Hello filmmakers!

"Exploring the inner space of the world" by Markus Nord

I had a script for a film I was supposed to shoot during the last expedition. But because the way the expedition developed, I didn’t get any time for that…

This film is plan “I-need-to-put-something-together”. I came up with the idea of putting in the first clip of my son during the editing. The clip represent my childhood a lot too, I used to go to that same beach every year with my parents for years, and now I do the same with my son.

I didn’t want to put in too much fact and just let the viewer follow us into the cave. It was hard to get it down to 4 min, I could have taken the first clip of my son away, but I think that that clip is really important to set the mood. I may have cheated a bit, with extended the end through credit, but I needed to let the view know that we got out safely.

I hope you enjoy…

Exploring the inner space of the World on Vimeo

Wow Marcus! You certainly nailed the theme with this one! Very well done.

Okay Marcus.... you're afraid of heights ???? You could not get me to into that cave with all that gear for all the gold in the world... Just watching the divers squeeze into the passages gave me the "heebie jeebies".

Great story of a new world found....

You gave me really a claustrophobic feeling. I had to take an extra breath in the narrow cave.
The underwater shots are really impressing.
Your story from a small child with dreams to the cave explorer is good.
The four and a half minute went fast. Thank you for showing us this.
Are you really capable of diving in ice-cold water for three hours?

I'm with Chris on this one Markus; thats very cramped looking in there.

I'm going to start with the positives first. This is a great movie, and its certainly in the running for the top place. The opening sequence is pretty cool; nice restrained use of the vintage 8mm camera look and sound. That really helps ground the movie, and I'm glad you did not cut it out in the edit.

The shots of the snowmobiles with the trailers heading down the track is sweet. That shot really lets us know you guys are on an adventure here, and helps set that intrepid theme of this movie. The music (the bass synths) sounds a little bit like a John Carpenter score (like the movie 'The Thing') - which sets an immediate tone to the piece (not sure if that was intentional)? Audio is nice and clear (not that it matters to me as I don't speak Norwegian!), but luckily the subtitles are also nice and clear too!

The actual dive sequence is really amazing. Great footage there, and the creepy music adds to the images we are seeing. I would not like to be in your shoes...I mean I would not like to be in your flippers!

As for the negatives: probably I would have liked a bit of info about the dry caves, and it would have been cool to have more footage of you guys inside the dry section doing a bit of exploring, rather than the photos.

And where does the air come from? Is the air fresh? Is there a passageway that leads to the surface, or is it sealed from the world? Was that sunlight in one of the photos, the vertical one that pans up to the roof of the cave?

It looks like you ran a bit over time. Probably you could try doing some smash edits (or jump cuts) whereby you compress the journey in or out of the caves with shorter edits (like 2 second cuts) - this actually can drive a story forward and make the journey seem longer, even though you use less time. Jump cuts are an interesting editing technique to try out when you need to speed things up, though it can become addictive!

Great movie Markus; and lots of kudos to you for being a genuine explorer!

Thanks for your comments everyone…

Marj – Yes, I was really happy when I read the Theme…

Chris – Chris, I really hate standing on the ladder in spring to clean the gutter on the house.
but this is OK.. I feel really comfi in the cave, I got full control.

Finn-Erik – We did over 2 h in water, it’s all depends on how resistant you are too cold. Most divers use electronic heated west, but I don´t. I did use this hand-heaters, I put them on the inside of my suit… During this exploration we spend about 40 minutes in water before and after, and almost 2 h in the dry area.

Simon – thanks for your critic. I did use this music because I think it worked well with that I wanted the view to feel. I’m glad the subtitle worked, it’s hard to know if you put it in long enough. You are always welcome to stick your foot in my fins… I’ll take you out for a diving/snorkeling trip.
Actually, I don’t got any more video from the dry part, a few more second in the half filled tunnel. We didn’t have that much time in the dry part, and we had a lot to do… survey the cave and also take photos (we sell more photos then video). So what you see is what I got.
it’s not sunlight, it’s the light in the divers hand. We felt a breeze of air in the camber, so some kind of small connections to the surface exist.
Well, the credit starts at 4:00 so technical, I did not run over time… just that I had the credit a bit long maybe… but sure, I could have shaved of a few sec here and there…

Thanks everyone for viewing and comment
Cheers
Markus

Hei Markus,

You got some good feedback already. I totally agree.

Yet another underwater film from you. I like! :)
Must be facinating to dive into those caves, explore new places.
Looks like there is no living creatures in that cave. Is it often like that?

Well done!

Hi Markus.

Great movie and a nice twist on the theme.
Swedish language with English subtitles, runs fine with me.
I do understand Swedish very well, I have a sister in law from Stockholm :)
Swedish and Norwegian are closely related, linguistically.

I love to snorkel, but have respect for tight spaces, as we speak about a touch of claustrophobia.
Nice that we can take the tour by watching your film.
Editing, voiceover and music is good - as always.
Also like your beginning, neat :)

Some froggy questions ;)
Was it a frog I saw at 3.03? If so, how far inside the cave was it? Is it a blind frog?

