Here is a link to the vimeo version : Montana In Fall on Vimeo If you click on HD it will take you to the vimeo site and the HD (1280x720) version.

Chris,

You have some realy nice shots. I particularly liked the birds.

I really was fond of your opening graphics work. what did you build that with??

the subtitles we well done and I liked the backgrounds for them too.

Really a nice piece.


thanks for taking the time and sharing.

Dale, thanks for your comments and kind words.

The intro background, lower 3rds and transitions were from Digital Juice, a Themekit called FALL LEAVES (#8). When I came back home I realized the bulk of my footage was of Bison (did you know that American Bison are NOT really "Buffalo?... But ....well I digress), Antelope and Deer and the "Home on the Range" theme struck me...it references them all in one song. Now I know it is the Kansas State song, but I have always felt it fit present day Montana better than present day Kansas...(another digression).

I don't have a lot of experience filming birds, but know now better than ever the special difficulties it presents, and I have only scratched the surface.

I was hoping that some of the Mountain Ash berries might have started to ferment internally as they often will. I remember well as a kid watching Cedar Waxwings drunk as skunks eating fermenting Mountain Ash berries.. hilarious. No such luck this time.



Chris

I kind of recognize the narrator. My favorite, as you know, is the antelope piece, because I tried to track those buggers down in a film for UWOL challenge a few challenges back... You got a bit closer.

Chris,

That was fantastic. You had some great shots and your voice over was perfect. I'm still pretty new at the voice over thing, but I am learning (did you have to use a blanket like I did?).

Oliver...thank you.

The VO I did in my "computer room" and I had my Oktava MK-012 on a boom and had a foam windscreen on it and a mesh screen (pop filter) between my mouth and the mic. I used a hypercardiod capsule, and was about 6 inches from the mic.

I did not have to cover myself with a blanket, but did remove a clock from the room and put a blanket(!) over the computer. I figured any residual background noise would get lost in the music... and it did.

OOps duplicate.

Chris, the opening graphics were great with the song. That opening is a winner. It looked like the roving buck in the beginning was looking for a way to get over the fence, while the group huddled, then there was a cut, and it looked like that same roving buck found the way under the fence, and the herd followed?

Chris,
The opening graphics is very good! I second Dale's comments about the subtitles. Nice!
The favorite shot is of the antilopes sneaking UNDER the fence as I was prepaired watching them jumping over it. So funny!

Well done, this was very entertaining and a pleasure to watch.

Chris,
You have made a fine film. I specially liked to watch the birds and the antelopes. Your voice over is very good.

Chris,

I think you have a winner here! Your execution of the theme is perfect. You give us several examples of the animal kingdom with a wonderful voice over and excellent movie selection.

The segment with the antelope is priceless. I guess it's easier to go under than over.

Hi Chris- I liked the season themed DJ anim at the beginning, but I thought it went on a little too long. If it were shorter we could have seen more of your great footage! Good job tying in “Home on the Range” with the subject matter. I touch briefly on pronghorn and fences in my Long Form. They have modifications to their spine which allow them to run fast, however it makes it difficult for them to jump. They rarely do and never cross over fences. There have been instances of a new wire net fence being put up trapping a herd which then starved to death. Most states where they occur now require ranchers to leave a span every so often with the bottom wire no less than 18 inches above the ground. As your video so well shows, they usually don’t need the whole 18 inches. I think they must be the best limbo dancers in the world! This is really well done. Congratulations!

Thank you all for taking time to view my entry. I had entered this round mainly because I was going to be in Montana during the time to shoot the footage and I thought I might be able to find something I could make a film from. Once I got there, and things started unfolding, I really took the theme to heart and tried to keep the theme idea in my mind as I was figuring out how and what to shoot. That was particularly true as I was editing.

