I was wondering if anyone's tried filming underwater before? If so, does anyone have any advice on it? Thanks

Goodwill

Well aside from buying/renting a submrsable camera box your next best bet is getting simply below the surface shots by using a fish aquarium.

I did this as a kid with a crappy camcorder and I am a bit more daring with my cameras then most but remember water and electronics do not mix well so make sure that sucker is dry.

I simply put the camera in an aquarium and would push it just below the surface so it was shooting underwater. We usd to use plastic over the lid for safety. Recently I saw that new suran wrap stuff that seals water tight by pressing against the surface of whatever object you are placing it on. Would'nt be strong enough to submerge but could keep a splash or two away from the cam.

The only other suggestion is around that same time I was trying to build a periscop typ rig for the camera, where the other end could be underwater. Not sure how that would work with focus and exposure but might be worth a shot. Thats all ive got. Good luck.
R. Michael

Is the water your filming in clear like a swimming pool? You could place a large mirror on the bottom and try setting up the shot to focus just on the reflection (that is if you don't mind getting a shot from under the water looking up at the victims and at the surface).

that is actually pretty creative. Of course, getting large mirrors into water can be difficult. That, and you'd have the surface water that might get in the way.

But that's creative thinking right there.

We're filming at a lake. A girl is supposedly deceinding into the water and into the dark where she dissapears. Does anyone know how much the camera box is?

To buy one to fit a camera like an XL-1 is easily 3g's. I don't know about others though.

I did a commercial for my local target, and I did it for my school. I used the story from castaway. And I did a few shots in the water. What i did was used fish tanks. I had about 10 big fish tanks. I used one of my own, friends, and i just bought cheap ones from my local pet store. I just took the bottoms out of all of them except for 2. and I put like cement kind of stuff on board and stacked them on top of each other. Then I put my camera in the top one for head shots. Then for feet and low shots, I just undid the bottom one...put the camera in there, and redid the board. It worked great. It was pretty heavy, but in water it was light. I could hold my breath and went down myself to guide the camera. But if u cant hold it for very long, get a tank. It went down about 20 feet. Just an idea

Where did you shoot this? Anyone know where I can rent the box? Hehe, 3 G's costs more than teh GL-2 that I bought.

I shot it at a river.

Holy smokes, sweet, ok, do you have pictures of this??? Thank you so much! So, I don't want to sound stupid, but what you did was put together fish tanks and then the camera inside?

Sorry, but I dont have pics of it...But yes. thats all i did... I tried it w/ only 1 fish tank, put the camera inside, and put the wood on top of it...but whenever I would go down, some water would get in...so, by putting more weight on it, more fish tanks, it would work a lot better. Then on the very bottom board, I put rope on the extra part of wood, so whenever I would swim underneath the surface, I could direct the camera where needed. Of course, you can have someone above in a pattle boat holding it up while u direct it w/ your hands. I tried it that way. It was easier, but I like to be in charge of the direction. To make the camera steady, I put newspaper around it, so I could get a few shots of the character diving in and have the camera pointing up. But yeah. Its a pretty easy job for cheap. Just make sure that the 2 tanks the camera will be in are glass. The bottom and top ones. With glass, water wont come in. But the others, they were plastic type tanks. Only cost me a couple bucks for each. Maybe even cheaper where you live.

Thanks for all your opinions guys! Just had the lake scene shot this past Sunday, and what I did was take filmmakerfromwv's idea with the fishtanks. Instead of using 10 though, I used one, and used silicon and lots of duct tape to seal teh case. Inside the fishtank, the camera was held in place by sytrofoam. I had my wetsuit on and filmed the scene in the lake with absolutely no problems except for the freezing cold water. The scenes turned out beautifully! I will post some stills soon! Thanks again!

awesome! please do post them. it's always encouraging to see what fellow no-budget filmmakers can accomplish!

I'm glad to see that it worked out for you. Like Titanium said, please post them... I'm excited to see how it all turned out.

Alrighty!
Here are some of the pics from Day 1 of shooting "The Lost" out in Buntzen Lake.






Shannon "The Girl" and Deacon Enders

Well, those are 3 frames from that very, very long but productive day. Thanks for all of those who gave advice with teh underwater camera and watch out for the movies release in late May! The movie is titled "The Lost" by the way!

Sounds simple but has anyone tried using a heavy-duty plastic bag? Popped in my mind after remembering that vacuum packaging bags. Of course it would have to be thick enough to avoid carless puncturing, but thin and clear enough to ...uhh....see through it.

It would be great to use something like that because you would have almost complete access you your camera.

Your all crazy, I would never trust myself with a camera underwater.

BTW, Goodwill, pics of your movie are sweet, especially the second one. Reminds me of Minority Report and the echo of the lady after she drown. Goodwork.

I dont care for the first picture

The second one is OK, it doesnt seem professional at all.

But the cinematography and lighting for the third one is amazing (Seeing as you used a GL2). As long as the picture wasnt ruined by poor sound that shot would be awesome.

Just a suggestion though: You may want to put a little bit more time into casting and making your actors look "special". The people in the boat look just like your typical average person.

But anyways, that third shot should be very awesome unless it is ruined by poor camera work or sound quality. Nice work.

Depending on your budget, here's what I would do:

(Like someone said)

Remember those periscopes people would make as kids? With milk cartons and two mirrors?

Well you could do the same thing, just don't ask me exactly how... :S