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Dive the Reef (New Vision Video)
Dive the Reef (New Vision Video)
'Both informative and interesting, Dive the Reef is designed for people at all levels of diving, from novice to expert.' So runs the blurb for this the video.
Producing any 'underwater film' for divers or non-divers is fraught with difficulty. The world of commercial video is highly competitive, and there are many excellent productions on the market. Dive the Reef is not one of them.
Try as I might, I could not imagine the sort of divers who would enjoy this overly long, visually unexciting and technically dull film. Although it attempts to cover such topics as good buoyancy control, dangerous marine organisms and wreck-diving, it lacks any overall structure.
More seriously, the narration is peppered with nonsense: 'It's little wonder as to the vast profusion of life here considering the currents present.'
The information contained within the relentless narration was repetitive, too. We are told at least three times that gorgonians are fragile. Some of the marine observations are questionable 'Batfish are elusive.' In what sense? I've never known a batfish not to come extremely close to divers, and for divers to have been nibbled by them on more than one occasion.
Whatever view of fish, coral or shipwreck appeared on screen, the narrator would state the glaringly obvious. The exception came when he referred to the 'breathtaking beauty of the coral reef' over a shot of the most arid, rubble-covered expanse of grey nothingness imaginable. It certainly wouldn't make me want to visit Sharm el Sheikh.
The most interesting part of Dive the Reef is an interview with the doctor at Sharm's hyperbaric chamber. Dr Adel's view of how divers make themselves vulnerable to decompression illness is a masterly Egyptian view of why overindulgence in alcohol should be avoided.
The final irony comes when the narrator advises underwater film-makers: 'Films need a beginning, a middle and an end: this thinking needs to be applied to your movies, however basic.' Having said all that, the cameraman does have a steady hand, and the shots are always in focus.
Tim Ecott
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Dive the Reef (New Vision Video 01206 827338). VHS, 50min, £14.95.
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