TillyTec demos

Being pretty happy with my TillyTec lights, I gladly obliged when Tilly asked whether I could make some clips showing his lights in action.

The main demo, featuring TillyTec's HID 35 & LED 1000 and starring yours truly, has been on YouTube for about a week now and as of today you can also watch it on TillyTec's own website!

More specifically, the diver being filmed (a.k.a. yours truly) is using a TillyTec HID 35 with flood reflector, and the cameraman (a.k.a. Miguel) is using a TillyTec LED 1000 with diffuser. Whereas a bright focussed beam is better for long-range illumination and signaling, for videography a wider softer beam is preferred in order to avoid any hotspots, which is why both a flood reflector and diffuser were used.

Note that ideally the cameraman would have two bright lights (of at least 100W halogen equivalent), both fitted with flood reflector and diffuser, and the diver being filmed would have one powerful light (of more than 100W halogen equivalent) with or without flood reflector depending on the scene to be recorded.

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Embedded here is a 30" demo of TillyTec's LED W30 back-up light:

Feedback wanted!

Read this blog? Saw the videos on YouTube? Watched the DVD? If so, I'd really like to get some feedback, preferably in your native tongue, as long as it's positively formulated in a language I understand :o)

Videoclips: Into Darkness

Both my pseudo documentaries being way too large to be released online, and world-wide DVD distribution being beyond my limited means, I chopped down the two main features into YouTube sized videos for instant viewing anytime anywhere:

— Part 1 : Cave Diving
— Part 2 : Underwater Speleology

UPDATE: Both videoclips were removed from YouTube due to possible soundtrack copyright issues (even though I purchased the songs).

Director's cut

Done! My first movie project is at last ready to be released for viewing by a selected few, that is, the first DVDs await distribution :o)

It sure took a while, but after nearly six weeks of editing, I finally got two cave diving documentaries strung together, as well as some extra videos, good for about 70' of wonderful submersion into darkness.

Into Darkness
•• Part 1 : Cave Diving (±35')
•• Part 2 : Underwater Speleology (±21')

Extras
•• Dos Pisos - A Walk In The Park (±4')
•• Temple of Doom - The Downfall (±33")
•• Cenotes - Another Look (±9')

For the record: Together, these five MPEG4 source videos only take up about 1.5GB, however, after having been processed & encoded by iDVD, they just barely fit onto a 4.7GB DVD?

Soundtrack

Got the first of two documentaries clipped together, with titles, soundtrack and credits, good for nearly 35' of infotainment!

To set the mood, I've chosen popular Mexican bolero-ranchera songs by Javier Solís and ancient Mayan music by Xavier Quijas Yxayotl.


For the record: Generating the actual documentary from my 24MB iMovie project took nearly one hour, resulting in a MPEG4 video file of 720MB with an interpolated resolution of 720x540 pixels.

Underground movies

So far, selecting the best takes from more than a dozen shootings in various cenotes, I've lined up a 38' sequence of otherworldly scenes for the first of two documentaries, showing what cave diving around Tulum looks like. Again, this being just a quick draft, some serious post editing is still needed, besides getting the sound on track.


As I only started to get a clumsy feeling for underwater videography after my high resolution camcorder flooded, most of my best footage was shot in low resolution with my three year old back-up camera. Meaning the two underground movies I intend to produce will be rather grainy. For a more detailed feel, I plan to release a separate wanna B movie clipped together from some of my initial shootings.

Wanna B movie

After sifting through several gigabytes of raw material various times, discarding useless footage and marking some of the better sequences, I've now roughly cut & pasted a pseudo-high-res wanna B movie of 12', which of course still needs reviewing, remixing and trimming, not to mention an appropriately dark soundtrack, before being released.

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UPDATE: Re-cut some of my cave diving footage for public viewing:

→ Cave diving in Yucatan's cenotes [03/2008]

Slideshow: Cenotes

Some snapshots to look at while you wait for more...

… removed …

Screening

Importing the 8GB of high-res* footage taken with my defunct Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD1000 on its first and only six cave dives took over 90'... but now I've got about 90' of MPEG4 source material neatly stored in my iPhoto library and ready to be edited into a wanna B movie with iMovie 08 on my iMac. That is, screening is in progress!

