During this year BSC EXPO that took place in Battersea Evolution in London we had a pleasure to participate in seminar Cinema H2O, conducted by Mike Valentine IMDb a underwater DoP.

For over 30 years Mike has been revealing to audiences the hidden beauty of the underwater world. In his lecture he covered the history and techniques of shooting underwater, starting with the world’s first photograph taken in 1856, right up to a present day. Having worked 85 features films, just to mention such a blockbusters as Skyfall, Trainspotting, Assassin’s Creed, Pirates of the Caribbean or The Bourne Ultimatum, Mike has used many clips to illustrate lighting, shooting, green screen and safety & communication issues that regards underwater cinematography. The particular attention was paid to the Tim Burton’s fantasy adventure Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Watch here an NYTime’s Anatomy of the Scene with the director’s comment:

And last but not least my favorite quote from the Tim Burtn’s NYTime interview:

It would be very difficult for me to shoot a whole movie underwater. Filming is a slow process anyway. But you get into water and you slow the process down tenfold.