Last year I went to the San Diego Undersea Film Exhibition and liked it a lot. So this year I figured out I might as well register for both days of the show (I attended only one last year). So last week I drove twice the 5 to be right on time at the very impressive San Diego Qualcomm Hall for the 12th Annual SDUFEX...

SDUFEX is a non-profit organization whose goal is to promote underwater video & film. The rules are pretty simple: clips have to be shorter than 5 minutes, and a minimum of half of it underwater and each participant can submit no more than two features. The "contest" is open to anybody, amateur or pro, there is no entry fee and an independent jury will select a few films. There is no prize, except the pride of seeing your creation on the big screen if you are selected. And the Qualcomm Hall screen is indeed pretty big...

I am not going to review each film one by one but I would like to give kudos to a few I really liked and highlight some of the aspects of the ones I did not.

But first, let's talk a little bit about the event itself. In the true Hollywood tradition, it was of course an evening of self-congratulation. It seems the world of SDUFEX is a little closed world as no more than three movies were presented as being from someone "new to SDUFEX". It also seemed that the vast majority of those that were not new to SDUFEX were in a way connected to the association itself, either being a board member or a close relative to a board member. Karen Strauss, the master of ceremony and secretary of SDUFEX, had the privilege of welcoming her husband Eric Hanauer (on the board of directors of SDUFEX) on stage for two movies. Lot's of self congratulation there for sure... Speaking of the masters of ceremony, both were reading their script, not always very well, which made the short intermissions between each film rather boring. That's really sad because when they actually let go of their scripted speeches, they were actually pretty good and funny. They should try to be more spontaneous next year. The presenters when they were in the attendance were all invited to come on stage to introduce their movies. Except for one that had written her discourse and just read it (I almost fell asleep then) all the others presented their movie with no visible re-enactment. They were all very excited and they were all able to convey that to the audience and I really liked that part.

So as for the films themselves, I have the weird feeling that I enjoyed this year less than last year. Is that because the novelty has eroded? Because I was more sensitive to the technical and cinematographic qualities (and defects) of the movies being presented, having tried to shoot a few myself? I don't know but there was a couple of things that really attracted my attention this year.

The first night opened with "The Circle of Life" by Simon Spear from the UK. Cool theme showing how we are all connected to the ocean, not really an off-the-beaten-path environmental theme but at least a little more than just pretty images put together. I couldn't help to notice a clear mark on the lens (or more likely on the case) during certain sequences.

Two movies were about blue water diving, one by Nannette Van Antwerp "Pacific Drifters" filmed at night showing amazing footage of jellies and other invertebrates, the other by Walter Marti "The Deep Blue" showing the same creatures filmed during the day. Both were of very good quality and the narrative was interesting (I actually learned new stuff!).

Two movies had the Lion Fish invasion in the Caribbean as their main theme: one by Tim Blanton "Caribbean Menace" alternated topside interviews with one of the local divemasters trying to teach local sharks to hunt for Lion Fish by feeding them some pre-speared lion-fish sushi and underwater footage of the said taste & hunt lessons. Very interesting subject and a very nice way to treat it. The second lion fish invasion movie was by William Kimlinger and was titled "Underwater Explorers" and was shoot as a B-series PI movie where a group of divers start by investigating a Lion Fish invasion in the Caribbean to find out that they were the dangerous predators invading the reef. A very humorous feature, a good laugh.

Pete Fowler also tried some humor as well in "The Dilemma" but his chromakey green screen attempt was really amateurish as he was trying to shoot himself speaking in front of octopuses footage. As he was not really looking straight at the camera, it really felt weird. The subject of the movie, the dilemma on what the plural form of octopus really is, was brought slowly and made us wonder what the point of the movie was until it was finally discussed. A 4 minute suspense! Eric Hanauer also attempted and succeed in role-reversal humor in his movie "Marine Mammal Harassment" which featured his wife being "harassed" by the sea lions from the Los Islotes colony near La Paz, Mexico. Not as hilarious as the Piniped Porn by Ian Williams but still a few good laughs!