Since mixing high and low resolution footage within one movie is a really bad idea, I'll import the 14GB of low-res* footage taken with my Sea&Sea DX8000G later on, as soon as I've got an external HDD.

thin air - Sonthofen

Typical uncomfortable flight through various mind unsetting time zones, loosing seven hours of sleep along the way, but miraculously emerging in another world where a new day's already half-way through. 12:00+15' (German time), Touch-down. 12:35, Thorough but expedient German immigration control. 13:00, Got both my bags, but where are my two dangerous looking lights? After a while most people have gotten their stuff and have left. Only a couple of lone unwanted bags keep turning around on the luggage belt. I'm about to search for a lost baggage counter when I suddenly notice a small pack lying all by itself on the floor at the far side of the belt. My precious torches!

13:22, Airport train to Munich's main station. 14:21, Regional train to Buchloe, where I only have 4' to catch a connecting train departing from another track. To make matters worse I misunderstand the loudspeaker info and find myself on the wrong track... For your information: Rushing with 50-something kilo feels like running in slow motion but getting exhausted as when sprinting up a steep mountain! Nonetheless I just manage to step onto the train, using the controller's still open door before he closes it :o) After that I slowly wheeze my way back to Sonthofen, where at 16:33 Petra picks me up and drives me home. Door to door a 22 hour time & space challenging journey.

Tulum - thin air

12:15, Señora Lourdes drives me to Tulum's bus station, where I wait in vain for my 12:40 bus to Playa del Carmen. Luckily I'm allowed to hop on the 13:00 ADO bus in stead (44 Pesos), arriving in Playa around 14:10, just in time to catch a Riviera bus to Cancun's airport (80 Pesos), another 70' ride. Having been dropped off in terminal 1, I take a free shuttle bus to terminal 3, only a short, as in 1', distance away.

15:35, LTU's counters are manned but they're totally ignoring the waiting queue of early passengers until 15:50, i.e. exactly three hours before departure. After that it goes pretty fast, leaving me enough time for an overpriced Starbucks coffee, before heading to security.

As expected I'm required to open my backpack and show them my dive lights, as these inevitably get the X-ray machine to black out, a sure way to get a lot of attention from paranoid security people. In this case however they are unwilling to let me through and, not wanting to take any responsibility, actually send me back to check-in, as it's apparently not allowed to carry suspicious batteries on board? Thing is, I wouldn't have tried to do so, if LTU hadn't specifically told me to.

18:40, Boarded. 18:50+25', Take-off into thin air as the night falls, enveloping everything into darkness...

Less is more

Tulum beach... endless & timeless. My project though is coming to an end and it's time for me to repack all my stuff for the journey home.


After having missed the first two flybys I just managed to get my camera in time for the third airborne flight of pelicans gliding by.

Cenotes

Millions of years ago, Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula was to be found below the waves, where it accumulated as much as thousand meters of sediment. Later, uplifting land masses and receding sea levels combined to expose this vast limestone platform to the elements.

Precipitation, already slightly acidic due to atmospheric carbon dioxide, upon contact with the ground also absorbs tannic acid from vegetation before percolating through the porous surface, irresistibly seeking its way back to the sea through fractures and cracks. On its course, the acidified rainwater reacts with the limestone, dissolving it and, over time, creating ever larger conduits and longer passages.

Ever so slowly, amazing tunnels and caves were hollowed out from the underground, giving dripping water and howling wind unimaginable artistic freedom to lazily form speleothems of wonderful beauty.

Then, about eighteen thousand years ago, as the last glacial period declined, sea levels began to rise again, thereby also lifting the freshwater table and causing Yucatan's fabulous underworld to flood.


Cenotes refer to locations where the groundwater is accessible from the surface, typically where a section of cave has collapsed under its own weight during a period of drought. Having been filtered on its way down through the porous limestone, cenote water is usually crystal clear and, being sheltered, has a relatively constant temperature of about 24-25°C (up to 26 below the halocline).

The word cenote is derived from the Mayan word "dzonot" meaning "sacred well", as these waterholes were of life sustaining importance to them, there being next to no open waterways on the peninsula.

For the Maya, these mysterious water filled sinkholes were also believed to be gateways to the other world, which explains why some of them were offered valuable objects and even human sacrifices, in order to appease the gods, e.g. the rain deity Chaac.

Besides the natural cave decorations, prehistory can still be observed today in many cenotes in the form of petrified layers containing bits of corals and fossilized shells, traces of charcoal fires, ancient bones of long dead animals and humans, and even intact pottery.

→ Quintana Roo Speleological Survey
→ Wikipedia: Cenotes

Tux Kupaxa

Another 2h long enjoyable dive, in the cave of the mastodon, past fabulous formations, left at the T, till the few remaining bones, then slowly back again. A perfect last dive, till I can come back for more.

