OT: Underwater stock footage

farss wrote on 3/31/2005, 2:47 PM
Tried Artbeats but all their stuff it seems is NTSC, bummer, if I'm going to pay that kind of money I don't want the qaulity hit. Perhaps I could buy footage as in 35mm and have it transferred here.
What I'm after is 16:9 PAL underwater stock footage, actually all I need is say underwater 'bubbles' with light rays from the surface and it needs to be loopable for a DVD menu. I've then got to try to get the menu text looking like it's underwater too.
Maybe I should just farm this out to a CGI place. yeah I know I could kind of do this in Vegas but I'd like it photo realistic, I'm open to ideas though. I could shoot this myself but the only decent camera I can get hold of in an underwater housing is an F900 and you don't want to know what the deposit is on that baby to take it swimming.
Although I could take a Z1 down to the aquarium, hm, come to think of it we have a large fish tank, hm, how to get the goldfish to stay out of shot, they might give the game away.
Bob.

Comments

r56 wrote on 3/31/2005, 6:38 PM
Nick Hope (formerly bubblevision) may be able to help you get underwater footage in PAL. His profile is here if you want to contact him. He posted a reply to a thread yesterday so he may respond to this one if he is still around and sees what the subject is about.

Vassias
rs170a wrote on 3/31/2005, 7:09 PM
Bob, have you considered buying your own housing? That way you'd have it for any future projects as well. A company called Ewa Marine has a base in your part of the world. A housing for the FX-1 (same size as the Z1?) is $500 U.S. at B&H. Just a thought.

Mike
farss wrote on 3/31/2005, 9:04 PM
Yeah thought about that but although I can grab a Z1 anytime I need it we have a strict policy of nothing going underwater, we lost one camera that way. My mate would gladly give me heaps of his underwater footage but it's all 4:3 Hi8.
I just can't belive that Artbeats stuff is mostly 4:3 NTSC, that kind of limits the market although I didn't look at their HD catalogue.
I could get a relative to do this except he didn't have the money for the Maya modules that do liquid. I do have Truespace, good time to have another look see if it can handle this, maybe between that and Vegas I can make something happen.
Bob.
goshep wrote on 3/31/2005, 9:20 PM
I'm not gonna post an entire how-to with schematics on it but I've made housings out of ammunition cans.

Select the appropriate can for the job:
5.56 NATO works well for smaller camcorders
.50 cal should do nicely for Z1.

Check the gasket at the top of the can for a good seal.
Dremel a hole in the opposite end of the can from the opening handle. Using silicone, apply a 1/4 pice of clear acrylic over the hole.

Pad the inside with towels, etc for a snug fit. Allow room for the camera and some additional weight to reduce buoyancy.

I've used the 5.56 can as deep as four feet with no leakage or seepage.

It's ghetto and horribly unprofessional but unless you're filimg an underwater wedding, who's gonna know?

I suggest you test it thoroughly at a depth twice what you plan to use just to make sure.


FrigidNDEditing wrote on 3/31/2005, 9:33 PM
If it doesn't need to be realistic bubbles in watter and needs to be loopable - Digital Juice has an animation of that and some other ones in the same package. cheap - and in Pal natively.

Dave
NickHope wrote on 3/31/2005, 10:26 PM
Bob, I'm sure I can help you out with something. I've got a big archive of PAL DV underwater footage shot mostly with my VX2000 in a Gates housing. It's all 4:3 so would need to be letterboxed.

I don't exactly have a clip of bubbles with sunrays shining through but I have some nice ambient shots taken at night with light rays shining through the surface, or onto the sand and loads of stuff like divers silhouetted. What exactly is your project and maybe I can advise what might work.

Alternatively I could go and shoot you something of course, in the camera's 16:9 mode if necessary. I'm probably not in the open water until 22nd April but there's a swimming pool up the road.
farss wrote on 3/31/2005, 11:46 PM
It's a DVD for a company that sells dive equipment, I suspect they have a reasonable budget so I really cannot ask anyone to do this for free.
They MAY have some footage of their own, I'll know by Monday.
Main thing I wanted this for was for the DVD menu, was hoping to be able to build an 'underwater' looking menu.
Thinking this through though CGI might be the way to go, as I'm going to need bubbles in front and behind the text as well as light diffraction off the text and distortion of the image of the text as bubbles pass in front of it. Perhaps I can pull this off with something like TrueSpace using glass balls as bubbles, ah, maybe not, bubbles change shape as they rise, ah but I can animate the shape, good thing I've got a monster PC on standby.
Of course there is a 30M deep underwater tank built just for filming a few miles from here, I hear they're not getting many bookings. Need to let brain calm down for a while.
Bob.
briang wrote on 4/1/2005, 12:36 AM
Bob

You could try Coral Sea Imagery (www.coral-sea.com.au).

They are a Townsville based Barrier Reef video production company, and have high quality stock footage for sale.

Brian