their most challenging — and harrowing — experiences.
by Kathleen Fairweather
On May 6, 1998, I received the following message from Noel Archambault, one of the world's leading large-format 3-D cinematographers: "I'm sorry I can't meet you in Los Angeles for the interview. My plans have changed, and I need to be in Toronto during that weekend and the following week to begin camera testing for Galápagos, which has begun preproduction. Then I will be off to the Galápagos Islands for filming. I'm sorry for the change in plans, but my life isn't always predictable these days."
Those were the last words I heard from Noel before he took off for his ill-fated trip. Little did we know how prophetic this final communiqué would become: Noel died in an ultra-light plane crash while filming a 70mm volcano sequence for Galápagos Rediscovered, a joint Imax Corporation/ Smithsonian Institute project produced in partnership with Mandalay Pictures.
That crash, which killed both Archambault and his pilot, William Raisner, Jr., ended the life and career of one of the most brilliant 3-D cinematographers of this era.
I had been working with Archambault since last April on a feature story about his life and work as a 3-D cinematographer. I conducted an extensive phone interview with him from his Canadian home the week before he left to film Galápagos Rediscovered, which is the story of a modern research expedition exploring the unique bio-diversity of the islands that Charles Darwin made famous.
A recent Imax press release referred to Archambault as "a renowned stereographer and a major contributor to the development of the technical and film language of the 3-D format." His many 15-perf/65mm works include the recently released T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous, Mark Twain's America, Nutcracker and Across the Sea of Time, in addition to numerous large-format 2-D projects.
In what ultimately became our last interview, the cinematographer shared some of the many logistics inherent in the making of a movie involving both aerial and underwater 3-D cinematography. Tragically, those very logistics claimed his life on June 26, 1998.
Although Archambault was a one-of-a-kind cinematographer, he was certainly not alone in his quest for adventurous filmmaking. Many other cinematographers and documentarians risk their lives in pursuit of the story, and push the limits to obtain the best shots. "I know I'm asking for it with every new assignment," concedes five-time Emmy-winning director Mark Stouffer, as he packs for his latest film expedition: a death-defying venture which will take him more than 17,000' under the sea.
On this trip, Stouffer will direct the filming of the deepest ocean shipwreck discovery to date for the upcoming National Geographic Special on the I-52, a Japanese submarine that was sunk while transporting more than 2,000 pounds of gold to the Nazis. The I-52 was destroyed in the Atlantic Ocean on June 23, 1944 by a U.S. Navy Avenger plane piloted by Lieutenant Commander Jesse Taylor. The wreckage and the gold have rested undisturbed on the ocean floor for more than 50 years.
Stouffer and his team will make this treacherous voyage aboard the Keldysh, a Russian research and excavation vessel. In addition to the film crew, the Keldysh will transport 87 crew members and 13 scientists. The craft also houses a small hospital complete with a medical doctor. A note forwarded to the film and crew members reads: "We will be a very long way from the nearest land-based hospital. Anyone concerned about this remote location should not be on this trip!"
The filmmakers will be accompanying shipwreck/salvage expert Paul Tidwell, who discovered the wreckage of the I-52 after five years of painstaking research. Tidwell, who served two tours of duty in Vietnam and earned a Purple Heart at age 19, describes the quest as "my personal Everest."
The biggest challenge facing Stouffer and the recovery expedition is, of course, the extreme depth they will reach, where pressure on a vessel's cabin exceeds 7,000 pounds per square inch. The I-52 lies on the ocean floor at a depth that is almost 5,000 feet deeper than the wreckage of the Titanic.
Bob Cooke, the assistant operations director on the I-52 discovery expedition, shares an analogy that aptly describes the tremendous force operating at such a depth: "I took a Styrofoam cup, put it inside a sock, tied it onto a piece of gear and sent it down three miles under the ocean. If I packed the sock just right, the cup would come back the size of a thimble — an exact miniature, hard as a rock with all of the air squeezed out of it."
These extraordinary working conditions limit the crew's equipment options. Plans for diving on the I-52 include the use of two Russian Mir submersibles, used most recently for the filming of Titanic (see AC Dec. 1997). This strategy will allow one Mir vessel to serve as the camera platform while the other provides the lighting, thus yielding the best possible camera positions and photographic results.
Additionally, Remote Operated Vehicles (ROVs) will be equipped with various equipment packages, including deep-ocean "eyeball" cameras that can slip into tight spaces, and two state-of-the-art digital cameras specially built for the U.S. Navy and provided by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
While addressing the physical dangers of the shoot, Stouffer alludes to another threat: pirates. "We have kept the coordinates of our position top-secret. With that much gold and money at stake, you never know what can happen. We will also be operating in extreme weather conditions and could experience every conceivable storm pattern — including tsunamis."
Stouffer acknowledges that he has continued to push the limits of hazardous filmmaking with every new assignment. "Once you are branded an 'extreme' filmmaker, it is almost impossible to do anything else," he says. "The producers all know that, through the course of making my films, I have been through the 'Navy Seal Boot Camp' of extreme filmmaking. I know how to take risks and optimize my conditions to obtain the best shots. It seems to be my niche."
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