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How To Become an Underwater Filmmaker With Steve Benjamin
7 mins
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Steve's passion are the water, marine life and photography. ©Craig Kolesky
Can you walk us through a typical day on set?
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“I try to work in an unobtrusive manner, because most of the time these creatures don’t want to perform in front of the camera.”
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A typical day on set doesn't exist! ©Sacha Specker
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Can you talk about the themes and messages you want audiences to take away from Shaped by Water?
I really just want people to fall in love with the ocean, to appreciate it more and to try to alter their behaviour around it. Everything ends up in the ocean, and it’s such a dumping ground for humanity. My hope is that people see the ocean as a living entity that needs to be protected.
Shaped by Water is a beautiful piece of poetry that pays homage to the water cycle, and if that helps people connect with it in a way that they otherwise may not, then I’ll consider my job done.
Preparing the equipment is a crucial part of the job. ©Steve Benjamin
Preparing the equipment is a crucial part of the job. ©Steve Benjamin
What was your favourite part about making this film?
Without doubt, the people. I loved working with Dean Leslie, Sacha Specker and Craig Kolesky, all of whom were incredibly creative and great to work with. Zandile “Zandi” Ndhlovu was very up for the challenge and on the few days that we worked together I really enjoyed the camaraderie, the ability to be flexible, and the willingness to be in the water. It was amazing being able to translate that excitement to the camera.
Did you always want to work as a filmmaker?
To be honest, I never really feel like I’m working when I’m at sea and I want to be able to do it for the rest of my life. The bit that feels like work, for me, is the logistics, the meetings, and sorting out the equipment, but I hope I’ll do this forever. I love the challenge of trying to find new stories, trying to keep fresh material on screens with new ideas and doing my best to go out and capture them.
Steve Benjamin
"To be honest, I never really feel like I’m working when I’m at sea and I want to be able to do it for the rest of my life."
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Shooting underwater never feels like work according to Steve. ©Sacha Specker
Did you always want to work as a filmmaker?
To be honest, I never really feel like I’m working when I’m at sea and I want to be able to do it for the rest of my life. The bit that feels like work, for me, is the logistics, the meetings, and sorting out the equipment, but I hope I’ll do this forever. I love the challenge of trying to find new stories, trying to keep fresh material on screens with new ideas and doing my best to go out and capture them.
HOW DID YOU COME TO SPECIALISE IN UNDERWATER FILMMAKING?
I’ve always been an underwater person. I spend a year working in Aliwal Shoal focusing on tiger sharks and freediving with them in a tourism role and I just grabbed cameras whenever I could. There were a lot of production companies coming to film the sharks and I always had a camera, and kept on getting great footage. Slowly but surely people realised I was able to capture better footage than they were, and it went from there.
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“Character-led stories that feature individual animals are a big influence to me.”
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CAN YOU TELL US A BIT MORE ABOUT YOUR COMPANY ANIMAL OCEAN?
Animal Ocean focuses on seal snorkelling. It’s a tourist activity in Cape Town and we run trips to take people snorkelling with seals and to experience the ocean on the Atlantic side of Cape Town. We have a whole dive centre focusing on that. Because we spend so much time on the water, we get to see so many incredible things, and so I try to capture as much of that as possible and then either sell stock footage afterwards, or show proof of concept for an idea I might have.
We’re good at giving anyone access to the sea to complete or develop their project. Working with story development, logistics, underwater camera work, and action, that’s where my happy place is.
Hero image credit: ©Craig Kolesky
/
THERE IS MORE TO COME
Never miss a moment
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Ian Walsh, big wave surfer “As athletes, ocean health and sustainability are at the heart of what we do – without the ocean, we wouldn’t be here.”
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