I'm actually firing on most cylinders! Overall narrative isn't quite cracked yet but some great stories and creatures coming together. When's the exact deadline again? Still got a bit of editing to do!!!

Cheers!

Are we still required to post entries as .mov files? I am able to produce beautifully small, glitch-free files using Windows Media, but when I export files of any size into Quicktime, even using H.264 the megabytes are always in the hundreds. I just took a 30 MB Windows file of my entry and converted it to Quicktime. It became 378 MB. There has to be a better way.

Well, with some generous dispensation from Meryem I am in. I won't be back home to my computer to start editing until Monday, but will have SOMETHING up next week.

(Went on a boat trip up the the "Gates of the Mountains" today, with the pages from the Lewis and Clark Diaries of their journey thru there fresh in my mind. I could do a short piece on that... but of course that's not remotely my subject... and I will save that for some other time).

Chris Swanberg

OK, then.
I think I passed my medical test at school last Friday :)
So now it's full speed ahead trying to make my ULF something worth looking at.
I have a lots of tapes from different locations, and now I'm focusing on the intro story.

Just a question to you uwolers out there. To my intro I need shots of brown bear and Lynx. Is it much too wrong to use shots taken in a Zoo? I will of caurse give information about this in my film, in the end text, but there's no chance for me to get clips of wild bears or Lynx around where I live. I did visit a Zoo earlier this summer and intend to use it, so what do you think? The use of the clips will be as if the animals where in the wild and not in a Zoo.

By the way, tomorrow morning I'm off to a place where I hopefully will be able to catch some European Pine Marten (Martes martes), on tape.
If so, I'll post a picture of it in my feedback tread.
I will try to comment the rest of the films on Sunday.

Geir Inge

Geir Inge,
I believe that this will be OK, as long as you mention it in your piece that this is captured species. Maybe Meryem could chime in to comment this?

Anyway, good luck in capture footage of the Pine Martens. Our paths will cross here, as I will be in the same area in about 14 days from now!

Geir,


Actually, many, many wildlife and outdoors films shoot tamed, zoo or collection animals and they make no referance to them.

I do not think it really makes a difference but I personally would not make the bulk of my footage around them.

Thank you both for responding Dale and PJ.
Well I most agreed, but it isn't that I want to build a story around the bear and lynx. In my intro I will tell why I got interested in wildlife and nature. Amongst others because of a famous norwegian writer called Mikkjel Foenhus, writing novelles where the animals do have the main roll. So I will use a clip or two from a bear and a lynx when I tell about his influence on me. The main story in my ULF video is still about the wild coast of Mid West Norway.
Now it's 23 pm over here and I'm going straight to bed, up early tomorrow, around 5.30 am for my Pine Marten shots :)

Geir Inge

one solution may be to borrow this footage - maybe per or kevin or one of the other players has a bear or lynx that they would lend, for a credit. it's ok with me if you have a shot or two from someone else, as long as you attribute it properly. a zoo is ok with me, too, it would not be my first choice, and there is a whole discussion about the ethics of wildlife shooting that we could engage, but I think for a placeholder, at least, this would be ok.

i am anticipating that even those of you who finish contest this will have another 2-6 months past the contest of polish work to do, anyway...when you start make longer films, you can re-work them and re-work them so many different ways.

Hi Geir:

I certainly know that Per had the master footage of bear in his "Pond of Bears" UWOL entry. But if that footage isn't available for whatever reason, I have a young black bear in this latest entry you are welcome to. If you go to 17 min 05 sec you can see the angle and distance it was shot at and if that might work for you.

Cheers,

Cat

Thank you for responding to my question about Zoo animals.
Well, I haven't desided yet what to do.
But I might use my Lynx and Brown bear clips (just a few seconds), or perhaps I'll use my shots of the Pine Marten, from todays shooting :)

Geir Inge

i am anticipating that even those of you who finish contest this will have another 2-6 months past the contest of polish work to do, anyway...when you start make longer films, you can re-work them and re-work them so many different ways.

