Montreal: When productions shooting in la belle province find the need to shoot in, around and under water, one of the F/X photography resources they can call upon is Montreal’s Aquamedias.

Established last year by Emmanuel Behier-Migeon, a high-definition filmmaker and photography specialist, and Patrick Karpat, the team’s production coordinator, the house provides grips, electricians, underwater cameras and lenses as well as specialized communications equipment – essentially all the gear required for aqua-shooting, according to Karpat.

Because the Aquamedias setup also includes a live video feed to the surface in all shooting formats, the director, DOP and production designer don’t have to get their feet wet.

‘We also have underwater housings for smaller cameras that allow numerous people to direct what’s going on under the water [from the surface],’ Karpat adds. An Aquamedias crew on a major shoot can number from 15 to 20.

Aquamedias has worked on major U.S. features including the Richard Donner time-travel fantasy Timeline (Paramount Pictures) and the big-budget Roland Emmerich weather disaster flick The Day After Tomorrow (aka Tomorrow, distributed by 20th Century Fox). The latter consisted mostly of prep and rigging work on a 100′ x 200′ x 4′ basin built at the Alstom Canada locomotive shop yards.

The company also serviced director Robert Benton’s drama The Human Stain, adapted from the Philip Roth novel and produced for Miramax, as well as the Transfilm Euro copro Heist. Karpat and Behier-Migeon sunk a Brinks truck in the Old Port harbor on that film while managing a dicey decor-prep assignment inside a car submerged under ice in Benton’s film.

One advantage of shooting underwater in Montreal, Karpat explains, is that the city ‘has one of the only pools in North America that goes down to 47 feet – at the Olympic Stadium.’

Other recent gigs include spot action for advanced film and TV school INIS and producer SWAT Films, and a segment directed by Behier-Migeon for TSX, an extreme sports series produced by Montreal’s Zone3. Aquamedias also provides actor diving and underwater training.

-www.aquamedias.com