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Tom, shooting HD in Durban, South Africa |
Marine cinematographer Tom Campbell of Santa Barbara, CA, had a vision nearly 10 years ago 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 nearly 500 logged tapes of meticulously shot and well-lit footage. All of the material is of the highest quality High Definition; no other formats are included. Tom currently shoots with the state of the art Sony F900R. Staying on the cutting edge of technology, starting in
January 2009, Tom begins shooting in Ultra High Definition with the addition of a RED ONE 4k digital camera. This system will allow us to capture digital footage with a similar selective focus, breathtaking field of view, and dynamic range in color previously only available in film.
HD not only did not die, it is now a household name with practically every house now owning a flat screen 16x9 set, or talking about buying one soon – the perfect format for viewing this material. FootageBank in Los Angeles, and BBC Motion Gallery represent the library, which is also marketed through Tom’s office. Recently acquired by the Save Our Seas Foundation, the library continues to grow as Tom travels around the world filming.
 Long before the systems became popular, Tom and his second cameraman, Dennis Coffman, were using military-style closed circuit rebreathers (CCR) rather than SCUBA for their underwater breathing needs. 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 and sounds that often frighten marine creatures. Able to stay underwater up to 5 hours at a time while breathing silently allows Tom and Dennis the ability to get closer to the animals in order to film their behavior.
 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 Amphibico marine housing, onto which a color monitor is attached, protects the HD cameras. HMI lights by Pacific Visions as well as Amphibico lighting systems illuminate the depths and bring out the brilliant colors of the marine world.
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