Finally had a chance to get out the camera.....big fluffy snow flakes comin' down.....
By the time the camera was set up....snow had stopped....did get 6-7 minutes of a squirrel, up in a tree, laughin' at me...
Don't know what I'll do with it, but at least I got something....

Still thinkin'......

I'm with you Bob. Spent seven hours shooting today. Got about two minutes thirty seconds of nice footage.

I said "Nice footage" though.... Not "Adventurous footage."

I had an idea going last week but it hit a dead end due to seasonal constraints. Plan "B" didn't produce much today. Working on plan "C" for tomorrow.

quick, what letter comes after C again?

Hello!

Yes, - i'm still just a supporter of you, the uwolers. Sorry I'm not in. In fact I'm rather OUT. Really out. Running with those dogs all the time. And, as you may be know already, - my supervisor, mentor and genius videofilmmaker Per Johan is IN the contest, but he is OUT and absent all the time... Making great shooting, of course! I think he will be back today, - he spoke something about "...the Eagle has landed..." did he mean the space vehicle?

Well, - I whish all of you good luck with your filming and editing. I think I will remain as an uwol-supporter. Following all your Tales of Wonder and Woe!

i'm going ADVENTURING tomorrow. or, later this morning, i guess, since my ADVENTURE is triggering my insomnia...

...i'm pretty excited. i've been kicking around five or six ideas, and this one finally landed. running UWOL gives me less time than i would like to develop my ideas! so i usually have to come up with something that i can do in a day or two, so i'll be shooting today and tomorrow. here it comes!

just hope the weather cooperates....keeping my fingers crossed, it has been a rather unfriendly winter this year.

and eric, just a word of advice, i wouldn't over-interpret the theme...we're quite loose around here, unless you're in it for the faaaaaabulous prizes. any day that you're out shooting interesting stuff in the world is an adventure.

Well, I haven't got anything on tape yet, but on wednesday I'll be heading for the mountains together with my family and I guess I have to shoot my adventure then. My first uwol film outside "my" territory. Just want to mention that on my way to work today. I discovered snowdrops in a garden. The spring is on it's way but my adventure will be a winter theme, say no more :)

Wish everyone good luck.

Geir Inge

Carl,
Was that the timelapse idea that's scrapped for now?
Sounded like quite an undertaking but also sound very, very interesting as well. Hope you're able to shoot it sometime in the future!

Good luck with Plan "B" !

Aye, though it's definitely stuck in my mind. Darn huge undertaking that it would be. =D

Perhaps it would be more appropriate for a different UWOL, any which way. I have a feeling it'll get done one way or another. :D The technical details had me and the video guru I work with/for (with 20+ years in broadcast, and film) bouncing around going "Well WHAT if you!...." and trying to piece it together. We stopped and talked about this project for at least 12 hours over 5 days when I was sitting in front of FCP and supposed to be editing corporate stuff. =D Shoot me an e-mail and I'll tell ya what the subject was, as it's the main hurdle. Still don't want to spread it around, in case Meryem throws and appropriate theme for that next time. :) Gotta be a surprise! It's definitely a brain teaser though.

Plan B involves roughly 1 1/2 hrs of battery power, 1 Z1U, half a day of sunny skies and a steadicam that I am horrid with. There's my adventure - to try not to suck with a steadicam, in the middle of nowheres. We shall see. =D

C

Good Morning,

Well, it is a scant -26 this morning and -40 out in the prairie air!! Uggg.

good news, Not as cold as Brian!!!!


I have assembled my 2:59s video. Burnt a rough and watched it on the big screen. I will haver to go back and reshoot a couple shots for sure.

I shot the entire sequence with my gl2 not the xl2.

I had composed some music, played it and then resynthesized it in audition. I was very pleased with it but found it doesn't fit the mood!!!


Ironicly, both my cameras need to go out for repairs after this one!!!


still some refining to do!!

Good Morning,

Well, it is a scant -26 this morning and -40 out in the prairie air!! Uggg.



OK...that makes me feel better :)

Yesterday it was 32º F when I was outside shooting....this morining -4º F....
No chance during the week as the sun is going down by the time I get home...
So maybe another chance next weekend, the 10 day says high 20s....

