I was one of three principal cinematographers on Netflix’s landmark underwater series – Our Oceans. Narrated by Barrack Obama and produced by Wildspace Productions, Our Oceans was launched worldwide on Netflix on November 20th 2024.
The five part series follows the Great Ocean Current across our planet’s five oceans, with an episode devoted to each – Pacific, Indian, Atlantic, Arctic, and Southern.
Our Oceans was a huge production. It was filmed in 33 different countries during 100 expeditions, with a crew of 700 people spending a total of 53,000hrs in the field. 4,000hrs were spent underwater to film over 1000 species and in the course of production we have contributed to 20 new scientific publications.
I worked exclusively on Our Oceans as a series-wide Director of Photography for two years, alongside the supremely talented Roger Horrocks and Justin Maguire. I filmed multiple stories in locations around the world including Hawaii, Iceland, Japan, Indonesia, the Carribean and Malaysia. As well as my work underwater I was heavily involved in editorial, equipment development, and series style.
The ambition of the series was huge and I was honoured to work alongside such an incredible, dedicated team for two years. We aimed to push the envelope in terms of new marine animal behaviour, while also telling compelling, relatable stories and I hope we managed to pull that off.
Here is a list of the stories (sequences) I filmed for Our Oceans
- Pacific Ocean – Humpbacks underwater and split shots
- Pacific Ocean – Clownfish story
- Pacific Ocean – Broadclub cuttlefish split skin mating
- Indian Ocean – Bumphead Parrotfish rutting
- Indian Ocean – Mantis Shrimp building a burrow
- Indian Ocean – Veined Octopus living in trash
- Atlantic Ocean – Ostracods
- Arctic Ocean – Wolf fish mating
Keep checking out my blog for behind-the-scenes photos relating to the individual shoots I worked on. You can read my in-depth blog on how I filmed the bumphead parrotfish rutting. Follow me on instagram for more behind-the-scenes images and videos
- Executive Producer – James Honeyborne
- Series Producer – Jonathan Smith
- My Camera Assistants – Jason Isley, Kimberley Jeffries, Joel Wilson, Oliver Deppert
- Cameras – Red DSMC2 Gemini & Helium, Sony FX3