Award-winning La Jolla filmmakers return to the Science Center with their latest underwater IMAX film

By Anthony King | SDUN Editor

Del Mar husband-and-wife team Howard and Michele Hall celebrated the return of their latest IMAX film at the Reuben H Fleet Science Center’s Heikoff Dome last month. Officially opened July 1, “Deep Sea” – playing through the end of the summer – is the latest IMAX film for the couple, who were a part of the first-ever underwater IMAX 3D feature, “Into the Deep,” in 1994.

“Deep Sea” takes audiences below the ocean surface in several locations around the globe to explore a wide rage of undersea life. With never-before-seen footage, the Halls were able to give moviegoers a taste of what it was like to swim among ocean animals and to witness their day-to-day behaviors.

IMAX footage for the film was shot in nine different locations, including La Jolla, the Channel Islands and Monterey in California. The Halls also traveled to the Sea of Cortez; Kona, Hawaii; British Columbia, Canada; the Gulf of Mexico; the Bahamas; and Outer Banks, N.C.

“IMAX provides such an immersive experience that you’re able to get up close to the creatures much like I did shooting the film, but without getting wet,” Howard Hall said in a press release. “I like working with the big, 70mm, IMAX camera because it’s certainly challenging.”

Serving as director for both “Into the Deep” and “Deep Sea,” Howard Hall said they had always wanted to capture the same subject matter as their first film, and found it surprising 10 years had passed between filming.

“The learning curve was so steep when we were making [‘Into the Deep’], that by the time we were finished with the project, we were just beginning to figure out how to use the camera system and how to capture good images,” he said. “For a long time, we just really wanted to building on our experience and try to do better. With this new movie, we have done that.”

The latest film brought the Halls back together with producer Toni Myers, an IMAX technology expert who worked on the “Into the Deep” production. Myers, too, called working on the first film “experimental,” and said she was glad to return with the Halls for “Deep Sea.”

“At the time, ‘Into the Deep’ was highly experimental and we had some technical bugs to work out of the camera for the underwater filming,” Myers said in the same press release. “The film was incredibly successful and, ever since, we had been wanting to do another one.”

Besides branching out into several locations for “Deep Sea,” the filmmakers were able to use advanced IMAX cameras to capture deeper underwater sequences. Shoots typically required six divers to manipulate the large cameras underwater, and the longest dive was over four hours long. In total, the crew spent over 1,850 hours underwater for filming in 84 days of diving. For the film, the company massed 73 miles of film.

“Our goal is really to take you on a magical journey underwater to places that most of us have never been,” Myers said. “Even with a large number of people who do scuba dive, lots of them have never met these characters or seen how they interact with other animals. ‘Deep Sea’ includes moments that Howard [Hall] himself has never filmed before, even in his long and varied career in undersea photography.”

After their first film, Howard and Michele Hall created the production company Howard Hall Productions and produced their next feature, “Island of Sharks.” The couple directed and produced “Deep Sea 3D” in 2005, which was awarded Best Picture and Best Large Format Film, and “Under the Sea 3D” in 2009, winner of Best Cinematography and Best Documentary.

In addition to their own productions, the Halls have been a part of several other underwater films, including “Lost Worlds” and “Return to Hubble,” as well as the MacGillivray Freeman IMAX films “The Living Sea,” “Journey Into Amazing Caves” and “Coral Reef Adventure.”

Between them, the couple have won seven Emmy Awards. Of the five highest-grossing 3D IMAX films, two – “Into the Deep” and “Deep Sea 3D” – were directed by Howard Hall.

A graduate from San Diego State University, where he received a bachelor’s of science degree in Zoology, Howard Hall is an internationally recognized photographer and author, with work published in hundreds of books and magazines including “Life” and “National Geographic.” He also directed the five-hour PBS series, “Secrets of the Ocean Realm,” which his wife produced.

Michele Hall is a member of the Television Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as the Women Diver Hall of Fame. She has a bachelor’s degree in Health Sciences, and is a registered nurse in California.

With “Deep Sea,” the pair, along with Myers, said they wanted to utilize the advanced technology to capture some of the ocean’s many creatures. “This time we definitely wanted to film a broader range of animals than covered in ‘Into the Deep,’” Myers said. “We really wanted to bring to the audience a sense of the huge diversity of the life that is the ocean. A lot of people have no clue in terms of what a wonderful parade of strange and exotic-looking creatures share our world with us.”

The Heikoff dome is located at 1875 El Prado in Balboa Park. IMAX admission is $15.75 for adults and $12.75 for children and seniors. The Science Center has special summer hours: Monday through Thursday 10 a.m. – 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. – 8 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. For show times and ticket information, visit rhfleet.org or call 619-238-1233.