The more I work on this the more I realize the truth of what Meryem says. I also have learned the truth of the statement (variously and apparently always mis-attributed) that a film (or book or, use your own word here) is never finished, just abandoned.

Hi all:

A tale of woe! I may be the first UWOL long form casualty. Yesterday I was filming up at Andrews Glacier up in the park and sprained my ankle making my way down through the upper boulder field on the way back. Everyone was awesome, two hikers coming up helped me negotiate the boulder field and dropped me off in an alpine meadow. From there I almost made it to one of the upper lakes by the time Park rescuers intercepted me and helped to a lower place where they could pack me out on a horse! Yikes, not the most comfortable ride I've ever had however immensely grateful I was!

Woe, woe, woe! There is so much filming left to do and my husband and I had planned to hike Longs peak just this week, a very important part of my film plan.

No broken bones, just a sprain and a very bruised ego.

O.K. Nobody else top this one! Let's just keep it at one casualty in this challenge!

Cat

Hi Catherine,
Wow what a situation! Glad to hear you made it down ok. I hope this doesn't put your plans in jeopardy. No good that it will no doubt put your hike up Longs peak back a bit, but hopefully you will be able to get up there before the good weather breaks.
All the best, hope the ankle heals up very quickly & you're back up in the mountains very soon.
Bryce

Yes Cat - agree with Bryce.

Can't help it Catherine, bruised ego or not, but I just got to throw in one of my questions:

Did you manage to catch it on tape?

A big norwegian hug to you Catherine and hope you're doing well :)

Geir Inge

Cat

Sorry to hear of your mishap... but happy it is nothing worse - not to minimize what was I am sure a very painful experience. Don't rush the recovery, maybe use the time at the computer.

Here's to a speedy recovery.

Chris

Cat, sorry to hear of your mismap. Hope you can take it easy for a bit. Bob

Can't help it Catherine, bruised ego or not, but I just got to throw in one of my questions:

Did you manage to catch it on tape?

A big norwegian hug to you Catherine and hope you're doing well :)

Geir Inge

Ha! Amazingly people suggested that I film that "little drama" and I told them, "over my dead body would any of that get on film!" ;-).

Oh thanks you guys, you make me laugh and I'm feeling better already.

Cato

well, every feature film needs a "making of"...

remember when Mat was kind enough to share gory images of his infected foot? whaddya got?

sounds like a good excuse to get the edit going...

get better soon, long's peak awaits you. i haven't been up there in years! should get off my backside and do that thing again...

Cat,


sprains are a pain and sometimes take longer than breaks to heal, hopefully not!!! Heck thats why they make pain killers, so we can keep plugging ahead!!!

Horseback, with a steady cam would be interesting, eh? Or do what you can and send Hubby ahead for the shots, particularly of you gimping along the ridge!!

Hope you are doing better!!!

get better soon, long's peak awaits you. i haven't been up there in years! should get off my backside and do that thing again...

Okay friend. Come with us! The invitation is open for the taking. There's just the minor detail of a sprained ankle to heal enough to go... <sigh>. But please consider it!

Dale, I think that's how this might turn out, hubby getting some shots of "the gimp" slothing up the trail. Fortunately the focus is certainly not supposed to be me, the few shots like that will be used metaphorically with lots of other stuff going on. Hopefully not too noticeable then?

Thank you, thank you for the comments and well-wishes everyone. It does a lot for the moral which I'm certain heals me up faster. Meryem, if I'm bored enough I'll put up a photo of my foot. (how dull is that!)

Cat

Good Morning,


Well, yesterday was a bad day. The white gyrfalcon I spent all summer preparing for the filming over the next few weeks was shot by someone. When he was found he was still warm. Game bird shootng opened the day before!!!

you get really attached to these birds, It Breaks the heart!!! Made me pretty hateful yesterday.


That pokes a big hole in my plans!!! sucks the enthusiasm right out of me!!!