Kalimba

What can I say... yet another dive in Kalimba indeed. Longer and further than ever before, meaning I had to restrain myself from shooting so as to be able to reach our target area, a fantastic 45' swim away from the entrance, allowing for about 5' of sightseeing before having to turn around again. Total bottom time: 2h. Remaining air pressure: 55bar (from 210). Raw footage: 894MB.

Tulum playa

Peaceful morning at the beach, for two bright hours of working on my tan, pseudo-yoga & salt water bath, early enough to avoid the noontime rush of hardcore sun worshippers. Being here as a creature of the dark, I'd of course smeared myself from head to toe with SPF20 before exposing myself to full daylight. To my own surprise, I actually quite enjoyed it, and almost regretted leaving so early, but there being almost no shade to hide, I fled back to my safe place in town.


No hot & stubborn walking was involved this time, like a good local economy supporting tourist I took a cab both ways, of which there are 480 in Tulum (and supposedly about 1500 in Playa & 5000 in Cancun).

Dos Pisos

We'd actually planned on diving here yesterday, but after Don Roberto of Rancho Campesino told us it's a 500m hot walk through the jungle to get to the cenote, we decided to come back today and hire some muscle to help us carry all the gear to the water.

This morning however, Robbie, who actually explored Dos Pisos with Gunni, tells us nah, the hike's less than this or that cenote, meaning we can easily walk it. Which we tell Don Roberto, who just shrugs and thus only sends one boy with us to show us the way. Alas our little Maya seems to be rather dumbstruck to be with three big foreigners and barely says anything more than sí to any of our questions.

We drive our pick-up as far as we can and decide to go and have a quick look-see at the supposedly near-by cenote before gearing up. The short unburdened stroll turns out to be a 15' walk along a rather uneven path, booby trapped with leaf covered foot twisting holes, sneaky feet enlacing vines and crossed by fallen trees.

At the cenote we're quite relieved to see another young man arrive on a horse and unanimously immediately decide to hire both youths to carry our doubles. Two sets that is. Leaving one set which I volunteer to carry. The condition being that my crazy effort be filmed as proof!

Back at the car I partially suit up, strap on about 45kg of gear, splash some cooling water over my head and stride off. Twenty-one minutes later I finally make it to the rocky overhang shading the cenote, steaming hot and badly needing to wind down a few degrees. Some dry honey crackers and a mouthful of water later we prepare & check our equipment for the dive at hand.

Several lines start right from the upstream area, so we just pick one of them and get going. Finding ourselves in a fairly low but richly decorated passage. The main line T's off at various points, requiring plenty of markers. We keep going right for simplicity, ending up in an eroded tunnel. This cave obviously hasn't seen too much traffic yet, our bubbles causing plenty of percolation and dust clouds. The current here's quite noticeable too, though still easily conquered. About one hour into the dive I give the turn around signal and we emerge back out again in the cenote another forty minutes later.

My dive booties soft soles not really being meant for treacherous jungle paths, I actually hurt my foot on the walk in, so I'm not jumping to prove I can do it again. No need though, Miguel's already squared his shoulders and marches fully geared up straight from the water into the jungle. I gratefully hand over my doubles to one of our porters, grab the remaining gear box together with Kirk and slowly limp my way back, harassed all the way by very thirsty mosquitoes.

[ entrance fee: 80 Pesos + 150 Pesos/porter ]

Kalimba

Today my enjoyment at diving my favorite cenote was a bit hampered by less than perfect buoyancy control and thus less than optimal weightlessness, resulting in a rather bumpy dive. To my happy surprise though, I still managed, in my humble opinion, to take some pretty good cave crawling footage :o)

Nohoch Nah Chich

This time we hit the primary upstream line and followed it for 67' till another much smaller cenote, at which point, having used up one third of my air supply, I called the dive. Again we passed some pretty fabulous formations sculpted by time beyond imagination. We stayed underwater two hours, using only about half of our doubles air. Many more hours could be spent just to have a quick look down the many side lines branching off everywhere. This one truly is a giant maze!

The Cave Diver

My friend Bart just brought to my attention a pretty cool trailer for an upcoming documentary about cave diving in Yucatán, featuring Steve Bogaerts from Aztec Diving, simply titled: "The Cave Diver".

Seeing as I won't be releasing anything anytime soon, you might as well look forward to this alternative movie by Sea O'Farrell :o)