John Boyle Underwater Film maker Interview
By Travel Dive on 20 December 2005
If you decide to have a venture into the wonderful art of underwater film making it won’t be long before you come across the names of John Boyle and his partner at SharkBayFilms Fionn Crow Howieson. Winner’s of every award imaginable for underwater film making they have dived just about any place worth going to. I warmed to these guys immediately from reading their book “A step by step Guide to Underwater Video”. It really underlined to me what underwater filming was all about. There are very few part-time UW film maker divers, you need to be fully committed to it even as a diving pastime. Divers either film or they don’t, simple as that. John and Fionn continue to be at the fore front of independent underwater film making in the UK and are as sound as they come.
Introduction by: alan@travel-dive.com
Travel Dive: What sparked your interest in UW filmmaking?
John: I have no background in filming – I’d never even owned a video camera until I bought my first underwater housing in 1990. My best mate from school then got a job in Grand Cayman and I went visiting – I’d had an underwater stills camera and decided to take the plunge and invest in a video camera and simple housing. At the time my son’s teenage surfer buddies – including Fionn – were always around the house watching surf movies. All underwater documentaries at the time were serious films, so I had the idea of doing something a bit different – driving round the island in jeeps, using local music – making diving appear fun, like surfing. So when I got home I took my footage to a small film company in Penzance, and from then spent all my evenings and weekends in the studio with them until Caymania was born.
I’d anticipated a video that might sell a couple of hundred copies through dive mags. But while in the studio I’d picked up a Television Industry Year Book and learnt that there were people called television agents who for a commission sold independent productions to TV stations. I sent copies of Caymania off to about 20, 3 offered to sell it for me. My first sale was to Cyprus television for US $250, of which the agents
took a third… and I was in the film making business.
Travel Dive: Do you have any opinion on the affect of HSE regulation on independent UW Film operations in the UK. The regulation makes UW film making so expensive that financially viable independent UK operations are few and far between?
John: Fionn and I did our HSE tickets this summer in Plymouth with a guy called Tony Hilgrove – who I would totally recommend. I think HSE is a fact of life – you can’t ignore it so may as well go with the flow and do it the way it has to be done.
Travel Dive: What’s on the top of your list for places to dive which you haven’t been to yet?
John: I have some interesting destinations planned for my new series – but I’m keeping quiet about them until contracts are signed! I think some of them will surprise people – we’re really looking at going off the beaten track…
Travel Dive: With a new genre of UW films such as Life Aquatic (which is excellent), The Cave (which is pants) and the soon to be released Shadow Divers do you think that UW Film is moving away from the marine life observational to main stream film?
John: Never seen any of them! yes, there has been a mainstream interest in diving, but I don’t know if it will last or is just the “latest thing”. My personal preference and passion is for the pure marine life observational films – especially if they show us something new or help us to view the ocean in a different light.
Travel Dive: If you could give one simple piece of advice to anyone starting out in UW filming what would it be?
John: Apart from buy my book:0)?! Do it – diving will never be the same once you have tried filming – it adds so much to your experience. For so many people a dive is simply a walk in the park – follow a guide around a pre-set route glancing at things as they pass. With any camera – still or video – you learn to stop, look and observe – and hopefully to create an image of what you are seeing that you can share.
Travel Dive: What’s your favourite UW Film by someone other than yourself?
John: Nothing can beat Deeble and Stone’s films – I can’t wait for their next one. For short films Leo Blanco is a genius. But maybe the film that influenced me most in my early days was Howard Hall’s “Shadows in a Desert Sea.”
Travel Dive: What projects have you lined up in 2006 for Shark Bay Film?
John: Two projects to finish. “Secrets of the giant sharks” we are currently editing. And after one more trip to PNG we will be able to complete my DVD and new film about diving there. All year I plan to seize every chance to get in the water here off Cornwall – I want to make a film about UK diving that will stun everyone. And then there is the new series… To pay the bills I also have a couple of commercial filming jobs that will take up around 3 months. So 2006 is already pretty full.
Travel Dive: Have you used or considered using a Rebreather for filming, Alan at (Travel-Dive) went down the Rebreather route on the basis that he could get closer to marine life which he says is definitely the case?
John: Problem with rebreathers is that in the remoter places where I film they are rarely available, and I just can’t afford the excess baggage to carry them. But when I have a project that warrants using them I’ll be doing the training.
Travel Dive: What makes a good buddy for a videographer?
John: Anyone but a stills photographer! Strobes and video just do not mix. Fionn and I have been diving together for so long – over 10 years and must be at least a couple of thousand dives – that we instinctively know what each other is doing and can rely on each other. Our simple rule is to always stay in sight of each other – it’s extremely rare that we would surface separately. But having said that, we can be a very long way apart – just a distant hint of bubbles lets me know he is still around. I think that the only good buddy for a videographer is another videographer – no-one else would have the patience. If Fionn finds a subject and stays with it all dive, no problem – I’ll always be able to find subjects to film, and the longer I look the more secretive and surprising they may be.
Travel Dive: Have you considered doing Deep Tech Diving Film given the developing interest in Tech Diving driven by the expanding Rebreather market?
John: Without sounding too arty – my medium is natural light. The Sony PD150s that we use are so light sensitive that I didn’t even take lights on my last two trips, and find that most of my subjects are in the first 10 or at most 20 metres of water. But if there is a film to be made and a story to be told I’ll gladly go as deep and as technical as is needed.
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