March 14, 2008
Creative underwater filmmaker, Gyula (Jules) Somogyi garnered the Silver Medal at the Our World Underwater/DivePhotoGuide/Wetpixel competition this year with this stunning short film. Gyula says of the genesis of this film: "The original version of "The Vision of the Oraculum" was shot and edited during the 2007 SanDisk RedSea shoot-out in Eilat. The idea of making a short film with a complex story had two origins: I had already dived in Eilat in 2006 and was impressed by the beauty of the famous Moses-rock. I started looking into how this reef got its name. The very unique shape of the reef was the answer, because when Moses struck the rock with his rod, the rock divided into ttwo parts. So now I had an explanation, only the story was missing. Then into the picture came a very well know commercial, the 1984 ad directed by Ridley Scott. The amazingly complex story in 56 seconds served as my indirect assistant, its structure and storyboard helped me to design and sketch my storyboard. What is the common ground? The biblical Moses story is very well known--as well as the novel of George Orwell, 1984. Both stories became part of our common cultural knowledge. "I arrived at Eilat with a shot-list, and asked underwater photographer Sharon Rainis to be my Oraculum and underwater photographer Amir Stern to be Moses in my film. Their patience and readiness to help gave me the chance to make this film. The first cut was finished within 8 hours in my hotel room in Eilat. After the competition I got some very valuable advice from Christian Petron, who was the head of the jury at the SanDisk RedSea shoot-out. The first cut was also extensively discussed in the Hungarian on-line diving community at the forums of the Divecenter.hu. Then I let the film rest for a couple of weeks. "Around Christmas I asked my friend, Arthur Grosz, a young Hungarian composer, to create a new soundtrack for this story. Based on the old film's sequences but utilizing the re-defined structure and storyboard, Arthur composed the new soundtrack and I finished the new edit just before the deadline of the Our World Underwater 2008 Competition. In conclusion, after spending about two months to create this little film, I am very pleased that it was awarded the Silver medal at his competition and has reached you, dear viewer, via the DiveFilm HD Video podcast. Enjoy!" For more information on Gyula's underwater films, and his new DVD release, "Ships of Darkness," please visit his website: http://helioxfilm.hu For more information on Wetpixel, please visit Wetpixel.com For more information on DivePhotoGuide, please visit DivePhotoGuide.com
