I love the ocean less than the air. But the images that I received in my inbox were so beautiful, it cought my breath. Enjoy!
These are the images shot for an underwater film created using revolutionary technology. The film took four years to shoot and costing a staggering �45 million to produce. But it's easy to see why: 500 hours of unedited film were shot using remote-controlled mini helicopters, divers, hydrodynamic cameras dragged behind boats and top speeds, and carefully tied poles.
Just going for a little flight: A long-beaked dolphin is caught on camera by a mini helicopter as it leaps from the water in an unspecified location in one of the images from the film.
Behind the scenes: A mini helicopter hovers above a whale during the four years of filming.
Health and safety?: A diver moves carefully through a sea of jellyfish… The film, Oceans for Pathi, is set to be launched this year. Cameras have penetrated shoals of hunting tuna fish and flown just metres above dolphins as they leap from the ocean. The film-makers also captured a sand-level view of tiny turtles hatching and scurrying to the ocean.
Sand-eye view: This eerie image of horseshoe crabs scuttling on a beach was part of the 500 hours of unedited footage.
My, what big fins you have: A diver appears dwarfed by a sunfish in footage from the film. It took two years of planning before 15 cameramen could even begin filming Oceans for Pathi, which will be out on general release on 27 January 2010. The crew filmed in 50 locations across the world and captured 80 species of fish, dolphins, whales, squid, lizards, crabs and turtles. The secret to the production is its revolutionary filming carried out in a bid to get within the ocean's most intimate events.
Cannonball!: Sea birds dive bomb the water in search of fish. A watertight, hydrodynamic box was built to house a specially designed digital camera. The box was then drawn at top speed behind a boat, capturing dolphins as they darted through the water. The camera was also attached to a long pole and tied across the front of the boat, enabling directors Jacques Cluzaud and Jacques Perrin to film laterally at speeds of up to 15 knots. A remote-controlled mini helicopter hovered silently above the directors' prey and divers made 75 expeditions to capture 500 hours of unedited film.
Cuddles: A walrus with its baby in another image from the film.
Head first: An Adelie penguin diving from an iceberg in the film.
Two Californian sea lions look as though they are dancing through the reefs in the footage. The scale of the production was matched by the directors' vision for the film. In an attempt to tell the story of the oceans, we sought to open doors other than those of statistics: those of a fantastic and magical tale, the marvels of the little world of the coral reefs, the heroism of dolphins in full charge, the gracious dances of the humpback whale and giant squids, the horror of the attacks made on the oceans and to their creatures, the incredible spectacle of the sea unleashed in a titanic storm, the silence of a museum of extinct species,' said co-director Jacques Cluzaud. Scientific director Sephane Durand said: 'The directors' dream was to swim with fish and dolphins, to track their underwater movements and ocean crossings whatever their speed, their evolutions, their acrobatics.'
Fancy meeting you here: A humpback whale appears out of the astonishingly blue ocean to peer into the camera in another shot from the film, which cost £45m to produce.
As the world turns: A ball of horse mackerel in a scene from the film.
A dinghy is dwarfed by a crane hoisting a camera over the water to film a whale… awesome…!!!!