We've got -6 temps here with a blowing and drifting snow advisory and a windchill warning but I'm going out in a bit anyway since it's actually sunny for the first time since the challenge started. :)

The forecast looks like more snow and dreary skies all week.

just got back from my first round of adventuring...pretty cool! i think i got some decent footy, very interesting and unique, i hope. another day of good weather and cooperative prairie wildlife and i should have it in the can and ready to edit. reliable weather, hm, that's asking for a lot lately!

Well, as Anne-Kari correctly stated earlier - the Eagle has landed!

I'm back from one of the most exciting journey a wildlife photographer can experience. I was able to get real stunning footage of one of the most wild and shy creature we have in Norway - the Golden Eagle.

The footage was shoot in one of the most wild area of our country, hours and hours of waiting for this beautiful bird of prey was at last successfully.
I'm very happy now, this has been a real ADVENTURE and I can promise you some really, really exciting scenes!

Pictures below, show some screen capture of the Golden Eagle, to the right from a distance of approx. 15 meters the Golden Eagle and it's pray!
Left picture show the Golden Eagle in an amazing morning light, that momement was like being into a fairy-tale!

Well, I'm back!

Woe -
Around 6 hours in a state park with a steadicam J R. My arm is in pain. All batteries are dead, and my AC is on location. I stopped by my boss' house to swap batteries, and he handed me another dead one. Grr.

I get back to the house, my borrowed steadicam breaks, again. This time, a pin comes out of the gimbal! An hour later, relocated and replaced. (Earlier, a snap-into-place thingie broke on the counterbalance, so it no longer locks in fully-engaged mode.) I'll explain this to him AFTER our early-morning shoot tomorrow.

Wonder-
But, I've got some footage for you guys! I hope, seeing as how I CAN'T LOOK AT IT. Argh. :) Also, some pretty cool pictures, which I will send a link to. I really should start a flickr account. Maybe I'll do that tonight.

C

A guy who had an acting part in a previous project was intrigued with the idea I had for this one, so Thursday (4 days ago) we did some short test sequences to try some ideas out, and the next day put in all afternoon on a small (very small) mountainside.

(OK...It was a very little mountain, but at my age it doesn't take much.)

Footing was very loose rock, leveling the tripod was almost impossible and even working with a very light weight tripod was...Well...A bit of an adventure in itself.

Shot about 25 minutes of tape and as of now I'm 8 seconds over and looking to begin chopping 1 second off of some clips to get it down a bit.

A bit more work on smoothing out the music score and the serious work of compression begins. Biggest hurdle there is that Windows Vista "broke" my workflow. I've been rendering to an HD MPEG4 and converting that to .mov with QT pro and Vista makes QT choke and die on MP4.

So I'll have to move that part of the process over to an older machine with XP.

But...I'm close..."Vision Quest", opening at a UWOLchallenge.com theatre close to you soon.

Hi Per,

Can't wait to see your entry - I am a big fan of birds of prey and can really appreciate your excitement at capturing this footage.

I'm sure it will be absolutely breathtaking - knowing your standards.

Wonder AND Woe, thoughts of the day...

I hiked 14 miles with 60lbs of gear strapped to my back today - and my back's been broken in seven places.

I drove to a place 60 miles from where I've lived for four years now - yet I'd never been to before.

I stayed two breaths from anaerobic for two hours straight - yet I never realized I was working out.

I learned why a particular bird has a particularly long beak - just by watching him through the glass.

I turned back for three shots I never would have turned back for before - once even from ten minutes out.

I realized I'm nuts, all by myself - and then I laughed out loud.


Sure glad I finally gathered the courage to join YouWoll...

I learned that my little camcorder's lens stinks at full zoom when I captured some really fuzzy footage of a coyote hunting right near my house. I learned that my cheap tripod is very inadequate. And I learned that there are more different kinds of critters living near me than I realized, until I went out and really started looking at them! Someday I'll save for a new camera and tripod but for now I'll keep using what I've got. More importantly, I'll keep looking at what's crawling/flying/walking near me, keep looking & learning; maybe I'll get something useable!

Hey Eric,

Yep, there definately the symptoms all right - UWOL captures yet another victim!

Great shot - looks like your ADVENTURE is well underway.

