Underwater Bubble Blowin' Users Group

[Ken Corben]

Well I have to be honest - I'd love to be the first one to shoot RED 4K underwater - it would be an honor. Posting the results will be big news for all of us. I certainly will have the first professional housing thanks to the brilliant efforts of Mike Hastings at Aquavideo and to Gibby for letting me make the intitial underwater housing drawings and designs off of #8. The question is timing and subject matter - like Jim said, "Bad red footage is not our fault." Don't think my initial efforts will be subject to this disclaimer. The June cameras are not slated to be fully feature enabled, but hey, I only need a record/stop function at 4K redcode RAW 24p for my intitial underwater tests.

Figure 6 weeks from measuring #8 and the housing will be ready so that is some time in June? My personal camera will not ship until October based on the projected shipping dates. However, in conversations with lower number reservation holders a few possibilities exist.

The trick is always in the choosing:
Subject matter options for me in June include (moving from easy to diffcult) 1) Kelp forests off the channel islands 2) Giant squid in Mexico working with Baja J. 3) Sperm whales in the Azores 4) White sharks in Africa 5) My 3 year old son Kai in the pool with his dog

Of course no one can compete with RED providing "rockstars" like Cameron/Pace or Hydroflex with a RED beta model in May (if it already hasn't happened) to design and test with underwater. I think the difference is that I will share my knowledge, testing and results with the reduser community openly.

I look forward to the amazing results of 4K underwater - very exciting!

[Mark Thorpe]

All sounds good Ken,
As you I plan to share all of my attempts and failings here in the public forum with the rest of the "Bubble Blowers". Some may laugh at my initial mistakes but I walk tall. I'm stepping up from 3CCD Land and making a massive jump in formats, considerations and work flow. My public airing will help me to learn. I may make a few errors but hopefully those will be pointed out to me. I don't make any grand announcements of being a big noise in our domain, I love what I do and want to hone that into being able to display beautiful stories and 4k images of the marine environment. Sharing what I love with the world to raise awareness and understanding and hopefully instill a desire to protect and conserve.

If that happens then for me, job done.

Cheers,
Mark.

[Ken Corben]

I love what I do and want to hone that into being able to display beautiful stories and 4k images of the marine environment. Sharing what I love with the world to raise awareness and understanding and hopefully instill a desire to protect and conserve.

If that happens then for me, job done.

Couldn't have said it better Mark - well done. Keep walking tall and I know I am looking forward to seeing your 4K images.

I don't make any grand announcements of being a big noise in our domain...

Well you should mate, your images are spectacular and your story ideas are brilliant. Always yell from the highest tree you can find or no one will hear you.

[Mark Thorpe]

Hey cheers Ken,
I appreciate your words, truly.

Hope all is well.
Mark.

[Ken Corben]

Hey Guys,

I may have an interesting solution for our RED 4K wide angle prime lens woes. I'll let you know if the lead pans out.

Sharky

[Mike the beginner]

Hey Guys,

I may have an interesting solution for our RED 4K wide angle prime lens woes. I'll let you know if the lead pans out.

Sharky

I hope its not too expensive



Mike the beginner

[David Nardini]

Sperm whales in the Azores

how are you getting round the 'legislation' ... now days there are so many regs in place it's hard to get close to whales underwater !

[Ken Corben]

how are you getting round the 'legislation' ... now days there are so many regs in place it's hard to get close to whales underwater !

An excellent question - IMHO - if a whale does not want to get close to you underwater and check you out then it ain't gonn'a happen. Based on my experiences around the planet with all types of whales it is simple - they're curious or they do not want to be bothered. The whales choose to interact with you or not. I think it's always critical to any production I am producing or working for that the production work closely with the local government agency responsible for enviromental protection and the tourist board to enhance awareness of ecologically sensitive areas and the inhabitants.

My first call/email is always to both of these entities to request formal film permits and ask what I can do to contribute to safe guarding these unique environments. If this includes supplying my footage gratis, paying fees, paying to subsidize local researchers and/or paying all costs for a park ranger to work with us while filming I'm all for it even with our continually shrinking budgets. The majority of the government agencies overseeing the "whale hot spots" work with established filmmakers to achieve the goals of the production while contributing to their protection and habitat conservation.