My favorite of all was undoubtedly "Fields of Green" by Jo Horrocks which focused on the sea grass in the Red Sea. Amazing footage of mating morays and other critters populating the usually disregarded sea grass. All that with a nice little music and a very interesting narrative.

Another one I found was really good was "Peace and Quiet" by Joseph Roualdes. The guy is one of those "new to SDUFEX" and was celebrating his 30th birthday that day. Nice birthday present. He was all excited and that was very funny. His movie, shot in Hawaii, was very funny too with a narrative at the first person explaining how he needed to get away from his crazy work life and find peace and quiet underwater but was disappointed to see how busy fish lives were until he found his own zen yoda master in a frogfish which moved no more than a foot in the five days he dove. Nice story telling, although I think he could have done a better job at showing the crazy lives of fish. He had some very good ideas but I think they went too fast or were wasted by the music or I missed them. I loved it anyway.

The second day ended with a movie by no other than Howard Hall himself called "100 miles". Amazing footage of a whale coming right at us (although it would have really really rock if the whale had open its giant mouth at the end) and other critters found in our local Pacific waters (hence the title, 100 miles from SD). No narrative for this one, just beautiful images... except that one Garibaldi scene was way too red and the shadows were way too noisy... WTF Mr Hall?

The rest was rather average.

It showed one thing that all videographers, amateurs or pros, should always have in mind: unless you are Howard Hall, putting together nice pictures and adding a techno soundtrack on top of it does not make a good movie. A lot like that were presented, mostly from the Philippines and Indonesia. Of course the pictures are beautiful, but what's the point we've seen them many times already! What's the story behind these pix, that's what we want to know, that's what makes a great story and a great movie. Movie makers need to be story tellers, not just photographers. And enough mantis shrimp already!

It also showed that titles matter. Not the title itself, but the way it comes on screen... COME ON PEOPLE! These are not vacation movies! Forget about the yellow letters surrounded by purple borders that appear wriggling on the screen! Use white on black and fade-in fade-out. Of course it'll take 7 precious seconds out of your 5 minutes but please, stop hurting my eyes!

Finally, I'm a sort of a geek when it comes to codecs and compression and stuff, so I really (I mean really) noticed when the wrong bitrate was obviously selected. The movie "Sardine Rave" (another one of those with nice pictures and techno zouk) could have been called "Pixel Rave" instead as the dance of the sardines was rather a big blurry square pixels salsa... The funny thing is that twice during the event they congratulate that techno geek guy (their term, not mine) to have worked wonders on the codecs and stuff. Well not on that movie for sure. Another film called "Two Bizarre Fish Tales" (my program says "Tails" but I guess it's wrong) had the most terrible compression I had ever seen on a big screen. When pixels reach the size of my head, there's something really really wrong. And since when can you mix and match aspect ratios without being punished by the gods of Art? Tell me! I couldn't believe it at first, I was being hypnotized by a giant black pixel posing as a catfish just like in the old days of Apple II computer games when you (a 8x8 light green block) had to fight invaders from outer space (an armada of 10x5 dark green blocks), but then it happened again. In his pre-show speech, the presenter told us the movie was made out bits and pieces collected over 10 years. But come on! I can't believe you could not have corrected the AR to wide everywhere!

So what's the conclusion of that underwater cinematographic experience? Should I move my ass and start assembling my footage from Fiji,  the Bahamas and Catalina, add some Lady Gaga pop soundtrack to it and shoot it in the direction of SDUFEX? Should I ask my talented cousin to come shoot me jumping in the pool as an intro to my next blockbuster "what's in my magical pool"? Or should I just carry on being an unsatisfied and frustrated critic? 

What about samba? Could be good, a dolphin and shark movie on a tune of samba... And a mantis shrimp. You *have* to have a mantis shrimp...