My weekend trip has been cancelled, so I'm now starting to think of a plan B.

Looking forward to seeing your entry.

All the best and keep laughing...

wow Per....great, great stuff ! I still haven't had the pleasure of seeing one of these amazing birds and I've wanted to for a long time. Loooking forward to your footage fella!

And I learned that there are more different kinds of critters living near me than I realized, until I went out and really started looking at them! . . . . More importantly, I'll keep looking at what's crawling/flying/walking near me, keep looking & learning; maybe I'll get something useable!

That's an awesome attitude to have! It's amazing when you first realize what is around us, that we as a people ignore every day... I've heard it said more than once that cinematography is the art of looking, really LOOKING at what is in front of you. :)

Hello All:

I survived, did a count on fingers and toes all are accounted for. The images are on tape if there any good well that remains to be seen....hell is it even an adventure I'm not sure but we had fun pulling it all together. It was a two camera shoot so it will be fun to cut from one to the other and so on.

I'll start the edit tonight.....that is if I have anything worth editing.

Trond thanks for the link to the camera cover...it's now on my wish list.

Brian

And I learned that there are more different kinds of critters living near me than I realized, until I went out and really started looking at them!

transforming the way you see the world...this is the very essence of shooting nature and outdoors. even without my camera locked to my eyeballs, just when i'm out walking through the world, i see things that used to pass by unnoticed by me...i see more birds, notice more plants, am aware of more animals, and observe more insects. my experience of the world has been expanded and enriched because my camera taught me to see.

per, those are great shots, can't wait to see your video. there's golden eagles about 5 miles from my house, but every time they see me trotting around the open space with my camera, they flee. in fact, just this weekend, i missed shots of a kestrel and a hawk as well. i have some footage of all of these birds, but nothing that i would call *good* footage. it does take more patience than i have (or more time, i guess...), to shoot great bird footy....

per, those are great shots, can't wait to see your video. there's golden eagles about 5 miles from my house, but every time they see me trotting around the open space with my camera, they flee. in fact, just this weekend, i missed shots of a kestrel and a hawk as well. i have some footage of all of these birds, but nothing that i would call *good* footage. it does take more patience than i have (or more time, i guess...), to shoot great bird footy....
Patience is one of the most important thing you need in wildlifefilming. These shoots was only possible by waiting for approx. 8 hours, then if you was lucky maybe 15 minutes of footage.
The smallest move with your body making noise or any fast movement with your lens and your baby are gone long before you hit the record button. And no more action for a day or two!
I think I wasn't breathing for several minutes when that eagle was sitting only 15 meters in front of me. He looked right into my lens and with my huge focal lenght I was almost immobilized when he was glancing at me!

hi Per

Realy nice photo,if it have some interess some photo from my cottage
last spring.Same eagel you see on NRK brodcast 3 week ago.
A good locacion tips Per.

VJV.

I just realized, that I have prioritized UWOL over moving this coming weekend.

I realized this after I told a friend I planned to edit evenings through the week, then hopefully finish with a good go on Saturday. Sunday I would throw all my belongings in boxes, move, and unpack, probably in a 6 hour window. =D That way, I would have time to pass an EDL and my files to the Macpro at work and do some finetuning in Color. =D

Here's to the UWOL Challenge. Worth living out of boxes for!

Patience is one of the most important thing you need in wildlifefilming.

Raising a 7 year old is not conducive to patience and 8 hour waits...buy maybe in another 11 or 12 years or so....

Carl, that's a funny story...glad to see that you have your priorities straight! Another addict succumbs, mwahahaha....

Meryem, wait till you get into the teens. You think your patience are at their limits now?

Well this is fun, I'm well into editing now, but can't seem to drop it under 3m 8s. Also, there are of course a couple shots I wish I could get my "actor" to repeat and that's not going to happen. Ohh well, I'll make the best short out of it I can, at least the fun isn't lacking.

Some of the nature stills that get put up are breathtaking, I wish I lived in an area more suited to that type of shooting. I have the beach here and no water gear to play with so I stayed close to home for this one.

