Underwater cinematographer Dean Cropp sailed to where few dare to go for his latest film, Goddess
Not many people can say they’ve taken turns blowing bubbles with a humpback whale 250 times their size, but Dean Cropp, also known as the Barefoot Captain, has done just that – and it’s there for everyone to see in his latest underwater film, Goddess.
“There’s this crazy moment with this humpback whale where we were both diving down and I was just staying still,” Dean recalls. “And the whale would come up to me and I would blow bubbles, and he would blow bubbles.”
Dean, an underwater cinematographer, travelled to Middleton Reef north of Lord Howe Island on his 12-metre sailing catamaran to make the film. It’s the most southern coral reef system in the world, famous for shipwrecks. “I love going to places where people don’t go, or that are blurred out on Google Maps,” Dean says. “More people have been shipwrecked on that reef than have gone there on purpose.
Dean encounters underwater creatures in his film Goddess
“It’s probably got more sharks there than any other place I’ve known or seen in Australia and that’s why I love it,” the adventurer explains. “These giant whalers (whaler sharks) will come up to you, they’ve very inquisitive. We’ve had tiger sharks, whales, dolphins – and we see no people. I’ve only once ever been out there and seen another boat in the six or seven years I’ve been going there.”
Dean travels on adventures during winter, returning home in summer where he divides his time between an apartment in North Curl Curl, and a boat on Middle Harbour. During the warmer months he runs his successful Barefoot Charters business on Sydney Harbour. He started the business with one 12-metre long catamaran 11 years ago, and now runs three-boats.
Prior to his business taking off, Dean’s profession had been working in film and television on numerous shows. He was co-creator of former ABC 3’s Blue Zoo, director of photography on Netflix’s Earth at Night and even worked on 7plus series Home and Away. He has 25 years of cinematographer experience.
“My passion is to really go sailing and exploring,” he says. Adventure is nothing new to Dean. He grew up travelling with his father, a nature adventure documentary filmmaker. “A lot of times I’m just going out there to see what happens,” Dean adds.
Goddess was chosen as the premiere film at the Ocean Film Festival in March. It’s a documentary about love – specifically Dean’s love of the ocean. “Parallels between love in the real world and my love of the ocean brought me to the film I made,” Dean says.
He went through a relationship break-up during the making of the film, and started to question whether the reason he was ‘unlucky in love’ because his ‘first love has always been the ocean.’ “It’s hard for someone else to either get in between that or live up to that love I have of the ocean.”
For now, Dean will soon be wrapping up the summer charter season and heading off for more adventures.
“I’m kind of excited to be creative again and making Goddess, making something that really came from the heart. It makes me feel like I’ve got more interesting stuff to share,” Dean says.