Use of still photos, without offending maybe they could have been replaced with film?
Or you could have shorten the video a bit? But I'm grateful for the picture of the frog.
This is obviously a matter of taste.

Once again I must say you have a nice angle on the topic and thanks for sharing.

Very nice! Both audio and video were very well done. Location, as always was stunning.

I didn't mind the stills, I found them intersting. The only one I would question is the vertical format one that you panned up.

What you really did though is bring my two greatest fears together in one film...
My fear of drowning and my fear of being trapped underground.
I found it made me very nervous while I watched...

I'm pretty sure my blood pressure went up while watching the underwater scenes, subconsciously catching my breath. Almost getting stuck at one narrow point in the cave. Good shots. Is there a purpose to this expedition besides just exploring the unknown cave system. I'm all for exploration, It just wasn't clear in the film why you were doing what you were doing, or maybe I'll have to watch it again to find the reason.

It seems that I made a few of you a bit nerves watching my film… sorry about that.
Thanks for your comments.

Trond – Hei, we got a lot of fish in the cave, trout and also a lot of insect larvae. I didn’t bring them in to the story…

Geir Inge – It was a common frog, and it was located in the dry area, 440 meters into the cave. It either got there with the flood, or by jumping in through some cracks, it was not blind.
I can’t exchange the stills with video, We had so short of time in the dry area, only 2 hours, and during that time we explored, maped, to photos, video, communicated with the surface and hade a bit of a rest (drunk some hot coco).

Bob – I really wanted to show how hi the last room was… and that picture was what I got from that room.

Bill – We run this expedition, to map this cave area. We have worked with different scientist over the years, all from fish specialist to me, running an inventory for a special alga. We are speleologist and run the expedition in our national organization. The caves are closed and we need to apply for entering the caves every year.

thanks for watching and keep breathing!

Hi Mark, and thanks for the additional information.

For my comment on the images in the film, it's just my personal opinion regarding wildlife films.
I have great respect and admire you as a nature photographer and I know it is hard work that lies behind what you do.
One can spin further on and wonder around the "journey" to the frog and what has made it ended right there? Exciting to have such meetings in the most odd places, right?
And yes, me too was a bit intimidated by the narrow rooms in the caves ;)

Thanks again.

Wow Marcus!!!

But you said 4 hours and it seemed to me it was only a few minutes, eh???? LOL

Pretty wild dtuff to me. I have no problem with heights, but I am not so sure crawling into such confined areas!!! Nah, I wouldn't do it!! so thanks for taking us on such a cool journey!!!

I was so captured by it I nerver even realized it had stills in it!!!

Wonder how the frog finds food in the dark!!????

Curiously, have you ever tried serious color grading to enhance the images??? I love the underwater stuff but I always think that is the weakest aspect of it.

Truly, thank you for taking the time and sharing your endevors underwater, it is something I will never do and really enjoy!!!

Terrific job!!

Hi Markus. I think it is amazing that with the short time period and the effort of getting in and out of the cave while doing all the work required for the expedition that you were able to make a film for UWOL at all, much less one this good. Way to go! I also was intrigued by the frog and would have liked to see the fish and insect larva (but I know that’s not why you were there). I really liked the part about young Markus and the way you treated the footage of your son was excellent. Congratulations.

Hi Markus,

I think this film surpassed your last one - although I have to say, I also felt that feeling in the pit of my stomach watching the crawling through the hole shots.

I have to say the pacing was excellent - I did like as well the ¨Super 8 ¨footage to set the scene - it worked very well.

From a technical point of view, the only thing I would have added was some movement in the still shots - a bit of the old panning and zooming may have worked, just to break up that fact they were stills.

My wife commented - ¨Oh, I've seen this on TV¨ - I think that is a compliment!

Thanks!

Markus,

All I can say is you are one brave soul. Those are some fantastic cave shots. That must have been a very cold dive. I enjoyed watching it. Thanks.

Thanks for your comments…

I big reason why I don’t got more video of dry caving was that the housing is heavy in air so it would be shaky, and also, when I got up from the water the dome port of the housing was cold and that made the port fog up. The video I got in the dry cave is in the half flooded channel where I could dip the port and then shoot.

Geir Inge – it’s cool, yes, the journey for the frog is interested. Maybe we will find a small passage (or hopefully a large one) during a scouting trip to the area during this September.

Dale – The frog was hibernating in the cave, so I don’t think it was out looking for food. I had a chat with a amphibian expert I know and he told me that this place would be the perfect spot, if the frog can get out. But I don’t this that will be a problem, in a couple of mouth the frog will be flushed out. I would like to see that… the ride of his life!
I do some grading, but just to make it look natural, but the problem with everyone looking at different screens with different setting makes it really hard. I’ll try to make the white, white and so on. After that I upload the film to my Vimeo account and check it on my Samsung TV, IPhone and Ipad… if it looks ok, I’m happy.
This was really the first “job” I did with the 5D3 UW with my new housing… so I still learning how this camera works UW.

