Okay, so I managed so far to deliver my contribution to Uwol # 25.
The plan was to "borrow" the son of a friend of mine, who was going to help me to shoot.
I had to drop it due to hospitalization.
In my video I put the horizon we are able to see, up to the horizon we carry within us.
Things we can learn from reading the books, which we seek and experience ourself.
It is an interesting journey that never ends.
There is so much that can help us expand the horizon.
I have availed myself of books regarding what crow eating and where it searches for food.
I also took advantage of new technology to be able to shoot in places I otherwise could not reach.
In use of a quadrocopter and a GoPro camera - I love it :)
An exciting journey it has been, with a lot of fun.
Although I have trouble walking long distances, due to disease of the legs,
I took the trip to the top of the island Runde.
I just love the island and wish that all my Uwol friends can experience it once.
I'm grateful for feedback on the video.
I do note that I have not had time to color correction of any kind,
especially the GoPro footage that has a somewhat flat color.
if you wonder why I don't comment/VO on the Dipper, I leave it up to you to find some wise ideas to the clips ;)

Have a nice journey.
The wideness of the horizon (uwol#25) on Vimeo

As always, loved your interpretation of the theme and of course the variety of shots in your film.

On a side note, would love to see more on your experiences with the flying rig you showed.

What a scenery you have in your surroundings.
It is always a pleasure to watch your films and listen to your reflected narrating.
Your new video toy is interesting.
How much did you practice before you could safely raise the camera from earth?
Is it tricky to do a steady flight?
I think I can see a bit of rolling shutter over the mountain.

Very nice, Geir Inge!
I like how you mix the aerial shots with the ground shots. Flying up that river was cool.

Very nice, Geir. Beautiful country.

Loved the aerial stuff...especially that shot going up the river.
I've been using GoPro cameras for a few years, but never in the air.
As the others have asked, I am curious about the difficulty of flying the quadrocopter.

Geir-Inge, you live in a beautiful country! So amazing place in the world.
I liked the sequence with the crow. This quadrocopter is really nice… but as Finn-Erik write, it looks like some rolling shutter problems…
Well done Geir-Inge, I like your way of the theme.

Hi and thank you for comments.
I'll try to answer your questions.

Chris:
When this round of Uwol is finished, I can upload some clips from my practicing flights, not so flattering though ;)

Finn-Erik:
Well, I haven't been practicing for long but the Phantom is easy to fly and maneuver.
What I did wrong a couple of times is to calculate the Phantoms direction, haha. You see when it turns the front away from you it has the same direction of left, right, back and ahead as I am standing. What I didn't realize until it was to late, is that when it has the front towards you, all the directions turn opposite of what is right, left, etc. I calculated wrong and there by crashed into a tree and also my house. The result was broken propeller.
Rolling shutter (or wobbling also known as jello) comes from vibration. That's what you see in the last clip in my video. To solve this problem I can balance the propeller, and attaching GoPro'n as hard as possible.
Some uses of a type of foam that decreases jitter. Also there are 3 flying modes, if using GPS mode you will gather more jello then atti mode.
Have ordered me a gadget for balancing of propellers, but have not received it yet.

Trond:
To fly up the river was a challenge, because it was a blast up the valley and the river, which brought the Phanom out of direction, but it went well in the end.

Bob:
The Phantom is very easy to fly and I can say so because I have never tried before I bought this one. My main problem, as mentioned before, has been to keep order of the direction. What is really nice is the use of GPS. I did some shooting out on Kvamsoy island, it was snowy fields and as the Phantom is white of color, I lost sight of it. I thought to myself; "There goes my 10000,- bucks (NOK). Then I remembered something helpful from the manual (always read the manual, haha) and it was to shut down the controller.
It took a few minutes and then the Phantom was back in place.
It is like this; when you start up the Phantom, it boots itself to its base wich is the starting place.
If one lose sight of it, the batteries on your controller dies, the Phantom then will go to 60 m altitude and fly back to base. I love that feature.
If the weather is windy, snowy or rainy it's bad for the Phantom - just a reminder ;)

Mark:
The crow was not a planed sequence. I was out for the otter and was waiting for hours with no result. Then this crow suddenly showed up and I let the camera roll. I have never seen such behavior of a crow before. Still I did know from my books about birds that they are in fact very wise birds. Amazing to watch :)
As for the shutter part, look at what I wrote to Finn-Erik.

