I was the Director of Photography for an underwater story about the hairy frogfish which featured in episode four (The Unusual Suspects) of Underdogs. A new twist on natural history programming, produced by Wildstar and Ryan Reynolds production company, Underdogs gives the viewer an irreverent look at some of natures less celebrated wildlife.
The shoot took place in the Lembeh Strait. I’ve worked as an underwater cameraman at this location multiple times over the years for sequences featured in Our Oceans, Secret Lives of Animals, and various other projects. It’s a mecca for the weird and wonderful and therefore was perfect for this production.
I shot on a combination of my Red DSMC2 Gemini and a Phantom Veo. Both housed in Nauticam housings. The Phantom films super slo-mo at up to 1000 frames per second and was used for the predation shots. Hairy frogfish have one of the fastest strikes in the animal kingdom so we needed every frame we could get! The Nauticam EMWL scope was used alongside other macro lenses to bring the viewer into the frogfishes world at its eye level.
Producer – Gary
Director – Rollo Wood
Camera Assistant – Jason Isley
Dive Supervisor – Ollie Velasco
Dive logistics – Dive into Lembeh