Mike – Thanks, I’m glad you liked it. Next expedition I know more what ahead… better planning and more light!

Paul – Thanks Paul, but if you look again, I do have a zoom and small pan in the stills… ;)
Tell your wife that she soon will… I got a 40 minutes documentary that will so have an English VO, I hope we can sell it around the world.

Oliver – I gets cold after two hours… but as long as you are occupied in you mined you don’t feel it. You just need to suppress though feeling :D


Thanks again everyone for you constructive critic, it helps a lot to become a better filmmaker.
Cheers

Hi Marcus
I posted a quick response to your film the other night as I did not have time to do any comments then.
I find your subject quite amazing – not only were you all diving in freezing water but into pitch black, dead quiet, unchartered underwater caves too!! You certainly expanded horizons with this one!

It was fascinating to accompanying you through the caves. I really enjoyed that - being able to watch your adventure as it unfolded. One thing that intrigued me was that you were able squeeze through such a narrow space to get into the cave, especially carrying so much gear. I would have been very worried about not being able to squeeze out again myself – which doesn’t make sense I know! Was that sound at 4:04 your gear scraping through?

Your story is simple and nicely constructed except for one thing - because you wrote at the beginning that you were going “to explore these dry parts” on this dive and even mentioned exploring the dry cave for 60 minutes, I thought you would be showing us some of that. I understand now that you did not get any footage of that part and for good reasons but then perhaps it would have been a good idea to remove that discussion (which actually set the scene for this film) so as not to get the viewers’ expectations up. The story ended quite abruptly.

As usual your underwater shots were clear with natural colour, thanks to your lighting. It was interesting to see the wave-like patterns on the tunnel walls as you (we) travelled along. The sound was clear. I liked your combination of accompanying sound effect and breathing - added life to the otherwise silent underwater world.

I also had a few questions about that frog and wondered if it was hibernating down there or was actively living down there. You have answered the question. I did not realize that frogs could survive in such cold conditions. Was that your son in the water at the beginning? I did not think you were old enough to have been filmed by an old cine camera.

I think ‘water mirror’ is probably better translated as ‘reflection’.

I enjoyed watching your film – most entertaining. Well done Marcus.

Hi Marj
Thanks for your comment, one question… what do you mean by:

...Your story is simple and nicely constructed except for one thing - because you wrote at the beginning that you were going “to explore these dry parts” on this dive and even mentioned exploring the dry cave for 60 minutes, I thought you would be showing us some of that. I understand now that you did not get any footage of that part and for good reasons but then perhaps it would have been a good idea to remove that discussion (which actually set the scene for this film) so as not to get the viewers’ expectations up. The story ended quite abruptly...

The first dive part of the film is our journey to the dry area and from the first still at 2:47 and to 3:42 is all exploring of the dry area. After that is our swim out of the cave. So what is it that you think is left out? We got lots of stills but just a few minutes of video from the dry cave. That why I used more stills to show the viewer something from the new area, did you miss that?

The sound you hear at 4 minutes is the gravel against the UW housing, but yes, you do press yourself through the entrance of the cave.

Yes, that my son in the beginning, I’m born in the 1979 so I’m old enough to be caught on Super 8, but I don’t got any film of my in the water. My father got a super 8, which I tried out during film school, but never really worked with.

Cheers
/Markus

Oops Markus - I'm sorry if I did not explain myself clearly enough. No I did not miss the stills of the dry part and yes I understand that you did not have video footage of the dry section, but, because you stated at the beginning of the dive that you were going to 'explore' the cave I was expecting to see you actually 'exploring' it and not just showing some stills. I feel that your film would have been better finished off if you had not put in the word "exploring" at the beginning which got my expectations up.

I hope that explains what I meant. I think your film is absolutely wonderful and this was merely a suggestion that I thought would make it just that little bit better!

Well, I did show you live exploring with stills and video from a new world, documentary style, during my exploring. If I would have been in a video team following the exploring team, then we would have got some more video and stills. For the next expedition we'll be better prepared and hopefully more exploration divers (it was only I and Stefan who did any exploring and survey). If that is the case, then I can bring some more video out. But shooting high quality video during real exploring is probably one of the thougest thing to do.

Anyway, thanks for your comment.

Four hours! I cannot imagine that. As others have said, you are very brave, Markus. The first several times I watched your entry I was so proud of myself, thinking, "this isn't claustrophobic at all." But the fourth time...

As others have mentioned, your use of the "young Markus" footage got this piece off to an intriguing start, drawing viewers into your world right away. Excellent move, and you followed with a great segue into the present.

Thanks for taking us on a well-documented journey that, I think it's safe to say, none of us will be attempting on our own. You certainly expanded my horizon into the world of underwater caving!

Thanks Lorinda, next time is won’t shot a UW cave film… too many got to claustrophobic… ;)

Thanks for watching.