I have experienced a few, very few, places where I felt it was simply a pay and play deal. Specifically, that my money was going straight into a bureaucratic vaccum. The Azores is not an example of this as they are pretty savvy about protecting their resources but there are a few like this. I have a special permit to film in the Azores that was issued after a do diligence application process based on my credentials and the use of the acquired footage in documentaries that further the understanding of the area and its animals. The Azorean government required a fee for the permit and a copy of the footage to be used for education and tourism - an example of an effective film permit program.

In the case of the REDONE test shooting in the Azores, the footage will be used in one of the HD series specials Steve Gibby and I are producing for HD broadcast as well as a copy supplied to the Azorean government for use in education and tourism.

In my continued pursuit to educate and entertain humans about the wonders of the sea, REDONE has truly opened up a new door on technology.

Sharky

[Mark Thorpe]

All sounds good Ken, good luck with it all. I'm banging around in the final throes of the busy season here in Palau. Getting geared up for the trip to Lembeh and then I guess it will be getting the office ready for the landing of RED #954. I'm in the process of making final decisions on lenses too. The RED Prime set is looking to be a good option later down the line depending on initial tests etc. With the work put in to RED though I'm pretty sure it will be a no brainer.

Mind you, this talk of planning for the future took a bit of a ding the other day. Currently in Palau we have one very big boat which normally serves as a liveaboard. It had been chartered for the past 3 weeks by one of the biggest production entities on the Planet. They are making some deep Ocean stuff split between here, Yap and Chuuk (Truk) Lagoon. They have some of the biggest names in the underwater camera operator world, from the U.S, the U.K and Germany, shooting the main feature on F900's 1080p @ 24P. However they also have a full on support crew of around 30 people, seven of which are B roll underwater camera guys. These people are shooting with the exact same HDV unit that I film with every day, including the SWP44.

However, and this is the killer. The producer of the show is also on the boat. As we always know, producers are continually busting balls to keep costs down. Well in the wisdom to cut costs down the B roll guys have been instructed to program their HDV units to shoot in the DV Format!!! The producers didn't want to use the cameras as decks to down convert and feed the imagery into the computers and also didn't go the extra $2k or so to buy the HDV deck for that operation. In the past three weeks the entity has used submersibles, helicopters and also flown in the NewtSuit for an 800fsw dive. They have contracted the world's creme de la creme of underwater camera operators, chartered a very expensive boat .............. and shot complete B roll in DV. Go figure.

I will personally use this project scenario when in the future, and its bound to happen, producers or project related people knock me back with the age old line, "ahhhhh, sorry but we're filming solely on true, uncompressed HD for this one". I'm just wondering too if people will then, post RED, come up with the excuse of the camera being above the quality requirement for their project? You know, like the brain surgeon getting knocked back from the GP vacancy due to their being 'over qualified'!

I have purposely avoided dropping names to protect the production entity and individuals involved.

Cheers from a very puzzled CamDiver,
Mark.

[Ken Corben]

Thanks for the post Mark - sounds like a very cool program/series we will all enjoy. It's funny to think of the big bucks being spent to shoot in 1080p as a master with the pending release of RED, no?

I think a letter and HD-DVD demo following the release of RED fed exed to Alistair Fathergill at the BBC NAT History unit is in order as soon as doable signed by you, me and the rest of us first RED U/W shooters pointing out the folly in 1080p for the future and of course our availabilities and rates - hehe

And I have always said, who am I to argue with the wisdom of producers. I recall shooting for Nat Geo on a big series where the discussion was 16:9 vs 4:3 in SD (a few years back). I pushed for 16:9 since we were descending into an active volcano for amazing shots of a scientist collecting samples - great television. The producers chose 4:3 not seeing any value in my suggestion.

Well, the friggin' volcano erupted while we were ascending the glacial cap to the rim - there I was filming an active eruption at the mouth of a volcano. The first time to do so and survive it I believe. Later that night I received a call from a big time Discovery Channel producer, "Hey Ken, I hear you got the shot I really need. (beat) WHAT THE F#*K do you mean it's in 4:3 SD whose dumb a** idea was that."

I rest my case.