Good going Adrinn.I dont even have a plan yet....Oh well ,will get off my butt and get out later this week.In all the other challenges I competed in I had completed filming and editing within a few days.Think I need to put work off for a bit and get out and play with my camera again

Hi all,
Well my plan A has totally fallen off the rails. Now i need to go with plan B. I will be flying out of Melbourne Australia in about 14 hours from now, heading for Canada. Sure will be an adventure! Just hope i can put something together before the deadline. Sounds like some others have got their act together & still others like me have some catching up to do!
Good luck to all,
Bryce

Hi Bryce, sorry to hear about your plan A failed, but I'm sure your plan B will be great and Canada is a great country for wildlife filming.
Today I've packed my bags and we're ready to go on our winter hollidays in the mountains. It will be a great experience and something diffeent from what I'm used to - living by the sea. But I'm worried about the weather though, promissing heavy snowstorms, but there may be a slight stop in the snowfall on friday. At home it's +10C, in the mountains -10C. Never the less, here we go from the shore on to the mountains and close to the area where Pers Musk Ox live :) That'll be an adventure in it self.

Geir Inge

Wow Geir,
That sounds awsome! From Sea to Summit. Sounds like Per Johan's round 1 entry don't you think? I've been to Canada once before for my friends wedding but that was in Summer. Then there was lots of wildlife around, not sure what i will see in winter yet, suffice to say, i'll be out there looking for it that's for sure! Hope your trip goes well, & that you have a nice time with your family.

All the best,

Bryce

...Never the less, here we go from the shore on to the mountains and close to the area where Pers Musk Ox live :) That'll be an adventure in it self.

Geir Inge
Geir Inge,
how exciting to know that you maybe will get some shoots of the muskox!? I'll cross my fingers for you. The weather in those mountains often change very rapidly so take care!

Well, as you might have guessed my entry for this round will be about the Golden Eagle. All footage of this majestic bird of prey is on my computer, lucky me!
I need to shoot some more to make up my story, which I gonna do this weekend.
Good luck to everybody!

Per: This is sounding like an awe inspiring entry! Mat is very jealous indeed :-) I may well have a bird of prey entry myself but thats all I'll say for now ;-) !

Per,

Great pictures of one of my favorite raptors. My entry has an old Hagard Golden coming in to rob/kill a falcon of its kill, but we managed to move it off before killing the falcon, so I included it in my story.

I have it edited down to 2:59 seconds of mostly continious action. Now I have to decide if I want to run a narative with it!!!

This round has been great as I have been able to do what I like doing best.

Being we have such a short window it may not be my best footage, but it will tell the story, and it assuredly is an adventure.



dale

Blimey, is this Golden Eagle month or something......fab stuff guys !

Hello Anne Kari!

Not submitting this round? Are you sure? Hang in there friend. Meryem wooed us into thinking that the first theme would ease us in a bit, but as it turns out, even though we are all out there having great adventure.... adventure as a theme is kind of tough to get your arms around in a 3-min film. It sounds like Per is back, and what a beautiful adventure he has under his belt! Perhaps with all of his good fortune he will be in a good mood and happy to support you a little in getting something in? Just something to get your feet wet? Meryem will be delighted as will the rest of us. It could be a works in progress.... or part of an idea or inspiration. The UWOL gang loves to give feedback and will give you a shot in the arm for the next go around. Either way hang tough and get used to that camera! We need to be doers not watchers in the UWOL community!

All the best,

Cat

May as well post my wonder and woe while I'm at it ...

This time, the woe and wonder go hand in hand! My woe is that I shot this movie with both a concussion and the flu. It was a real hoot, but it would have been an all out crow if I had felt better. I've discovered that to be up for "saving planet earth" you need to be in good health (wink, wink).

The wonder of it all is that I somehow I made it through in one piece and will get something in. It's complete, but I'm sitting on it for a day or so to keep a promise to Mat and Kevin that I'm attempting to turn over a new leaf in 2008 and not have those pesky tweaked re-loaded versions for them to sort out. It just goes to show that we don't always have to be on the couch licking our wounds.... sometime when the chips are down, we do have the resources to get out there and do something!

Looking forward to EVERYONE'S FILM!

Cato

P.S. Interesting weather for shooting this round huh Meryem? And as per your request, the farm isn't in sight on this one! Well, mostly anyway!

I am heading into the shark tank. Without Disney involved, I can't come up with an adventure themed video that doesn't require some sort of story or narrative of some kind. "Adventure" has left me without a clue.

