Geir Inge, lucky you! I'm at work this weekend, but next week I'm off duty, ready for some close contact to bird of prey!

Have a nice trip!

Mike, great shot of the bald eagle. Last weekend I was at Lake Gunterville State Park in northeastern Alabama and videoed a few bald eagles but nothing as beautiful as yours.

My entry will revolve around the different wildlife found on the Galapogos Islands. I hope to show how tourism can effect wildlife on these remote Islands. I will be spending 11 days there in May/Jun 09. I think my Feb entry will be an introduction of myself packing and getting ready to fly to Peru to tour Machu Picchu for 6 days and then to the Galapagos for 11 days of videoing. This is going to be fun. Bob

Nice footage Mike.

I like the diverse set of ideas people are exploring here. Sound like a few people are planning on some productive adventures away.

I was somewhat tempted to go and film the bushfires we just had a few miles away. Could have done the video on fire and it's effects on the environment - regrowth, or lack thereof in some places. But I don't know how close I'd be able get, or when we'd get more fires to film additional footage, and I'd probably come under suspicion given that there seems to be an arsonist around. Plus with temps up to 45 Celsius I don't know how much my camera likes sweat dripping everywhere. I think I'll stick with snow - although we could just as likely get very little of that this winter. Maybe by mid July.

Just a thought. If we aren't using previous UWOL footage, but have some footage from before this year that pertains to our current topic, can we use some of that for our first submission? Eg. I have some skiing footage from a couple of years ago, can I use a few seconds of that? It will be all new stuff in the final piece.

Thank you all for your kind comments.

Per Johan, I do not know what to tell you, I have tested it on win and mac and you are the only one net getting it.

I am using qt 7 for the film.


Have a great day

Hi Mike,
I was able to view it after downloading Opera Browser to my PC!
Wow, the Bald Eagle shoot was beautiful, real nice to view the slow motion. Was this done with EX-1 or 3 with overcrank 60 fps?

Per Johan,

Thank you for your comments,

Camera was a pan HVX 200 720p24PN overcranck a 60fps normal lense used a blind on the on the bank near the ice flows.

Thanks again and have a great day.

I just got back from my first excursion for this project. The area I’m working is a ten hour drive west from here- about halfway across the state. My fears about winter shooting and continuity problems proved unfounded. In the desert, at least, everything is still pretty green. It’s been a wet winter and there hasn’t been a killing freeze (yet!). Not so in the mountains. Daytime highs while I was there averaged 86°F in the desert and 72° in the mountains with lows of 44° and 36° respectively. I came back with more footage than I expected and shouldn’t have any problem coming up with three minutes. I hope things are going as smoothly for everyone else. We don’t want to lose anyone at the first hurdle.

On my way back from Africa. After this trip, I';m seriously thinking about changing the subject of my long form project. Now I need something that will work with Africa and Iowa. What a combo!!! :)

Been up for 50 hours straight so far. Will be over 60 by the time I'm done. I can hardly see straight!!!

Got my first footage. Realised that too much of training idea would be indoors. So I'm going with fires and their effects on the environment. I only had to walk 100m from my house to get some.

It peaked at 44 C (~110 F), with strong winds, and some little *$!@ lit a fire, which has taken off. So I'm still in the process of preparing the house for ember attack incase the weather turns on us. Time for a cold drink, then I might grab some photos if it's still favourable conditions - not heading our way.
15 trucks and at least 3 helicopters. Plus we have huge fires towards Melbourne with major road blocks. I want to get some more close up shots, but I'll wait till we're not under threat and it's safer to get somewhere near it. But I'll have to check on where I can go, if I need permission. I'm trained (although they lost my paperwork). But I can definitely get stuff on rehab areas. Plenty of past burnt areas to visit.

My friends back in NZ ( where I am orginally from ) say the fires are doing intense things to the night sky there. Have you checked out the google earth images, might be rad to include some how.

jen

Back from a beautiful trip where I did recording of raptors. Fortunately we have several places in Norway, where it's possible to get in real close contact with them.

