Original subtitles

Stop! One more take.

These words are familiar to all cinematographers.

But a year ago,

no one was likely to imagine that they would be heard

under the water a dozen meters deep.

This happened during the shooting of the film "Amphibian Man".

Alexander Belyaev's novel has been read and loved by many.

However, not many know how much hard work and ingenuity it took

to show on screen an amazing story of Ichthyander,

a man who could live underwater.

Our first meeting with Ichthyander took place

in one of Leningrad swimming pools.

Each day we were faced with dozens of questions.

What should the actors' costumes be made of?

How is the color going to change underwater?

What materials to use for the sets?

In a word, five thousand "how's",

seven thousand "where's", a hundred thousand "why's".

For several months, the swimming pool had become a testing ground.

Only after we have got answers to all "how's", "where's" and "why's",

we could set out for the seaside.

Over a picturesque bay near Sevastopol

there rose the flag of an unknown country of dreams and quests.

In millions of years of its existence, this solitary place

had probably never experienced so many changes.

Fifty Robinsons were vigorously transforming the uninhabited coast.

The urban construction didn't come to architectural excesses.

Our little harbor received overloaded transport ships.

Timber,

the sets, all kinds of equipment.

In terms of fitting, we could compete

with any expedition of pioneers.

But don't forget, we were there to discover the depths of the sea.

A few days, and one could hardly recognize

Leningrad cinematographers in those sun-bronzed Robinsons.

The far-sighted managers brought along some tools of civilization.

And the bay turned into a spirited, boom settlement,

the capital of an adventure-packed, dream country,

albeit not marked on any geographical map.

But the most interesting was yet to happen.

Choosing a place for our pavilion, we critically examined the sea bottom.

No, it wasn't a slip of the tongue.

We had to build underwater a film studio.

To explain it better to you, let's go back to Leningrad.

The sets of a sea bottom had been constructed at Lenfilm Studio

to make some superimposition shots.

The cinematographers take miracles for granted.

None of them would be surprised to see in the studio a shark,

or colorful tropical sea plants

growing from the wooden floor.

Everything was as usual here.

The floodlight projectors went on,

and Ichthyander, garbed in glittery scales,

made his first swim in the air.

At the moment, we should rather call him a flying man.

But on the screen, these sequences look exactly like those shot at sea.

However, what becomes habitual on land

is not so easy to perform underwater.

To begin with, we had to wrestle some territory from the sea.

The divers were first to go into action.

They had to lower heavy piles down to the sea bottom.

And although all objects lose in weight when in water,

this was far from an easy job.

Sometimes there are storms at sea,

but our studio had to hold in any weather.

A pavilion is supposed to have walls,

and we made them of durable nylon net.

Soon pole tops were outlining the boundaries of the conquered space.

In the meantime, on the shore a fantastic forest had risen,

created by the imagination and the hands of designers.

It seems to have been the first experience

for the designers and artists to work underwater.

By this time,

members of our expedition had been turned to amphibian men.

The fishes were placed in a special construction

fixed to a movie camera.

In this case, the extras did what the director was saying.

But obviously we couldn't shoot all the sequences in the sea.

And again, the special-effects people came to the rescue.

They had made the missing shots in a swimming pool near Baku.

This is the Viking's stand-in.

Don't let its miserable appearance mislead you.

In no time it will look as good as his real-life double.

No one can wait to start working,

and a tardy compressor is substituted by the efforts

of the whole production crew, including the kids.

The Viking is launched.

The special effects cameraman

can do wonders not only with people, but with luminaries, too.

The sun. Make the sun rise.

Give me a wave.

And one last detail.

With the help of a filter, we'll turn a sunny day into a night.

Action.

There had been lots of scenes shot.

All kinds of events took place on the sea bottom

in the underwater realm that we had created.

That's local fishermen looking for the mysterious sea devil

that has left his tracks on the shore.

Look, that must be him coming up.

Oh, no! That's a cameraman.

He is rolling up the installed rails out of the sea abyss.

It's impossible to tell you about everything we had to experience

in our underwater studio.

Deep in the sea, lamps kept blowing up,

not being able to endure water pressure.

The most simple things turned out to be complicated.

A light mannequin standing in for Ichthyander suddenly came alive.

The obstinate dummy wouldn't let itself be tied to the anchor chain.

We're finishing the underwater shooting.

Looking like a space projectile, the movie camera

has made its last panoramic shot of the sea kingdom.

It makes us sad to part with this amazing world of silence.

Who knows, maybe our next film will bring us back here again?

And we're leaving behind in the hospitable depths our sets

and Gutiere's crimson ribbon.