of the Undersea Explorer. Peter and I held the bag with one hand and tried our best to hold to the towline with the other. After fifteen minutes of being dragged behind the skiff, I looked up to see that we had lost ground and were now nearly a half-mile from the Undersea Explorer. Unfortunately, the skiff couldn’t tow us fast enough to make headway against the current. The jellyfish in the bag was too large to lift into the boat. So eventually we gave up, dumped our captured jellyfish and dejectedly climbed into the skiff for a ride back to the mooring. The whole failed process took a bit over an hour.

When we got back to the boat, we dropped over the side of the skiff and found several jellyfish drifting by right under the Undersea Explorer. What’s more, Dave Forsyth had been patiently waiting beneath the boat for the past hour with two jellyfish already in a bag. We called for a camera launch and after Mark Spencer and Jeff Wildermuth brought the camera down, we shot several nice long takes of jellyfish as they drifted by beneath the boat.

In the end, we shot one brace today of a deaf, dumb, and blind animal that can barely swim. It took us the better part of a half-day. We hope to do better tomorrow.

July 30, 2008
Lighthouse Reef,
Great Barrier Reef - Ribbon Reef #10

We had a great day today. After several decades of filming on coral reefs around the world, I had never seen green sea turtles feeding on sea grass and had only once filmed them feeding on jellyfish (and that was a distant shot of one feeding on thimble jellyfish that I used in our National Geographic film, Jewels of the Caribbean Sea). Today we saw green sea turtles feeding on grass and sponges and filmed them feeding, quite spectacularly, on large jellyfish. It was amazing.

Our first four-hour dive began early in the morning when I suspected the turtles would be most hungry. When I reached the Lighthouse pinnacle I discovered that they were not where we expected to find them. So our team spread out and began looking. After an hour of scouting I found one turtle far from the boat at 100 feet feeding on sponges and grass in the deep sand. I called the camera in and did my best to give Peter and Mark compass directions on how to find me. Twenty minutes later the crew arrived with the camera. I was surprised that the turtle was still on the bottom feeding about forty feet away almost at the end of our light cable range. We hurriedly set up the camera and moved in on the turtle.

I shot one very short take but ruined it by kicking a cloud of sand into the shot. As I prepared for a second take, our divemaster, Brendan Robinson, pointed out a jellyfish twenty feet above us drifting our way. He skillfully moved the jellyfish down closer to the turtle and I recomposed the shot then filmed a spectacular brace of film as the turtle left his sea grass meal and attacked the jellyfish with enthusiasm.

After rolling out, I called for a reload and waited thirty minutes as Stuart and Dylan loaded the camera with a second brace. While I waited, many more jellyfish drifted by and two other turtles showed up and began feeding on them.

Our second brace of film was more of the same spectacular behavior. After a hurried lunch, we loaded a third brace and shot this last one in silhouette. We ended the day having shot three braces during five hours underwater.

It’s rare that I am willing to make a prediction about the quality of a sequence, but this stuff is definitely in the film.

August 2, 2008
Cooktown

We are now in Cooktown taking on supplies, fuel, a new boat crew, and off-loading 14 braces of film. Our last few days have been good, if not as spectacular as our first few. But for a first week I think we have done quite well.

During the last couple days we have been working on capturing the beauty of the Great Barrier Reef corals when not distracted by whales, sharks, and jellyfish. In many places the coral cover is so dense that there is no place to put the tripod or even put our feet down without breaking something beautiful (which I refuse to intentionally no matter how good the shot might be). In addition to the nice coral reef shots, we have enriched our jellyfish sequence by capturing a nice shot of Lined Butterflyfish nibbling on the venomous tentacles of a large jellyfish. This should work well with the turtle / jellyfish sequence that we captured so well a couple days ago. I still hope to go back to Lighthouse Reef and film the turtles feeding on algae in the deep sand to complete this sequence. But after spending one long deep dive trying to do this a couple days ago, I’m beginning to think we’ll have to get lucky to see this again.

While we were spending hours out in 100 feet of water looking for turtles feeding on algae, a group of whales showed up. So we aborted our turtle search and had another - and better - Minke Whale encounter. In one shot we actually have four whales (although I sort of botched the camera move on the shot). Nevertheless, we improved our whale shots. During one shot a whale slowly passes within about eight feet of the camera.

After the whales got bored and left, we spent the afternoon filming a Wobbegong shark. This is a six-foot shark that lies on the bottom and looks like a shag carpet. We had hoped to get a shot of him feeding on a fish, but apparently he wasn’t hungry. We did get a nice shot of him revealing himself and moving nicely with the 80mm lens. It should work well with our Milne Bay shark as part of a “weird shark” sequence.

Tomorrow we’ll begin the day at the famous Cod Hole where we will film Potato Cod and perhaps a few plate corals. In the afternoon we’ll head out into the Coral Sea toward Osprey Reef where we’ll film Gray Reef Sharks and the Chamber Nautilus.

August 3, 2008
Cod Hole, Great Barrier Reef - Ribbon Reef #10

We spent the day at the Cod Hole and shot four braces of film. Our first brace was to be of plate corals, but when we dropped into the water there was a large Bumphead parrotfish feeding beneath the boat. We brought the camera down and got a few good takes of the wrasse unenthusiastically nibbling on corals.

Our last three braces were of cod. We got some very nice shots of faces very close to the port. These should produce great 3D. We failed to get any cleaning behavior, and that would certainly help round-out our cleaning sequence. So we may come back to the Cod Hole later in the trip and work specifically on cleaning.

Late tonight we’ll depart for Osprey Reef. We’re hoping for a good crossing, but predictions are for modest 20-knot winds. That is reasonable, but not necessarily comfortable. Regardless, we should wake up at Osprey tomorrow morning.

August 4, 2008
Osprey Reef, Coral Sea

We made three dives today, two of which were scouting dives. On the third dive we planned to film the gray reef sharks, but after setting everything up, at 130 feet, the camera failed to run. The cause of the failure was that the aperture was set wider than full open. So had the camera run, I would have dramatically over-exposed the shot anyway. Add the fact that the shark action was poor and the soft corals were deflated due to lack of current, and it was just as well that the camera didn’t run.

We did scout a spectacular wall earlier this morning. It has wonderful soft corals and amazing colors. It is our intention to attempt shooting two braces on this tomorrow morning and then perhaps begin working on the chambered nautilus in the afternoon.

August 5, 2008
Osprey Reef

A very long day was spent underwater today, but this time with some modest success and a fair amount of IMAX 3D frustration.

Our day began with a very complicated dive to film the hanging coral gardens on the shear wall of the Osprey Reef. The spot is spectacular and worth the somewhat heroic efforts to get the camera to the site. Since this was on the windward side of the reef where there is no mooring or anchorage, the dive team had to be dropped from the Undersea Explorer “live boat.” The camera was towed ahead by the inflatable, which would also dispense the light cables and provide generator power.

After loading the small boat with the generator, the lights, a boat driver, a cable tender, and John Rumney as a safety diver, the inflatable motored away ahead of us towing the camera. After the inflatable was on its way, we cast off the mooring rope from the Undersea Explorer and with all the rebreather divers and launch and recovery divers on the swim step, motored over to join the inflatable at the dive sight.

The rebreather team and launch and recovery crew jumped off the swim step about two hundred yards up current from the dive site and while drifting down-stream, received the camera from the inflatable, assembled the lights, and brought the camera down to 80 feet. We then all rapidly drifted along the wall until we reached the coral garden.

We spent about forty minutes capturing three or four beautiful shots of the hanging garden then continued our drift down the reef, around the corner and back to the Undersea Explorer mooring where the rebreather team spent about 30 minutes decompressing and the launch and recovery team returned the camera to the boat. Though the dive was rather complicated, everything worked fine. So we decided to do it again after lunch.

