[2010.06.15] 58 YEAR OLD CHRISTOPHER DOYLE RISKS HIS LIFE

Kwai Lun-Mei and Christopher Doyle (To Ho Fung)

courtesy of takungpao.com

Christopher Doyle (To Ho Fung) was the director of photography in OCEAN HEAVEN. In order to shoot the most sincere and natural underwater scenes, he risked his life to dive seven meters below in temperatures of 16 or 17 degrees Celsius to capture lead actor Wen Zhang's swim with sea turtles, dolphins and sea lions.

Although To Ho Fung was already 58, for the perfect shot he insisted on the carrying the equipment to personally shoot underwater with Wen Zhang in the extremely low temperature water. To Ho Fung felt that the entire process was very extremely challenging, "First the water temperature was particularly low, then the water was very deep. Although we took the full precaution, actors had certain risks. Third the shoot was underwater, water kept flowing and the equipment often couldn't catch up to the actor's action, which affected the progress and the resulting quality in the end." After countless dives and swims together, Wen Zhang and To Ho Fung thus became "life and death friends". They were just as friendly on and off screen.