Into the Blue - questions, how did they do it?

[djsmokyc]

Scuba Diving magazine had an article on the movie a little while ago. It talks a little about how they film some of the stuff.

http://www.scubadiving.com/travel/atlantic_ocean_and_caribbean_sea/endless_summer/

 

[fairybasslet]

Gee, I wonder if in Shadow Divers, they're going to film the deco stops. Talk about getting boring. Except maybe when Richie was asking John to see the plate he found in the U-Who. Or when another diver came down to tell John that the electrical thing (I forget what it was) had the sub's id on it.

 

[DandyDon]

Gee, I wonder if in Shadow Divers, they're going to film the deco stops. Talk about getting boring. Except maybe when Richie was asking John to see the plate he found in the U-Who. Or when another diver came down to tell John that the electrical thing (I forget what it was) had the sub's id on it.

Surely they will time jump - "30 minutes later" or whatever?

 

[Pyrofish]

There is a making of the movie on the DVD. It's a pretty good one too. You can see how they kept the sharks around, and that the samera crew and saftey divers were all in 5mm suits with chain mail protection. The actors shivered on the bottom, as the water was in the low 70's with no exposure protection. They actually did a good bit of the dive work, and were trained in then carribean for a bit prior to the making of the movie. Jessica Alba, IIRC, was already a diver.

As for free diving with no weights, you don't have to be that 'slender'. I've always been a big guy, and free-dive on family vacations. I had never even heard of using weights till I took a scuba class. I overcame my bouyancy by diving deeper. I've never tried to get out of a pair of hand-cuffs while doing it though....
Jason

 

[IslandFrog]

I don't remember how they were set up in the movie, but I have an alternate air source that is part of my BC inflator. This let's you set up your rig with one less hose to get in the way. In an out of air situation, you donate your primary reg, and then use the one mounted on the BC inflator hose. I try to make sure and switch to this reg a couple of times each season and take a few breaths just to make sure it is working properly. I should probably do so every dive though.

I know that there are several out on the market from a variety of manufacturers. You can likely look them up on one of the online dive shops.

 

[rmannix]

I don't remember how they were set up in the movie, but I have an alternate air source that is part of my BC inflator. This let's you set up your rig with one less hose to get in the way. In an out of air situation, you donate your primary reg, and then use the one mounted on the BC inflator hose. I try to make sure and switch to this reg a couple of times each season and take a few breaths just to make sure it is working properly. I should probably do so every dive though.

I know that there are several out on the market from a variety of manufacturers. You can likely look them up on one of the online dive shops.

What will they think of next???

 

[Gidds]

Watch the making of part of the Special Features on the DVD then turn on the director commentary and watch the film again and all your questions will be answered...

 

[chimchim]

Well, I realize that this was a movie, I just don't care for when the writers over stretch reality (when the story is based in a "reality world") as it destroys the suspension of disbelief for me.

I wouldn't be able to equalize that quickly on descents, and in that scene where the lawyer dude gets jetted down to the bottom when they use the boat's elbow tubes to blow the sand, I woulda thought his ears would have ruptured.

My suspension of disbelief told me to assume everything happened at about 30' depth but I was amazed that the guy could descend that quickly with handcuffs and NO FINS.

And I hate when the final fight is just cheese. Banging off the top of a tank to shoot it at the gas tank so that it explodes? Yeah, real smart plan. But then again Holleywood is where you can shoot at a car with small arms fire and it will always blow up in a firery inferno.

I actually did watch the behind the scenes on the DVD so some questions were answered.

The density, variety, and proximity of all the sea life made it feel like an acquarium. I'm still looking for my first encounter with a manta ray or a shark! (and an Alba).

I've also wondered about the pirate danger today in the carribean, bermuda. I'm guessing it's more prevailent in the Phillipinnes and Indonesia, but I would imaging that things still happen in Bermuda/Carribean. BTW, what island did the story take place?

 

[boulderjohn]

What will they think of next???

Having the inflator hose as an alternate air source has been around for quite a few years now. I remember thinking about getting one a long time ago--I didn't.

I recently did a scuba refresher class, and one of the students had one of those. It was the first time I had actually been directly involved with one, and I had to pause a moment to think of the techniques to use before we did the out of air emergency practice. The guy who owned the equipment had never given it a thought himself. Once we worked out the best way to do it and practiced it, he realized htat he would have to make sure to go through the process very carefully whenever he used a new buddy.

 

[Pyrofish]

Knocking the tank valve off is cheesy, but the descents weren't unrealistic. If you equalize by wiggling your jaw instead of blowing the nose technique, you can equalize all the way down and never stop your descent. I can descend so fast it's like sky diving in slow motion Same with the handcuff descent, non-bouyant people just drop unless they are treading water.

While the shark population is pretty thick over there, it isn't THAT thick. They do tend to come check you out shortly after stopping the boat though.

Now I hear The Cave is a tough one to swallow! My buddy said the video was alot like being in a cave, but the gadgetry and of course the monster, were just over the top
Jason