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Tom with the DEEP RED Gates housing |
Marine cinematographer Tom Campbell of Prescott, AZ, had a vision in 1999 after he saw High Definition for the first time: he believed that it was the format of the future. He invested everything he had into the state-of-the-art Sony 700A, and began compiling footage. At the time, top executives in the industry told Tom he was wasting his time shooting HD; they believed the format would die. But Tom’s vision proved clear and now the library contains about 200 logged hours of meticulously shot and well-lit footage. All of the material is of the highest quality High Definition; no other formats are included in the original HD library. Staying on the cutting edge of technology, Tom switched in 2009 to shoot in Ultra High Definition with the RED ONE 4K digital cinema camera. In 2011, Tom will upgrade to the 5K EPIC. This system allows Tom to capture digital footage with a similar selective focus, breathtaking field of view, and dynamic range in color previously only available in film.
As Tom predicted, HD did not die but became a household phrase, with…flat screen 16x9 TV. While his original HD library is marketed by BBC Motion Gallery (www.bbcmotiongallery.com) and Specialist Stock (www.specialiststock.com), the most recent material and digital library is marketed out of his Arizona and New Zealand offices.
 Rather than diving on SCUBA, Tom uses CCR (closed circuit rebreather) technology when filming underwater. The very first rebreather Tom used was the Emerson, in 1964, with the US Naval Warfare Group SEAL Team One in Vietnam. Later, the US Fish and Wildlife Service certified Tom on the LARS-5, closed oxygen rebreather system so he could film a sea otter project. In the later 1990’s, Tom and Dennis Coffman, his second cameraman, were using the US Navy CCR 15-5. Long before he systems because popular with recreational divers, Tom and Dennis switched to the Silent Diving (www.silentdiving.com) Inspiration CCR, and later to the newly developed Evolution CCR. The CCR units scrub carbon dioxide from exhaled breath and inject oxygen back into a closed circuit creating a breathing loop that eliminates noisy bubbles. Able to stay underwater up to 5 hours at a time while breathing silently offers many advantages, and gives Tom’s clients more bang for their buck!
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Tom filming the first HD show for Discovery Hong Kong at the Yonaguni ruins, Japan, 1999 |
Looking like underwater astronauts in their CCRs, Tom & Dennis wear helmets to protect their heads from accidental shark bites, or clunks on overhead wrecks and reefs. The GATES DEEP Red housing (www.gateshousings.com), onto which a color monitor is attached, protects the HD cameras. HMI lights by Pacific Visions (www.pacificvisionsinc.com) and macro lights by Subtronic GmbH of Germany (www.subtronic.de) illuminate the depths and bring out the brilliant colors of the marine world.
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