I had my heart set on a title of "Butterflies and Elephants." Featuring two migratory species - Northern Elephant Seals and Monarch Butterflies. Well the seals were very cooperative, but the butterflies not so much (I did see two of them flutter by).

We had a week vacation in Pismo Beach, CA which is really close to one of the largest Monarch Butterfly groves in California and only an hours drive from one of the largest Elephant Seal Rookeries. No butterflies so my video features only the elephant seals. Oh and I forgot my tripod! So a quick trip to a local electronics store yielded a cheap replacement (and boy does is show on pans and tilts).

Since the last challenge I got a new camera - a Panasonic AG-HMC40; so there we some "issues" resulting from a new camera. But it was (mostly) fun and allowed me to carefully follow rule #11.

Here is a higher resolution version on Vimeo: Elephants of California on Vimeo

Rich

Thanks for an interesting glimps into these behemoths. Your footage was nicely shot and your editing was very easy to watch. Thanks for posting up in HD elsewhere, when possible, even on the imbedded links I try and click to goto the HD version. Yours was eye candy HD wise. Nice colors too.

You have a great VO voice. Very easyto listen to. There was a place or two I felt that the music was competing a little strongly for my attention, but overall, an excellent piece!!

Chris

Rich,
I remember these Elephants from when I visited CA years ago. Very nice to see a video about them.
You do a good VO, and a nice choice of music too.

Rich,
It is a very interesting film you have made, with many great shots.
The narrating is very good. Maybe the background sound should be lowered a bit.

Hi Rich- I agree with Finn-Erik. The location sound overwhelmed the VO in a couple of spots. I have to say, though, your location sound is great! You recorded in a very windy place with no wind rumble. What’s your secret? Good job with the new camera. Congratulations.

Rich,

So someoneone else got all the seals... I was left with none, zip, zero, zilch. I swear they were all hiding out to sea, laughing at me.

You did very well considering it was shot with a cheapy tripod. The pans weren't too bad I thought. You got some excellent close-ups of the seals, and the seals interacting.

The story was well told, with a good vocieover. I liked the time lapse at the end too. The music was dramatic, but overpowered the voiceover at times I thought (pretty much the opposite of my bad levels, where the voiceover was too loud!)

Leaving that minor issue aside, that was a great film.

Thanks all for your kind words.

Yes, the audio is a problem for me. I hate to do voice overs (I don't much care for the sound of my own voice). Sometimes I think subconsciously I am trying to cover-up my voice.

Mike Beckett - you should have seen the pretty ugly pans and tilts I had to throw out (-:
I was fortunate that there were plenty of seals the day I went. Of course, when I got there I went to the south bluff and there were plenty of seals but way too far away (I got some video, but was pretty disappointed). I was talking to one of the docents and she asked my if I had been to the north bluff - good think she did, because that's where 90% of my shots came from.

Mike Sims - mostly I was just lucky that day. You are right it's normally pretty windy but I got a pretty calm day.

Rich,

I not sure what I could add to what has already been said. I think you have some great shots and a good narative with a great VO. I had trouble with my VO also.

When I saw the first shots of this, it reminded me of my trip 6 or 7 years back to San Simeon, where I experience the same animals. Their size can't be overstated.

I am glad you were able to capture some action. When I was there... well, they were just basking. You certainly got more than I saw.

Nice film !

Rich,

Wow! Great subjects. Certainly never see anything like that in Iowa! :)

You had a lot of great shots with this one.
Loved the shot of the seal scratching its head. Pretty comical. :)

The only "notes" I have are that I agree that the music competed with the VO at times.
I think this piece would have been suited to a longer time limit. It sounded like you were trying to get a lot of info into a short amount of time. Which from an educational point it's awesome cause I learned a lot about these seals. From a cinematic point, allowing it time to develop might have made it stronger.

I always try to keep elements of man out of I can so the shots with the rope "barricade" popped out at me.

You should really be happy with this one. You have some great stuff here!

It's clear I need to work on my voice over and audio in general. In the past I have focused on pieces with with only a music track -- no natural sounds and certainly no voice over. So these challenges have been... well, challenging!

Chris - yes the action was OK, but I may try to get back in December and January when the BIG males are fighting for the beach. Unfortunately none of the big males are "hauled out" in October.

