Smaco test dive with Frogwoman Lucy [2nd video of Project F]

So, for today I have another short video where Frogwoman Lucy tested a 1L Smaco tank.

These mini scuba tanks can be filled by an adapter or by a manual pump(!). Filling these with a pump is very exhausting and takes some time, but it works.

Disclaimer: Don’t get crazy ideas! These can be used in shallow water, but if you want to really dive in open water with these, get a scuba certificate first!

And even with a full 1L tank you only have something like 5-10 minutes of oxygen. These tanks are just a fun gadget, not for real diving….

 

 

Smaco test dive, 1080p, 60 frames, 01:45 minutes

In this video, Lucy is wearing an Aquasphere pursuit smooth skin wetsuit and neoprene socks, and a hood.

I have mentioned the difficulties we had to face during the shooting (lighting, camera settings, no fins possible, etc.).

https://frogwoman.org/the-first-video-shooting-for-project-f-how-did-it-go

So, the picture quality is ok but could be better for sure.

I will work on that for the 2nd shooting.

And I will then include more close-ups and above the surface shots 😉

 

Some preview pictures:

The picture quality in the video does actually look a little better than the screenshots

(click to enlarge)

A short trailer that also includes scenes from this video:

Yeah, the aspect that we couldn’t use fins is really a problem here, but I think Frogwoman Lucy does a good job, especially as her first dive in scuba gear was just about half an hour earlier!

The (official) harness of the Smaco tank is a rather cheap construction in a “one size fits everyone” size…. and we had to make some adjustments so the tank was positioned a little better in the second half of the video. Still, there is room for improvement so it should be possible that the tank would stay tight above the belly.

The tank was only filled one-third but still, there was quite some air left after this video, and I used it myself on another video. That one will be posted later on as well.

 

P.S.: The red valve you can see on the tank is the tank valve that regulates the airflow. The fact that it is positioned in front of the diver is an interesting aspect for possible future peril videos with that tank 😉

How can you watch the video?

It is available again in the VIP club NOW in November!

Here is a quick overview of the content of this month:

https://frogwoman.org/frogwoman-vip-club-2-0-november-2023-vip-club-news

 

You can download these videos in the VIP club, but only for your personal use.

Please don’t share them with anyone…. anywhere!

It’s pretty simple, I had to spend a lot of money, especially on scuba gear and location rent.

A lot of my …limited… savings were used up for that.

If I don’t make enough money with these videos…..I won’t be able to make new videos.

So…. I hope you appreciate these videos and want to see more in the future.

Regarding the editing of the video, here you can find some more info:

https://frogwoman.org/the-first-video-of-project-f-can-now-be-found

On Sunday I wanna post a longer video that will be available to buy on a special site on this blog.

Frogwoman Alice tests a vintage Technisub FFM [1st video of Project F]

So, for starters, I wanna present a video where Frogwoman Alice is doing a little test dive in the pool with my favorite vintage FFM, the Technisub FFM (aka La Spirotechnique).

The mask gets oxygen from a Royal Mistral vintage double hose regulator.

She is wearing an Elios vintage style beavertail smooth skin wetsuit with matching hood and neoprene socks…also from Elios.

 

Technisub FFM test dive, 1080p, 60 frames, 3:10 minutes

I have mentioned the difficulties we had to face during the shooting (lighting, camera settings, no fins possible, etc.).

https://frogwoman.org/the-first-video-shooting-for-project-f-how-did-it-go

So, the picture quality is okay but could be better for sure.

I will work on that for the 2nd shooting.

And I will then include more close-ups and above-the-surface shots 😉

 

Some preview pictures:

The picture quality in the video does actually look a little better than the screenshots

(click to enlarge)

A short trailer that also includes scenes from this video:

This was a very much improvised video that I edited together from 2 videos.

The gear that Frogwoman Alice is wearing is near perfection for me!

The Technisub FFM is an old favorite of mine in combination with the double hose regulator.

And that Elios suit is really awesome, hard to find something better in my opinion.

*EDIT December 13* Not a big surprise, but diving with such a twin hose regulator and such a mask was new to Frogwoman Alice.

She thought it was fun even breathing from such an old vintage regulator was less comfortable in comparison with a newer one.

The dampened sound you hear pretty much at the beginning of the video is my old snorkel filling up with water and then me blowing it out.

I filmed most of the time just with a mask and snorkel to avoid having my breathing sounds from a regulator in the video.

But in that one scene, I went down a little too far…

Next time I will use a newer snorkel that closes up automatically in case it goes below the surface.

How can you watch the video?

It will be available again in the VIP club in January!

Here is a quick overview of the content of this month:

https://frogwoman.org/frogwoman-vip-club-2-0-november-2023-vip-club-news

You can download these videos in the VIP club, but only for your personal use.

Please don’t share them with anyone…. anywhere!

It’s pretty simple, I had to spend a lot of money, especially on scuba gear and location rent.

