Sensational Seas 2 is subtitled “rare sights from under the sea”. It is the second anthology DVD of the series, and like its predecessor, consists of a series of video contributions from many leading underwater filmmakers and photographers. The “sights” are “rare”” not only in the actual footage, but also in the manner in which they are presented.
At the “Blue Carpet Awards” on Saturday night, the winners for the second Blue Ocean Film Festival were announced. The award ceremony included performances by Grammy Award winning singer Paula Cole, and special recognitions for Jean Michel, Fabien and Celine Cousteau who won the “Making Waves” award as well as Dr. Carl Safina who received the Sylvia Earle Award.
“Bag It” by Susan Beraza won the Best of Festival, and “Under the Sea 3D” by Howard and Michelle Hall received a special jury award. The full list of winners and finalists are available on the Blue Ocean Film Festival website.
Patima has released a 3D housing that uses two Panasonic HDC-TM700 camcorders. The housing allows for the cameras to be mounted in either horizontal or vertical format and the system can be used for filming on land or underwater. The housing is made primarily of anodized aluminum and allows access to most of the controls for each camera. In addition Patima has developed a 3D external monitor to use with the system, as well as a 2D monitor that allows the user to switch view between the cameras. The housings are available now although the prices for the monitors are to be confirmed.
Gates Underwater Products has announced the imminent release of a 3D housing for the Panasonic AG-3DA1. The new housing was unveiled at the Blue Ocean Film Festival, and pictures of it are on the wetpixel coverage of the event. Designed for the broadcast 3D market, the 3DA1 housing is provisioned for the Convergent Design nano3D recorder to which can record data rates of up to 280 Mbps at 4:2:2 color. Rental housings will be available in October, followed by production models in the fourth quarter 2010. Pricing is not yet available.
At a luncheon sponsored by Magillivray Freeman at the Blue Ocean Film Festival today, Greg Macillivray shared a teaser from the company’s massive new campaign “One World Ocean.” The five-year, $35 million dollar project will include an IMAX film, theatrical film, and an eight-part television series, all filmed in 3D, and all focusing on the goal of raising awareness about the critical and immediate need to protect our ocean. A major social media campaign will accompany both the production and release of the films. Filming will commence this fall, with an anticipated release date in 2015.
Greg Magillivray was featured yesterday in Variety Magaizine as a “peak performer,” having reached the incredible milestone of $1 billion in box office receipts, a remarkable achievement for any filmmaker, let alone a documentarian. Magillivray was quick to point out that the majority of these profits have helped the educational and scientific institutions who show the films in their IMAX theaters.
Olympus launched its first Micro Four Thirds camera, the E-P1 in June of 2009 after a clever advertising campaign linking it to the very popular PEN film cameras of the 1960s and 70s. Fast forward to February 2010 and the official announcement of the Olympus E-PL1, a simplified and less expensive addition to its Micro Four Thirds camera line. Olympus also announced the new PT-EP01 underwater housing for the E-PL1 camera. These mirrorless cameras have attracted a great deal of attention in underwater photography circles due to their small size and comparatively low cost. In this article, Phil Rudin presents a hands-on review of his experiences with the camera and housing.
Becky Kagan, owner of Liquid Productions LLC, has posted a video offering tips and tricks for shooting video. She describes her aims:
When you jump into the water to shoot video or stills do you know what you’re shooting? I love watching videos and others’ work, but I’m always plagued by one thought as I watch: There’s no storyline. As a photojournalist I’m taught to tell a story through images, I made this video to help give some advice and tips about taking your video to the next level! Hopefully it will help you think about what your shooting, and make a plan the next time you splash. (via underwatervideography.com)
Ikelite has announced the release of a housing for the Panasonic ZS5, ZS7, TS8 & TZ10 compact cameras. Made from the traditional Ikelite polycarbonate, and with manual controls accessing all camera functions, the housing features a built-in flash diffuser and compatibility with add-on wet lenses and strobes. The housing is now available for pre-order.
The last event in the Visions in the Sea Summer Series is to be held at Brighton Pier, UK over 23/24 October. Brighton Pier is renowned as a productive venue for macro and wide-angle subjects and Maria Munn will be on hand to offer coaching for participants. Other events in the series have already been held around the UK.
Amidst the plethora of new product announcements from Canon is an update to the EOS Movie Plugin-E1. The update, version 1.1, will aid the import of footage shot with EOS DSLR’s including the EOS 60D into Final Cut Pro. It will be compatible with EOS-1D Mark IV, EOS 5D Mark II new firmware (v2.0.3 or later), EOS 5D Mark II old firmware (v1.2.4 or earlier), EOS 60D and EOS 7D cameras.The existing plugin (and the updated one) converts EOS movie files into Apple ProRes format at high-speed as it uses multi-core processing, and allows the user to add reel names and time code information at import.