Dive Global :: Photography & Film

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Coral Reef Adventure

Don't miss this new IMAX film coming out in February 2003!

Coral Reef Adventure sets sail on a voyage of discovery through the south Pacific's awe inspiring and endangered Reefs.

The story of the reefs and how they've come to face worldwide decline is brought to life in seven stories and is a new IMAX theatre experience that will take you on a fantastic voyage of discovery to the South Pacific's reefs, revealing both their remarkable contribution to life on earth and the imminent dangers they are facing right now.

You follow husband and wife team Howard and Michele Hall on a 10-month quest across the Pacific Ocean - during which they attempt to create a lasting cinematic record of the reefs as they exist today - the film captures unprecedented, mesmerizing underwater images of beauty as well as sobering images of reefs in decline.

The film was shot in the Great Barrier Reef (Australia), Gau Island, Tavarua (Fiji), Moorea, Bora Bora, Tahiti and Rangiroa (French Polynesia)

In vivid detail, the giant screen adventure reveals the vast array of unusual creatures that inhabit the reefs; introduces everyday heroes hoping to help save the reefs; and teams up with scientists exploring the reefs for clues about their health and for never-before-seen species that are adding to what we know about life on earth. Using innovative and groundbreaking techniques, the filmmakers also plunge to daring and record-breaking depths, taking the notoriously cumbersome IMAX camera deeper in the open ocean than any diver has ever taken it before.

Michele Hall explains how they approached the task of shooting Coral Reef Adventure: "We wanted to make Coral Reef Adventure stand out and be different from any other film you've ever seen set up under water. To add adventure to the film, we decided to attempt things that had never been done before - potentially dangerous things. These included taking the IMAX camera to depths deeper than large format underwater cameraman had ever before filmed in the open ocean."

The Halls were used to the rigorous demands of "ordinary" underwater filming, but they had never attempted anything like taking an IMAX camera 350 feet below the surface before their Coral Reef Adventure. In fact, in 35 years of diving, Howard Hall had never been below 250 feet. Nor had any filmmaker anywhere in the world ever descended below 250 feet in the open ocean with the weighthy, sensitive large-format cameras. But, by the end of filming, Howard Hall and his team had made 21 dives beyond 300 feet, often fighting equipment failures and racing the clock.

In the film, the deep reef sequences last just a few minutes. But getting those precious frames involved complicated logistics and a substantial amount of courage. At 350 feet, ambient pressure is nearly eleven times greater than at sea level. At these unheard of depths for filming a large-format movie, the challenges included frequent dive computer failures, flooded cameras and imploding underwater lights.

Howard Hall used an Ultralight to search from the air for damaged and bleached coral off the coast of Tahiti.

Found in more than 100 countries around the world in sun-drenched waters in the tropics, coral reefs comprise just one percent of the ocean yet nurture a quarter of all marine life. Coral reefs are the underwater equivalent of tropical rainforest, rivaling and at times exceeding the diversity of broad kinds of organisms in their terrestrial counterparts.

Coral Reef Adventure is an inspiring personal tale of courage and hope, the story of ordinary men and women seeking to make a difference the planet's most vulnerable environments. As Howard and Michele hall journey across the Pacific, they discover oceans of hope in a growing global effort - an effort that crosses borders and cultures - to protect and sustain reefs for future generations.

Throughout the filming, they constantly were reminded of the vital need to get the word out about the state of the world's reefs, and were particularly moved by the many people - from famed conservationist Jean-Michel Cousteau and deep reef diver Richard Pyle to local divers - they meet around the world working tirelessly on behalf of the reefs.

It was Producer/Director Greg MacGillivray's love of the ocean that inspired him to spent four years making Coral Reef Adventure, his third IMAX theatre film, to explore the beauty and fragility of our world oceans.

"I think probably the thing that blew my mind most is the amount of devastation that's being attributed to global warming. To see animals that have lived for millions and millions of years through all kinds of catastrophic events and climate changes suddenly dying in such large numbers and in such a rapid fashion is really stunning. Everyone involved in the ocean is freaked out by the speed with which this is happening. And that's why I wanted to get this story to the public, because I love the reefs so much. I wanted to share both my love and my sense of urgency."

Find a theatre..

Coralfilm.com

MacGillivray Films (the production company of many IMAX and other underwater productions)

Howard & Michele Hall Web site (the cinematographers of Coral Reef Adventure)

Read more about Michele and Howard Hall