Our afternoon dive was pretty much a repeat of our morning dive with two exceptions. We decided to shoot in a deeper coral garden – at 130 feet, and when we had finally chosen and composed our shot, the camera failed to run. After various permutations of powering up and powering down the camera, it still failed to initialize properly. So we returned to the Undersea Explorer in the same way we had in the morning.

We left the camera powered up when we sent it to the surface so that Stuart and Dylan could see the problem. They checked the camera as it was hanging on the winch cable and decided there was probably some moisture in one of the connectors (a minor problem we have had before). When they set the camera on the deck, it initialized spontaneously. Then no amount of fooling around with it could cause a repeat failure. So they asked if we wanted it sent back down. I said “yes, send it with John Rumney and a chambered nautilus” (we had trapped a few in deep water the night before).

John brought the animal down and Jeff and Dave brought the camera and lights. We then released the nautilus and did our best to keep up with it as it scooted down the slope and over the wall into deep water. When we were finally out of film, we were at 155 feet, a new record for filming with the IMAX 3D camera. Peter and I had just less than one hour of decompression – more like one and a half hours when we added a safety margin.

Peter and I climbed out of the water at sunset. We had made two dives and spent four and a half hours underwater to shoot six minutes of film. Tomorrow we plan to film the nautilus with the 80mm lens. That should prove really challenging. The nautilus can’t tolerate the warm shallow water very well. If kept refrigerated after being trapped they do well in captivity and will even feed in their holding container. But when released in warm water, all they want to do is descend to where the water is colder.

August 9, 2008
In route to Steve’s Bommie, Pixie Gardens, Great Barrier Reef - Ribbon Reef #3

It’s early morning and we’re cruising north back to Steve’s Bommie (coral pinnacle) after taking on supplies, fuel, a new boat crew, and dropping off film late last night in Cooktown.

Since my last entry we spent August 6 filming 80mm shots of the nautilus. Then we filmed some very pretty shots of soft corals blowing in the current with gray reef sharks, silver-tip sharks, white-tip reef sharks, and large potato cod in the background. All these shots were done near 130 feet and working at that depth and in the strong current was both fun and challenging. But the shots were beautiful and, I think, very much worth it.

That night was spent steaming back from Osprey and we found ourselves very lucky with the notorious weather between the Barrier Reef and Coral Sea reefs. It wasn’t calm, but no one got seasick.

We spent August 7 at the Cod Hole filming Potato Cod. This time we concentrated on getting some cleaning behavior. I felt we needed some behavior to justify using some of the really cool close-ups we did prior to leaving for Osprey. This proved to be as frustrating as all the other times I’ve tried to film potato cod being cleaned. I had learned the hard way that using lights causes the cleaner wrasse to leave the cod even if the cod don’t seem to mind. In the end we did get a few acceptable shots without lights and using the URP filter, assuming the focus is okay. Clouds seemed determined to cover the sun every time we began rolling on a cod with cleaners in its mouth. The constant light changes were maddening.

Yesterday, August 8, was a one-dive day at Steve’s Bommie. But it was one very long dive, a record for our team in fact. We went into the water hoping to film stonefish feeding at 10am after John Rumney and Brendan Robinson scouted the bommie and tied orange ribbons above the dens of nine different stonefish. After reaching the bottom I discovered, not surprisingly, that all but one of the fish were in locations that were not workable. The one that was sufficiently exposed was hardly in a great position either. There was one stonefish nearly completely buried beneath the sand,s but filming it would have required breaking a small Acropora coral. I couldn’t bring myself to do this, however. So we decided to set up on the one stonefish that was moderately workable. While the gear was coming down, I nudged another stonefish out of his den and waited to see where he settled. He perched himself nicely on a rock offering a very pleasing composition. So we brought over the tripod and spent a half-hour setting it up. By the time we were ready to roll, the stonefish was ready to move. He dropped down the wall to fifty feet and partially buried himself in rubble. His new position, however, was perfect. We moved the tripod and camera into position and got to work.

During the following hours we shot three braces of film and with the camera running the stonefish fed on two damselfish and missed a grab at a third. We got it all on film with both the 40mm and 80mm lenses. We missed lunch.

Our rebreather team climbed out of the water at 4pm having spent more than six hours underwater. And that’s a new record. Water temperature was a cool 75 degrees which seemed like ice water by the time we were done.

So now we’re on our way back to Steve’s to hopefully get a shot of the same stonefish marching down the reef and burying himself in the rubble. He did it once so maybe he’ll do it again. It would be a great way to start our stonefish sequence and would also cut well with the stonefish scenes we filmed in PNG. I give our chances about 50/50.

Our luck has completely run out with the weather. It’s now blowing more than 30 knots with gusts to 40 and working at Steve’s will be difficult. Predictions are for the weather to stay windy and unchanged for the remainder of our trip. Meanwhile many of our crew have come down with colds or flu including Michele and me. But despite feeling less than perfect, I’m actually looking forward to our dives today. Fleshing out a great sequence is a very satisfying challenge. My good mood is buoyed by the email we received that our turtle sequence was viewed in 70mm at IMAX and looked “excellent.”


August 9, 2008
Steve’s Bommie, Great Barrier Reef - Ribbon Reef #3

The weather has grown progressively worse. Now we have rainsqualls along with the 35-knot winds. We spent 4.5 hours underwater today on a single long dive trying to film stonefish digging into the rubble. The stonefish we had filmed yesterday was gone, so we nudged another animal down to the rubble patch and hoped he would acclimate and then dig in. He did so without enthusiasm and with no predictability whatsoever. Each time he made a move to dig we fired up the camera only to have him finish his rather half-hearted effort before the camera ramped-up to speed. In short, we didn’t get the shot. It was a very long day with nothing really to show for it.

Although the water temperature is 75 degrees and I am wearing a 5mm suit over a hooded vest, a 5mm shorty, and a full 3.2 suit, I was shivering after an hour. Our suits are compressing and waterlogged and we’re all a bit tired out. Thurlow couldn’t get down today due to blocked sinuses. Dave is recovering and dove in Mark’s place. I thought I was coming down with it badly last night, but actually felt fine today despite the four hours of shivering. Jeff has had some ear trouble but seems able to dive when needed. Both Peter and Mark Spencer have proved very durable. John Rumney and the Undersea Explorer crew have also admirably stepped up to help with launch and recovery operations.

We’re now heading north toward Ribbon Reef #10 where we hope to film sea snakes at Lighthouse Reef. Weather may make that marginal however. We could do some work in Challenger Bay, but not if the sky is overcast and dark. Maybe the weather will force a day off. Most of us have dived every day since the beginning of this trip. A day off wouldn’t be a bad thing at this point.

August 10, 2008
Pixie Gardens, Great Barrier Reef - Ribbon Reef #10

No day off. At 9:30am this morning we moored the Undersea Explorer at Lighthouse Reef. Then we spent a half-hour watching waves crash against the swim platform trying to decide if it was safe to launch and recover the camera. Wind was near gale-force and the sky was overcast and dark. After vacillating several times, we decided the smart thing to do was head for calmer waters. So it looks like we won’t be coming back with an Olive Sea Snake sequence. That is disappointing. Of course, conditions could change during our last three days of diving, but not according to Australian weather forecasts.

We made one three-hour dive at Pixie Gardens where we captured some nice shots of Blue Chromis over Staghorn coral, some humbugs, and a rather long and stringy Flower Soft Coral.

I finally chased down a recurring failure in my rebreather to a faulty over pressure valve in the diaphragm. It’s not surprising that it failed considering it’s a 30-year old piece of thin rubber. My last few dives have been ending with unsafe amounts of salt water in the scrubber. Mark made me a new valve out of some rubber Peter had purchased for our failed mangrove flotation device. It was great to get that fixed.