Rolling shutter (or wobbling also known as jello) comes from vibration. That's what you see in the last clip in my video. To solve this problem I can balance the propeller, and attaching GoPro'n as hard as possible.


Geir, you probably already know this, but shooting at 50/60fps instead of 24/25/30fps helps reduce rolling shutter. Anytime I mount my GoPro to a motorcycle I shoot at 60P and the jello effect is much reduced.

BTW, yesterday my son gave me the new GoPro Hero 3 Black Edition for my birthday and it shoots at 1080/60p and 720/120p...
Can't wait to try it.

Geir Inge,

As always, I was thinking of a Norwegian philosopher listening to you and watching the film - enchanting!

Almost poetry -

Thanks!

Hey Geir;

It seems like you get all the cool new toys! Sorry to hear you are having a problem with your legs; I damaged my knee a year back and its been giving me grief ever since, so I can empathize with you on that one. Still, that new flying gizmo of your will open up lots of new filming opportunities; as the river flying shot (and the hill flying shot) prove. Looking forward to seeing what you're going to be producing with that in the next competition.

Your opening shot (the pan) is pure gold man; that is epic stuff right there, and all of your wide shots are equally amazing. You weave a nice story around your images; and as always your video sounds like the most heartfelt entry, and the most uplifting.

If I was to pick something that could be improved I would only say that some of the crow shots are a bit shaky (when compared to the rocksteady landscape shots that came before) - perhaps a bit of post-production stabilization would help even it out. There is also one small moment where you recompose the crow shot (at 1.36); if the movement had been cut out and the edit came in at the point after the recomposition (at 1.39) then it maybe would have been smoother coming in to the crab scene. But thats just a small point in an otherwise excellent production. Well done!

Bob: yes, I know about the settings, but thanks anyhow and congrats on the new gopro.

Paul: Thank you for nice comments.

Simon: Thank you for comments and good advices. Well, toys are fun :) I hope to be back on my feet soon. I had the choice to submit or not to submit to this round and the choice fell on the first option. This meant that I did not get done color correction and a final finish editing. I would make some small changes by shortening some scenes, correct color, and add a comment. This I have done in hindsight and uploaded on my vimeo account. I will also have a look at the crab scene ;)
Thanks for your concern Simon, I hope that the doctors can afford the disease in my legs. 1. June starting my new job and I'm excited. Has received one-year leave of absence from my regular job to work with minors unaccompanied refugees. Then I work in two days and nights, then take time off for a week, so this year I get plenty of time to be in Uwol.

Hi, Geir Inge. Even without the polish you say that you didn’t have time for, this lives up to the high standards of a GIBB film. I liked the way you integrated the aerial footage and used it to reinforce the theme. I was also intrigued by the crow footage. I have seen very little footage of that species in the wild. Cool shot with the crab. I am pleased to read that you expect to be recovering soon and that you will have more time for UWOL. Wonderful news both. Well done and best wishes.

Geir,

In spite of the flatness you speak of my favorite shots were with the go pro and your quardra chopper. I gotta get on of them, I can think of all kinds of uses!!!!!

If you had time you could of decreased the gamma on the go pro footage, increased saturation by 20%, then gone to color curves to adjust your highs and lows and the footage would have been breath taking.

there is always a learning curve with new stuff!!! i AM INVIOUS!!!!!!

I feel that your script was the best part of the film!!! I think that is the first time I have ever made that comment!!! I could only agreee with everything you said.

thank you ever so much for sharing and \i lookd forward to some more quadra footage., A quadra is on my list of Needs!!!

Dale

Geir,

I have a little fear of heights and I have to admit, some of your shots made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up...;)
I love the flying GoPro. What a fantastic idea. It must be nice having the scenery that you have close by. I enjoyed watching it. Thanks.