Kevin - yes I did have way too much material. In fact, my original script notes could easily cover 20 minutes and that's even pared down. These guys could make a pretty good long form subject.

Rich...another educational video! Outstanding...

Here in the Midwest, we rarely encounter seals, so I found it very fascinating...

I thought your VO was very nice...easy to understand, but yes, a lot of information for a 3 minute video...

The colors looked great. Was that just the HMC-40? Or did you do any correction?

And, how do you like the HMC-40? What "issues" did you have.
I got myself a HMC-150 back in February and love it, but it does have a learning curve...

The colors looked great. Was that just the HMC-40? Or did you do any correction?

Bob - no color correction -- except the opening and closing sequences use Magic Bullet Quick Looks. The rest of the clips have some curves applied - mostly very gentle; almost straight. I am very pleased by the images I get right out of the HMC40.

I did use a custom scene file:
detail +2
v-detail +2
coring +1
chroma level +2
matrix cinelike
gamma cinelike-v



And, how do you like the HMC-40? What "issues" did you have.


So far, I really like the HMC40. It is very slow compared to the HMC150 (about 3 stops slower) and of course it is CMOS with all of the issues that entails (skew, jello, etc). But its resolution is significantly better than the HMC150. For my purposes (shooting outside, during the day), I don't find the 3 stops loss a problem (in fact most of these images were shot with additional ND).

Most of my issues are because this is the first professional camera I have owned at it has LOTS of settings. It includes almost all of the same setting capability as the HMC150 (including waveform) - so getting a handle on when to use what is a bit overwhelming.

How are you managing the learning curve on your HMC150?

I also struggle with the view finder -- unfortunately the HMC40's EVF only works with your right eye and I am left eye dominant (I am thinking about getting a cheap eye patch -- of course I am looking for suggestions).

Rich,

I love it when I learn new things on these videos!!! The narration did just that for me.

I think you did great with your new camera!! is it up to your expectations?

I would have liked some closer shots of faces and expressions. My favorite shot is at 37 seconds when the seal is scratch9ing itself or whatever it was doing.

Good job, Kepp up the great work!!

Dale,
Thanks for your comments. So far I am very please with the HMC40. I was really torn between it and the GH1. I did not really want the shallow DOF provided by the GH1, but the interchangeable lens would have been nice. The somewhat limited reach of the HMC40 is my biggest problem when it comes to filming wildlife. Of course, I am really please with the video camera features that I would have given up on the GH1 (audio control, zebras, waveform, etc.)

I did have a couple of additional closeups that ended up on the floor. There was one in particular that I really liked that was in the video for quite sometime - unfortunately it suffered from the cheap tripod and from some shaking that I could not remove in post and proved to be unacceptable to me.

Bob - no color correction -- except the opening and closing sequences use Magic Bullet Quick Looks. The rest of the clips have some curves applied - mostly very gentle; almost straight.
Same here with the 150. I use one of the presets that I like, F3, and a very gentle curve...
Plus some level corrections...


How are you managing the learning curve on your HMC150?

I bought Barry Greens book on the 150.
That and practice, practice, practice...
I moved up from a GL2, which had a lot of manual controls, but not like the 150.
Learning to work, and trust, the waveform monitor was big...along with learning to focus properly using the focus assist...

I do wish it had a longer lens though...sure miss the one on the GL2...

That was great, I wish I could do mine over again and interject smooth narrative information as you did. Weighing up to 5,000 pounds (which is more than my Tacoma truck) with a 2 foot long nose, swimming 60 miles a day, and diving over 1,000 feet deep. Those are some wild animals. I also noticed the fingernails as one was scratching it's head, which is what my seal also was doing. Nothing like a good scratch.

Bill, thanks for the comments. Yes it seems that there are several mannerisms in common between your Monk Seal and my Northern Elephant Seal -- I guess that is to be expected. They are certainly easy to humanize when the do something like scratching their heads.

Bob, what to you think of Barry's HMC150 book. I am contemplating buying it since there is so much in common (of course there are some substantial differences to). Barry has indicated that he might write an HMC40 specific book in the future (but there are no guarantees and it might be quite some time).

Barry's books are the bible of these cameras. When I got my HVX-200 in 2006, I never even read the manual. I just read Barry's book and I was good to go. :)

Bob, what to you think of Barry's HMC150 book.

Like Kevin said above, Barry's books are the bible for any camera...