August 12, 2008
Leaving Harrier Reef, Great Barrier Reef

It’s late evening and we just pulled up anchor and are now pounding our way toward Port Douglas. Our return to port will be one day early. Conditions during this last week have continued to deteriorate and with no improvement forecast for anytime soon, we have run out of things we can accomplish.

Our Great Barrier Reef diving is now finished. During the last three weeks our crew dived every day without a break. I logged over 70 hours underwater during 28 dives. We shot 39 braces of film. In the end, we accomplished more than I had expected for this trip. The sea turtle and stonefish sequences should be spectacular and were more than I had hoped for. The scenes of the reef itself are absolutely beautiful.

Today we made two dives at Harrier Reef, which largely died several years ago. We filmed several scenes of dead coral then on a second dive found a nice Acropora coral with a lovely school of humbugs hovering above it. After filming this scene Peter and I hunted for something else to shoot for almost two hours and finally gave up. I would have liked to return to Steve’s Bommie to film the schooling snapper and the Anthias at the top of the pinnacle, but it was way too rough to safely launch and recover the camera there.

ighthouse Bommie would have been much worse. So with little else that can be reasonably accomplished and with so much work to do to prepare the gear for shipping to Indonesia, I called the shoot a “rat.” That’s what “wrap” sounds like over the mumble comm.

It’s going to be an all-night trip back to Port Douglas and not a pleasant one. The wind has continued to build and when on deck it almost threatened to blow us overboard. Everyone will be quite glad to feel the boat stabilize when we pull into the harbor early tomorrow morning. Coming in ahead of schedule will give us two days to do much needed cleaning and equipment maintenance, and then engage the complicated process of packing for shipping our equipment package to Indonesia and the last of our Under the Sea 3D adventures.

Expedition #5 Indonesia
Aboard the Seven Seas

Our last expedition was also our longest and most ambitious. At the end of September we left Bali Indonesia aboard the live-aboard dive boat Seven Seas and for four weeks traveled more than 1,200 miles diving the Komodo Island area, dive sites around Flores and Alor Islands, and then northeast to Gunung Api in the Banda Sea. The images we captured should be the most colorful images in the film. It was an incredible trip aboard a wonderful boat with an amazing group of people.

Our primary goal in Indonesia had been to capture the breathtaking colors of the reefs in the Coral Triangle. We did that, and we saw the results on November 6th at IMAX in Los Angeles. Seeing, in IMAX 3D, the hard and soft corals surrounded by myriad species of fish in a format that is truly virtual reality was a stunning experience. The coral reef scenes in Under the Sea 3D will be more beautiful than any underwater image ever before captured in this format. We also captured spectacular sequences of a variety of interesting animals. Our three days of filming garden eels resulted in the most intimate look at garden eels ever captured on film. Our underwater mangrove footage exceeded both Peter’s and my most optimistic expectations. The sea snake sequence also looked better than we had expected, and completely justified the 400 or so miles of extra travel by boat in rough ocean conditions. But making all this happen was not easy. It was only possible due to the heroic efforts of numerous people.

I want to thank Amanda Lee, Michele , Judy Carroll, Tonia Epstein, Todd Fellman and their team for the overwhelming amount of time and effort they expended on the logistics to make our Indonesia expedition a success. This included the numerous permits, customs bonds, and extraordinary logistical issues that they struggled with endlessly during the months prior to our leaving for Bali. I would like to describe the extent of their efforts here, but I find that words simply fail me. Perhaps what was most incredible was the degree of their success. The logistics of importing four tons of equipment into Bali and then returning it from a remote island 700 miles east of Bali worked flawlessly. That was a truly amazing accomplishment.

I want to thank Seven Seas, her staff and crew. Mark Heighes, who operates the Seven Seas, and Greg Heighes, who runs Dive Komodo, both provided essential contributions to making our trip successful. The Seven Seas turned out to be a wonderful choice for carrying our final expedition. For those interested in the sport diving trip of a lifetime you should contact Seven Seas and Dive Komodo via the following websites:

Seven Seas: http://www.thesevenseas.net/

Dive Komodo: http://www.divekomodo.com/

I must also recognize Dr. Jos Pet and Dr. Lida Pet Soede who contributed enormously both toward enabling our logistical plan and also by contributing advice concerning conservation issues in the Coral Triangle. Deborah Gabinetti of the Bali Film Center did a splendid job of acquiring the numerous permits we needed. Gary Hayes of Syzygy Productions was enormously helpful in smoothing out the import and export of our production package and assisting with the export of exposed film while we were at sea.

Of course, I owe much of this expedition’s success to our professional dive team including Peter Kragh who was my right hand on the camera for every shot, Mark Thurlow who always makes impossible logistical tasks look easy underwater, Dave Forsyth whose diving skills and rebreather technologies have been indispensable, Jeff Wildermuth who has grown to be a solid member of our technical diving team, and Drew Fellman who began working with us as a talented sport diver and finished our last expedition with professional diving skills.

On this trip our dive team was augmented by the talents of Burt Jones and Maurine Shimlock who also provided guidance during our first PNG expedition. And we were helped greatly by Graham Abbott of Diving 4 Images who introduced us to many of the animals we filmed. Valuable location insight and guidance was also provided by both Greg and Mark Heighes. The trip would have been impossible without Mark, Greg, Seven Seas, and Dive Komodo.

Finally, I want to thank Ron and Valerie Taylor who inspired this expedition. For fifteen years Valerie has been telling me I must make a film in Indonesia. Well, Valerie, I don’t think one will be enough.

Now the responsibility for the film shifts to Toni Myers’ shoulders who is both our producer and our editor. She has an exemplary record for creating successful IMAX films, so our film is now in good hands. She will be supported by the invaluable insights of our executive producer Graeme Ferguson, co-founder of IMAX. Michele, Graeme, Toni, and I will spend much of this fall in Toronto, Canada concentrating on the editing process.

IMAX recently signed Jim Carrey to narrate the film. I believe Carrey’s dramatic and comedic works demonstrate his ability to bring a unique style to the narration. The more I think about it the more optimistic I become about having Jim Carrey on board.

Our last film, Deep Sea 3D, continues to exceed all expectations at the box office with gross receipts now exceeding $75 million. IMAX and Warner Bros. have shown great enthusiasm for our new film and the talented IMAX Marketing Department has created an excellent website that includes a wealth of information and short video “webisodes.” You can find these at the IMAX Under the Sea 3D website at: http://www.imax.com/underthesea/

Under the Sea 3D is scheduled for release on February 13, 2009.

For those interested in the details of underwater IMAX 3D production, the following journal may be of interest. The “Crew List” includes a complete list of those involved, and some additional web links.

UNDER THE SEA 3D
Expedition #5: Indonesia

September 26, 2008 (Friday)
Bali

We spent last night at the Kumala Pantai hotel where we stayed during the scouting trip last year. We will be here until Monday morning when Seven Seas pulls away from the dock in Benoa Harbor. Our crew is scheduled to arrive today. Tomorrow is a free day that should help us all get over jet lag. I’ve often felt that jumping right into hard work after long air travel promotes minor illnesses. I think a day of rest after long travel is a good investment. I hope to hire a surf guide and a board to catch a few waves. Sunday we load the boat.

