CPG goes down under (and under water too)

James Cameron has opened an Australian office to encourage more 3D movies and TV shows, including live sports broadcasts.

Having executive produced Sanctum, a stereoscopic 3D Australian movie, he is now planning to pilot a submersible to the 7-mile deep Mariana Trench, north of Papua New Guinea, for a feature-length documentary. He commissioned the single seater sub  for around 7 M$.

_{The Necker sub above is NOT the one Cameron will use.}

The Cameron Pace Group (CPG) , which opened an office in Melbourne this week, has supplied 3D equipment and technical expertise to such movies as Hugo, Transformers and Pirates of the Caribbean. It has also contributed to live TV coverage of American tennis, golf, basketball, baseball, football, boxing, wrestling and motorcycle racing.

3D Television has a future

Cameron said two developments will speed up the television revolution - the widespread use of lightweight disposable glasses then, within four years, screens that will not require glasses. ''At that point, it's going to explode,'' he said.

Andrew Wight in charge in Melbourne

The head of CPG in Australia, Andrew Wight, said sporting events suitable for 3D broadcasts include the Melbourne Cup, Australian Tennis Open and Australian Grand Prix as well as football. ''The next big breakthrough will be the next Olympics in 3D,'' he said.

As well as Sanctum, Australian filmmakers have used 3D for productions including documentary Cane Toads: The Conquest, the animated Happy Feet Two and Baz Luhrmann's The Great Gatsby.

Cameron, who expects to shoot most of Avatar 2 and 3 in New Zealand after the documentary, will head to the Mariana Trench after sea trials. 

Cameron's deep birthday

Last month, James Cameron spent his 56th birthday in a Russian deep sea submersible called the Mir-1, descending more than 1500m into Lake Baikal in Siberia, the deepest freshwater lake in the world.

Cameron and its 7 M$ 4 feet-wide bathyscaphe

Trieste was the first and only sub (called a bathyscaphe if they go deeper than most) to bring humans to the ocean's deepest spot (11,034 meters or 35,994 feet or 7 mile), appropriately named Challenger Deep in 1960 (here on Google Maps, a bit boring). It’s the deepest known spot in the oceans and has only been explored three times. Trieste was designed by Auguste Piccard and used for its world record by his son Jacques Piccard (The Swiss one, not the one from Star Trek) and Don Walsh 52 Years ago on January 23, 1960.

James Cameron commissioned an Australian team to build him a new bathyscaphe, so he can shoot 3-D footage for its "Avatar-2" movie and a stereoscopic 3D deep sea documentary. Cameron will combine his love for deep waters and at the same time shoot footage for the “Avatar” sequel that may appear on the silver screens in 2016.

James Cameron has waded into deep waters several times already on behalf of his films, including “Titanic” and “Aliens of the Deep.” The “Avatar” sequel will reportedly be set in the fictional (but deep) oceans of Pandora.

Cameron has kept a low profile on his bathyscaphe building efforts. Some five years ago, he formed a team that has been quietly building a submersible along traditional lines, only smaller. In an interview, he said its steel personnel sphere was just four feet wide and would accommodate just one person. The sphere underwent a successful pressure test in September 2009, Mr. Cameron said. 

He said his team had overcome major problems with foam meant to buoy the heavy sphere: Early foam crumbled under pressure tests, threatening to rob the submersible of buoyancy and maroon it on the bottom. “It’s not like you can call up AAA to come get you,” he said.

According to other sources, Cameron's new vessel is expected to be a two-seater, finned cylinder fitted with the latest 3-D cameras and a heating system largely missing from the Trieste.

Last year, James Cameron insisted that the deep craft had “nothing to do with my feature life” — though a documentary or two might be forthcoming. “The only thing it has to do with ‘Avatar,’ ” he said of the vehicle, “is that it’s slowing me down.” He said that the craft cost $7 million to $8 million, and that chartering a mother ship for the expedition would run from $30,000 to $40,000 a day. In the summer of 2012, he added, he and his team will dive in the western Pacific 12 to 15 times. The goal is to plumb not only the Challenger Deep but the Tonga and Kermadec Trenches, which lie north of New Zealand.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald, Popular Science, New-York Times, The australian.