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In this email interview, French-Canadian underwater video course graduate Francis Morel shares his opinions of his time and training on Koh Tao. Francis came to us from a very technical videography background, so much of his experiences and challenges differ compared to the majority of our candidates - an interesting perspective: 1. Name of your University / college:Cegep du Vieux Montreal (college)
2. Full Course Title:Electronic Engineering, audiovisual concentration
3. What year had you finished before your summer in Koh Tao?Third year, which is the most technical and requires more energy and time - I'm soon to graduate with a DEC (collegial studies diploma) which means i am a qualified technician after that.
4. How does the content of the Oceans Below compare with what you learn at Uni?The beach, the girls, the sun and the fishies! hahaha
Seriously i think that if the program would be offered on a bill board at school, there would be at least 5-10 people/year that would be interested in it. Everyone was so jealous when i was talking about it and showing the videos! Some people wanted to leave straight away. Hahaha
In school, the content was not only about videography, but for what we've done in video, it was more about how to adjust the equipment, the colors and stuff like that to make it professionally all right, like they would do in a TV station, with scopes and stuff like that. We've also learned a lot about the inside of cameras, the electronic parts, the tapes and stuff like that. With Oceans Below, the course was only in the perspective of making the final movie, but it's all right because that's what they do in the end - it's not university. We've played with the colors but it was only in the editing process in Premiere which is also all right but is not the way we learned it in school.
As regards videography skills, at University we did a few reports and few projects in teams, playing with cameras but we were not really supervised about the way to take the shots, it was more a bit of "learn by yourself of your own mistakes". They only checked it in the end and said what was wrong or right. That was a great thing i found with Oceans Below, is that they have a really precise vision of how they want the product to look like and they teach the course in a really good way to make you work like they want. My "vision" skills upgraded a lot during these few weeks because in the end, when i started filming in the morning, i really knew where i was going with my shots and music and all.
At Oceans Below the quality of teaching was really good! I mean both Elizabeth and Aidy are really qualified for what they do. It's not crappy videos like some other stuff I've seen on the island.
And with the underwater videography equipment, everything was in a really good state, always ready to use, clear and simple. No thousands of wires going all over the place, fast computers, and good software to work.
To be honest, in the editing part, I learned to use a new software, but that was about it, not because they didn't show it but because I've already seen it before. They had a special way of doing things to work faster and always save time and that was a good thing but it's the kind of things you sometimes like to develop yourself, to be eased in the way you work. On the other hand all the filming part was highly instructive and interesting.
Overall the course requires good skills and quite a bit of patience to get the shots right but once you've got it, it is so much fun. But I'm not sure everyone would enjoy it and would be able to do it. Or at least i think some people would need a lot of practice. Same for the editing. Someone who never played with cameras, tapes and software before would have a hard time in the beginning, because there is a lot to learn. I think.
5. What do you plan to do after you graduate?After college, I'm planning to work in a TV station or somewhere on the musical scene, doing concerts and stuff like that. Living on Koh Tao made me want to be on the road for while.
6. Do you think training with Oceans Below helped your future prospects?I don't know. Of course it's always impressive on a CV when people see that you've worked in Thailand and filmed underwater stuff and of course i don't really know what will happen in the future but for sure it's a good experience.
7. Did you show any of your footage to people back at home?Yes, quite a few people, and everybody was amazed, even my teachers.
8. What would you say to someone thinking about taking an underwater videography course with Oceans Below?Go for it, you would be stupid not to! Like my teacher told me before i started! Hahaa You get an awesome experience both for work and life! trainee page |