September 29, 2008
Bali

It’s 6am on our last morning at the Kumala Pantai hotel. Yesterday morning we went down to the boat in Benoa Harbor. We arrived at about 10am and Greg and Mark Heighes were already loading the camera housing on the boat. All of the equipment arrived and since the cable ties that sealed most of our Pelican boxes were still intact, it seems that only six or seven boxes were actually inspected by Customs. There was some evidence that the Solido cameras had been removed and repacked in their Aluminum boxes. It seemed the cameras had been switched between their respective cases. It’s possible Stuart and Dylan simply packed them in the wrong boxes, but they said they were careful to do otherwise when we left Port Douglas. Both of the cameras were not working perfectly, probably due to some rough handling somewhere along the way. By the end of the day Stuart and Dylan had our back-up camera installed and working in the housing. They will spend more time working on camera #1 today. The rest of the crew spent the day prepping gear and the boat. Basically all is well and we will be ready to leave the harbor late this morning. We plan to shoot and export a test roll before leaving.

(Note: In retrospect I doubt the cameras had been unpacked in customs. The problems we had with the cameras turned out to be corrosion issues caused by being in dank climates too long. It’s amazing these complicated machines worked so well for so long without returning to Toronto for routine maintenance).

Everyone enjoyed their day off on Saturday. Jeff and I rented surfboards and spent two hours getting pummeled in the surf break at Kuta Beach in front of the hotel. Everyone tells us the waves get really good here on Kuta Beach. But it certainly wasn’t happening for Jeff and me. Still, it was good exercise and I managed to catch a half dozen short rides.

Saturday night we had dinner with Mike Topalovitch, Graham Abbott and a few friends. Mike is stepping back into the management of Light and Motion until Barrett Heywood is replaced as CEO. Mike has remained a major shareholder and on the board of directors.

October 1, 2008
Sangeang Volcano, Bontoh Village
08 12 431 S 119 00 040 E

Yesterday Seven Seas spent all day traveling east. We arrived at Sangeang late last night. Weather has been perfect – mild winds and blue skies.

Today was a very productive day, save for the fact that we failed to film anything usable. Still, for a first day in complicated conditions, it was a good one. After breakfast most of the divers jumped in to test their diving gear. The rebreather team especially needs to test before beginning diving operations. What we didn’t anticipate was the strong currents we encountered in the bay here. So after our 30-minute test dive we regrouped aboard the boat to discuss launch and recovery for a test dive with the camera.

We are utilizing four different small support boats not including Seven Seas as our mother boat. One boat is for the rebreather team, a second for the launch and recovery team, a third for the generator and lights, and a fourth boat for towing the camera to location. All this worked fine on our camera test dive, though the process is time consuming. We decided to begin actual diving operations after lunch.

We came to Sangeang primarily because there are enormous garden eels here and it is my hope that we will replace our Linden Harbor garden eel shot with a much better one captured here. Mark Heighes told us the garden eels at Sangeang actually rise five feet out of the sand. I assumed this was an exaggeration until I saw them myself. In fact, Mark had been conservative. Some easily rose five or even six feet above the bottom. They were by far the largest garden eels I have ever seen.

Because the current was raging, we pounded two heavy steel pipes in the sand then used ropes to belay the camera down stream to location. Then when we had the camera where we wanted it, we put sixty pounds of weight on top to hold it steady in the current. Of course, all this activity caused the garden eels to completely disappear. So we then waited for the garden eels to come back up. When they did come up, we learned that, like many animals, the eels didn’t like our lights. It took them an hour or so to acclimate. I shot one short burst of film only to discover they don’t like the sound of the camera either. Welcome to IMAX 3D natural history filmmaking!

By sunset, we had yet to capture the shot we wanted. I came very close to rolling the camera several times, but something always caused me to hesitate. Then the current changed direction so we were forced to re-rig the whole system and wait for the eels again. Then the sun went down and the eels went down with it.
In the end, we didn’t get a usable shot. The good news is that the potential for an amazing shot is huge and I feel very confident we’ll replace our Linden Harbor shot with one we get tomorrow.
We spent five hours underwater today with nothing to show for it but, perhaps, some gained experience.

October 2, 2008
Sangeang Volcano, Bontoh Village

We made two dives today totaling four and a half hours. During that time we shot two braces of film including the brace we started yesterday. I think I can now guarantee that our Linden Harbor garden eel shot (which was included in the pre-edit that our team spent a week working on in Toronto last month) is now history.

This morning we filmed garden eels in shallow sun-lit water and in a raging current. In one of the shots the current was so strong that sand is blowing through the shot like a blizzard. Still, the sunlight dappling through the field of garden eels was quite spectacular. The eels were closer than in Linden Harbor, there were many more of them, water visibility was much better, and the eels were larger. We improved the shot with each additional take. And the last one was really excellent since the eels were quite close and the current had abated enough to prevent sand blowing across the bottom.

In the afternoon we repeated our efforts. Current was so strong that I had difficulty walking against it even with an extra twenty pounds clipped off to my BC. Mark and Peter pounded pipes into the bottom and we again used ropes to secure the camera against the current. We barely had the ropes rigged when the inflatable boat dropped off the camera and the launch and recovery crew came hurtling toward us with the camera. I got a rope on it as Drew, Tommy, and Burt passed it off and Peter and I hoisted it into place.

We spent the dive trying to get closer and closer to the eels. By the end of the day we had several nice shots where eels are a foot out of their burrows about three and a half feet away from the camera. In the background, eels are easily four or five feet up.

We plan to spend one more day here tomorrow and will attempt some more ambitious shots of the eels with the 40mm lens. Then we’ll switch to the 80mm and try to get a close up. Tomorrow night we plan to steam for Komodo National Park to begin diving at Cannibal Rock.

October 3, 2008
Leaving Sangeang Volcano

We spent another six hours underwater with the garden eels today. We improved our 40mm shot and captured a couple very nice shots with the 80mm lens. I really think this sequence will be terrific in 3D.

Several days ago if someone had told me that there was a place where garden eels rise more than six feet above the sand, I would have thought the claim gross exaggeration. But as I stood behind the IMAX 3D camera today waiting hour after hour for the eels in front of the lens to come out (which they seldom did more than two feet or so) I could see eels in the hazy distance that were taller than me – by at least a foot! As we waited for eels to acclimate to the camera, this enormous field of eels surrounded us as far as we could see in any direction. The shots we captured in IMAX 3D should be great, but I doubt they will go far toward duplicating the experience of actually being there in that enormous field of six-foot high eels. It was unforgettable.

We are now steaming toward the Komodo National Park where we hope to begin filming spectacular reef scenes tomorrow morning at Cannibal Rock, which is one of our primary filming locations. We will pick up a National Park Ranger early in the morning and hope to be at the Rock by 8:30 am.

October 5, 2008
North Komodo, Crystal Bommie
S 08 26 371 E 119 33 973

During these last couple of days we have experienced a series of unfortunate events.

Yesterday we scouted Cannibal Rock in Horseshoe Bay, South Rinca. This is one of the most beautiful dive locations in the world largely due to the spectacular upwelling of cold water that regularly bathes these reefs in nutrients. We had hoped to spend several days here filming this beautiful reef. Unfortunately, that upwelling is presently carrying an extremely dense bloom of plankton. Visibility at Cannibal Rock was 15 feet; essentially unworkable. Michele didn’t even make it to the bottom before turning around and heading back to the boat. We decided to stay to see if conditions improved with the change of tide. But after an additional late morning scouting dive in even poorer conditions we decided it was hopeless and pulled anchor to head for North Komodo and clearer water. We arrived there in the late afternoon. Peter, Graham Abbott, and Burt Jones immediately took off to scout a few of the locations we dived during our scouting trip last year and returned in the late evening to report excellent conditions. We plan to stay in touch with dive boats stopping at Cannibal Rock in case conditions there improve.

This morning we prepared to make our first dive at Crystal Bommie. Timing our dive there is critical due to the powerful tidal currents that sweep through the area. Graham and Peter went out early, planted a mooring and deposited our weights and tripod on the site. We planned to dive at about 10am when the current abated.

