Movie Makers (Jan-Dec 1949)

16 FILMING THE OCEAN FLOOR Expert advice and every facility are offered the amateur cameraman at Florida's Marine Studios JIM B O W E Siaff Cameraman, Marine Studios PUDGY, the porpoise, is not frightened by phony props of this Marine Studios stunt. The food is real. NURSEMAID to a tiger shark is one of the dramatic duties of the staff divers, for newly captured sharks must be kept moving or they will drown. The scaly character on the bottom is a Jewfish asleep. FOR an out-of-the-world amateur movie subject, why not plan a stopover at Marine Studios this winter — or this coming summer? Or at any time of the year, for that matter. You'll find the welcome and the wonders are the same. Built about eleven years ago (and only more recently opened to personal movie making), Marine Studios is the world's only professionally designed underwater motion picture studio. It is located on the Ocean Boulevard (Florida route A1A), just eighteen miles south of the ancient and historic city of St. Augustine. There the tiny community of Marineland rises out of the picturesque sand dunes and waving sea oats like an oasis. WHAT TO FILM The center of activities at Marineland and most popular spot with visiting cameramen is the oceanarium exhibit itself. This consists of two mammoth open tanks, the sides of which are lined with more than 200 portholes. These portholes are placed at strategic locations throughout the structure, so that your camera can record through them a true picture of life as it actually exists on the floor of the ocean. Situating himself at one of these portholes, the cameraman will watch breathlessly as thousands of marine specimens pass in endless parade before his lens. Sharks, rays, Jewfish, lumbering sea turtles, giant green eels and even a whale create a sinister atmosphere as they glide eerily among the sea fans and coral formations. Also popular with picture makers are some of America's most famous game fish — red and grey snappers, jacks, bonito, cobia, the colorful dolphin, the vicious barracuda and even the mighty Silver King tarpon. EXPOSURE IS EASY Color film, of course, is the most desirable for shooting these underwater scenes. Since the lighting will all be natural, coming from sky light and direct sunlight penetrating the clear water, the type should be regular or outdoor emulsion. With it, your exposures will range from //3.5 to f/1.9 at 16 frames a second, depending on the brilliance of the sun. More specifically, our own experience shows the following to be a dependable guide: bright sunlight — //3.5 to f/2.7; cloudy bright — f/2.5 to f/1.9; cloudy and overcast — f/3.5 to f/1.9 at 12 to 8 frames a second. Frankly, filming under these dull and overcast conditions is not recommended, since the range of contrast is too slieht to be effective. FOCUS AND FOCAL LENGTH Because of the almost perfect camouflage which nature provides in the finny world, your best scenes will be made in near shot and closeups. Do not try for any subject beyond, say, twenty five feet from the camera. For the focusing-lens worker, the recommendation is to pre-focus on some fixed object — such as the colorful shipwreck or sea anchor which decorate the tank floor, or even on a sleeping specimen. Wait then until the fish of your wish swims into this area before shooting. Ideal among lenses is the fixed-focus wide angle, both because it eliminates the focusing problem and because of its extreme depth of field even at wide apertures. [Continued on page 36]