My latest dive-related health conundrum is not a matter
of depth but of time. Sometimes we work in controlled
environments, like the tank in Mexico in which much of Titanic
was shot. I may be in only 15 feet of water, but I’m working for
12
hours at a time, and the dry compressed air can be really
hard on my lungs. I know I’m not going to get bent though, and
if the production calls for a cameraman to shoot for 12 hours
straight, then that is what is expected of me. But too many
consecutive days of that are arduous. I’m talking to some of
DAN’s pulmonary specialists about it right now, in fact.
SF
//
I know you have been involved with some very big-
budget and high-profile movies, but when I think of your
career I always recall the lifestyle scenes in Into the Blue —
at the beginning of the movie when Paul Walker and Jessica
Alba were having fun in that magic, blue Bahamian water
before the bad guys sneaked into the plot. Your lighting
actually shocked me when I saw it on the big screen. It was
so rich and vibrant, and the flesh tones were so believable. I
wasn’t used to seeing that in a theatrical release.
Pz
//
Thanks for noticing. Most of my work is story-
driven, of course, but I often get an opportunity to mold
the direction or communicate the simple joy of being
underwater. I think we managed that on Into the Blue; on the
shoot we saw an unusual aggregation of eagle rays, and I was
able to talk the producer into budgeting three more shoot
days for Walker and Alba to swim with the rays. It was a
totally propitious opportunity that they let me work with. As
a person who loves the ocean and its wildlife, I have a bit of
my own agenda: I want the audience to love the wildlife, too.
I know I’m not shooting Blue Planet when I do a mainstream
98
|
FALL 2012
Zuccarini has always loved filming megafauna; he is most in his element when
projects allow interaction with marine life in their natural environment.
Opposite: Zuccarini, with his housed digital Arri Alexa cameras, shoots on
location in the Bahamas.
TIM CALVER