We had a chance to sit down with filmmaker and Sony Artisan Gabe Rogel about the making of Tia Blanco “My Journey”. Rogel was part of the small team that wrote, directed and shot the film. Working with Sony Artisan David McLain, Rogel did most of the in-water shooting. He describes how everything came together. “The whole project was shot in 4K and I was mostly shooting with a Sony α6300 in an underwater housing. It was incredible. That camera is super lightweight and small. I've had a other cameras in underwater housings in the past and they were big, clunky and expensive housings for DSLR. They were much bigger and much heavier. The α6300 setup was awesome. It was easy to swim with and use in the water.

“I also used a Sony Action Cam. For a couple of sequences, I literally had the Action Cam in my left hand and my α6300 in my right hand and I was shooting Tia as she was coming by on 6-8 foot waves. I didn't do that very much, but being able to hold a camera in each hands and swim in the waves was pretty awesome.

“On the α6300, I used the Sony 20mm f/2.8 prime lens. Some people use fisheyes for still photos. For video that would be too much. The 20 was great because when I was in the water like that the wide angle showed less camera shake and I could take in more of the scene and the settings. I was shooting a bit blind some of the time and one of the benefits of 4K was that I could crop, reframe and stabilize a lot easier in post. That was a huge benefit.

“We all had such a good time and we were in a beautiful place and the people were wonderful people. It was a bit of a whirlwind. It was really cool.” 

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