My girlfriend and I decided to make the "Part of Our World" scene from Disney's The Little Mermaid but in real life, shot entirely underwater. Why you may ask? Because this year is The Little Mermaid's 30th anniversary.
It took us a whole month to train in public swimming pools, re-write the storyboard, craft the mermaid tail, practice every Ariel's move and learn how to shoot underwater with the right camera angles so that it would look as close to the original movie as possible.
We stayed more than 3 hours in a 23°C pool (at TODI's diver center in Belgium) to shoot the entire scene. There were 2500+ fish swimming around with us.
It was a challenging experience for both of us. My girlfriend (Lexie Mermaid), a professional mermaid performer, had to keep her eyes open, "sing" underwater and make every Ariel's move carrying a 20kg (44 pounds) tail; and I (filmmaker) never shot anything underwater or used a diving fin.
Happy 30th Birthday to The Little Mermaid by Disney!
The Youtube thumbnail
The tail for this project. Crafted by Lexie
Real-life VS Original movie