My friend Ole Arne and me spent 2 two days on this beautiful place. The scattered light at dawn enhanced the great colors of this birds very nice.

Stay tuned for some real nice footage for part 1 of the long-form-uwol next week!

Attached:
- White Tailed Eagle - the largest bird of prey in Norway
- Goshawk female

okay so i am having a wee bit of a panic. well actually I am not panicing just curious... would it be a completely bad thing if my first set of footage doesn't contain any wild life?

Okay i know i know this is the wildlife competition ! BUT I am aiming to produce something for children that uses a book as a means to edutain. I am using graphics and effects reasonably heavily so my first set of footage is more of a moving storyboard .

Is that going to be acceptable?

Hi Jennie,
It doesn't matter what kind of material you're presenting in this first round of the challenge! Anything, drafts, talking head, storyboarding - etc... will do

This first presentation will not be held for any judging. You just have to show that you are doing something and that you're still are working, progressing for the final film which are of deadline the week November 15. this year.

I believe there is many players out there, which have not started yet with any filming. So relax Jennie, remember rule #11 - first of all have fun!

okay so i am having a wee bit of a panic. well actually I am not panicing just curious... would it be a completely bad thing if my first set of footage doesn't contain any wild life?

Is that going to be acceptable?

Just to reinforce what Per so clearly stated...

your footage doesn't have to contain any wildlife...it can be interviews, fx, whatever....heck, you could shoot yourself unboxing your new camera and flipping through the manual...as long as your footage contributes to the forward motion of your project. that's all we are looking for, and you won't be judged until the end of the contest. the rest is just keeping up, working on your idea, making progress. you can't leave a project like this until the last minute, its magnitude is too large.

but it's your project...you decide the content, we crack the whip.

and to the players...i will be getting some instructions out to you soon -- i'm preoccupied right now, because my best friend and shooting partner, best dog Violet (some of you know her from her cameos in my films...) is in her last days, and i'm having some tough personal times, at the moment....

Hey Meryem, please give a shout out if you need a hand in lightening the load, I'm sure there's a number of us here who'd be glad to muck in if needed ;-)

I'm not sure where to post this so i'll try this tread.

I signed up for the uwol long form contest but since then i have started working fulltime as a production assistant in one of the longest running norwegian tv-series, so im out of time to keep up with the uwol long form contest. The hours on set is to long to do the uwol at the same time!

I therefore withdraw from the longform.
I'll probably join the short uwols instead if i have some time to spare!
Good luck to everybody!

Per Johan,

Ahhhh, my favorite subject!!! Are those Frame grabs??? They are beautiful and the shallow depth of field emphesizes the subject so well!!!! The goshawk was obviously eating something, eh?

I am assembling some clips of falcons flying that may be used in the winter segment of mine.

hope to get out again this week to shoot some gyrfalcon footage.

Here are a couple shots from one of out shoots

Dale, wow! Are you showing a mid air strike here!!!? What kind of wretched species was hit? Looks like a grouse or something similar to me!
Can't wait to view your footage

Regarding the goshawk, you have to bait it to get in close contact with it. This is a hard to reach species, very shy. The favorite bait was a crow. I will show you some real nice and not so often seen situations of how it prepare and eat the crow in the film

BTW - pics was frame grabs.

stay tuned!

Sorry for dual posting, gateway timeout!

Per,

This particular shoot was a wild rooster pheasant. I also have footage of Grouse too.

It has been real hard filming this winter due to unrelentless winds and cold of course.

As per Tronde's suggestion I did acquire a polar mitten for the camera!! Most of the shooting has been out in exposed air, no blinds to help!! Will be doing another shoot this weekend and hope to get a gyrfalcon in action.

Great pics Per and Dale. Looking forward to see your videos.
Well, way up here on the mid west coast of Norway, the snow finally came last night.
I think that is a little too late in season, as the birds are starting to mate and I have seen the first Primrose this year. "My" White-taled Eagle couple has fixed on their nest and I'm anxious to see if there's gonna be chicks this year.
I had plans for this weekend, but all the snow makes me change them. That's part of being a wildlife film maker I guess :)
OK, my 3 min video is ready to be uploaded and it will be something different from my other uwol videos, and is not to be a part of my final Long Form video. This is just to tell, or rather show my locations for my Uwol LF 2009 video. I will make a link to it later, next week.

