Tristan Howard
December 27th, 2007, 08:06 PM
Hi everyone,
Back in August I finished an hour long wildlife documentary: “The Wildlife of Little Hot Springs Valley.” I actually started shooting footage when I was 16 and I finished shooting and editing when I was 19. I did almost all the cinematography (over 95%), I recorded many of the sounds, and I did my own narrating and script writing. Anyway, I tried to be professional (music licensing, clean edits, etc.) and if it wasn’t for the input from the dvinfo.net community, I never would have been able to finish my film. So, I want to thank all the people who have helped me on the dvinfo forums.
At any rate, though I know this is kind of commercial, I thought some of you might enjoy checking out video clips from my documentary at this website: http://www.tristanhowardproductions.com/videoviewer1.html. I used much of the equipment that is talked about on the dvinfo forums. Also, in case anyone is wondering, I edited my project with Vegas 6.0 and also used that to render my MPG files. Below is some promotional material I wrote about my film.
“Nestled in a remote sector of northeastern California, roughly six miles northeast of the scenic Fall River Valley, Little Hot Springs Valley is home to a diverse array of wildlife. This video is the culmination of three years of my wildlife cinematography work. It showcases a seasonal cross-section of commonly observed local creatures, featuring unique close-ups and rare behavior, including: a Canada goose battle, an all-out buck fight, and a lizard devouring a dragonfly. You’ll see the brilliant iridescence of drake wood ducks, the antics of logrolling turtles, the bellowing of bullfrogs, the grandeur of autumn bucks, the freedom of frolicking fawns, and much more. Containing a narrative of various biological and ecological facts interwoven with digitally recorded natural sounds and music, this video strives to educate as well as entertain.
Currently, “The Wildlife of Little Hot Springs Valley” is the magnum opus of my natural history media work. I started getting footage for this video as early as the summer of 2004 when I got my first professional video camera: a Canon XL-1S. Virtually all the footage on my video was shot with this camcorder. For distant wildlife, I also often used a Canon EF 100-400 mm telephoto zoom lens or a Canon EF 28-300 mm telephoto zoom lens.”
Anyway, I’m still a college student and I haven’t really broken into the industry yet. I’m not fully sure on the rules here but I understand that if this seems like too much of an advertisement, the moderators might delete my post. Nevertheless, the internet video clips are free for all to see and should give some folks an idea of what things like Canon lenses and Gitzo carbon fiber tripods can do for wildlife cinematography. Also, the brutal buck fight footage was actually shot with one of my old, little silver Sony video cameras. That’s really the main footage that wasn’t done with an XL-1S. Anyway, if anybody has any questions or input, feel free to post your thoughts here.
Regards,
Tristan Howard
Back in August I finished an hour long wildlife documentary: “The Wildlife of Little Hot Springs Valley.” I actually started shooting footage when I was 16 and I finished shooting and editing when I was 19. I did almost all the cinematography (over 95%), I recorded many of the sounds, and I did my own narrating and script writing. Anyway, I tried to be professional (music licensing, clean edits, etc.) and if it wasn’t for the input from the dvinfo.net community, I never would have been able to finish my film. So, I want to thank all the people who have helped me on the dvinfo forums.
At any rate, though I know this is kind of commercial, I thought some of you might enjoy checking out video clips from my documentary at this website: http://www.tristanhowardproductions.com/videoviewer1.html. I used much of the equipment that is talked about on the dvinfo forums. Also, in case anyone is wondering, I edited my project with Vegas 6.0 and also used that to render my MPG files. Below is some promotional material I wrote about my film.
“Nestled in a remote sector of northeastern California, roughly six miles northeast of the scenic Fall River Valley, Little Hot Springs Valley is home to a diverse array of wildlife. This video is the culmination of three years of my wildlife cinematography work. It showcases a seasonal cross-section of commonly observed local creatures, featuring unique close-ups and rare behavior, including: a Canada goose battle, an all-out buck fight, and a lizard devouring a dragonfly. You’ll see the brilliant iridescence of drake wood ducks, the antics of logrolling turtles, the bellowing of bullfrogs, the grandeur of autumn bucks, the freedom of frolicking fawns, and much more. Containing a narrative of various biological and ecological facts interwoven with digitally recorded natural sounds and music, this video strives to educate as well as entertain.
Currently, “The Wildlife of Little Hot Springs Valley” is the magnum opus of my natural history media work. I started getting footage for this video as early as the summer of 2004 when I got my first professional video camera: a Canon XL-1S. Virtually all the footage on my video was shot with this camcorder. For distant wildlife, I also often used a Canon EF 100-400 mm telephoto zoom lens or a Canon EF 28-300 mm telephoto zoom lens.”
Anyway, I’m still a college student and I haven’t really broken into the industry yet. I’m not fully sure on the rules here but I understand that if this seems like too much of an advertisement, the moderators might delete my post. Nevertheless, the internet video clips are free for all to see and should give some folks an idea of what things like Canon lenses and Gitzo carbon fiber tripods can do for wildlife cinematography. Also, the brutal buck fight footage was actually shot with one of my old, little silver Sony video cameras. That’s really the main footage that wasn’t done with an XL-1S. Anyway, if anybody has any questions or input, feel free to post your thoughts here.
Regards,
Tristan Howard