1)       During the making of “Secrets of the Octopus,” what was size of your crew?    

The film crew for Secrets of the Octopus varied by location, from a team as small as 4, up to 12 people. On most shoots, I had a second, experienced cinematographer working with me. A few times, we had concurrent shoots on opposite sides of the world, and we enlisted talented local camerapersons to capture specific sequences. No matter where we were filming, it took a dedicated, highly professional team to make it all possible, including dive supervisors on the surface, and an underwater team of both safety divers watching the camera team, and diving camera assistants to ferry around/change out/reload the 6 camera systems we often used on a dive. At every remote location, it was all-hands-on-deck to maintain the diving, camera and lighting equipment, preparing it all for hours of use each day.

2) What was the extent of the lighting being natural vs need to set-up lighting?

 My goal is to always make a scene feel natural. In almost every sequence in Secrets of the Octopus, we used underwater lights to enhance color and contrast. By day, that could mean one small light underwater to restore warm colors in the foreground, or at night, big lights on the surface to create a moonlit underwater seascape. The exceptions were a few scenes in water only a few feet deep, where lighting was impractical.

3) What cinema camera was used?

My talented team used a variety of cameras to record in Ultra High Definition. For maximum resolution and flexibility in the grade, we recorded in RAW formats:

RED Helium and Sony A1 in 8K; Sony F5 and A7Siii in 4K, and ZCam in 6K.

Camera assistant, Woody Spark, setting up the specialist underwater camera system that will be used to film Day octopus (Octopus cyanea) on the Great Barrier Reef. (photo credit: National Geographic/Harriet Spark)

Octopus can change their shape, colour and texture faster than the blink of an eye. And their behavior in the wild has hardly been studied. So, we needed to capture a huge amount of very high-quality footage to reveal the story and new science of each octopus. Ultimately, the shoot ratio was around 40:1.

5) What was the best time of day to shoot?

Octopus spend a lot of their time resting in a den — it’s the safest place to be in between their hunting trips. The shoots were based on when a particular species would be most active. The Day octopus, as its name suggests, was active during sunlight hours. But the Blue-ringed octopus is busiest at night. We often started our 4+ hour dives after 9PM, like in the cold waters of the Southern Ocean. Over time, we learnt when individual octopus were out and about. Like most natural history filming, it’s the animal who dictates when the cameras roll.

Director and cinematographer, Adam Geiger, preparing to descend on a dive to film Day octopus (Octopus cyanea) on the Great Barrier Reef. (photo credit: National Geographic/Harriet Spark)

I hope some of your questions were answered.

I always want to know the BTS!