AIC, 1988 - AIC Associazione Italiana Autori della Fotografia ...

AIC
"Dimensione Violenza" di G. Lorenzo Battaglia
famous. At the beginning of this
century, many attempts were made to
film underwater: the results were
alternately encouraging and
discouraging, but no real progress was
made.
The first significant step forward was
made in America, almost "by chance".
A sea captain, by the name of
Williamson, has built a boat for use is
salvaging, which made diving very
economical. Captain Williamson had a
wide, flexible tube — wide enough for
the diver to pass through — fitted to
the keel of his boat, which connected
up with a watertight observation cabin
underwater. A system using pincers,
controlled from the boat, carried out
the external tasks. The actual
observation cabin was located ten
metres below the surface, but the
pressure inside it was practically
normal. Captain Williamosn had a
son, Jack, an artist employed by the
local newspaper, the "Virginian Pilot".
Jack, went down into the observation
cabin one day, and was asolutely
astonished by the beauty of the marine
world all around him, by its incredible
unreal quality.
He didn't hesitate: he rented a
cinecamera as fast he could, and
succeeded in making an excellent little
documentary. Years later this was
followed by a series of commercial
films, the most famous of which was
"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".
In 1925-30, underwater masks and
flippers had still not been invented,
and Hans Hass, one of the first
modem underwater photographers and
cameramen, was not aware of the
small, but very important,
compensation factor — so much so that
he wrote in one of his books: "... never
will man be able to descend to a depth
of more than 15 metres".
It has to be emphasized, nevertheless,
that the developments in underwater
photography were strictly linked to
those made in diving equipment and
techniques. The underwater masks and
flippers that one can buy for a few
thousand lire in the big stores today,
were invented around 1938, by a
group of French diving enthusiasts: Le
Prieur, Dumas, Tailliaz and Cousteau
— who also invented the respirator that
supplies the diver with oxygen at the
correct pressure, at any depth: one
merely breathes through the
mouthpiece and the oxygen arrives.
Today's respirators are all based on
this principle.
Jacques Yves Cousteau is a figure of
major importance in underwater
filming. Millions of viewers journey
with him in the undersea world,
absolutely enthralled.
There are two major underwater
film-makers in Italy: Bruno Vailati, a
man with great courage and a love of
adventure; and Folco Quilici, the
famous writer and journalist. Both of
them have always used cameramen of
great experience, like the late lamented
Masimo Manunza, and the very valid,
Armando Mattei: in fact, the success of
Vailati and Quilici is very much due to
these two cameramen.
It would take uo too much time and
space to really go into underwater
photography at depth here. However,
the basic things to consider are
following:
The light underwater: absorption —
diffusion — polarization of reflected
light — the effect of light on the
subject.
Filming underwater: the deceptive
effects created by refraction — how a
bull's eye functions — underwater lenses
— the corrective bull's eye — water
pressure.
The camera case: watertightness —
corrosion - vision reflex.
All extremely important factors which,
if examined here, would take up the
entire Annual.
The abnormal phenomena that
manifest themselves in the light
underwater, would make interesting
study for both my Director of
Photography collegaues and the
general public.
As everyone knows, sunlight, which is
"white" light, is, in effect, composed of
radiations of different colours: violet,
blue, green, yellow, orange, red, etc.,
contained within the various
wavelengths. The extinguishing of the
light, as the depth increases, does not
affect the different wavelengths, that
is, the different colours, in the same
way. The first of the radiations to be
extinguished is that corresponding to
red, followed by orange and yellow:
colours which are no longer visible at a
depth of ten metres. Blue and green
which are, in fact, contained within the
short wavelengths, are the colours that
predominate below ten metres.
This is, generally speaking, what
happens, but a lot depends on the
colour of the water itself, which can
very according to the plankton present
and other phenomena. For this reason,
if one wishes to obtain saturated,
true-to-life colours below ten metres, it
is advisable to use artificial light and a
colour tempearture of 3400°K, in
others words, a higher temperature.
This, to some extent, counteracts the
excess of blue caused by the depth.
Neverthless, artificial light is really
only useful underwater if one is
shooting at a distance of not more
than 1 '/2 metres. Using a stronger
light, one can obtain a little more, but
not much.
Now, if any of you young Directors of
Photography are keen to specialize in
this field, 1 would advise you to work
up to it gradually.
Being an underwater cameraman is
tough, physically wearing, and there
are many health hazards involved;
therefore, it is a profession that has to
be approached with a fair amount of
caution. First, you should obtain an
advanced level diver's certificate, and
then effect an apprenticeship with one
of the few underwater cameramen.
These two things are essential, for
anyone seriously thinking of taking up
this fascinating and exciting profession.