Although our expertise resides below the surface, we have become quite adept at many of the arts practiced topside in our business. This has been a logical progression really, since after shooting many breathtaking underwater scenes, we were the right choice to tackle their editing and color correction. So we mastered those crafts. And then, when we started shooting 3D underwater, probably before anybody else with the exception of Jim Cameron perhaps, we learned the complex art of stereography.
Our editing chops developed from the need to trim the hours and hours of footage we came back with from every outing into the perfect moments. From here we moved on to editing our own programs and features, and from there to editing the work of other underwater cinematographers. We have evolved into a full editing facility, with several high end bays powered by Adobe products, and able to work on any type of footage and format. Because of the love and respect we have for our own footage, the emphasis of our editing work is in preserving the pristine quality of the images we work with. Nowadays, besides underwater project, we edit anything from music videos to infomercials to even TV series.
Color correction is what got us started in the post world really. Regardless of the quality of the cameras used, the underwater environment robs images of their amazing colors. Warm tones get filtered out even in shallow water and images exhibit a pervasive bluish cast, but with carefully applied color correction, we are able to restore the chromatic magnificence to our footage and show those images exactly as we saw them. This wizardry comes from a combination of years and years of practice and research together with the highest end computing equipment and software. Although most of the requests for color grading we get are for programs about the underwater world, we do quite a lot of work in other genres, including travel and adventure, fashion, commercials and series.
We started experimenting with underwater 3D years before 3D became an “overnight” success yet again. With the exception of James Cameron, nobody started shooting underwater 3D earlier or has shot more of it, than us. Shooting 3D is complex, but relatively easy when compared to the post aspect of it, where images must be melded together while taking into account convergence, inter ocular distance, angle of depth and many other parameters that ultimately can create or destroy the 3D effect. Having mastered these complexities in many of our own projects, and realizing that not too many production companies are as well versed in this type of work yet, we have decided to offer our services to help fellow filmmakers bring their 3D projects to life. So, if you have just shot or are about to embark in, your dream 3D project, but don’t know how to make the magic happen once the shooting is finished, come to us, we will make it happen for you!
Though the Steadicam, that marvelous device that steadies cameras as the operator follows a moving subject, can be used at a leisurely pace, with the operator walking alongside or even riding a dolly or cart, we have perfected a version of it we call “Action Steadicam”. As you can guess, this means we specialize on those very difficult, athletically demanding shots that require high levels of fitness and specialized skills, and given the fact that so many of our team members are so athletically gifted, this should come as no surprise. While operating a steadicam, we can run, jump, climb up and down flies of stairs, roller blade, bicycle, skydive, wear stilts and whatever else it takes to keep up with fast moving, hard to predict, “impossible” to follow subjects. For the past 3 years, during our dry periods on land, we’ve been polishing the art of “Action Steadicam” to the point where we feel confident to offer it as a service.