Dale..

I am so sorry to hear this heartbreaking news. I hope you can manage to continue to work on a film, even if it takes a turn and comes to a different ending. You might have a golden opportunity to use this as a "teachable moment", if not for UWOL, for some other purpose.

My condolences.

Chris

Dale,
It was a very bad day. No doubt it was some bird hunter that shot the falcon to prevent it “stealing” “his” birds. I can understand you feeling hateful. There is nothing worse than cruelty resulting from ignorance. Especially so since ignorance is such an easily treatable and preventable mental illness. I’m really sorry about the problems this causes your video and the resulting loss of enthusiasm. On long projects, even without tragedies like this, I have at least two periods when I get really down. I think the hardest part about finishing is pulling myself up out of the pits. The great thing about UWOL is- you are not alone out there! Just remember, we’re all pulling for you.

You do get really attached to the subjects. A few days ago one of the flying squirrels I’ve been recording for two years was attacked by an owl. He got away, but minus half his tail. Now I worry that even if he doesn’t die from infection he won’t be able to fly well enough to make a good living.

Thats a real shame. I think though you should grab the camera a cover it as part of your story Dale, its real un-fore seen tradegy and covers something that our wildlife has to deal with every day, and sometimes the not so wild! I found a Great Crested Grebe last year sitting in a field who'd been tagged by a shot pellet. It went to the local wildlife hospital after I picked it up and carried it home. How anyone could mistake it for a pigeon or pheasant I don't know, maybe they didn't!

Oh Dale,

I am so sorry. I'm devastated along with you. I don't know what to say... speechless. We are with you together in this. Whatever you feel like you need to do, I'll be with you on it. I don't know if I would have the grit to finish a film after my start subject was killed. Your call.

It was a beautiful falcon. I'm so sorry for your loss. What a horrible waste.

All the best,

Sincerely,
Cat

So sorry, Dale, that is such sad news to report...sorry to hear about the falcon...

Good evening,


Well, thanks for the comments, appreciated.

I Had not thought of using it as part of the project, but in thinking about it I think I will work it in in some fashion, great idea and perhaps it will save another falcon in the future so he doesn't die totally in vain.

The plan remains the same, just not as much depth showing more than one type of raptor.

I am within 8 minutes of finishing my first segment (26 minutes), I reckon I will use this in the hunting portion (sement two).



Here is a picture of him well and fine

Dale,

I'm so sorry to hear the sad news about the Falcon.
I told about it to my wife and our two daughters, and we are right there with you my friend.

Geir Inge

Hey Dale:

That's a beautiful bird! Did you ever name him?

Glad you're still on track to finish your film.

Cat

Well, I guess we are all getting down to the wire about now, and finding out that some shots we want to get are just not going to happen, so I have a question about the rules.
We are allowed to use up to three minutes of footage shot for previous UWOL contests. Can that mean "shot for a previous contest, but not actually used", or does it have to be "shot for a previous contest and actually appearing in the entry"? I know I have a good deal of the former, while the latter interpretation is much more restrictive.

it had to be shot as part of your commitment to a previous UWOL project - but doesn't necessarily have to had made it into that same project. honor system prevails, as usual.

Unfortunately I have been busy with work and have spent a lot of time away since the Augusts deadline, therefore have not had a chance to do any filming for my long from project. As the last deadline is upon us I have to bow out of the competition. However, I will continue to acquire more footage and hopefully next year end up with a finished film.

Good luck to the others and well done for getting this far. I await the final films with baited breath!

Cheers

You will be missed Mihali, you have an interesting film in the works. As the long formers have discussed on another thread, we too intend to keep filming into next year in hopes that we will have acceptably covered our topics by that time. Keep it up!

All the best,

Cat

Cat's right Mihali... stay on with us as we work through the following year as a group to refine our visions and get more feedback. I think you will be pleasantly surprised how many of us want to continue to work as a group on our individual films over the following year. Meryem has graciously allowed us to us this forum to do so, even "post contest".

