"Michele with the Imax Mark II system - Howard Hall"

  For most of my filmmaking career I've worked behind the camera, making documentary television and large format films that focus primarily on marine wildlife. It's become a comfortable role. I produce the films and my husband Howard Hall directs and is the primary cameraman for our projects. We hire a team of divers for the fieldwork and sub-contract for postproduction services. Our very small, home-based operation is run by just Howard and myself.

   During the Large Format Cinema Association meeting in 1999, Greg MacGillivray of MacGillivray Freeman Films approached me to discuss participating in one of his Great Adventure Films®, Coral Reef Adventure. Greg wanted a film that documented more than the beauty and health of South Pacific coral reefs. In addition to organizing the location logistics, directing, and filming the underwater sequences, he wanted Howard and me to appear on camera so that the audience could witness the challenges we face as underwater large format filmmakers. We've participated in a few 'behind-the scenes' segments for television, but appearing in a film of this magnitude would be a different story. Despite our misgivings, Greg insisted that this was the best way to make the film.

   Naturally, we wanted to make Coral Reef Adventure stand out and be different in the highly competitive large format film market. To add true adventure to the film, we decided to attempt some things that had never been done before - some potentially dangerous things. Using exotic gas mixtures, our divers would take the 15/70 IMAX® camera to depths deeper than large format underwater cameramen had ever before filmed. We would also be the first to fly with a 15/70 camera mounted on a hang glider.

   When Greg learned of Howard's passion for cross-county hang gliding, he became interested in filming this as a means of character development. It was also a great vehicle for adding some spectacular aerial scenes to the film. So in April 2001 our crew of hang glider, ultralight and helicopter pilots, filmmakers, assistants, and technicians spent a week filming Howard and his flying companion John Dunham soaring over California's snow-capped Eastern Sierra Mountains, near Mt. Whitney. In addition to Greg's filming with strategically placed ground cameras, breathtaking aerial scenes of Howard and John flying in close formation were captured from a helicopter fit with a Spacecam® mount. To capture Howard's point of view in the IMAX® format, the 40-pound W14 camera and 35 pounds of counterweights were mounted to an oversized glider that was built specifically for the sequence. This had never been attempted before. Professional hang gliding pilot John Heiney was hired to mastermind the design of the glider and mount, and to be Howard's on-camera double for the scene.

   Two hang gliding launch techniques were used to get Howard, Dunham and Heiney in the air. The pilots foot-launched from the side of a mountain at 9200 feet, and were also towed up behind ultralights. During foot launches, Greg filmed with an IMAX® camera set up on the mountainside below launch while the helicopter moved in to record the flight, capturing spectacular scenes of Howard and Dunham amid snow-covered peaks as they climbed in thermal lift to over 12,000 feet. Because the road to launch was closed due to snow, a snow-cat was hired to haul people and equipment to the site. Later, the more specialized technique of tow-launching was employed from nearby Lone Pine Airport. The launches required that our pilots hook into their hang gliders and be towed behind ultralight aircraft to 8000 feet. They would then release high over the famous Alabama Hills so the helicopter could film during magnificent dawn and evening light.

   By week's end, Howard and Dunham had each successfully made 11 tow launches and 2 foot launches; Heiney had made 3 flights with the mounted W14 camera. After being towed high into the snow covered Sierras and releasing along a distant granite ridge, Heiney ran film through the W14 as he dived and banked over snow and granite, swooped over boulders and cactus, and then executed perfect landings. The resulting footage is breathtaking.

   As challenging as the hang gliding sequence was, one of the underwater sequences proved even more challenging. We wanted to film ichthyologist Richard Pyle capturing new fish species at depths below 350 feet in Fiji, more than 200 feet deeper than the acceptable sport diving limit. In 35 years of diving, Howard had never been below 250 feet, nor had he breathed the exotic gas mixtures necessary for diving at that depth. And no one had ever dived below 250 feet with an IMAX® camera. To pull this off would mean using something other than standard SCUBA diving equipment. Howard and cameraman Bob Cranston have been diving a life-support system called a mixed-gas, closed-circuit rebreather (CCR) for more than 10 years. The CCR's on-board computers blend precise concentrations of air and oxygen. But because this oxygen-enriched air becomes poisonous at the depths they'd be going to on these dives, a tri-mix gas of oxygen, nitrogen, and helium was necessary.

   During the 21 deep tri-mix dives made during our filming, the deep dive team routinely descended below 350 feet. Howard reached a maximum depth of 372 feet. One day Richard actually descended below 400 feet. Each dive included a maximum of 30 minutes at depth, followed by 3 to 4½ hours of required decompression. Safety protocols dictated that the team make only one deep dive on a given day, followed by no physical exertion. Consequently, on deep diving days the entire day's underwater activity was devoted to capturing footage of Richard working in what he calls the "twilight zone." The rest of the day was typically devoted to topside shooting.