A lot of my …limited… savings were used up for that.

If I don’t make enough money with these videos…..I won’t be able to make new videos.

So…. I hope you appreciate these videos and want to see more in the future.

 

Some background info on the video editing:

I used the video editing software Shotcut for the first time here.

The original video footage was shot in 2.7K, I rendered it down to 1080p for better file size and a picture will fewer grain effects.

I used a white balance filter to get rid of the very warm light from the pool lights, which worked really well.

I used color grading to increase the brightness in the darker sections of the video by 10% (mainly her wetsuit).

And I used an audio filter to dampen down some weird audio creaks that occurred here and there.

I experimented with a grain reduction filter for another video but as much as it helped with that grain noise….it blurred the picture. So I decided against it.

I also experimented with a sharpness filter to increase the sharpness…but that grained the picture in return 😆 ….So I decided against that as well.

 

 

The first video shooting for Project F….how did it go?

So, as you might/should know, the first video shooting for Project F went down on December 1st (+ some test videos on November 30).

Well, there were quite a lot of obstacles to handle….

I was very excited and anxious at the same time about it in the days before, and I slept 2-4 hours each night prior to the shooting…..

Planning such a shooting and doing it…. was all completely new to me.

And as a bonus, I’m pretty much a nerd/couch potato, so this was all quite far away from my usual comfort zone.

 

The location was really good, …..BUT….had quite some problems to offer as well.

The lighting was way too dark outside the pool, which is a problem especially now in December.

The ceiling was pretty high and the most important lamp out of 5 wasn’t working. The other ones were pretty weak.

In the pool, there were two big lights on one side so we tried not to shoot in the direction of these lights.

The counter-current system wasn’t working, I wanted to use that as well.

The pool was pretty big for a private indoor pool (4×8 meters) but rather shallow (1.45 meters).

And the biggest problem was the fact that the pool had no tiles like a usual one but a special sort of thick foil on the concrete.

That was very nice to walk on….but as I soon realized….after swimming around with my fins…. fins would easily damage that foil with dents and small rips.

That simply meant that we couldn’t use fins and also that we had to be extra careful not to further damage that foil.

 

Also, there wasn’t much time to shoot, at least not as I would have liked to have.

The location was only available during the week, so not every participant had a lot of time.

3 of the 4 frogwomen arrived by train (2 at the same time) and I had to pick them up which took time as I had to drive over to the train station 3 times and back.

But more importantly, the weather was very bad which affected the trains directly in this case.

One frogwoman was scheduled for 5 hours of shooting but due to massive delays, incl. a tree on the tracks ….which damaged the train(!)…. she was only there for 2 hours.

And that wasn’t the only delay of the day with the German rail….

 

I planned some scenarios for the day, but with the shortened time we had to improvise quite a lot.

Also, directing and filming were completely new territories for me.

We certainly didn’t film as many videos as I hoped we would be, but well…..it was my first shooting ever….so it was basically a test run.

 

But with all these circumstances included….I’m still very happy with how it went!

It was a great experience for sure and we did manage to film some good scenes.

The 4 frogwomen really did a good job, I am very happy about that!

2 of them had no scuba experience at all and one only very little from a scuba experience lesson.

The other one has scuba and freediving experience and that really shows in the one big action scene we filmed as she was mastering it like a stunt double.

I was very happy that these two were willing to make that scene, not everyone would have done that!

And I am very glad that all 4 frogwomen and the camera guy/divemaster were happy with the shooting and they all would return for another one.

 

Next week I will work with a new editing program to cut and post-processing the video footage.

I want to upload the first video next Sunday if everything goes as planned, and then one more each week….or perhaps two.

They will be available for sale here on the site. Will need to see if I will have some sort of download shop system for that later on, but not for the start.

I hope that the videos will get bought in a way to re-finance at least parts of the costs ….as acquiring all that gear was verrrrry expensive for me.

I spend a lot on especially these wetsuits, the scuba tanks, all the masks, regulators, fins etc.

And this location was quite expensive as well….

All that killed quite the biggest part of my savings.

 

I learned quite a lot and have written down quite some notes on how to improve the whole process on the next shooting.

Next time I wanna shoot much more according to script with less improvising.

Also, I will work on my camera skills in the meantime to get the best setup for the next shooting.

 

In the meantime, just a little teaser….. :

(the picture is a massively cropped screenshot of the unedited video footage)

Yeah, that is actually the intake hose…in my videos, no outtake hoses will get cut 😉

#no cheating

 

In the VIP-area you can see the whole (uncropped/still unedited) picture/screenshot 😉

 

Two banners for Project F!

Today I wanna present two banners that a very nice and talented guy made for me and Project F:

(click on the image to enlarge it to full size – these are only thumbnails)

These images do show what I would love to see in Project F (among other things)!

Take banner 2 for example: Jane Bond in her red rubber wetsuit encounters a SPECTRE frogwoman and that fight can only have one winner!

