“They started late one night, the tremors that shook Michael Harding’s whole body when he lay down to sleep. “A bit weird,” thought Harding, then a 23-year-old Australian soldier stationed in Afghanistan. Just days before, he’d been in an hours-long siege in which his second-in-command was shot and killed.”
The quote above is from a TIME article that Jose Remi Productions collaborated on. You can 'watch' the article here: http://time.com/floating/
Michael Potter of Jose Remi Productions, using a jib to get a hard to reach angle.
This was definitely one of the more challenging projects I've had to shoot. The first thing you should know is: The goal of the project was to film an accurate depiction of a Sensory Deprivation Tank. A Sensory Deprivation Tank is by definition a lightless, soundproof tank inside which subjects float in salt water at skin temperature. To make matters even more difficult, the room was also incredibly small. This is a DP's biggest nightmare.
So my first question was: how do I film in a pitch black room? Well the short answer is: I can't. What I could do instead was light the room in a way that would appear dark: This was done by giving the entire room a blue tone. You see this technique done in Hollywood films all the time. I used double CTB's on both of my 650's and bounced the light from the ceiling. I crushed the darks in Post and presto!
The second hurtle was the space. The room was small. To get the angles I needed I realized that I would have to rent a Jib. Luckily the guys at http://www.ampequipment.com/ linked me up with an awesome Jib that got the job done. Once everything was set up, filming was pretty fun and straight forward. I got the angles I needed and had some time to spare and experimented with some interesting shots.
After filming, the lead scientist asked me if I wanted to experience the float tank first hand. I jumped at the opportunity. After setting everything up, I striped down to my birthday suit, put in ear plugs, rinsed in the shower-to get my excessive oils off, and began my decent into the epsom salt filled liquid. The feeling of floating was like nothing I've ever felt before. I laid my head back in the water and did some stretching to get use to the space, as instructed, and when I felt comfortable enough I turned off the lights.
There I was with no reference of time besides the beat of my heart, and felt as though I was in space. I couldn't feel the silky water on my body, I couldn't see anything, and I couldn't hear anything- I had no distractions at all. The only thing left to think about was my breath.
Next thing I knew the tiny LED stars were starting to light up above me, and I heard classical music faintly in the background. What felt like 10 minutes had turned out to be 90! The scientists were letting me know it was time to start getting out of the tank. As I exited the tank I felt more relaxed than every before. My mind was clear. I was truly experiencing everything in the present. Life was simple.