BLANCHARD RYAN & DANIEL TRAVIS - OPEN WATER - Interview

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An American couple, Daniel (Daniel Travis) and Susan (Blanchard Ryan) go on an island holiday to get a break from their workaholic lifestyles. The morning after arriving, the loving and rested couple, certified scuba divers, board a local dive boat for an underwater tour of the reef. The boat is crowded with other vacationers, and due to a series of innocent miscommunications and a distracted crew, after approximately 40 minutes underwater, Daniel and Susan surface to find themselves accidentally left behind -- cold, alone and miles from land.

BEHIND THE SCENES:
Most of the film was shot in the Bahamas. A local shark expert introduced the cast and crew to a population of sharks off the coast that are used to people. Each day the tourists come to dive with these sharks and watch them being fed, a very popular tourist attraction. For the film, the shark experts and filmmakers would throw chunks of fish into the water near the actors to get the shots they needed. Even though the director was often swarmed with sharks, he felt completely safe. "In the water, with the camera, I'd be getting bumped constantly," says Chris Kentis. "There were times I'd look down, there would just be gray, no blue." The sharks, mostly gray reef sharks with a few bull sharks averaging seven to eleven feet in length, numbered between 45 and 50.