◗ Wonders of the Sea Top: An intrepid cameraman captures a bold shot of a great white shark off Mexico’s Guadalupe Island. Middle: The filmmakers take viewers straight into a formation of bigeye trevally in the Indian Ocean’s Cocos Islands. Bottom: A clownfish gets his close-up in Nouméa, New Caledonia. it like a character. I think what distinguishes this film in particular is that we are dealing with characters: you experience the animals differently because they are filmed differently.” Identifying with the animals also meant “being a fish among the fish,” he continues. “There are very few static shots. The principle was to always be moving because living things move — even the tiny feet of a starfish are moving, however slowly. With fast species such as dolphins, the question was what could we invent to follow them at full speed both above and below the water. We created the Thetys head above, and the Torpedo and the Polecam below. We’ve seen whales, dolphins and sharks underwater before, but never at such a speed.” Cinematographer Philippe Ros shot Oceans’ night sequences, among others; was involved in developing some custom tools; and supervised the workflow as digital-imaging director. The production decided to shoot Super 35mm for material above the water, and high-definition video for underwater work except for slow-motion material. Ros explains that the main reason for choosing HD was the ability to run cassette loads of 50 minutes. The production designed and built four autonomous underwater housings for the diver operators. The housings were American Cinematographer 42 May 2010