American Cinematographer - May 2015 - 30

Underwater cinematographer Howard Hall frames humpbacks in Tonga.

bility; this footage was generally shot at 48
fps. "A humpback usually moves at 10 miles
per hour," MacGillivray elaborates. "One
flick of its tail will jet it away from you and
suddenly you won't even see it. Sometimes
they're around you for a minute or less, so
you want to shoot in slow-motion to get
enough of a shot."
Midway through production, Red
added a pre-roll buffer function to the Epic,
whereby the camera is constantly recording
footage that is not permanently saved
unless the operator presses the trigger. Once
the camera begins standard recording, the
pre-roll footage is then committed to storage as well. For Humpback Whales, the
crew set the camera for a 6-second pre-roll;
Ohlund calls the feature "earth-shattering"
for wildlife shooters waiting for animals to
act while avoiding data waste.
The production paired the Epic with
its set of Zeiss Compact Prime CP.2 lenses
(ranging from 15mm to 135mm) and a Red
Pro 300mm, and rented a Fujinon Premier
PL 75-400mm T2.8-3.8 zoom for the
Flex4K.
Underwater cinematographer Hall
spent three weeks with the crew in Tonga,
diving with a Mark-II that was encased in a
special housing he built, capturing whales at
the camera's maximum 36 fps. "Whales
seem to move too fast in real time," Hall
notes. "It makes them look smaller than
they really are."
A 30mm converted Hasselblad
30

May 2015

served as his underwater lens. "I used an 85
filter with the tungsten film, and I would use
an 85 and a CC40R for scenes of coral reefs
and other colorful subjects," Hall explains,
adding that he eschewed any artificial light
sources. "I can get good colors on film with
just ambient light at depths of up to 30 feet,
assuming bright sun directly overhead."
Veteran cameraman Peter Kragh
worked alongside Hall, shooting with an
Epic. Perhaps surprisingly, it wasn't proximity
to the whales that posed the greatest safety
risk, as the underwater shooters had
enough experience to anticipate the
animals' movements. "The most dangerous
aspect is doing camerawork while freediving," Hall explains. "You're just holding
your breath and going down. Peter and I
would be down 50 feet getting a great
shot, and you tend to push the dive longer
than you should. Passing out is a risk, but
we never got close to that."
The filmmakers were blessed with
good weather and much whale activity. In
Hawaii, they captured uncommon events
such as a "heat run," during which a female
swims fast and far trailed by multiple males,
presumably determining the strongest and
best mate. The crew shot it both in 65mm
and digitally, from the air and their boat.
Due to choppy conditions, one of the selfleveling Imax camera mounts broke, necessitating a switch to the Epic.
Later, the female and winning male
approached the crew's boat, circling each
American Cinematographer

other in an apparent mating dance. The
crew covered the sequence from a helicopter and their boat, as well as in the
water thanks to Jason Sturgis, a cameraman associated with education center
Whale Trust Maui, who used an Epic. They
also were able to shoot a whale being
rescued from a fishing net by Ed Lyman of
the Hawaiian Islands Entanglement
Response Network.
A default grade was applied to the
digital footage in RedCine-X Pro for dailies.
The large-format stock was processed at
Burbank's FotoKem, which struck a 35mm
one-light the filmmakers later screened at
MacGillivray Freeman's office. (The 3D
conversion was performed by Sassoon Film
Design and FotoKem.)
The movie's digital footage and
some film footage went through a postproduction process led by David Keighley, who
serves as Imax's chief quality officer and
executive vice president, as well as president
of Imax Post/DKP Inc. in Santa Monica. The
film elements were digitally transferred into
10-bit Cineon format at 8K using a FilmLight Northlight 65mm scanner. Keighley
performed coloring on a Baselight system
and recorded the filmout using a Solitaire
Cine III film recorder at resolutions of
5616x4096 and 4096x3016. "Wide shots
tend to need more resolution, so they
would be filmed out at 5616, especially if
captured on film," Keighley explains.
The filmmakers shared ecological
aspirations in their approach, although their
top priority was to tell a compelling story.
"We want people to be entertained by our
films first," Ohlund offers. "We want them
inspired second and educated third. And if
we can achieve those goals, then our films
are successful for us."

TECHNICAL SPECS
1.33:1
15-perf 65mm and Digital Capture
Williamson W4; Imax Mark-II; SpaceCam
DCam 65-15; Red Epic Mysterium-X;
Phantom Flex4K
Hasselblad, Schneider Variogon, Zeiss CP.2,
Red Pro, Fujinon Premier
Kodak Vision3 200T 5213, 500T 5219
Digital Intermediate
G

American Cinematographer - May 2015

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