Oliver Wood: Water, Water, and More Water.

From ICG Magazine, Watership Down by Pauline Rogers (May 2000)

Compressed Nitrogen:
"The set piece was hung over an area with a drain," says Wood. "We would pour water into the set-- and I mean pour-- and shoot. The water would then be drained away and we would go again. To protect the fronts of the lenses, we used Nitrogen air blowers like the ones we used on Face/Off. These blowers were so effective, we could literally walk the cameras through a wall of water-- moving with the actors, to get the intensity of the action."

Mag change!
Off the island of Malta, production constructed a 100 percent scale duplicate of a U-boat, weighing in at some 600 tons. Additionally, two full sized, tops of subs were floated in giant water tanks. "These were two 220-foot long 'subs,' surrounded by gigantic towers that poured salt water rain on the action all the time," confirms Wood. ... "The cameras had to be completely covered in plastic. That meant it took about 15 minutes to change the 400-foot mags. Although well-protected, the cameras kept breaking down from the abuse."

Peter Donan on the miniatures:
"When doing underwater shooting, the miniatures were shot using available light, as we were working about 15 to 20 feet underwater," describes Donan. "In order to control the quality of the light on these boats, we had silks made that were almost 180-feet long by 150-feet wide. They were created out of sailboat spinnaker cloth. We used this material because of its superior resistance to UV [light] and saltwater... At one point, we even had to paint the tank's bottom black to cut down on bounce reflection. That way, we could get additional shape from the hull and prevent it from looking too lit."

Oliver Wood: Flashlights and Sparks

From ICG Magazine, Watership Down by Pauline Rogers (May 2000)

As the American sailors make the perilous voyage home, the captured U-boat gets rocked by explosive depth charges, which knock out its power source and plunge its innards into darkness. Here, the cinematographer did his best to exploit the limited throw of a portable, practical source. "We faced the challenge of lighting so the audience could see, but not so that we interfered with the reality of the situation. So we lit the rest of the picture with flashlights," declares Wood. "It became a progression of lights breaking down as the sub got more and more water inside-- that made the shots darker and darker. For a while, we could use 'sparks'-- created by special effects-- to illuminate some of the shots. We would cue the lights or sparks by punctuation in the dialogue.

Oliver Wood: Black Wrap Submarine

From ICG Magazine, Watership Down by Pauline Rogers (May 2000)

All submarine interiors-- both American S-boats and German U-boats-- were photographed on sets constructed on Soundstage Five at the reputed Cinecitta studios in Rome, Italy. "We divided the first-unit shots up into sections," divulges Wood. "We had a sub on set at Cinecitta, created 20 percent bigger than normal size, which didn't feel any bigger, since we still had to stoop to get through the doors. Because it was going to be filled with water most of the time, we had to go 110-volt DC [in terms of electricity]. To light it, we cut hundreds of holes over the top to focus tiny little [150-watt] Pepper lights inside. The biggest light on this set was a 300-watt bulb. There was nowhere to hang the lights.

"We took the studs out of some of the loud speakers and put magnets in, so we could stick the lights to the metal. That worked fine, when we were level. However, when the set 'shook' they would fall out. So we tried finding ways to screw things in. Whenever we saw a light in the frame, we struck a bit of black in front of it. Simple, but it worked. I really think this picture was made with Black Wrap. It was an integral part of lighting this whole project!"

Oliver Wood: Anamorphic Close Focus

From ICG Magazine, Watership Down by Pauline Rogers (May 2000)

With most of U-571 planned for two cameras-- handheld, with occasional use of Steadicam-- Wood opted for Cooke S4 lenses and Arri cameras...

... Although known as an ardent supporter of filming features in the anamorphic format, Wood quickly realized that Super 35 would better serve this waterbound picture. "It was logical," he proclaims. "When it says 'close focus' in anamorphic you are usually at two or three feet-- try that in a submarine. We needed the one-foot distance for the confinements of the subs."