Geir Inge

Marj... I'd like to hear a little about your animation. In a perfect world my film would include some (plate tectonics and sedimentation and other geology kind of stuff) but I think that IS biting off too much for me right now.

Hi Chris:

Maybe not! I've stepped away for a bit from the forum and am just now skimming through people's posts. My husband has his own business called Computer Terrain Mapping, Inc computer terrain mapping home page (http://www.ctmap.com) and he is really good at geographic animations. My February entry will almost be exclusively an animation he has generated to help me visually describe the layout of the Rocky Mountain National Park region, the topic that I have chosen for my project. If you visit his web site and view his animation samples and like what you see, perhaps we can help you out in your tectonic animation? I don't know for sure, but it's worth trying out if you are interested. Keep in touch on this. This is the fun part about this forum! We can co-work with each other whenever the circumstances fit!

Cat

Marj... I'd like to hear a little about your animation. In a perfect world my film would include some (plate tectonics and sedimentation and other geology kind of stuff) but I think that IS biting off too much for me right now.

Hi Chris:

Maybe not! I've stepped away for a bit from the forum and am just now skimming through people's posts. My husband has his own business called Computer Terrain Mapping, Inc computer terrain mapping home page (http://www.ctmap.com) and he is really good at geographic animations. My February entry will almost be exclusively an animation he has generated to help me visually describe the layout of the Rocky Mountain National Park region, the topic that I have chosen for my project. If you visit his web site and view his animation samples and like what you see, perhaps we can help you out in your tectonic animation? I don't know for sure, but it's worth trying out if you are interested. Keep in touch on this. This is the fun part about this forum! We can co-work with each other whenever the circumstances fit!

Cat

Marj... I'd like to hear a little about your animation. In a perfect world my film would include some (plate tectonics and sedimentation and other geology kind of stuff) but I think that IS biting off too much for me right now.

Hi Chris:

Maybe not! I've stepped away for a bit from the forum and am just now skimming through people's posts. My husband has his own business called Computer Terrain Mapping, Inc computer terrain mapping home page (http://www.ctmap.com) and he is really good at geographic animations. My February entry will almost be exclusively an animation he has generated to help me visually describe the layout of the Rocky Mountain National Park region, the topic that I have chosen for my project. If you visit his web site and view his animation samples and like what you see, perhaps we can help you out in your tectonic animation? I don't know for sure, but it's worth trying out if you are interested. Keep in touch on this. This is the fun part about this forum! We can co-work with each other whenever the circumstances fit!

Cat

Marj... I'd like to hear a little about your animation. In a perfect world my film would include some (plate tectonics and sedimentation and other geology kind of stuff) but I think that IS biting off too much for me right now.

Hi Chris:

Maybe not! I've stepped away for a bit from the forum and am just now skimming through people's posts. My husband has his own business called Computer Terrain Mapping, Inc computer terrain mapping home page (http://www.ctmap.com) and he is really good at geographic animations. My February entry will almost be exclusively an animation he has generated to help me visually describe the layout of the Rocky Mountain National Park region, the topic that I have chosen for my project. If you visit his web site and view his animation samples and like what you see, perhaps we can help you out in your tectonic animation? I don't know for sure, but it's worth trying out if you are interested. Keep in touch on this. This is the fun part about this forum! We can co-work with each other whenever the circumstances fit!

Cat

p.s. Thank you for your gracious offer to host me in Montana if I were going with the Bison theme. Now that would be the place to go and film Buffalo!

Marj... I'd like to hear a little about your animation. In a perfect world my film would include some (plate tectonics and sedimentation and other geology kind of stuff) but I think that IS biting off too much for me right now.