Bill: What you described was exactly as it was going through my mind as I was watching them in the viewfinder. I was thinking he was trying to ponder where to leap over the fence and I was actually kind of excited at the prospect or filming them all jumping a fence! Then when they started to shinny under, I really did almost bust out laughing. My task was to try and bring my viewer through that thought process... so I tried to do that by leading you there in the voiceover, making you think for a moment I was going to show you Antelope leaping - and then...NOT. I decided to add a quick break in the clip to let your mind prepare for what was NOT going to happen, to make what DID happen that much more poignant and amusing.

Tronde: I'm glad you liked it. Glad you had the same reaction to the antelopes as I did. That was pretty priceless.

Finn-Erik: Thanks for the encouragement. I doubt I will ever be comfortable hearing my own voice in voiceover, and am getting a little more comfortable with it. As I was editing this time I caught things in my delivery- volume and tone wise -that I ned to work work on, and I hope to get better.

Ryan: Thank you so much for your post. I appreciate your noting the efforts I made to stay in tune with the theme. I'm glad it showed. And the antelope were my favorite part too. Candidly I was expecting the Bison to be some good stuff, but in the end, it reminded me of watching a bunch of cattle standing around chewing their cuds.

Mike: You always add to my knowledge base! Thanks. As for the opening I wanted to have it last for the duration of the song clip, but see how one might feel that it did appear a tad long. However, it is 30 seconds and since my overall piece is 3:30 seconds, that means that the actual film is already at the 3 minute limit, so had the intro been shorter, I would not have been able to add more to the film. (And, I had a lot of footage and could easily have made a 5 minute film this go around....)

As I have said in other areas (Long form) Mike, you are a good scientific fact checker, but this time I wish I had been possessed of your knowledge about antelope (instead of ancient bacteria), and might have presented a good teachable moment. Although, I had to cut out another teachable moment due to time, so maybe I couldn't have gotten it in. The other moment? Well, (and Mike I invite you to amplify on this point,) did you know that what we call Buffalo here in North America are not really Buffalo? They are Bison. The "Buffalo" family, which includes water buffalo and the smaller Asian buffalo are a different animal. Taxonomically we have what scientists call "Bison Bison" - almost as if to drive home the point. However, after a couple of centuries of Americans calling them Buffalo, I'm not gonna buck the tide - and I will keep my Buffalo nickels too, and I'll resist calling Buffalo Bill Cody "Bison Bill."

One thing I thought was serendipitous were the aerial shots in the antelope clip. As I was flying home, I was looking out the window following our progress west and suddenly it hit me that we were likely to pass over the long high valley where I saw the antelope. Sure enough we did, and I snapped a couple of stills so that I have a vantage to set the stage for the Antelope. That was the actual reservoir from the air.

Chris

Chris,

I just LOVE that opening sequence! The music and the falling leaves were perfect. You guys really raise the bar for UWOL contests,

Great birds shots, a good variety there. You have of the same birds we have in Europe, but you guys over the pond really ought to learn what a Robin (http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/r/robin/index.aspx) is!

Overall, well edited, beautiful colors, excellent graphics and a great script and voiceover. And what variety - you have a lot more animals in your kingdom than I have in mine. I would've given anything for a herd of antelopes or bison, although it's unlikely in Ireland.

Mike... thanks for the feedback. And, I stand corrrected. My bird is not a "Robin" (Erithacus rubecula) but ratherly an "American Robin" but whoever gave it its scientific name should be shot. (Turdus migratorius). Sounds like a... well... nevermind.

So it's not even a robin! :)

Ah, the thrush family... turdus merula was the blackbird, if I recall. I always wondered where those latin names came from, and could never remember them. I quickly checked Wikipedia and there are 65 species of the thrush family. Eeek!

The only other one I can remember is the common Starling, Sturnus vulgaris, which I always thought was totally appropriate for those noisy, vulgar birds.

Chris,

Ahhhh, Montana! I never get tired of watching films made in Montana!

I like how you broke down the state into regions. It's such a big state it certainly does have a lot of diversity.
Nice job taking advantage of the aerial opportunity.