We have lots of Turkey Buzzards and Hawks that hang out in my community. With a decent breeze they like to just hang out over the golf course, probably waiting for some of the older golfers to die of frustration so they can pick the bones clean.

I know there is a story line in there somewhere, but I can't come up with one.

I just came back from my adventure. I met up with one of my best friend and we drove south of Stockholm (capital of Sweden). We finally arrived at a broken bedrock ridge that has created big and small cave systems, some of them are flooded and this is where my adventure begins. Tomorrow I’ll edit up the video and record the VO.

looking forward too all of yours videos... and Steven, do you got a dog our something that you can create a story around, exploring the backyard or some thing...good luck.

Hi Steven:

A bit confused... what's wrong with requiring a story or narrative? Shoot (with film that is) those buzzards over the golf course..... sounds like an adventure to me....

Cat

Shoot (with film that is) those buzzards over the golf course..... sounds like an adventure to me....

Especially if they just found themselves one of your golfers you mentioned, Steven! CSI will even be there! Make sure to get some video of those Hummer H2's they apparently drive around in here in FL. ;)

aw, man! no disney world?? dang!

that was the cornerstone of our whole "our world, your vision" diversity program!

while the rest of us are trotting the globe in search of nature's exotica, we could always count on a trip to disney world at the end of this thing. what a letdown!

and Cat, glad to see you weren't sucked into a giant snowbank or blown away by the 80 mph winds!

of course, it's hard to beat Brian for the Nasty Weather prize, but it has not been easy shooting in these parts lately....

Ya...who!....On the way home today I had an idea....
Did some research after work...and it might work....
There's somethin' special just a few miles from my house and if the weather is good this weekend....I...might...just....have...somethin'....

At least there is hope.... :)

Go for it Bob! I'm all for hope. Hope is a wonderful, powerful thing.

Cat

My last two UWOL shooting trips found me in glorious places, but blindingly soaked in pea soup fog. I had the location right, but I got the timing all wrong. So today I tried again, only this time I headed south instead - and again to a place I had never been before. No need to leave at 5am like I did though - When I got there I was surrounded yet again, by fog. You'd think I was shooting in England...

I'm still not sure exactly how this will be an adventure on tape, but it sure has been one to shoot.

Glad everyone seems to be doing well. I'm still struggling, but getting better by the hour.

So nice to see you back Cat. Hope you didn’t go through too much trauma to get that concussion and hope you are feeling a lot better now.

My wife and I were looking at Per's picture of the eagle eating the fox and I called out to my 11 year old son Arran, "Hey Arran, come and have a look at what Per's filming for UWOL 7" (my son knows who I mean when I say Per). He looked at the picture and said "Dad, don't worry about filming UWOL this time - as your wasting your time". I quickly reminded him that winning wasn't everything, and he just grinned in sympathy as he patted my back. My wife and I just looked at each other and laughed.

LOL, that was the best story I have heard for a long time :-)))))
David, tell your son which I think is a BIG fan of me, that I have to come and visit him one day!
But, you must also tell him to have more faith to his own father!!! And there is much more to get a decent film than just a razor sharp and stunning footage. Think I'm struggling a bit to get my story through!

Hi Marj:

On the mend! I think all I need now is a good South African adventure to push me to a full recovery. Looking forward to what you've cooked up for us!

David:

Too funny! Tell Arron that his dad has wowed us many a time with his entries, right along with Per, and UWOL just wouldn't be what it is without him!

We are getting close now.... I'm starting to feel that craving to submerge myself in UWOL film and adventure!

Cat

I'm still not sure exactly how this will be an adventure on tape, but it sure has been one to shoot.


well, i'm glad to see that someone is finally getting the point!

i'm editing a bit this morning. still need footage, but i won't be getting what i need in this current snowstorm, bah...no time yesterday and it was 65 degrees, lots of time this morning, and it's dumping again. grrrrrr...

buck up, david, you've made some awesome stuff....the interesting thing this year will be to see if UWOL can crown its first-ever 2-time winner. should be tough for everyone, there's some serious contenders joining the fray, i'm betting! besides, our kids are always the last people on the planet to appreciate how remarkably talented we are...