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In making an IMAX theater film, because the medium is so different than every other medium,
new vantage points like from the air or from underwater become much more critical to you.
It's a very serious trip that we are going on in freezing waters of the Arctic ocean.
One of the first things we had to do when we boarded the ship was go through safety
briefing and how to put on a survival suit. If you fell in the water without the survival
suit you would be dead in 3 minutes. Hypothermia would set in and that's it.
We are very close to the north pole on this expedition. It's getting colder by the second.
When you are filming sharks you are often putting bait in the water. When you go out
and jump in front of a bear, and he is swimming towards you, I kind of guess, you are the
bait. So that's kind of a different perspective.
In your black seal suit out there. Polar bears are much better swimmers. I wish
I could swim as fast as a polar bear. They are good swimmers but they are not good divers.
Fortunately I was the good sinker, and when bears did come down and showed interest I
could just push my camera up to them and keep sinking and then they would change their mind
and go back to the surface. So that worked good.
I never really felt like I was that much in danger by the bears.
I felt comfortable as long as the water was, fairly deep.
The walruses over there, to the left there in that little valley.
We just found a walrus in the water so hopefully he will come over and say hello to us.
I really was impressed with the walruses. I thought they were just beautiful. Walruses
are good divers, I mean, they move fast in the water.
They look so clunky and not very comfortable on land, but when they get in the water they
are really in their element. We got great footage of a whole walrus colony
and one shot in particular. The walrus and this baby went straight up to the camera and
basically kissed the camera and then came back up. That's a kind of crazy amazing rewarding
thing about wildlife filmmaking is being able to get it when you have all the right variables
at the same time. You hardly ever have that opportunity. But when you do, it's so rewarding.