Success Stories:
Shooting at the Battleship Bismarck
By Rule Broadcast SystemsThe following is a letter from Adam Geiger, who was recently on location with our equipment including a Sony BVW-D600 Betacam SP camcorder.
I returned last Saturday from two weeks at sea shooting a program for National Geographic on the first manned dives to the wreck of the Battleship Bismarck. The equipment provided by Rule Broadcast Systems worked very well. Many thanks go to Joe Kurilecz for responding so quickly given the short notice of this project. And he gets more points in my book for thinking ahead and helping solve problems before they could arise.
The shoot took place aboard the Russian Research Vessel Akedemik Mystilav Keldysh, a 380 foot ship that supports two 3-man submersibles, the Mirs. I met the ship in Cobh, Ireland, a very picturesque town on the south coast. This used to be called Queenstown, and it was here that the victims of the Lusitania sinking were interred and it was the last port of call for the famous Titanic. The wreck of the Bismarck lies some 400 miles south and west of the Irish coast, in 15,700 feet of water. On board were two survivors of the sinking. In honor of the thousands of men, both German and British that perished in the battle to sink the Bismarck, two memorial services were held, one when the wreck was first visited, and the second upon our departure from the site.
In preparing for this shoot there were a number of considerations:
- electricity in Ireland is 50hz/220
- electricity on the ship is 50hz/220
- I was the sole ‘crew’ doing both camera and sound
- had to consider putting MiniDV cameras in the submersibles; lithium batteries can explode when mixed with salt water, and a major hazard in the confined atmosphere of submersible.
- had to consider how to get multi-camera coverage of some events, by myself
The electricity issue was not difficult to overcome. Most battery chargers will function on this power source. A monitor, however, will not. Rule included a converter so that I could power a monitor to review tapes with the Producer, and not rely on batteries.
Shooting with an NTSC camera requires using clear scan to eliminate flicker; easy to do. However, the increased shutter speed to 50.1 hz means about a 2/3 stop loss. Given the relatively low level of illumination on a ship, this meant kicking in 3dB or 6dB of gain. In fact, I probably could have gone to 9dB, the resulting noise in the image a fair trade off for a bit more flexibility.
I had a 200W HMI ‘sun gun’ with me, which operates at such a high frequency that it could easily be used and mixed with the 50hz practical lights. In fact, I did light a scene mixing the HMI, a daylight balanced flo (like the Kino’s) and practicals… worked great. Burn time with two AB bricks was about 20-25 minutes. Not bad.
Sound… well, my producer had no interest in holding a boom and tagging along. And in reality it was more important for her to interview people, find the center of action, etc. So… with two wireless mics at hand, I miced our key character, Emory Kristof, most of the time. I carried the second mic so that when a situation developed I could attempt to get that mic on another person. Most of the time however, I had to rely on the camera mic. This was a run and gun situation, covering lots of action as the subs were deployed or recovered. There were different teams of people handling the deep submergence HD cameras, etc. Here’s what I wish: you know the little communicators that the Star Trek crew wears? the little insignia on their left breast? That’s what we need. Something that you can just slap on to anyone at a seconds notice and get audio. Maybe next century.
Problems in shooting on board a boat in the middle of the Atlantic include rain/moisture, and the ships movement. I rig a sling (usually from the leather padded strap from the monitor or camera bag) and attach it to an eye bolt that put in the top of the camera.
That way you can save your butt if you fall, without dropping the camera. Always carry a cloth to keep the lens clean. ALWAYS have an optical flat in front of the lens. Otherwise, all that wiping will wear away your lens coating in no time.
The manned part of the subs are a sphere about 7 feet in diameter, crammed with equipment and then 3 adults. It’s not a good idea to discover you don’t like that at 10,000 feet down. Unfortunately, I did not get to dive. Geographic only bought one seat, and that went to Emory. Putting cameras in the sub raised three issues: 1- the cameras had to be small and have wide angle lenses 2 – had to find a way around lithium batteries and 3 – needed light. The internal lights in the sub are very low level to facilitate seeing out.
Any MiniDV camera will work in the subs. We used a TRV9, but there were also PC100’s and 110’s used. In an ideal world, I would have hardwired lavs to the crew, but our project was secondary to the work of filming the wreck, and so we had to get what we could. The Russians are a little more relaxed about things like the lithium batteries… So in reality, that’s what was used. On a US mission, they would not be allowed. Joe Kurilecz came up with an excellent plan. NP batteries (for the monitor) connected to an inverter, delivering 110V 60hz power. The idea is to run the camera from its AC power supply.
This is also an excellent plan for adding some light to the subs. 6” or 1’ Kinos can be mounted inside. Once again, you have to consider that the subs power is 50hz/220, so it’s best to match that.
Thanks again to Joe and everyone for your help and top-notch equipment. Adam
