A Man With A Sword Made From A Real Swordfish's Sword.

toastjaws.jpgLast night I finally had a face-to-face meeting with Dr Chris Harvey-Clark [link], marine biologist, zoologist, veterinarian and underwater photographer/videographer. We talked about quite a few of the possibilities. He’s got tons of amazing footage, has been all over the world, shooting whale sharks, Greenland sharks, great whites, etc, plus cuttlefish, chambered nautilus, and much much more. He also knows someone who has a warehouse full of bathyscaphes! And he has one of those old timey diving suits, with the 70 lb helmet, which I’m sure we’ll use for lipsynch closeups.

We discussed what we’d do if we had an unlimited budget. The band would be playing underwater, with sharks swimming all around us. Of course we’d have to have junk instruments and it takes real diving prowess to stay underwater and in one spot without floating around like a yutz. But other, more realistic, options are to shoot the band in front of a big bluescreen, or even a big blank wall, and throw us into a marine environment with special effects. Hopefully we can get a day to film inside a bathyscaphe, all huddled together in a dome looking out at the wonders of the sea.

Good times, and some good burgers too. Now I need to have a meeting with Mike our co-director/editor/producer and get the ball rolling, and try to squeeze some footage out of the other marine biologists I’ve contacted. So far lots of interest, but no footage provided. I’ll try to take care of that presently.

Oh yeah, Chris also has footage of a sperm whale being cut open, and the internal gases causing intestines to explode out of the flenced gash in its stomach. EXTREEEEME MARINE BIOLOGY!

2 Replies to “A Man With A Sword Made From A Real Swordfish's Sword.”

  1. Now you don’t often run into people that say things like “…a warehouse full of bathyscaphes” unless you’re Toren.

    “Oh yeah, Chris also has footage of a sperm whale being cut open, and the internal gases causing intestines to explode out of the flenced gash in its stomach. EXTREEEEME MARINE BIOLOGY!”

    Chris would. He is a deeply disturbed fellow and I blame Kudos. As for this footage in a music vid, use extreeeeme caution, as it could really skew the mood of the tale. If your assignment is to make someone like me puke, well Mister, your assignment will get an A+.

  2. I was watching Fellowship of the Ring with the commentary on and they noted that the scene where Sam is following Frodo into the river at the end and he goes under and starts drowning was shot “dry for wet”. They just filmed him in the studio in slow-motion with fans blowing his hair around and added in the watery effect over top. It looks great and would probably be pretty inexpensive — compared to actually going underwater, of course.

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