The depths of Sanctum: Part III

This time a year ago, director Alister Grierson had James Cameron looking over his shoulder as he plunged actors into a flooding cave system, had them jump from rock walls and, ultimately, die in dramatic fashion. That was called a week day on the Warner Roadshow Studios set of 3D action adventure film Sanctum. Now, 12 months and $30 million later, Sanctum is screening in cinemas worldwide and putting audiences through the same terror its cast members experienced.
``It was dangerous, no doubt about it,'' Grierson said.
``The underwater stuff . . .those guys were doing it seven metres underwater and you can't panic down there.
``They were really going through those squeezes.
``That's why we used the full face masks so you know it was actually the actors doing it.
``There was still a whole army of people underwater and stunt supervisors, but at the same time working underwater is inherently dangerous, especially the scene where
Richard (Roxburgh) and Judes (Allison Cratchley) had to share the re-breather - that's real and really dangerous.''

Sanctum follows the misadventures of a group of explorers who are trapped in an underwater cave system when a freak storm collapses the entrance. The film is loosely based on the real-life experience of producer and writer Andrew Wight, a longtime friend and collaborator of film legend James Cameron. Cameron came on board as the executive producer of Sanctum, handpicking Grierson as the man to direct the feature after being impressed by his debut film Kokoda, also filmed on the Gold Coast.

With the Titanic director as his mentor, Grierson had to first learn how to dive then learn how to use the Cameron-Pace Fusion Camera system that Cameron invented to make Avatar. He also had to make sure his lead actors - Richard Roxburgh, Rhys Wakefield, Ioan Gruffudd - were willing to get their feet wet.
``Rhys did amazing things, all the leaps and jumps - he did a lot training to do that,'' Grierson said.
``The scene where he's breathing air bubbles off the roof of the cave, that's really hard to do.
``I tried it and you're upside down, the water gets in your nose and then you have to have the presence of mind to breath.
``I couldn't do it. He was fearless.''Fearless is something the audience will certainly not be while watching Sanctum as the characters are forced through the tiniest of underwater spaces in claustrophobic 3D. Grierson said he enjoyed setting up the audience to expect one type of film, before flipping it ``on its head.''
``It wasn't a conscious thing, though James (Cameron) was very heavily involved with the screenplay through the stages,'' he said.
``What's interesting to me, and I'm not sure if it's a Cameron type thing, but you think it's one type of film and then it flips on its head and it's not that film any more, then people start to say `holy, did he just do that? Did we just see that?''

Sanctum is Grierson's first foray into 3D filmmaking and the first 3D feature Cameron has worked on since his groundbreaking Avatar, now the most successful film of all time. But despite the hype surrounding the technology, Grierson said at the end of the day it comes down to the quality of the film - not the visuals.
``The argument 3D is better than 2D isn't necessarily true, it depends on the film,'' he said.
``There have been some bad films in 3D, but I think over the next year when there's going to be at least 20 films coming out using the Cameron-Pace 3D technology that will change peoples ideas.
``Especially when people see 3D films from Martin Scorsese and Baz Luhrmann that's going to change peoples minds.''

Sanctum is out now.