Fascinating! I’ve watched many of the episodes, to now discover how they did it!

Scott Wilson, cohost of Departures and Steven Bray, producer talk to what looks like a film school class.

Used their student loans to buy a camera, an XL2, which shot digital tape. Got accepted by the network.

Getting the show going was difficult. They made a lot of mistakes, but it was a passion project. If it hadn’t been a passion project, it never would have gotten done.

They got $40,000 per show from the network and $10,000 from the gov’t as tax credits for season 1.

 

Scott and cohost Justin were high school friends in Frankford, Ontario. Scott wasn’t even going to be in front of the camera, but the audio guy.

They shot Descending with Red cameras, so they could capture as much color as possible, since color is lost in the depths. Underwater housing alone was 65-70 pounds, 80 pounds with camera, batteries and lights additional.

Departures camera was an HVX200

This segment isn’t as interesting — mostly about how to promote the film.

With Descending, they didn’t know until about halfway through season 1 what the format was going to exactly be, so they just shot a lot of film.

Were there tensions at times?

The two countries Scott still wants to explore are Iran and Yemen.

Scott’s plane crash. Never let go of his 5D MkII!

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Producer Steven and Scott Wilson from Departures Part 6 .mov

Mar 17, 2012

Jorge Lazcano