   Rethinking our life-support system and diving protocols weren't the only considerations for implementing these deep dives. Our primary camera for the underwater filming was the IMAX® MKII, secured in our aluminum underwater housing that Howard and Bob designed. We've successfully used this housing to capture underwater footage on 4 other IMAX® films. But the housing was only good to 150 feet. At 350 feet it would crush like a paper cup. So Howard and Bob devised a pressure-compensation system of regulators and air tanks that would pump air into the housing during descent, and would allow the housing to off-gas during ascent. With this modification in place the housing could be taken to any depth, although it also meant the camera had to run in a very dense gaseous environment.

   Because one of the film's goals was to document Howard using the MKII camera, we needed a second large format camera for Bob Cranston to film with, and one that could also handle depths over 350 feet. MFF's "splash" housing, which holds the W14 camera, is normally good only to a depth of 10 feet. So it was similarly modified with a pressure-compensation system. As a result the system handled dives below 300 feet, and Bob captured footage of Howard using the MKII in deep water.

   The pressure compensation system created more technical challenges resulting in camera failure during half of the deep dives. The most alarming incident occurred during our last tri-mix dive in Fiji, when a leaky seal in the pressure-compensation devise caused the camera to take on water. The team was at 300 feet when Howard noticed a strobe light flashing in the footage counter window and heard the leak detector alarm.

   A flooded IMAX® camera system is problematic for several reasons, the most obvious of which is the consequences of damaging a $200,000 camera. But at 300 feet, descending along the face of a shear wall that drops well below 1,000 feet, water damage to the camera was the least serious potential problem. If the housing completely flooded, it would become over 200 pounds negatively buoyant. There would simply be no way to carry it to the surface. Attempts to save the camera would be extremely dangerous at these depths where physical exertion can cause blackout or Decompression Illness. The only hope would be to lodge the falling camera against the cliff face, hoping the divers could make it stick there before it plummeted to 500 feet or more. The team would then return to attempt a recovery the next day. Of course, chances of making a 200-pound camera stick on the shear wall were slim. The camera would, most probably, fall into the abyss despite the divers' most desperate efforts. Howard had discussed this possibility with the team, and they had decided that if their first attempt to lodge a flooded and falling camera against the cliff face failed, they would let it go. But would they really have the courage to abandon the camera and watch it bounce against the wall as it fell into the darkness?

   Fortunately, in this instance, as Howard detected no immediate change in the housing's buoyancy, the leak didn't seem catastrophic. Since they were in the midst of a deep tri-mix dive, they couldn't immediately rush the camera to the surface without violating their decompression requirements. It would take them at least fifteen minutes to get the housing shallow enough for the safety divers to recover it. Having suffered a string of camera failures on previous tri-mix dives, and since immediate ascent wasn't possible, Howard decided to continue filming. In a rush, he and Bob shot five quick scenes. Howard admits that the camerawork lacked the artistry one might expect of a seasoned IMAX® director. But with the strobe light flashing, the audio alarm blaring, and his mind reeling from helium jitters, he only hoped that he'd remembered to set the focus. After the surface crew had inspected the camera a half hour later, he was relieved to learn via the underwater communication system that there had been no damage, despite the cup of water in the housing.

   There were other heart-stopping moments. At the end of another dive I noticed something that resembled a jellyfish descending through the water. I saw Bob following it down to the reef as fast as he could. My stomach jumped into my throat as I realized he wasn't chasing a jellyfish; rather, he was pursuing the dome to the W14's housing, which had blown off when the pressure compensator failed, instantly flooding the housing and camera. Once on the surface, the W14 was thoroughly rinsed in fresh water. Assistant cameraman John Anderson disassembled the camera down to the tiniest screw and washer, then dried, greased, and reassembled it. His diligence paid off, and within a few days the camera was back in use.

   Possibly the most distressing event of the project occurred not to a piece of equipment, but to Howard during a strenuous deep dive working with the cumbersome IMAX® camera. During one of the 350-foot tri-mix dives he developed a case of Decompression Illness, a first for him. That evening, as soon as he recognized and acknowledged the symptoms (which began with numbness of his right foot that progressed to loss of muscular control of that leg), he re-entered the water with another diver to begin a 3½ hour in-water-recompression treatment. I anxiously sat vigil in a small inflatable boat, monitoring the dive by talking with Howard via our underwater communication system. He emerged at 10:15pm cold and tired. Though the in-water-recompression treatment arrested the progression of symptoms, he still required 4 recompression chamber treatments at the closest chamber in Suva. A week after the incident we returned home to California. Another 3 weeks later he was again diving Fiji's coral reef to over 300 feet, thankfully with no residual effects.

   The project was of course not fraught with calamity. During the 179 days Howard and I traveled and filmed underwater and topside to make Coral Reef Adventure, we had some fantastic adventures while capturing groundbreaking footage. Our dive team as a whole logged 2421 dives and 2810 hours in the water; Howard logged 410 hours and I logged 250. One of our divers spent 8.37 hours in the water one day! Over 500,000 feet of 15/70 film was shot above and underwater. And we made some fascinating discoveries, one of which is included in the sequence of Richard Pyle capturing a species of fish never before seen by humans, which he's promised to name after Greg!

   For more details about our Coral Reef Adventure, please click on Current Productions when you visit www.howardhall.com