Keep up your excellent work and share with us and add input to our films as well.

Chris

Mihali,
I feel so sorry about your decision. You have one of the strongest projects, great shots and a good story to develop. Your film would be difficult to beat.
I am also concerned about several participants. Maybe they are even later than me to update the thread, and set up a link for the film?

Well, I’ve suffered a real setback. The motherboard on my editing computer has failed. I think my work is intact, but none of my other machines are up to spec to run the editing software. I’m exploring options. The image quality of the best of my SD footage is simply blown away by the results the rest of you are achieving, so I don’t really view this as a competition (for me anyway). It has, however, been a challenge. Mostly it has been a privilege just to hang out with and learn from you guys! At this point I’d just like to be in it at the end. We’ll see…

Come on Mike! Replace your motherboard and get on it. Thank goodness you feel pretty sure your material is o.k. (that's a fear we all live with... losing material in a drive failure). Your vulture idea is really unique and technically not the simplest of effects to pull off. I'm looking forward to your final entry with the whole story told. It's been a joy to watch the works in progress.

Cat

Mike.. I'm with Cat on this. Your images and catalogue of them is phenomenal. It is easy to get lost on the HD aspects of images, and forget just basic good photography is what it is all about. I'd rather watch your images in SD than many images I have seen from time to time in HD. Content is king...and yours is awesome.

If at all possible...Stay the course my friend.

Chris

ps. (And work with many of us who will continue to perfect their piece(s) during the next year.)

I got the new motherboard in and everything working- somewhat. There are still some driver issues to sort. The bad news is that my contest files on one hard drive were corrupted. The good news is that I have backups. Now about 150 clips in the timeline need to be replaced by their backups. The BU files aren’t trimmed, so I have to do a little editing too. This weekend I should finally get back to where I was before all this- fingers crossed! Thanks to Catherine and Chris for the words of encouragement. They were a big help. I’m nominating both of you for the “True Spirit of UWOL” award!

Mike,

Great things are getting sorted out for you!!! If what happened to you, happened to me I would be totally knocked off and devastated!!

Yes, the more this project came along the more I realize it is a huge undertaking requiring more time than I thought!!!!!

Good luck.

Good evening:


spent most of today resolving a disaster. computer crashed for who knows what reason, I wasn't even using it at the time and it was setting idle!!!

all my long form stuff would not come up in my programs, no pathway!!! 6 months of work down the old throne pipe!!!

Well, I finally managed to grab each nestable project and then spend the entire day recombining them. Had to go back and recapture a bit of footage. My fire wire card seems defunct on my new computer preventing neoscene from working, had to capture m2t files on my old computer, transfer to the new one and then render as cineform files.

what a gong show!!

We have 30 minutes in the can.

On a three day shoot for Part 2 tomarrow sat and sunday.



Had I known the amount of work this was going to be I may have not bothered!!!


I hope everyone else has no blemishes in their final run on the program they are building!!!

Well... what with some issues on material timing, and some less than perfect planning on my part and a lot of life getting in the way right here at the end, I already know I won't be meeting the final deadline to be a contestant. But then, I realized I was never likely to have my first effort at a long film likely to be worthy of being in the judging in any event, but that knowledge has never held me back. I have been zealous in my pursuit of my goal. Due to the nature of my film that has translated into over a dozen books read, and countless hours of other research, and every book and research find brings things to my attention I had never realized before and want to somehow include in my film. It may even spawn other efforts on my part.

That said, I will tell you that I am committed to finishing my film about Glacier and look forward to the collegial collaboration with my fellow long formers in the coming year that may take. I guess entering this contest was more a way to keep me focused and get some useful feedback (and an unexpected bonus of encouragement) than it ever was an attempt to be a "contender". I'm fully cognizant of the skills of my fellow film makers and hope to someday possess those - this has been, and will be a learning process for me, a way to advance my own skills, and I thank everyone for your feedback and thoughts along the that way. You all inspire me.

