Some stuff to watch

[Jonathan Bird]

Hey Ya'all,

For those of you interested in underwater video, I have added some new video to my site that you might find interesting. Here is a 15 minute excerpt from a film I did for National Geographic in 2004/5:

http://www.jonathanbird.net/sharks_ocean_desert_qt.htm

(This is a section in the middle of the film, so it starts out being a little confusing because you don't know where you are in the film, but this was my favorite section of the film because I thought the baby hammerheads were cute). The film is about Pelagic Sharks, and was originally titled SHARKS OF THE OCEAN DESERT but Nat Geo in their infinite wisdom retitled it for broadcast SHARKS: DEEP TROUBLE. Ugh. What a crappy name, considering the film is not about sharks being in trouble, or sharks that are troublesome.

Some more of my stuff which can be seen on-line is here:

http://www.jonathanbird.net/filmsj.html

I'm posting this because I thought some of you that are into underwater video would like to waste some time watching stuff at work! ;)

Jonathan

[Clay Coleman]

Fabulous stuff, but, dang, I wanted to see more of the threshers. How about giving us a rundown on equipment used? -Clay

[Jonathan Bird]

Hey Clay,
I will send you the DVD if you want to see the whole thresher segment.

Equipment used underwater: old school VX-1000 camera in an Ikelite housing that was custom built to use Century wide angle lenses. Halogen lights for a few scenes (not a huge HID fan). That's about it. It was shot almost entirely in blue water by ambient light during the day. I used a pole cam to shoot a few things near the surface, such as the underwater shots of the baby hammerheads being caught.

Above water, I used a Panasonic AJ-D400 DVCPRO camera (which was damned expensive when I bought it but worth almost nothing now! Damn I hate video gear depreciation!) Pretty basic audio package with shotgun mics, wireless lavs, 4 light portable lighting kit, etc.

The crew was pretty small, most of the shoots were just three people (me, my underwater assistant gator and the best topside cameraman in the universe, Tim Geers who is also on this site [username: tgeers]. He dives and shoots underwater as well, but in this case that was MY job! ;))

Jonathan