Hi Chris:

Maybe not! I've stepped away for a bit from the forum and am just now skimming through people's posts. My husband has his own business called Computer Terrain Mapping, Inc computer terrain mapping home page (http://www.ctmap.com) and he is really good at geographic animations. My February entry will almost be exclusively an animation he has generated to help me visually describe the layout of the Rocky Mountain National Park region, the topic that I have chosen for my project. If you visit his web site and view his animation samples and like what you see, perhaps we can help you out in your tectonic animation? I don't know for sure, but it's worth trying out if you are interested. Keep in touch on this. This is the fun part about this forum! We can co-work with each other whenever the circumstances fit!

Cat

p.s. Thank you for your gracious offer to host me in Montana if I were going with the Bison theme. Now that would be the place to go and film Buffalo!

Marj... I'd like to hear a little about your animation. In a perfect world my film would include some (plate tectonics and sedimentation and other geology kind of stuff) but I think that IS biting off too much for me right now.

Hi Chris:

Maybe not! I've stepped away for a bit from the forum and am just now skimming through people's posts. My husband has his own business called Computer Terrain Mapping, Inc computer terrain mapping home page (http://www.ctmap.com) and he is really good at geographic animations. My February entry will almost be exclusively an animation he has generated to help me visually describe the layout of the Rocky Mountain National Park region, the topic that I have chosen for my project. If you visit his web site and view his animation samples and like what you see, perhaps we can help you out in your tectonic animation? I don't know for sure, but it's worth trying out if you are interested. Keep in touch on this. This is the fun part about this forum! We can co-work with each other whenever the circumstances fit!

Cat

p.s. Thank you for your gracious offer to host me in Montana if I were going with the Bison theme. Now that would be the place to go and film Buffalo!

oopppps.....Cat you spammer you ;-) !

You caught me Mat! I apologize all, for posting that twice!! I was having trouble uploading comments and I didn't even know that it uploaded at all much less twice!

Now, I was wondering.... since this is an international forum, should we all use the same numeric system, such as meters and kilometers instead of feet and miles?

Just wondering...

Cat

Now, I was wondering.... since this is an international forum, should we all use the same numeric system, such as meters and kilometers instead of feet and miles?I think this is a brilliant idea Cat!
Then we all speak the same language, and what about temperature, celsius better than fahrenheit?

EDIT: I know there are lots of free converters out there, for those who have to convert...

Good afternon,


Having grown up in the imperial world of feet/etc. Moved to the SI world, I must say that celsius is a better system.

A few key points.

0 Celsisus = 32 f Freezing obviously

28 c equals 82 f

-18 c equals 0 f


Celsius to Fahrenheit:


-40 C equals -40 f

Colder than that Who cares!!


Celsius= (F temp -32) x .555

To do in you head subtract 32 from farenheit temp the multiply that by 5 and then divide by 9, pretty easy really.

To do in you head subtract 32 from farenheit temp the multiply that by 5 and then divide by 9, pretty easy really.

Speak for yourself Dale! I had a career in the atmospheric sciences at NOAA for 16 years and I never was able to convert in my head that readily!

O.K., if both Per and Dale have bought in, then I'm sold. I'll do everything metric and Celsius and conform to the rest of the world (like we should have done a long time ago!).

Cat

Try getting stuck between the two.

We have distances and speed in miles, weights in a mixture of kilo's and pounds, likewise measurements in inches and cm's still......

Still, in another few months sterling will be parity with dollars and euros!!! That's a bit easier to figure!

We've had plenty of snow the past days and this morning I tried to film some of the little birds on our feeder. Then suddenly a little mouse came jumping out from no where. I didn't managed to get it on tape, but I figured that maybe it was out to get some of the food on the feeder :) My camera was placed in the living room, where we do have a slide (?) door out to our terrace where the feeder is placed. Then as sudden as the mouse came out from no where, there was an ermine (short-tailed weasel or stoat). I tried to film it, best I could but is was fast and I couldn't get it in to focus. Then it dissapeared for a while and after a few seconds it came out from under our terrace with the mouse in it's mouth. I'm not sure if I can use it in my long form video, but it sure made my day :)
Two screenshots and a videoclip from the start of my Valentines day.

ermine-stoat (http://home.tussa.com/gibb/gibbfilms/royskatt1.wmv)

Geir Inge

Very nice footage of the weasel/stoat. Not an easy subject to film!