The logistics for working at Crystal are complicated. The Seven Seas must remain at anchor in the Bay about a quarter-mile from the Bommie. When slack tide approaches, the boat with our lights and generator is sent out and tied off to the mooring Graham has installed. The rebreather boat is then sent out and our rebreather team descends. When conditions become workable we call for the camera. The camera is then towed out from the Seven Seas using an inflatable boat. A fourth boat carrying our launch and recovery crew follows the inflatable and camera. This morning we had the whole plan neatly worked out. But we never even got started.

Unfortunately, as we prepared for our dive Stuart and Dylan tested the camera only to hear it make a terrible noise. After several adjustments and several more bursts of unpleasant noise, they finally got the camera running again. We decided, however, it would be prudent to shoot some tests instead of racing the clock and tides to make the morning dive. So as Stuart and Dylan worked on the camera, the rest of the crew went out to Crystal to do some more scouting and to get familiar with the conditions there.

I stayed behind. Unfortunately, for the last couple days I have been down with a bad head cold that has made equalizing pressure in my right ear nearly impossible. Had we been able to work at either Cannibal Rock yesterday or at Crystal Bommie this morning, I would have had to turn over the reins to Peter Kragh and Mark Thurlow to do the camerawork. As far as I can remember, that would have been the first production dive I have missed since making Island of the Sharks in 1998. Since the camera didn’t work, my missing a production dive this morning didn’t happen.

To round out the series of unfortunate events, I might as well add that both Mark Thurlow and Jeff Wildermuth experienced rebreather malfunctions this morning. Dave Forsyth was able to fix Mark’s in time for him to make the late morning scouting dive. But Jeff had to stay behind with me.

The good news is that all of these problems seem to have happened simultaneously. By noon I began feeling well enough to dive. Stuart and Dylan seemed to have gained a handle on the camera problem. And Jeff had his rebreather working again. I was optimistic that we would actually begin shooting these spectacularly beautiful Indonesian reefs by late afternoon.

At 2pm Graham went out to check the current at the Bommie and reported it workable. So we put the whole complicated program in motion. I managed to clear my ears and by the time I had selected a shot, the camera was already down. We shot one scene of an anemonefish then several shots of colorful reefs with lionfish and Anthias. Although some of these shots might be quite nice, I am hoping to do much better tomorrow.

October 7, 2008
Crystal Reef, Komodo Island
Fish Bowl
S 08 27 554 E 119 33 645

Yesterday we began by diving Crystal Reef. This is a beautiful spot but entirely impossible to work except during slack-tide. When the tidal conditions are perfect, however, the soft corals and fish life are spectacular. During this narrow current window we managed to capture several very colorful scenes of coral reefs with brilliant orange and yellow soft corals. We also captured one very nice shot of a school of yellow and black ribbon sweetlips.

In the afternoon we moved about a mile to the mouth of a current pass to a site called “Fishbowl.” The site is also known as “The Cauldron.” Peter had found a very nice patch of reef that was covered with soft corals and swarms of glassy sweepers. The site is also very current sensitive so we planned our dive for 2:30pm when we expected the next tidal shift.

We arrived on the bottom early before the current had turned and we waited about an hour before conditions were suitable for shooting. The site is spectacular and may well provide our best shots of colorful reefs. When I saw it, the line in our rough edit “…and the reef erupts with kaleidoscopic life…” immediately came to mind. Unfortunately, after spending another hour setting up the camera, we turned on the power only to discover that we had the 80mm lens on instead of the 40mm. Somehow I had failed to ask for the right lens when the camera was prepped for the dive. Of course, I was really upset with myself for allowing this to happen.

Despite the lens selection being wrong, we decided there were some excellent shots to be had, even with the close-up lens. I felt much better when I triggered the run switch and the camera failed to roll film. It turns out that my failure to ask for the proper lens had been rendered irrelevant by a faulty film magazine. So after a two-hour dive we pulled up all the gear and decided to return to the site the following afternoon.

Yesterday we also sent off the first 7 braces of exposed film to be couriered by a circuitous route back to Los Angeles (braces A153 thru A159). We sent it from our dive site back to Labuan Bajo on Flores Island aboard the Dive Komodo boat M/V Rajawali. Greg Heighes is in Labuan Bajo and he met the boat. Today he assured us that the film flew out to Bali accompanied by one of his staff.

Michele has written to Tonia Epstein, Gary Hayes and Judy Carroll regarding the shipping details. Gary arranged for one of his staff to receive the film in Bali then delivered it to Prathama, our shipping agent in Bali. If all goes as planned, Customs will clear it within 2 business days. Tonia will then coordinate with Prathama for the film to be exported to LAX. Once the film reaches LAX, Tonia will coordinate with LAX Customs for clearance and then with Rock-It Cargo for delivery to CFI where the film will be processed. The whole process took a great deal of planning by Michele and her logistics team.

This morning as we prepared to dive Crystal Reef again, four other dive boats arrived and anchored in the bay. To avoid a crowd of divers on the site, we decided to make our dive early before the tide changed. This turned out to be a poor decision since we had to wait on the bottom more than an hour before conditions became even close to workable. When we got the camera down it was still blowing pretty hard, but we managed to get a few shots of the reef and some colorful fish despite the strong currents.

In the afternoon we returned to the patch reef near “Fishbowl” and again waited for the current to change direction. About one hour into the dive the current shifted and we spent the next ninety minutes shooting four very nice locked-off shots of the reef with swarms of glassy sweepers passing before the lens.

In the meantime, Graham found a spectacular yellow giant frogfish and we had hoped to move it onto the reef with the sweepers – to see what happens. But by the time we were done with our 2.5-hour dive, there was too little light left. So we hope to film the frogfish with the 80mm lens tomorrow.

October 9, 2008
Tatawa Kecil (Val’s Rock), Komodo Island
S 08 31 727 E 119 37 679

It’s late evening and we are leaving Komodo Island. We’re now steaming east in route to Alor Island. Tomorrow we will check in with the Alor harbormaster before moving into the Banda Sea northeast toward Gunung Api. Our total travel time to the Snake Island will be two days.

Yesterday we spent all day diving the Fishbowl area; filming glassy sweepers pouring over soft corals and close-ups of anemonefish. We shot four braces yesterday, which is a remarkable record for this trip considering our launch and recovery logistics are so different than on other trips. It turns out that using four support boats and towing the camera to location is working just fine. I had worried about this, but it turns out to be much more efficient than I had anticipated.

Today we made one more dive at Fishbowl and shot a brace of Skunk Anemonefish, some very nice shots of Octocorals (Zenia sp.), and a close up of the sweepers near a soft coral. Nothing could be easier than filming Octocorals, but despite being easy I suspect they will end up in the final cut. They’re a perfect 3D subject.

In the afternoon we went out to Tatawa Kecil, which we also call Val’s Rock especially when Valerie Taylor is on board with us. It’s one of the most beautiful hard coral formations I have ever seen, made more spectacular by schools of Anthias hovering over the corals. It’s a tough place to dive due to the currents. But our timing was perfect. We shot one brace with the URP filter (when the sun was out) then another with lights and no filter (after clouds had moved in). It will be interesting to see which looks best.

Today we also sent off our second film drop. The film went back to Labuan Bajo, once again via Dive Komodo and the M/V Rajawali. From there it will be put on a flight to Bali. We also sent off four DVD versions of the video viewfinder footage and my latest version of the edit (which I work on in my spare time) so that Toni can get a head start sorting through this material while we’re still in the field.

Most of the things on our shot list have now been checked-off. The sea snakes remain the last major sequence. In the last few days we seem to have had a change in the weather that would be ideal for working at Gunung Api, if it holds.

