Johanna Under The Ice – NOWNESS from NOWNESS on Vimeo.
Dry suits, electric suits, and 45 minutes filming underwater at a time. It’s negative 14 degrees Fahrenheit above the frozen lake. Director Ian Derry lands in Finland to meet the world champion free diver under ice: Johanna Nordblad. Hesitant, Derry slips into the dry suit and jumps into the freezing water. “I looked around under the ice, and it was then I was hooked,” said Derry. I knew the only way to show this was from a drone.” The dynamic shots seen in Johanna Under the Ice create dramatic depth between the subject and her environment––evoking a sense of isolation and danger.
Within the first scene, the videographer uses compositional techniques to create depth between the camera and the subject, Johanna. At (0:17), a wide establishing shot of the frozen lake introduces viewers to the environment. The lines and patterns naturally existing in the trees have been framed to create depth.
A hip-level tracking shot follows Johanna trudging through the snow (0:19), which then cuts to a POV shot representing the subject’s vantage point (0:21). The third shot in this sequence provides viewers an interesting perspective (0:24). The overhead drone serves two purposes: 1) Shooting from above makes the subject seem much smaller and 2) It gives viewers a sense of the size of the location. The subject comprises a small part of the frame; surrounding trees tower over her with no one else in sight.
We see a classic cinematic shot as Johanna continues her trek through the forest. In narrative filmmaking, we refer to this shot framing Johanna as eye candy by the placement of vertical objects in the foreground (0:31). This shot shows the verticality of the trees versus the horizontal frame, which also depicts the detailed patterns of snow on each tree. The combination of positioning the camera with a slight left-to-right motion and the vertical trees in the background dramatically heighten the sense of depth in this scene.
At (0:38), a medium shot provides viewers with a wide field-of-view while also exaggerating the foreground, which depicts Johanna looking out onto the snow-covered frozen lake. This perspective illustrates the massive length and width of the lake.
After facing the subject and slowly pulling away, the camera begins tracking with her as she walks over the lake (0:50). A medium shot––using a high frame-rate camera––slightly pushes in as she treads along.
A cutaway close-up of the subject’s shoes and ice pick fills the screen briefly before cutting back to Johanna walking. A series of dynamic shots achieved by the drone break up this standard chronology and allow viewers to get into Johanna’s headspace before her dive under ice. Instead of making the journey process-driven, Derry reworks temporal space using an intercutting technique that we first see at (0:58). We begin seeing parallel editing with the future in Johanna Under the Ice.
A high-angle composition (1:01) takes us back to the journey––just seconds before cutting to Johanna shaving a hole in the ice (1:04). While she imagines the future in her mind, the composition depicts it by jumping forward in time to her cutting a safety hole. Viewers don’t necessarily need to see Johanna cutting through ice. However, by sprinkling flashes of the process-heavy shots throughout her walk on the lake, viewers can focus on the formality of the compositions and enjoy the cinematic metaphors of Johanna under the ice.
“There is no place for fear,” Johanna says. “No place for panic.” An underwater tracking shot follows the subject swimming on her back (1:43). She faces the ice directly above her––hands gliding along the glass surface. This shot elicits the real danger in that very moment. Viewers feel anxious from witnessing a subject with no dive team or oxygen tank swim in freezing waters under ice. The camera placement and compositional techniques of Johanna Under Ice help serve the story effectively. Parallel editing with aerial drone footage and slow-moving tracking shots put viewers between real time and the future. After getting in the ice queen’s headspace, we pose the obvious unanswered question, will our subject come to the surface when the time comes?