Course, the pronghorn was my favorite sequence. I've seen them go under fences before and was amazed because from my vantage point, it appeared like they dissolved through the fence. :)

Hey, it's a robin to me! :)

I think you went above and beyond by presenting several "kingdoms" while you could have easily just settled for one.

Nice music and VO. You sounded very at ease with your narration.

Would have loved to seen snockered waxwings! :)

Kevin... Thanks for your observations and kind comments. Also I am gratified by your appreciation of my working the theme - I did pay attention to that and I'm glad to know that fact was noticeable!

Always nice to hear praise from someone as accomplished as yourself. Thanks again.

Chris...

Habituated?
Never heard that before, thank you...the learning continues...

As others have said the opening was stellar...worked well and I only wish I had the talent to do something like that.

Nice close shots of many of your animals...did you just get close or do you have a very long lens?

And nice VO...but of course, you're practically a pro at this point... ;)

Bob: You are too kind. Actually the intro was pretty easy. Check out DigitalJuice.com and look at their Themekits. It's not as difficult as it might appear.

I have a Sony Z-1 and one of the things I like least about the camera is the non-interchangeable lens. I have a Sony Wide Angle adapter I like, but my teleconvertor has a fair amount of CA and pretty much gathers dust. So, no, I was just fortunate to get close to those antelope by virtue of the fencing. My close presence did, and you could tell, unnerve them a bit. I was maybe 50-75 yards away at the closest. I was so afraid I'd miss the moment, that I grabbed the camera, jumped out of the car and I had the camera sitting on the hood of the car for stability. No time for a tripod. A fair amount of the footage was rather shaky but I eventually managed to hold it still - though my heart was racing.

I'm glad others are not as bothered by the sound of my voice as I am. I have a good ways to go yet, but at least have some ideas how to improve the quality of my VO's. I pretty much liked every one elses better than my own.

And, finally, sorry if "habituated" seemed a bit stuffy. I have spent a lot of time in Glacier and around the Grizzly bears there and also spent some time with Bear Management folks, and that's one of the big hot button terms they throw around - "Habituated Bears". I guess I just kind of backed in to the word. Doesn't get much use at cocktail parties though.

Chris

Hi Chris. I was only joking about the opening being too long. Sorry that wasn’t obvious in my post.

Robins- English speakers had a habit of, where ever they ended up, giving the local birds names they were familiar with back in the mother country. North and South America have several species of thrushes called Robins. Australia has a family with over 40 species that are called Robins. China and Japan have a genus that have been called Robins. None of them are closely related to Robin Red-breast, although at least some members of each group have a reddish breast.

Bison and Buffaloes- The cattle subfamily contains ten genera. Genus Bos contains cattle (including Yaks). Genus Bison contains two living species, each with two remaining subspecies. There are two genera of “spiral-horned antelopes”. The rest of the genera tend to be collectively called “buffalo”. Members of all of these groups are somewhat able to interbreed.

Habituated is animal behaviour jargon. It just means the animals are comfortable letting you get close enough to work.

watching antelopes stuffing themselves under the fence -- well worth the price of admission...

Mike... to me habituated in the case of bears meant they had lost their fear and allowed man to get stupidly close - more or less. I used it to mean any animal behavior that overcomes the natural fear of man and allowed a close living in the presence and shadow of man.

Meryem.. glad you got a kick out of that. If I haven't said so, thanks for the "living film school" that is UWOL.

Chris

Hi Chris S.

I’ll start with the VO and the music; it’s great and suits your video very well.
I’m not a big fan of using all kinds of layout when it comes to text in wildlife videos, but used as a theme the way you do it here can work. Still I think your opening is a little bit too long for a 3 min short. You take us along on a trip through Montana and what a tour it is :)
Several species and I love especially the one at 1.58, but actually it’s your way of giving us a laugh, the way you bring it to us in your story. Jumping "under" the fence :) Clever done!
All in all a fine video I liked very much, so thank you for bringing it to Uwol.

Wish you all the best and good luck.
Geir Inge