October 11, 2008
Kawula Island

We spent all day yesterday traveling east toward Alor. We must check in with the harbormaster in Kalabahi on Alor before heading out into the Banda Sea toward Gunung Api. Our plan had been to stop here at Kawula today and grab some shots opportunistically if any interesting subjects present themselves, then make the eleven-hour crossing to Kalabahi starting in the late evening. That would put us in port early tomorrow morning. Of course, things changed.

We started today by scouting mangroves inside the bay at Kawula. Our timing was perfect, at least for scouting. The tide was high and the water was clear in the mangroves. The potential shots looked very much better than the shots we had captured in PNG. So we hastily made preparations to film in the mangroves. In addition to loading and prepping the camera, this also required that we rebalance it, which involved taking off much of the weight including the housing legs and bridge plate. We rebalanced the camera from memory having only done it a few months earlier in PNG.

Peter and I were already in the mangroves when they put the camera over the side of Seven Seas to begin the long tow to the swamps. The camera promptly rolled over on its side. Obviously our memory of how the camera must be balanced lacked some important details. Peter and I returned to the Seven Seas and Mark, Peter, Dave, and I rebalanced the camera after a short trial and error process. Unfortunately, by the time we got the camera back under tow, the tide had dropped in the mangroves and the wind had picked up making the surface choppy. Our timing had been perfect when we scouted the scene, but we were far too late for ideal conditions by the time we got the camera into the mangroves to actually do some shooting. Despite the low tide and the choppy conditions we shot a brace of film and probably improved upon our shot from PNG. Still, the area has so much potential that I decided to stay here tonight and make another trip to the mangroves tomorrow morning. Our present mangrove shot is one of the weakest shots in the film. It will be worth the extra day here if we can move that shot from “marginal” to “spectacular.” I think there is a chance of doing that.

After our little adventure in the mangroves, we spent the rest of our day scouting for exceptional shots in the bay. We found some shrimp gobies that may justify a brace of film tomorrow afternoon, but little else that was compelling.

October 12, 2008
Kawula Island AKA Lambata Island
Beneath the Iliwariran Volcano

We timed our shooting in the mangroves perfectly this morning. At 9am the tide was high, the sun was out, the wind was calm, and the mangroves were flooded with clear water. When everything comes together, shooting in the mangroves can be quite beautiful. We never had these factors converge properly in New Guinea, and the mangroves here have far more life in them. So today we dramatically improved our underwater mangrove shots. Instead of one rather poor transitional shot of mangrove roots, we now might have three great shots with lots of light streaming through the root structures and plenty of fish swimming through frame. We even captured a shot of a school of stripped catfish feeding on algae growing on the roots.

Swimming in the mangroves is not without its risks. A fisherman paddled up to us and warned us not to enter the mangroves. “People go in and never come out,” he said. I had seen snakes among the mangrove roots and in fact we got a shot of one swimming through the roots this morning (it was probably too far away to be a good shot). I had been told there were few crocodiles left on this island. When we asked the fisherman what the danger was he replied, “Ghosts.” As Peter and I swam deep into the labyrinthine mangrove forest looking for good shots, I found myself far more concerned with crocodiles, few though they may be. We saw neither crocodiles nor ghosts, but it was a bit spooky.

In the afternoon we dived one of the sandy beach areas looking for shrimp gobies. During his scouting dive, however, Graham found a carrier crab carrying a Cassiopeia jellyfish. The crab was rather small, but we decided to shoot the sequence anyway. The crab took direction well. With the camera rolling, it walks into frame, picks up the jellyfish, puts it on its back then saunters out of frame.

After filming the crab we set up on a pair of shrimp gobies who predictably dived into their hole as we approached with the camera. After about ninety minutes the sun began to go down and it looked like the fish were going to stay in for the night. So we aborted the dive and returned to Seven Seas. A half hour later we were on our way to Kalabahi, Alor where we will get fuel, pick up some vegetables, and check in with the harbormaster. We may also dive beneath the town pier, which Graham believes may be a good habitat for giant shrimp gobies.

October 14, 2008
The Banda Sea

Yesterday was spent getting fuel and supplies in Kalabahi, Alor. While the boat crew dealt with provisioning the Seven Seas, we visited the town museum and the open-air market. The fish market was especially interesting, or more accurately, pathetic. They had a variety of small fish for sale. We only saw three fish that would have exceeded two pounds, heads and all. Most had been displayed in the hot sun far longer than anything that could qualify as “fresh.” We had planned to make a dive to shoot shrimp gobies in the afternoon, but provisioning took longer than expected. So we pulled away from the dock in Kalabahi around noon and headed east into the Banda Sea.

Today we’re traveling in the open ocean on our way to Gunung Api. We should arrive there around 4pm. Winds are moderate and the ride is not uncomfortable. If conditions don’t change, we will probably be able to work at the island without much trouble. But we’re all hoping the winds will die entirely, which would be normal for this time of year.

October 15, 2008
Gunung Api Island
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Today was our first day of diving at Gunung Api. We made two dives of 2.25 hours and 3.5 hours respectively and shot two and a half braces of film of sea snakes. That’s the good news. The bad news is that few of the shots will be of much use. I very much hope to do better tomorrow.

During our morning dive we saw dozens of snakes, some nearly six-feet in length. But we never saw the cooperative hunting we were looking for. The currents were strong and turbulent making acceptable camerawork very difficult. Conditions were considerably worse during our longer afternoon dive. Visibility, which had been great in the morning, had dropped to about forty feet. And the currents were much stronger. It was everything Peter, Mark, Dave, and I could do to just hold the camera down in one place behind a rock even after we each clipped on twenty extra pounds of weight. We could hardly move. Fortunately, we didn’t have to move much because we saw very few snakes in the afternoon. Despite the nearly impossible conditions, we did shoot another 600 feet of the few snakes that swam by before I decided we had had enough. Mark’s rebreather scrubber had crashed by then and the rest of us were pretty beat. Mark had conscientiously logged his scrubber time, as we all do, but then he forgot to actually change the scrubber. He had about fifteen hours on his scrubber before he realized that his difficulty working underwater was not due to illness, age, faulty valves, etc. Frankly, I love catching Mark with this kind of diving error. He makes so few of them. So, our day wasn’t very productive. But, hey, if it was easy…

It was, however, comforting to see that it was possible to launch, work, and recover the camera safely. Mark and/or Greg Heighes towed the camera to our dive site and deployed the open-circuit crew well upstream. Maurine and Burt were on snorkel guiding the inflatable to our location. Then Jeff and Drew dropped in and used a scooter, driving hard into the current, to bring the camera down very accurately to our location. Dave used Jon-lines to tie the light cables into the reef since holding them by hand would have been almost impossible in the current. And Peter and I managed to get a couple of steady shots of single snakes swimming at the lens. After each shot, Mark stood by ready to tie a safety line to the camera to keep us from washing off the narrow ridge where we were working.

So, our procedures for working in this difficult place seem quite sound. Graham has set moorings for our boats and has shown us the best places to work. He has explained that the pack feeding is not something you see every day. We will need to get lucky. After traveling 750 miles by boat, all the way into a noticeably different time zone, I hope luck favors us. We do have the time to wait it out. And I have some good ideas for getting interesting shots of single snakes if the pack behavior never materializes.

For those interested in looking at our location on Google Earth, you probably won’t even see the island. This is a small rock less than a mile in diameter. It sticks up like one end of a football and that shape extends down into very deep water. There are only a couple narrow ridges where we can put our feet down to work. The island is covered with small trees and thousands of birds – boobies, frigates, tropicbirds, and several species of tern. Having coffee in the morning while listening to the cacophony reminds me of my days at Cocos Island, Costa Rica.

