"Blue Mind"Client - Panasonic
When Panasonic released the AU-EVA1 5.7K Cinema Camera, they solved a problem without realising it. They had created a camera which could compete with RED and Arri for use underwater, which was affordable and had a high quality underwater housing available at a reasonable price point.
This meant the cost of a setup capable of shooting high-end underwater content in raw was now available at half the price of the competition, something no other manufacturer had managed to achieve up to that point.
We told them, they were delighted, we said we could prove it and they thought it was a great idea!
PRODUCTION
Concept, Location & Team
The concept behind the piece was to show the camera in a real world use scenario, allowing the images to highlight why David, our underwater DoP, chose the Panasonic AU-EVA1 for his underwater work. It is essentially an artistic case study.
Production took place over four weeks (February – March 2019) in Australia, specifically Queensland and New South Wales, with a particular focus on capturing the Sand Tiger Sharks at a location called South West Rocks.
Production comprised a three person team, David Diley (Director / DoP), Anita Ong (B-Roll Camera) and Nick Kermode (B-Roll Camera / Dive support).
Kit
We used two Panasonic AU-EVA1 cameras, both in Nauticam housings with Atomos Shogun Inferno recorder/monitors for all underwater and terrestrial cinematography.
A veriety of lenses were used including the Sigma 18-35 cine prime, Sigma 12-24, Sigma 8-16, Samyang 85mm and Canon 24-105.
Recording media was all Angelbird in a variety of SSDs and SD cards.
POST-PRODUCTION
Edit, Grade & Sound Design
The edit, including the creation of proxies and selects took about five days, and was competed using Adobe Premiere Pro.
Colour grading was done by David Diley in DaVinci Resolve Studio without the use of LUTs, handling the look build in a manual way from the ground up, to create a beautiful, cinematic look for the film.
Sound Design was handled by our in-house audio specialist, David Lawrie, using a mixture foley and wild sound, capture on-location during the shoot.