I learned more in the week I read it, than I did in the previous 4-5 months using it.

I can't tell you how much will apply to your 40 model though...

Hi Rich.

I’ve been watching your Vimeo video and I think it’s a fine contribution to this rounds theme.
Your open shot is great, but: Is it the coastal wind, shaking the camera, or is it a bad tripod?
I guess you have the same problem as me when it comes to coastal winds. They do not care if you’re filming :) Also the video seems a bit bluish? Can it be something to do with setting the white balance? I always set this manually on my Canon XLH1. Your VO is fine and informative, I like that in a wildlife video and you do it well :) I wonder, is it original sound from the location or is it Foley? Maybe just a tiny bit higher volume on your voice would do?
Those waves washing the shore can make some painful noise at times :)
When it comes to the seals:
A scene like when the seal is scratching its head, starting at 00.29, is giving wildlife videos a personal touch. At least I think so. I don’t say it’s easy to get these kinds of shots, but it sure does lighten up a video :) In these kinds of shots it’s easy to put in sidesteps in a story, giving the animal some character I think. I guess it’s difficult to ask the seal to pose for different kinds of shots, but still I would have liked to see a close up of the seal when it shuffles sand over its back :)

Again I like your video and think you’ve done a nice job on this one.
Wish you all the best and good luck.
Geir Inge

Geir Inge,

Thank for your comments. The opening shot was handheld. I was looking for an establishing shot and noticed this view of the Pedras Blancas Lighthouse as I was driving to to rookery. I pulled over to the side of the road for the shot.

The opening and closing shots are "highly" color corrected. I was not too concerned about realistic colors in those shots - more of a stylistic choice. The other shots were all done with fixed white balance.

Sounds were all natural. I was certainly trying to balance the natural sounds, the music track and my voice over. There we some instances where I bumped the natural sounds because I was trying to enhance the sounds the seals make. Balancing multiple audio tracks is definitely something I need to work on.

I really had not problem with rule #11 while filming. The seals exhibit a great set of personality traits. I was very fortunate that the one little seal was a willing actor.

Considering my remarks about the music on some other entries, I hardly noticed it on yours except on the closing credits. But seeing that others commented, I watched it again. And yes, for the last minute or so, the music is too much, especially competing with your voice. I think I did not notice it the first time because I have spent some years studying the Atlantic Grey Seals that live around our coast, and so I was concentrating on your commentary to learn about the similarities and differences. Your elephant seals make our grey ones look like wimps!

ok, so you have explained the tripod problem, and that you had better views from the north viewpoint. The latter explains the very contrasty picture which is something I would try to avoid when possible. The video certainly looked better in HD because of that contrast. The two young bulls at 2:23 were shot from the sunny (south?) side and there is so much more detail to be seen there.

I wonder why you sped up the scene behind the closing credits?

Annie - thanks for the comments. As a new videographer this type of commentary is particularly helpful.

As noted by others I have a ways to go to get my audio balanced. I was trying to balance the natural sounds, the music and my voice over. No one particularly mentioned it, but I switched music in the middle: a more peaceful bit opening and during the female oriented part of the video and a more dramatic peace for the males. That last piece was clearly too overpowering in some places.

The contrast is probably my fault (of course I was using an HD image to work from - actually shot in 1080 so even the Vimeo version is down sampled. I used curves to adjust most scenes and may have gotten a bit carried away. This was exacerbated by shooting mid-day.

The last scene was a timelapse. It was mostly to show how lethargic the seal are. The time lapse was about 30 minutes of real time and you can see how little some of the seals move. I couldn't work that into the narrative so I just decided to include it as a back ground for the closing credits. I also used the Magic Bullets Tilt-Shift effect on that scene to give it a bit of a surreal look.

Thanks again for your comments. I am already looking forward to the next challenge. Hope to see you there.

Changes in music, even in a short video, are not uncommon. So long as they fit with the video, no-one is likely to comment at the changes.

No-one ever recommends shooting in the middle of the day, except when the sun is not shining (or in high latitudes in winter when the sun doesn't get far above the horizon anyway). However, many of your shots were just slightly against the sun, which made the situation worse.

There was nothing to explain the time lapse at the end, the colours and tilt just seemed to be a bit wierd as well, so to me it just looked as though it had been thrown in to make up the time.