The bottom here is very different than most of Indonesia. There are few hard corals. Mostly the bottom is rubble or volcanic rock. Below one hundred feet, however, the invertebrate life becomes prolific and spectacular. I doubt we’ll be spending much time down there in these currents, however.

October 17, 2008
Gunung Api Island

We now have three days of diving logged at Gunung Api. I would love to report that we have enjoyed spectacular success with the snakes, but sometimes it just doesn’t happen that way. We have not seen the numbers of snakes that have been reported for this tiny, isolated island. Nor have we seen the cooperative hunting behavior that Peter Scoones of the BBC captured so brilliantly for Blue Planet. It’s possible that the snakes are simply concentrating at a different place on the island. It’s also possible the behavior is somehow tied to the moon phase. But the more likely explanation is that local fishermen have discovered this resource and removed most of the snakes. I saw that happen in the Philippines twenty-five years ago. As I watched, Philippine snake divers removed nearly all the snakes from the seamount we were diving. Their skin was used for wallets, belts, shoes, and various other exotic leather goods. Perhaps that has been happening here. Indeed, I have seen snakeskin products for sale in Bali.

Gunung Api is very isolated, but there is a fishing boat here. It’s a rickety contraption that looks ill suited for the open sea, but they made the crossing from Sulawesi. Evidence of frequent fishing is draped all over the reefs in the way of monofilament line, fishing weights, and ghost nets. In the late afternoon the fishermen paddle ashore and capture adult tropicbirds (that are nesting on the island) for dinner. When Michele saw them do this she sent over a plate-full of banana bread and traded it for the birds’ freedom. I doubt a tropicbird would taste very good.

We have managed to shoot several braces of snakes during the last couple days. We have been spending lots of time waiting for the feeding behavior with the 40mm lens mounted. After several hours without seeing cooperative hunting, we then shot the brace on individual animals, sometimes capturing two in a frame. Most of the shots are forgettable. But there may be a few that are interesting. We have also shot a few braces with the 80mm lens of snakes resting on the bottom. When resting the reptiles are completely immobile, we usually prod them gently with a stick to get them to move or stick out their forked tongues. This has proved only modestly successful.

The good news is that we did capture a couple great shots of a honeycomb moray eel both yesterday and today. This is a large moray approaching six feet in length and is quite rare. Unlike most large morays that are dark green or brown, the honeycomb moray is white with black spots. He should look quite spectacular at minimum shooting distance with the 80mm lens.

I plan to give this island one more try tomorrow. If tomorrow is no more successful than the last few days I will consider moving back toward Alor where we might capture a few remaining shots of shrimp gobies and, perhaps, a wonderpus.

The Seven Seas continues to be a great boat to work from. Towing the camera to the locations has been a completely reasonable procedure. And our film change turn- around times have been less than an hour.

Our crew is in surprisingly good shape after so many days of diving. Michele and I are the only ones who came down with colds and we are both recovered now. Everyone else seems healthy and happy.

October 19, 2008
Wetar Island
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This morning found us at Wetar Island – south of Gunung Api and north of East Timor. We had a miserable crossing last night. Seawater was everywhere including in the Salon and down the stairs into the guests quarters. Thankfully, we did a pretty fair job of tying everything down before leaving Gunung Api. But a few things came loose. The handles on some of our Sodasorb pales broke and the forty-pound pales tumbled around on the deck. Few people bothered to eat dinner. Mark Heighes was trying to do that, but his plate flew off the table and his steak landed on the floor on top of the scooter batteries. I didn’t get much sleep despite almost six hours underwater yesterday.

Conditions at Gunung Api had continued to deteriorate. And we were not accomplishing much with the sea snakes. We did get some great shots of one or two snakes together and I am sure a couple shots will end up in the film. But we never saw cooperative hunting. Even if we had seen it, the diving conditions were so difficult due to currents that it’s doubtful we would have captured a respectable sequence. Sometimes the current would switch three or four times during a three-hour dive going from calm to raging in a matter of minutes. It may have been the most difficult place we have ever attempted working with the IMAX 3D camera. It’s good to be gone from there.

Graham, Burt, and Maurine have scouted the little harbor we are now anchored in and report large fields of garden eels, but little else. Peter and Mark went out to a nearby islet and reported a beautiful wall but no compelling shots. I stayed behind to catch up on some rest. It’s now mid-day and we’re moving toward Pantar Island to dive a site near Beangabang that should be very good for muck animals. We hope to get a shot of the wonderpus there (replacing the beautiful shot that we captured in PNG, but was not in focus) and perhaps a few other very rare animals.

We only have two days of diving left. I hope we can finish by filming something memorable.

October 21, 2008
S 08 17 444 E 124 25 458
Leaving Kalabahi, Alor
Steaming toward Maumere

We never made it to Pantar Island and Beangabang. The strong southeast wind that hammered us at Gunung Api and gave us such a nasty ride leaving that island, has stayed unseasonably strong. It would have been blowing directly into the beach at Beangabang making camerawork impossible. So we have continued moving east along the north side of the island chain all day. We plan to be anchoring near Maumere late tonight and hope to have one more day diving – in the mud near Maumere. We’ll probably finish shooting Under the Sea 3D by filming shrimp gobies in twenty-foot visibility. It should prove a rather anticlimactic end to this long eventful project. And if the last dive is not memorable there are still many others to look back on that were spectacular.

Air transport out of Maumere has proven to be less than predictable. The local airlines has repeatedly changed our bookings, cancelled flights, and eliminated seats – without notification. The last straw was learning that our most recently confirmed flight for October 24 had been cancelled and that half our crew was waitlisted on a flight the following day. With international connections now in jeopardy, we decided to charter a flight. We have now been told that this has been arranged and that the charter plane will pick us up Thursday evening - or maybe Friday morning. Michele and Greg have been going nuts trying to get some commitment from the airlines. Not only are the international connections an issue, but we really can’t delay getting the exposed film back to Los Angeles. The edited film needs to be finished by the first of February. It’s an almost impossible postproduction schedule and a delay of even a few days in receiving the final film shipment will be problematic. A charter flight seems the only predictable way to get the film and the crew back to Bali, and even that seems less than nailed down. The alternative is for crew and film to go out piecemeal and with lengthy delays possible for the film. The remaining 8,000 pounds of camera and diving equipment will be loaded onto trucks for the three-day drive via dirt road and ferry from Maumare back to Bali.

Yesterday was spent diving at Kalabahi, Alor. We did a two-hour scouting diving in the morning then planned a 1:30pm dive to film shrimp gobies. We encountered numerous minor logistical problems and when, two hours into the dive, the camera finally came down, it had a “film loading door open” warning in the viewfinder. We encountered the same logistical hassles getting the camera back to Seven Seas and returned to the dive site. By the time the camera was down again, the sun was getting low and the gobies were tucking in for the night. So we moved up the slope and filmed a blue ribbon eel. The dive was more than four hours long.

In my spare time, I’ve been working the director’s cut of the film. This version is only intended to guide Toni toward the serious editing. The good news is that we have a great deal of wonderful material for Under the Sea 3D and much of that is from this Indonesia trip. It has been disappointing that we were not able to dive South Komodo or Pantar Island as we had planned. And Gunung Api did not produce the spectacular snake hunting aggregations that I had dreamed of filming. But we did get a respectable snake sequence for the film. No one in the audience is likely to sleep through having five-foot long venomous serpents swimming into their laps – even if the hunting behavior is not compelling. It has been a great trip. A couple more long dives tomorrow and it will be over. In a month I know I’ll miss being here.

