Underwater 3D Cinematography: An Evolving Art by Creators the Mantello Bros

When we picture underwater cinematography, we automatically gravitate to the old nature documentaries produced by legendary oceanographer Jacques Cousteau in decades long before the age of CGI. Cousteau's heyday also came after an initial craze of 3D in movies during the 1950's when the only thing closest to underwater cinematography in 3D was 1954's so-bad-it's-good "Creature from the Black Lagoon" and its so-bad-it's-bad sequel. After the basic 3D concept ran its course and caused millions of headaches in the process, documentarians of nature weren't about to spend extra money to show Earthly beauty in an archaic film process.

It wasn't until years later in the mid 1990's when CGI started taking a flying leap forward did two French filmmaking brothers by the name of Mantello decide to be ahead of the herd and bring 3D to nature documentaries.

There shouldn't be any surprise that French filmmakers delved into such technology considering France has always taken film to new levels years before the U.S. inevitably copied it. There was also an inevitable connection of these brothers (Francois and Jean-Jacques) to Jacques Cousteau's celebrated documentaries on our world's oceans that eventually led to a production relationship with Cousteau's son. While it's debatable whether Jacques Cousteau would have eventually used 3D technology in his ocean documentaries, it only took the improvement of 3D effects and the advent of CGI to make the Mantellos head that direction.

Most oceanographers, even to this day, probably wouldn't want to get into the world of CGI because of its seeming superficiality. The Mantellos, though, must have thought the worlds of CGI and 3D could eventually and realistically consolidate with a nature documentary. Whether that was their initial aim for getting into special effects at first is unknown. But when they did, the progression of their interest in television producing and knowledge of CGI must have set off a synapse in how it could be applied in showing our oceans in a whole new way.

The ability to do that wasn't quite there yet in the mid 1990's when they set out to become leaders in using 3D CGI on terra firma instead of water. Simulation rides were the best testing grounds for what could be possible, and their first innovation was in designing 3D simulation rides for the Luxor Casino in Las Vegas. Even though Vegas is a valid place of escape for many people, taking people even farther away was the Mantello's own creation and vision, coming close to virtual reality with the process's interactive capabilities.

Yet you know a team producing 3D simulation rides isn't going to sit back and bank on that without wanting to progress the technology. Ironically, it was the Mantellos themselves who found themselves in an underwater reality by finding a way to take 3D cameras down into that world so audiences could virtually be there with them.
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Most of us have seen an IMAX film at least once since the format began in the mainstream. However, until 2001, most of them were films showing flight, space or just occasional ones filmed right on the ground. When the Mantellos took their 3D CGI advancements to the film world in '01, their production company 3D Entertainment was born as well as needed new territory to explore in the IMAX format. Their innovative 3D cameras were, for the first time, able to film under our oceans while allowing the directors to spend time in the environment they always wanted to be.

This isn't to say that taking a camera designed for IMAX screens wasn't equivalent to taking the weight of a submarine down with you. The Mantellos nevertheless created the cameras in a way that wasn't a burden or impossible to manage as it was before in getting IMAX footage underwater. Adding 3D to the process would also help the general viewer appreciate what's hidden in the ocean's depths if perhaps not swayed into catching an occasional underwater documentary on TV.

The Mantello's first three films, "Ocean Wonderland 3D", "Sharks 3D" and "Whales & Dolphins 3D" played on hundreds of IMAX screens in the modern 3D format through the 2000's. The latter two films arguably helped enhance the recent interest in sharks, whales and dolphins to the point where every underwater documentary you see on TV of late consists of either one of the three.

All of these films worked because of an orderly relationship between the Mantellos and their production relationship with Jacques Cousteau's son, Jean-Michel that developed in recent years. Unlike many past brotherly partnerships in the arts that consisted of sometimes violent rivalry, these brothers work well together with Jean-Jacques doing the directing and Francois doing the writing. But as much as their earlier films have entertained millions, their names might not be quite as well known yet due to Jean-Michel Cousteau's name usually being at the top of the movie posters. That might change when Disneynature releases their next film in 2011.

With "OceanWorld 3D", you'll be seeing why the Mantellos are an important part of filmmaking today. This film has a plot of a sea turtle making his way through an ocean without any manipulation of action as you might have seen in Disney's classics of yore, "True-Life Adventures." And the fact that it'll be in IMAX 3D once again should incite a lot of little kids to become oceanographers or merely placing more interest in their minds of what the world's oceans have to offer.

If rudimentary underwater footage from Jacques Cousteau forty years ago could inspire two brothers from France, there shouldn't be any question a powerful IMAX 3D film about our oceans will influence enough casual viewers to fully awaken them to parts of Earth's riches we haven't been paying attention to.

Sources:

Thanks to Brian McWilliams of Spelling Communications in Los Angeles for supplying information on the Mantello Brothers

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1249415/