GLOBAL GLADIATORS - THAILAND S2 | Reality Show (2016)
Underwater Camera Operator - Advisor
My only reality TV show, this was captured over the course of two days back in 2015 in Chumphon National Marine Park - Thailand for German TV / FWW. The concept was based on two teams competing to do crazy stunts, and the stunts I was hired to shoot of course took place underwater.
DAY 1: THE BEACH
Our location for the day was a protected island within the marine park, which had a beach perfect for the stunt we needed. The island is actually considered an important bird sanctuary, and armed rangers could be seen above the beach with clear instructions that nobody was allowed to move further inland.
Before we could get started, we had to 'clear the runway'. The beach had a long sand patch that extended out past 5 meters, but it was full of sea urchins. Me, my assistant shooter and several safety divers started carefully picking up sea urchins one by one and moving them out of the way.
In the meantime a crew of 60+ were preparing elsewhere. Multiple cameras from land with long lenses, multiple dingys with big camera rigs and Inspire drones in the air. Finally it was stunt time.
The contestants arrived, revealing that most of them did not consider themselves good in the water and was not looking forward to the stunt they would have to perform. Along the now cleared sandy patch at 3 meters deep, multiple big sand bags had been dropped at the bottom of floating marker buoys.
Each team would now have to swim out to the buoy, freedive down and walk the sandbag closer to shore in the hopes of getting it shallow enough to where you could walk with your head above the water. All with wearing just a mask and shoes for protection.
My favorite moment of the day, and there were many, came just before we started the competition. The owner of the production company approached me to discuss safety. He said; "I know you will the closest to the contestants, but if anything happens to them I just want you to keep filming". Now we did have plenty of safety divers on standby, but they would have to be several meters behind us to stay out of our shots and this was precious time if something was to go wrong.
Shortly after, the director approached me. He went; "So you will be the closest to the contestants, so if anything happens I want you to stop filming and make sure they are safe". With no time to discuss anything further, I jumped in the water hoping for the best.
As the contest started I was filming Blue Team, my assistant shooter filming Red Team. It was clear to us pretty quickly that most of them lacked the experience and skill to do this, and the teams started devising different strategies. As one of the Blue Team contestants was swimming, he got a bad cramp in his leg. I watched him wave his arm, shouting for help.
I thought to myself, what to do?
Well I thought why not both. As I'm approaching I keep the camera rolling, even capturing the moment he slips below the waves just as I reach him and pull him back up. The safety divers came and brought him to shore, while I went back to filming.
Another thing worth mentioning is that this is the only time during 16 years of scuba diving that I was over heating underwater, and that in a 3mm wetsuit jacket and board shorts. The water was a comfortable 30° but we ended up doing an extreme amount of swimming during the time the competition lasted.
DAY 2: THE CAGE
All contestants somehow survived day one, only to find out what we were gonna have them do on day two. We headed out on a big dive boat for the day and set course for a sheltered bay in the marine park.
What awaited them was a submerged, floating cage made out of bamboo. It had a top hatch where the contestants would enter and this was also the emergency hatch. The cage also had a large door on one of its sides but the door was locked from the outside with a big padlock.
Because inside of the cage was also some plexiglass. The top section of the cage had been waterproofed, allowing a small airpocket for the contestants to stand up and breath from. At the bottom of the cage was a long plexiglass tube that ran top to bottom in the cage. Inside was the key, attached to a floating device.
Each contestant would need to enter the cage, take a deep breath and freedive down to the bottom of the cage, filling the tube with enough air so that they could then reach the key and finally open the door and swim out. All while being measured on time, with teams competing against each other. And to reach the key, you would most likely need to do several freedives.
This went surprisingly well, and we had a much easier time compared to the previous day just hanging around the cage filming the contestants (sometimes) frantic escapes. We had a safety diver out of frame on top of the cage, so that if there was ever a problem we could bring the contestants out. While a few gave up, several of them completed it much quicker than we thought they would.
In the end we had excellent feedback from the team and we finished the shoot safely, on time and as planned.