VIDEO REVIEW
BECOMING AN UNDERWATER CAMERAMAN WITH
Will Foster-Grundy
01
WILL FOSTER-GRUNDY is one of the in-house
cameramen at Scubazoo, a major force in
underwater filming and photography around
South East Asia and beyond. Will describes his
journey from watching wildlife films as a child
to now working in his dream job, based in Kota
Kinabalu, Malaysia on Borneo.
SDOP
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What made you want to become an
underwater cameraman?
I’ve always had a real fascination with the natural
world. I grew up religiously watching anything
with David Attenborough and studied zoology
at university. After graduating I trained as a PADI
divemaster in the Caribbean. I suppose I really
wanted to become an underwater cameraman
to share the beauty of the ocean with the world
and get important marine conservation stories
out to the masses through the
unparalleled, powerful medium
of film. Plus it’s a great excuse to
go diving as often as possible.
01 Will at work in a
reef zone
02 Will with his Sony
EX1R inside a Gates
underwater housing
03 A turtle passes by
What initial steps did you take
Will in the deep blue
to get into filming?
To take the leap into underwater
cinematography, having
a biology background and experience as a
divemaster were a pretty good foundation to
build on. However, the filming side of things for
me was a bit of an unknown. I made every effort
to study as much as I could about filmmaking in
my spare time and saved up and bought myself a
simple camera so I could practise the techniques
and skills I was learning about – all above the
water for now though.