I will get something up in a new thread, respectfully after the deadline...either started by Meryem, or if I beat her to it, me. Maybe it should be called "the Year After" or something <g>. I'd like to think that making it to this point should be a condition to entry in the "club" <g> and I am reminded mirthfully of the old saying that "I wouldn't want to belong to a club that would have me".

I'm looking forward to seing the "finalists". You are an awesome group - each and every one of you... Cat, Bob, Mat, Dale, Mike, Marj, Steve, Geir, Rob and our UWOL 15 winner Finn-Erik. Thank you all and good luck.

Chris S.

ps. As I re-read this, it occurred to me that other folks signed up may have dropped out in earlier rounds for very similar reasons as I did this round, and are still working on their films too... I would hope that they would be a part of whatever "group" evolves to continue their quest - my idea of "making it to this point " as a condition of membership in the "club" was not well thought out - at all. I'd rather be inclusive, rather than exclusive. Apologies.

Hi everyone.

Well, due to my schoolwork I now see I have to change my priorities.
So I wont be able to deliver a long form video with in the deadline.
I will keep on working on my video and try to finished it during the next year.
It will be a norwegian version and I will try to sell it to national TV in Norway.
Still I want to thank you all for support and feedback.
I feel, and this goes for most of my Uwol videos too, that there is a little bit of you in them and especially in my Long form video.

All the best and good luck to the rest of you.
Geir Inge

Geir.. I obviously understand, fully. I think your resulting film would be very saleable to National TV. I would hope you will stay with me, and any others who may continue to provide feedback and encouragement during the next year. All the best..

Chris S.

Dale, Chris and Geir:

This latest news from all of you saddens me a bit. You all are such an important part of this forum with such valuable artistic contributions.

I'm looking forward to continue working with you on our quests together next year.

Dale, I wasn't certain from your thread if you were still in or not, but I'm hopeful that you have recovered enough to finish this round.

Cat

So where is everyone throwing their crashed computers? I have two to throw on the pile - in one week!!!


No data lost fortunately - yet - but I have to reload all my software when I get it back and .. redo all my settings again ... man do I need this like a hole in the head at this point in time!

I have been offline for the better part of a week so there is a lot to catch up on. I'm sorry to hear about all of you who have had to give up at this point. I'm hanging on in the hope I can still put up something even if it isn't finished.

Good afternoon,

I am rendering a 10 minute segment so have a bit of time.

I am trying to complete!!!

I will be working full steam today and tomarrow to get a wrap on it, at least as far as making it complete enough for the compition, even if I will have a fair amount to complete before sending it off to the TV station!!

I had my new computer crash on me twice!!! I messed around with it enough to get it started and working again.

I messed up my Hard drives and spent a couple full days sorting that out!!

I am saying my prayers nothing happens today or tomarrow!!!

things will be more at ease when we finish!!! definite relief.

Man! What is it about this long form ending? It's sort of an epic for everyone! I'm sorry to hear about the mishaps Marj. What a mess. That makes you, Dale and Mike the leaders in computer woes thus far.

Ah... only two days and it will all be over! And yet, we still don't have the format rules! What fun!

Cat

Yes Cat - can't work it out - especially with a system that has been very stable for five years. I put my entire project on an external hard drive in case something like this did happen, so I was able to walk it over to another computer but when the mother board there blew I really began to wonder! Not only that - our local network tower went down so its been fun and games all round. I have my computer back - it still shuts down on me every now and then so I have to save continuously - but I guess this is what one would call a character-building exercise :)

Incidentally, Mat also had a huge crash a few weeks back too! Guess the moral of the story is - build it into your planning when doing a project of this magnitude over such a long period of time.

I hope there are not only two days - the rules say we have the week of the 15th November to finish and somewhere Meryem confirmed the 21st as being the final deadline beyond which no one would get an extension.
Meryem you better come in here cause I am dead in the water if its only two days to go -- for certain.

Marj