Thailand courses in underwater videography

[vamp771]

Hi guys,

My name is Martin Clark, a freelance cameraman and editor currently based in Spain.

I'm new to scuba diving and am starting my Open Water Diver course next weekend...cannot wait!!!

After completion i'm looking into courses in Thailand....I would like to progress to Rescue Diver level and study an underwater videography course too.

I've already got a quote from a company called Oceans Below who are offering to train me up to Rescue Diver level, 2 weeks underwater video training and then a 4 week paid internship producing videos for holiday divers. They have thrown in accomadation and all the rental of scuba and video kit.

Amounts to 141,000 Bhat which is a little out of my price range.

Does anyone know or recommend any other companies I could approach that are cheaper

Rant over....phewwwww!

Thanks

Martin

 

[J-Sun]

HI Martin,
I saw your post and hopefully we can be of assistance. I live on Koh Tao and I work as a marine videographer. Our company does Professional Videography courses and is associated with the only award winning dive centre on the island. Please email me at jon@deepdown-productions.com . We can get the price down ALOT more than that for all your courses.
We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Best regards,
Jace

 

[Louie]

Hi Martin,

All the best on your OW course and hope it's the start of an exciting career.

I only know Koh Tao in Thailand and there is an outfit called Ace Marine.
ACE Marine Images - Professional Training

They're a videography business and a training centre. Let me just make it clear that I don't have any friends working there, nor am I on commission - so completely unbiased. There is a vast number of shops on KT and many work with one another so perhaps there is a possibility of a package deal. It's worth looking into.

 

[Pre BC]

Dear Martin:

Congrats on starting your diving career. A few questions come to mind before I would feel comfortable throwing out advice. They are:

1. What is your goal.? Are you ultimately looking to work as: A) a videographer for a recreational dive operation or B) are you looking to land paid positions on shoots for Discovery Channel and National Geographic. These are very different tracks and, while they are not 100% mutually exclusive, there is not as much overlap as you might think. If you have significant dry land credits already, all you may need to transition into uw cinematography is diving experience plus the right industry contacts. Decent skills, a little luck, a few buddies in the union and... Select A or B above and I bet you will get very different advice.

2. Don't forget to include transportation time/cost of getting to/from Thailand into your total cost calculations. Are you planning on working in Thailand, returning to Spain or heading to some other part of the world to work? I believe 141,000 bhat is +/- $4,000. Once you add your airfare, you will have something closer to a true cost for the programs. Even though the tuition will probaby be higher, you may find something with an equal or lower total cost in either Egypt or the Caribean.

There is one piece of advice that will apply no matter how you answer the above questions. Nail your bouyancy control.... In order to work as underwater videographer/cinematographer, you are going to have to be able to maintain stable depths/body positions for long periods of time and then be able to make changes quickly without having to "think about it". Every certifying agency (NAUI, PADI, SSI etc.) has a specialty in bouyancy control. Definately take it and practice, practice, practice! Pretty soon you will be a wiz with your BC inflator and be able to fine tune your depth almost subconciously by just varying how much air you inhale/how deeply you exhale!

Hope this helps... I am sure there will be more to come once you let us know a little more about your goals and objectives!

 

[vamp771]

Hi Pre BC,

Thanks for the lengthy reply.

Long term i'm looking into finding work as a media diver.
I know to qualify for this, I will need to take a certified HSe Commercial Diver training course (Pro Scuba to be more specific) which I hope to take towards the end of the year once i've got together the appropriate finances.

So with the Rescue Diver and underwater videography training under my belt, I hope this will stand me in good stead when applying for a commercial diver course and work in the future.

I realise that underwater work in natural history, drama reconstructions, documentaries, music promos is specialist and I won't rely on this as a steady income so I am looking into the civil engineering side of things, maybe taking an underwater welding course at some stage.

At the moment i'm just enjoying the whole experience of doing something challenging and new.

 

[Aidy-k]

Hey Martin.
Not sure if its too late. Just thought I should point out that nearly all dive shops have an award of one kind or another from PADI. I believe the one referred to above was a 'Project Aware Environmental Achievement Award'.
Very commendable, but little to do with video I feel.
I also work in videography on koh Tao, Oceans Below actually, And think your best option is to just get yourself to Koh Tao and shop around. There is a small number of video schools on the island. All offering something slightly different.
In my opinion, its better for all of us if you train on Koh Tao and leave as a happy customer of the island.
Koh Tao is rapidly becoming THE place to do underwater video training. So if we can keep all clients pleased with the service it befits us all.
So please don't rush into anything.
Hope my rantings are of some help Martin.

 

[Aidy-k]

Sorry. My bad. Diver training award.

 

[iceland]

Been in and out of Koh Tao over the years, I started a course with the film company 4-5 months ago, and i have learned so much!

Just figure out what you want to do with it later on. I plan to attend film school after a year learning UW Video.

We work with Ban's so there's tons of work so you can make your money back + ton's of different instructors which each personality brings variety to all of your videos!

filmedonkohtao.com

Aron

 

[DevonDiver]

Long term i'm looking into finding work as a media diver.
I know to qualify for this, I will need to take a certified HSe Commercial Diver training course (Pro Scuba to be more specific) which I hope to take towards the end of the year once i've got together the appropriate finances.

You only need the HSE course if you plan to work in the UK.

I can definitely recommend Deep Down Productions on Koh Tao. I did a short videography internship with them, only for the purposes of teaching PADI Videographer courses afterwards. Jon definitely knows his stuff.... and you will learn a lot. A friend of mine (who is a professional 'dry-land' photographer) did their full intership programme and spoke extremely highly of it.

ACE Marine Images, also on Tao, seemed professional also, but I never had cause to work with them.