Projects > Source de Vis 2006 (August)
Video Support Dive
Latest update: October 9, 2006
In the forefield of the project we made, as usual, a rough plan of who is doing what during the project. One of the discussed tasks was support for the video work. Brus (our EKPP Project Coordinator) was searching for volunteers for the video dives. Due to the fact that I spent now a few years of diving in the EKPP and I have done most of the tasks you can do during a project, I decided to volunteer for the video support dives, because I haven´t done this till now.
Responsible for the video thing itself was JP. He brought along his professional video equipment. There were two other volunteers as well; Jutta and Jörg.
For the Coly JP had made a really good and exact plan about doing interviews, film surface support, surface manager on duty, shallow and deep long range support and of course the push dive and making a high quality documentary out of it. But since the team had to go for plan B, JP was forced to change his plans on the video work too.
Viktor carrying a video light.
At the Source de Vis JP made a lot of shots outside the cave. It is a tough job to get things done there. Once you have seen the film or the pictures you can imagine what I'm writing about.
For the in water work we made two dives. The first one JP and myself went alone. JP gave me a good introduction of where I had to place the lights and what he is trying to film. So I got the 50 watt HID video light and we started our dive. For me it was amazing to dive with such a bright shining light. I dove the first time with a 50 watt HID light and I was impressed of how one can enlighten a cave with very good lights. We filmed as much as we could.
The second dive took place ahead of the push dive. That means we started our dive 5 minutes in front of the push divers. We were four people for the video work, named Jutta, Jörg, JP and myself. JP did the footage and the three of us did the light work. I got the 50 watt HID light from JP and Jörg and Jutta used the two 50 watt HID lights from Hervé. So everyone of us (light crew) carried one 50 watt HID light.
One of the lights failed (it was flooded) at the beginning so there were only two left. But this was still enough to make real cool shots. We dove through the restriction at the beginning of the cave and waited there for Reinhard and Michael. JP told us before the dive exactly where he wanted to have us with the lights to achieve the best results. And so we did. We filmed till the point where Reinhard and Michael went deep. From there on they disappeared into blackness. This was really cool!
Then we went back to the surface and made another few shots of the cave. It was a good experience for me to learn from a pro how to handle all this different equipment in and out of the water and to use it and get good results with it. I appreciated it a lot.
Viktor