The real story on the making of "AMA"

The real story on the making of 

AMA

On May 28 this year, I posted a blog on AMA, the underwater breathhold ballet by Julie Gautier. At that time I wrote: "What is amazing is that Guillaume Nery was also holding his breath while shooting this."

I was under the strongest impression that the underwater films by Guillaume Nery and Julie Gautier were filmed by each other while holding their breath. If Guillaume was performing, Julie would be filming and vice versa and both would be holding their breath. 

I guess it's what I wanted to believe because it made them into true heroes of underwater filming and to get such exceptional quality while holding one's breath would be just amazing. 

I've since discovered my hypothesis was not true. 

These free divers actually have an underwater film crew on Scuba gear to film their exploits. Below is how they made AMA. It clearly shows the camera crew sitting comfortably on the bottom blowing bubbles from tanks and regulators while setting up and making sure everything is ready for the performance.

 

Julie was certainly breathholding. She used a drop weight to get to the bottom quickly for each take. This meant she did not have to expend energy and oxygen actually swimming down.

Have a look at the video and please accept a mea culpa from me. It in no way detracts from the amazing underwater ballet she performed.

DJK