Perhaps inspired by the fight with James Bond and the frogman below the Disco Volante. 😉

 

Here is the link to his DeviantArt account, check it out for more gorgeous women in scuba gear:

https://www.deviantart.com/sky50783

Thanks again for these banners!

They will be put to good use in representing the Project.

The scuba killer, the VIP and a pool

First of all:

I posted a little update on Project F:

Project F

(scroll down to update on September 26)

So, this one is a little….”cheat”, but I decided to post it anyway as this scene is very interesting!

Let’s start with some pictures (without showing the killer):

(click to enlarge)

Here is the video:

Yeah, I know, no female diver in this one….but there are some interesting aspects to this one.

Ok, first of all, I would like the scene even better if the killer would be a woman. But female scuba killers are an extremely rare breed….

The scene itself is done pretty well with close-ups of him and her. He holds her down by controlling her arms, that’s very efficient.

She tries to escape his grasp but fails, so she is doomed without help from the outside.

The scuba dude is a stone-cold killer the way he drowns her without any emotions.

I wish he would get drowned himself in the end….but that doesn’t happen….even he would have deserved it.

His blue outfit is quite odd, never seen a wetsuit like that, odd fabric. But it makes a lot of sense to fully disguise himself in complete blue so he wouldn’t be easily spotted in the pool.

But…..I think she should have seen him anyway….unless he was in a spot where he couldn’t see him from the position where she entered the pool.

However, since he is using a normal regulator she should be able to spot his bubbles! Well, unless he was able to not exhale from the time she came near the pool.

Guess that is possible.

The next question is…where he was as the agents searched the garden? If he would be already in the pool….they should have seen or heard him! Perhaps he sneaked into the pool after the search, guess that is also possible.

 

In my version, the killer would be a frogwoman in black rubber (screw the disguise 😉 who sneaked into the pool as her victim was already swimming there. The swimmer would fight back, struggle hard, steal the regulator of the diver, but would be drowned in the end after she nearly finished off the diver.

Or she would pretend to be dead and then attack the frogman from behind, stealing his regulator…. 😉

Wanna know from which TV episode this scene is?

IMDB-link

What do you think of that scene?

Leave your comment below!

Looking for female scuba divers / frogwomen for Project F!

The search for stunning frogwomen for Project F has begun!

https://frogwoman.org/project-f

(September 18 update)

English:

If you are a woman, have a scuba certificate, and can travel to Bremen (Germany) and are interested in participating If you are interested in participating in such an unusual project….. then please contact me!

The other requirements (check the link above) are pretty easy to fulfill as well.

And even if you don’t have a scuba certificate you can participate in some videos!

Anonymous participation is also possible!

German:

Wenn du eine Frau mit Tauchschein bist, nach Bremen kommen kannst, und Interesse an der Teilnahme an einem solchen ungewöhnlichen Projekt hast… dann kontaktiere mich bitte!

Die anderen Voraussetzungen (siehe Link) sind auch ziemlich einfach zu erfüllen.

Selbst ohne Tauchschein kannst du in einigen Videos mitmachen!

Eine anonyme Teilnahme ist auch möglich!

 

P.S.:

If you have any ideas on how this message could reach as many potential candidates as possible….please leave a comment or contact me!

Wenn du eine Idee hast wie dieser Aufruf möglichst viele passende Kandidatinnen erreichen kann, poste einen Kommentar oder kontaktiere mich!

Wanted: A logo and a banner for Project F

To the creative folks who actually are good at creating a banner:

I’m looking for banners for Project F!

I would like to have a logo for it (square) and a banner (height x1 to width x3 (at least)).

My first idea was to use existing sexy frogwomen from movies and TV shows….but well, that wouldn’t really fit as Project F wants to create new videos and footage.

Something new, something original is needed!

 

So, if you are somewhat good at digital drawing, I’m talking to you 😉

The banner and logo should be showing a frogwoman (at least 1) and convey the feeling of danger and action.

The logo/banner should feature a sexy frogwoman in black rubber/smoothskin….posing.

Complete with tank and single or double hose regulator.

A knife would be nice as well to underline the action part.

Or maybe a frogwoman in distress (perhaps air hose sliced?).

Or two frogwomen battling each other.

 

What do you get in return? Besides eternal glory… 😉

Well, if I choose your art:

I will credit the art here on the page with a link to your DA site…if you have one (or something similar).

You can include lettering (with your DA name for example) in the art as long it doesn’t get too big.

You then get one month or more for the VIP club on this site…..or…..a video (or more) from Project F for free. You can choose.

Don’t know how many will participate, but if make something I really like, but I like the art of someone else even better…..you will get something as well.

And I also could make a blog post here with my favorite designs…depending on the results of this post.

If you wanna participate and have any questions use the contact form on the About + contact site or the comment function.

More info on Project F:

Project F

 

*EDIT, October 19*

The search is over! Will present the results tomorrow!