I'm at work this weekend, but of duty next week. Out in the wild for a whole week, can life be better :-)

What a cutie Geir !!!.....well at least until he has the mouse in his jaws! The stoats and weasels certainly are powerful hunters contary to their size and looks.

Great stuff

Thank you Per and Mat.
Well, I live on an island and in fact I didn't know we had stoats living next door, and I've been living here for 16 years know.
Now my aim is to search for it's lair, maybe I'll catch it's family on tape :)
We do have a little forrest/wood of spruce (fir) near by, maybe in there somewhere?
Today the rain set in and I had plans for a tour, country cross skiing - no chance :(

Geir Inge

Geir,

What a wonderful bit of footage!!! Great when things happen like that!!

Well, we were out for the most part of all day yesterday shooting footage. It was about -20 with no wind for a change. Had my polar bear on the camera and boy does that make a difference!!!

With the high humitdty there were ice crystals in the air and that made the auto focus not have a clue!!! The manual was not much better as the image in the view finder looked slightly foggy!!! The falcon I did get a bit of was white on the underside and that with a pale blue sky that was foggy was grim.

I did get some people footage that may be useful, for the most part a full day and a tank of gas down the drain!!

Great stoat shots their Geir Inge!

Here is a video that was on the bbc website last week - a stoat "going mad" in the snow that we had!!
BBC NEWS | UK | Snow-crazed stoat 'goes berserk' (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7875271.stm)

Has anyone received instructions on posting the Feb update for the long form? Were am I supposed to post my storyboard? Bob

Hi Bob - Meryem needs a little time at the moment. Myself and Kevin are sorting something for the long-form. Most probably a new page on the website.

What format is your storyboard?

Mat

I was going to write it out as a narrative. It deals with a video trip I am planning on doing in late May/early Jun.

I think you miss-understood fella. I meant What file format ? - This is not somethig we've thought about really but I guess if everyone sticks to .rtf or a .doc then everyone will be able to read things ok.

Mat

Hi Bob: You will load these through the feedback thread uploader, which allows document and picture uploads. DVinfo has its own uploading option. Just be sure that your attached docs are in the following formats:

Valid file extensions: bbp bmp chf cpf doc gif jpe jpeg jpg mov mpg pdf png psd scn suf tif tiff txt veg wav wma wmv wmx xls zip

Look under the thread window and you'll see these prompts...some of you may not have ever used the DVinfo uploader, now is your chance.

Full advice in your email...

I have tried to upload my film from "Microsoft Explorer", "Mozilla Firefox" and "Safari".
It fails all the time.

I select “Upload my entry” at www.uwolchallenge.com.
I pick my file “Faale_Straholmen_UWOLLongForm.mp4”.
I am pressing “Upload File” button.
The status window appears and displays following script:

#!/usr/bin/perl
### XUpload v2.6
### SibSoft.net (18 Jan 2007)
use strict;
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);
use lib '.';
use XUploadConfig;
…

I am not asked for username and password.

Can anyone please tell me what I am doing wrong?

Meryem,
I tried to upload my video, named as in your convention. When I press "Browse", then "Open", the box does not have the title in it, but says "O:\UWOL Long Contest.
If I then click "Upload File" a box entitled:

File upload status (http://uwol.dvinfo.net/deadbolt/deadbolttest/UPLOAD1/upload_status.cgi?upload_id=222102379)

appears with a bunch of HTML code. Is that right?

Also, the note at the bottom of the page says files are limited to 60 MB. Your instructions said 180MB. Please clarify.

Hallo Finn Erik and Steve.


I got the same problem,But I think the file oppload: got a blue marker
in the adr:line. So Mat I hope you got the film??!

All Best
VJV.

We had to change our IP and things may have been moved in the shuffle.
Mat may have to reconfigure the uploader if they've changed the directory structure on us.

Ugh, sorry to hear about this, guys, let me look into it, because as you're describing it, I have no idea what you are talking about, and we have been using the same system for the past 4 contests...