October 22, 2008
S 08 36 421 E 122 28 264
Wodong Village, near Maumere

We only made one dive today, but it was 5.75 hours long. We went in early and set the camera up on a giant shrimp goby, and then we waited. Eventually we shot one brace of film and captured at least one very nice scene of the shrimp bulldozing its den while the giant goby stood watch. But we decided to try and do better, so I sent the camera up for a final reload.

The second shrimp goby we set up on was less bold than the first. He came out once then dived back into his burrow never to be seen again. Meanwhile I swam up the beach a ways and discovered a school of shrimpfish. These are strange looking critters and fit well with our muck animal sequence. Unfortunately, the focus was jammed so we had to shoot the remaining film set at 3 feet, when I would have preferred to shoot at 3.5 feet. That doesn’t sound like much, but it is significant in IMAX 3D. Either these shots will be spectacular or unwatchable. We will only discover which when we screen them in IMAX 3D.

After rolling out on the shrimpfish, I called the surface to say that our Indonesia filming and, in fact, the entire film was now wrapped. This last dive was long, but not grueling or difficult. All of us that were down for nearly six hours enjoyed the dive, possibly because it was our last and we all know that soon we will miss this kind of highly technical diving. As I logged my last dive, I found that I had made 31 rebreather dives in Indonesia and spent over 70 hours underwater. My total closed-circuit dive time for all of the underwater filming on this project was 317 hours. Of course, the other rebreather divers had similar totals.

Although the diving is now over, there remains some adventure left for us. During the night crossing from Alor, Seven Seas hit a submerged object, probably a log. The propeller was damaged and so Mark had his crew removed it today with the intention of replacing it with the boat’s spare propeller. Somehow in the process the nut that holds the propeller in place was damaged. So as we sit here at anchor near Wodong and two hours from Maumere, we are propellerless. Mark is trying to get a replacement nut from Bali and simultaneously has sent the damaged one to Bali for repair. We’re hoping to have one of these back tomorrow afternoon. If that doesn’t happen then we may be off -loading our entire equipment package on the beach in Wodong and manhandling it to the trucks that will carry it to Bali. That should be enormously difficult especially with the heavy camera housing. Stay tuned. It’s not over yet.

October 29, 2008
Bali, Indonesia

The nut arrived Thursday afternoon as Mark Heighes had hoped and on Friday morning we unloaded the Seven Seas at the dock in Maumere as planned. Greg Heighes had the trucks waiting for us and we saw them pull away from the dock with all our gear in late morning. Then in the afternoon we bid farewell to Seven Seas and her crew, boarded the chartered plane at the Maumere airport and flew to Bali.

It’s now Wednesday the 29th of October and Michele and I are at the Kumala Pantai hotel where our adventure began. Not surprisingly, the trucks were well behind schedule and were stuck in Labuan Bajo, unable to board the ferry because it was too full. But they arrived in Bali last night. We hope the gear will clear customs and be ready to ship by Friday.

The exposed and remaining unexposed film left Maumere on the plane with us. After it cleared customs Michele, Peter, and I visited the film at Prathama, our Balinese shipping company, and we believe it left for Los Angeles on a flight yesterday.

Our crew has been slowly disintegrating. Mark Thurlow and Dylan Reade flew home to their families on the 23rd. Stuart is in Bali somewhere and I’ve heard rumors he may never leave. Jeff Wildermuth, Drew Fellman, and Dave Forsyth joined us in Ubud to visit Burt’s and Maurine’s villa and to join us in attending the Bali International Film Festival Saturday night. We showed a DVD of Deep Sea. The power quit twice and for other technical reasons we showed the beginning, the end, and then the middle of the film in that order. After the power failed the first time, the ceiling fans and interior lights stopped working. Michele and I did our best to entertain the crowd by answering questions and talking about the film. But it must have reached 110 degrees in the room. I almost jumped out of a window. Because it was dark, I doubt I would have been missed. Despite the problems, the crowd seemed surprisingly appreciative. Deborah Gabinetti hosted us to a wonderful meal at the restaurant where the film was shown. By all other accounts the film festival was very successful, due largely to Deborah’s efforts.

We spent Saturday night in Ubud. Michele, Peter Kragh and I made our way back down the mountain the next day. Dave, Jeff, and Drew remained in Ubud. So now our crew is down to Peter, Michele and me. Peter heads home this afternoon.

Yesterday I sent Toni Myers my latest version of a roughly edited film using the video viewfinder footage. With that done, my responsibilities are greatly diminished until I join her for the next round of editing in Toronto. So, while we wait for the gear to clear customs, my next few days will be spent winding down. I plan to go surfing with Mark Heighes this morning.

I would have sent out an update sooner but ironically, since we disembarked Seven Seas and dismantled Dave’s satellite phone system, we have not had reliable email service. The hotel’s system was down and I haven’t had time to get to an Internet cafe. Assuming I get this note out today, the next and last production update should be from the airport in Hong Kong.

November 1, 2008
Hong Kong

We left Bali this afternoon on a Cathay Pacific Flight to Los Angeles via Hong Kong. Michele and I are in the Hong Kong airport lounge now. We should be home in about 18 hours.

We had dinner with Drew Fellman last night. He’s off to Borneo to photograph orangutans in a few days. He seems quite excited about it especially after Burt Jones described how a large orangutan seized his foot and began chewing on it while effortlessly dragging him off into the jungle. Maurine Shimlock was horrified and beat the primate on the head with a tripod, with little effect. Eventually the animal found Burt’s foot distasteful enough to let him go.

Jeff Wildermuth, Dave Forsyth, and Stuart Macfarlane remain in Bali – going native.

Our last few days in Bali have been pleasantly uneventful. I spent my mornings surfing at Kuta Beach or at Serangan Island. I was awkward and graceless on the well-worn and heavy rented surfboard I used – just like at home on my own board. Still it was fun.

On October 30 we visited our equipment at the Prathama warehouse. It was all there and the Prathama people, working with Martin who works for Gary Hayes of Syzygy Productions, had it all organized and accounted for. There were still some minor issues to work out with the airlines, but Michele and I felt confident the gear would ship sometime next week. So we saw little reason to stay in Bali longer. The process of organizing the logistics including permits, customs bond, and countless other details proved to be one of our greatest challenges ever. That it all worked so incredibly well is testament to the amazing job done by Amanda, Judy, and Michele. Somehow they managed to foresee every impediment, and solved the problems in advance before they ever actually became issues for us in Bali. I am completely in awe of this truly amazing accomplishment.

I expect that my last entry in our Under the Sea 3D journal will be after seeing the dailies in Los Angeles. By then the gear should be home or on its way and the adventure will be well and truly over.

November 9, 2009
Del Mar, California

Well, the field production phase for our film is now over. Michele and I returned home from Bali on November 1. Last Thursday, November 6, various members of our production team gathered in Los Angeles to view the Indonesian dailies. It was the largest turnout I can ever remember having for a dailies screening. Afterwards Greg Foster, President of Film Entertainment at IMAX, hosted a spectacular dinner to celebrate the successful end of field production for Under the Sea 3D. There were more than thirty people in the room and everyone stood up and had something to say. Michele was seen standing on her chair. It was a fun and emotional evening that was very much appreciated by all members of our team.

The next day Amanda Lee (who had been greatly missed at our party) called from Toronto and asked Michele if it had been worth it. She was referring to the overwhelming amount of time and effort she, Michele, Judy Carroll, Tonia Epstein, Todd Fellman and their team had invested to make our Indonesia expedition happen. Looking at the dailies, I think everyone would have agreed that, indeed, it had been worth the effort. The garden eels, the sea snakes, the spectacular reefs, even the mangrove shots were all simply breathtaking. When combined with all the other wonderful images we captured from Papua New Guinea, South Australia, and the Great Barrier Reef, I’m sure Under the Sea will be visually wonderful.