Bermuda in the Movies

Text and photo courtesy of B.U.E.I.

The Deep, the first major film to be shot in Bermuda, thrilled audiences around the world.

It was filmed in four oceans around the world, but The Deep was born in Bermuda. Island diving expert Teddy Tucker, in fact, inspired Jaws author Peter Benchley to develop the idea for the 1977 underwater thriller.

Tucker took Benchley to the wreck of the Constellation, which sank off the coast of Bermuda with not one but two other wrecks on top of it. Benchley wondered what would happen if a young couple on holiday happened upon such a site. That was the beginning of The Deep, Benchley's first novel since the blockbuster Jaws.

Director Peter Yates filmed at depths of 60 feet to 100 feet, using innovative techniques to capture suspense, beauty and terror above and below the surface of the ocean. Nearly 40 percent of the film takes place underwater, 15 percent on the surface and 45 percent on land or sets.

Four of the film's stars — Robert Shaw, Jacqueline Bisset, Nick Nolte and Louis Gossett, Jr. — as well as Yates, producer Peter Guber and key members of the production team, had to learn to dive. They joined one of the most experienced and versatile underwater teams of cinematographic experts ever assembled, including Al Giddings and Stan Waterman. The cast and company made 9,895 dives, spending 10,780 man-hours beneath the surface and consuming 1,054,000 cubic feet of compressed air.

For five weeks the set was an actual wreck — the Rhone, a royal mail ship that sank in 1867. The ship, angled from 30 feet to 90 feet below the surface, is encrusted with corals and provided a realistic backdrop. Shaw, Bisset, Nolte and Gossett made dives that took them not only 90 feet down but 40 feet inside the wreck.

Experts had to develop special cameras, lights and sound equipment for The Deep. The new technology changed the industry. At the time, underwater cameras weighed 225 pounds. The camera system designed by Giddings weighed only eight ounces in the water and allowed for reflex viewing, interchangeable lenses and complete mobility.

The production team also developed revolutionary lighting techniques to cover large areas. Audio engineers recorded live ocean stereo sound to enhance the film's realistic underwater atmosphere.

Although the story is set in Bermuda, Yates filmed in various locales. One sequence required travelling halfway around the globe to the Great Barrier Reef off Australia, where they filmed a feeding frenzy by a group of grey sharks, a scene that could not be duplicated anywhere else in the world.

Much of the film, however, was shot in Bermuda, the setting for Benchley's story. The company filmed on land, water, beneath the ocean and in the world's largest underwater set: 120 feet in diameter and 30 feet deep, containing one million gallons of fresh Atlantic sea water and stocked with hundreds of indigenous fish.

Audiences loved the film as well as Benchley's Bermuda novel. Published in hard cover by Doubleday & Co. in May 1976, it remained on the best-seller lists for six months and accumulated a succession of reviews that made it one of the most acclaimed novels of 1976-77. It has since been published in 35 countries. Bantam Books published the paperback edition in April 1977. Within a month, five additional printings had brought the total number of copies in print to 2.5 million.

DID YOU KNOW? Peter Benchley met Teddy Tucker while on assignment in Bermuda for National Geographic.

Also, learn about the annual Bermuda Film Festival in March in our Events Calendar.

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