Press release from Well Above
Digital Dimensions, the award-winning multimedia production house based in Cairns and Townsville, is co-producing a 3 x 1 hour series on the Great Barrier Reef together with the BBC, Discovery and Channel 9 Australia. The series is being filmed on a combination of HDCAM and Varicam both above and below the water. One of the directors of Digital Dimensions Richard Fitzpatrick is the Director of Photography for the series and is also the producer of one of the episodes.
Commenting on their choice of Fujinon lenses for the series Fitzpatrick said, “Digital Dimensions is supplying all the high definition equipment for the production and has had a long standing relationship with Fujinon for over 13 years. We have Fujinon HD 4.5×14 and Fujinon 22×7.8 as well as Fujinon C mount lenses for our Iconix setups. Fujinon long lenses were rented in for the production as well.”
With multiple crews working the length of the Great Barrier Reef, Digital Dimensions needed an additional wide lens which was supplied by Fujinon for the duration of the production. According to Fitzpatrick the choice of lenses used was dependent on the shot and conditions.
Fitzpatrick continued, “Working in remote locations with the camera operator often on their own so they could be close to nature meant that only one lens would be taken at a time. Both the wide and the standard gave enough freedom in their range that we where able to compose the necessary shots to get a great sequence. The Fujinon HD wide was primarily used by the topside crew filming tropical rainforests, mangroves and the birds and turtles of the sand cays of the reef.
Fitzpatrick and his crew had to deal with some of Australia’s most inhospitable climate conditions, another reason he gave for choosing Fujinon lenses.
He said, “Fujinon lenses are robust and dependable. On the sand cays the temperatures were well over 38 degrees and we were facing a camera operator’s worst nightmare – salt water and sand. The lenses were also using inside custom built underwater housings down to 40 metres. On top of that we were in extremely remote areas. The boat trips to some locations would take three days each way.”
Filming over the series was conducted in the tropical rainforest, salt flats, mangroves, sea grass beds, extreme depths, coral gardens and out in the open ocean.
Fitzpatrick added, “All the Fujinon lenses performed flawlessly. I have always used Fujinon lenses. As a natural history cameraman I have worked in the snowfields of Alaska, The jungles of the Amazon and all over the Great Barrier Reef. I have never had a problem with a Fujinon Lens. The underwater environment is not forgiving and when shooting nature there are often no second chances. We pride ourselves in delivering behavioural sequences never seen before. Fujinon lenses allow us to with a very high production value.”
Information on The Great Barrier Reef series
Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is an icon, one of the natural wonders of the world and the largest living structure on our planet. This three part television series is a definitive, in depth portrait of this biological miracle, exploring its full 2000 kilometer length and complexity of life. It will reveal the secrets of the reef – how it was created, how it works, the intricate relationships between its inhabitants and how climate change and other factors might shape its future. The latest specialist filming and visual techniques will capture the magic of the reef as it has never been seen before, from its immense scale to the most intimate detail of the lives of individual animals.
1. THE REEF
The first film explores how the extraordinary structure of the Great Barrier Reef was created and continues to flourish – despite its position in some of the most nutrient poor waters in the world. It looks at the multiple interactions of the creatures of the reef, how they compete and co-operate in this intensely crowded world and how they respond to daily, tidal and seasonal rhythms. Cutting edge underwater macro and digital time-lapse photography, as well as novel views from space, will provide completely new perspectives on this natural wonder.
2. REEF TO RAINFOREST
The Great Barrier Reef ecosystem covers an area larger than Great Britain and only 6% of it is coral reef. The giant lagoon of the GBR also has hundreds of islands, vast mangrove swamps, strange soft coral gardens, huge sand flats and meadows of seagrass – all full of fascinating wildlife. The marine life of the reef is also linked intimately with the mainland and its coastal vegetation. This film investigates these other varied environments around the coral and how they work together in complex ways to sustain the reef and all its life.
3. OCEAN TRAVELLERS
The Great Barrier Reef is intimately connected to the rest of the world’s tropical seas, with sharks and turtles migrating thousands of miles across the Pacific to isolated coral islands, humpback and minke whales travelling here each year from the Antarctic, seabirds arriving to breed on coral cays and deep sea creatures rising up from the ocean depths to the reef at night. This film reveals the significance of the Great Barrier Reef to the world and how its own future is intimately linked with global weather patterns and climate.