Quite a philosophical piece you have made here hey Geir!

This is once again a different take on the theme and beautifully filmed although I did pick up that you and Dale seem to have a few things in common this time round.

As usual you have produced spectacular landscape shots, rivaled only by your beautiful bird shots. and .. yes! … a Dipper! (A Dipper is an expanded horizon all of its own – what an amazing bird – but, that’s another story!) Of course it is exciting to see your aerial shots using the quadcopter and GoPro – in this respect the theme couldn’t have been more up your alley this time round!

Your sound is of high quality - clear with a good balance between voice, music and ambient sound.

It was a treat to watch this Geir. A beautifully crafted film.

Mike:
Thank you for comments on my film.
Film clips of the crow is special for me too.
Often I feel like I need to shoot the particular animal or bird.
Creatures that are difficult to reach, such as the otter, marten or eagles.
Otherwise it will not be good enough. Well I think that's wrong of me :)
Several times I have found that even the most ordinary and common animals and birds, can display behavior rarely seen, even if you have them around you in your neighborhood.
One need not travel far or seek out exotic animals to take part in exciting adventures.
The recordings of the crow was a great bonus, as I really was looking for the Otter.
After several hours of waiting, with no results as many other times,
his crow suddenly came flying and sat right in front of me.
It was special to witness a behavior I had never seen before.
And it also says that all life has something to contribute to the diversity around us.

Dale:
Thanks for the nice words and YES, I recommend buying a Copt ;)
In Norway, one must seek permission from the National Security Agency and the Civil Aviation Authority,
to be allowed to film from such helicopters and model aircraft. I've got my permission;)
I am very happy for your comment on the manuscript.
Speaking in English, particularly writing, is very difficult for me. So the comment warmed my heart.
I also thank you for the great advice on editing, color correction, etc.
To me, this is what Uwol is all about, that I learn while I expand my horizon.
Haha, that was the right last comment, was it not?

Oliver:
Thank you for nice comments on my film.
Well from where I'm standing (the last clip) it's almost 300 m straight down to the sea.
I'm glad you like the scenary.
It's nice to be reminded of our beautiful landscape, otherwise I can easily take them for granted.

Marj:
Thanks for the nice comments, which I appreciate very much.
I wish I had more time to film birds and animals to this round, not enough time unfortunately.
On the island of Runde, only the Gannets had come in from the sea at this time of year.
I also saw some eagles, but did not get any good footage.
Well, on one occasion I fly the Phantom and got one eagle on tape with my GoPro,
but the eagle was a bit small and the very edge of the film route.
Sorry, you can not use zoom with the GoPro camera.
The river where I filmed dipper is a 2 hour drive from where I live.
The problem with the Phantom is that it makes some noise,
so I scared dipper when I flew over the river, but it came right back, lucky me.
I love that little bird and in fact, it is our National bird ;)

"Beauty, charm and adventure..." Geir Inge, with your poetic, philosophical words and gentle delivery you bring so much romance into wildlife films! For someone who uses Google Translator, I am astounded by your command of the English language. Your optimism is contagious; it takes a lot to make me see crows in a more positive light, yet, you did it! That sequence charmed me to no end, mainly because the joy and appreciation in your voice drew me into the GIBB "crow appreciation club."

This theme played well into your purchase of the quadrocopter, and you put it to great use. As the video progressed I wondered how you would work it in, and was pleased to see that segue was seemless, at least in my eyes. By the way, I loved the shot of the bubbles in the water then the payoff of the little bird popping out. What a fun surprise!

I know how much you love Runde so hesitate to say this, but in my opinion you could have cut the above and below shots of the birds near the end and still had a solid piece--they didn't hurt anything but didn't move it forward, either.

This is one of the entries I will visit often when I need to relax, recharge, and be refreshed. Thank you for another very fine film.

Hi Lorinda and thank you very much for the nice comments and advice.
I've already done a little re-edit on the film ;o)
The plan was, as I have mentioned earlier in the thread, to cooperate with the son of my friend.
He was going to shoot me in action in the field, but unfortunately our plan went down the drain this time.
For me it was important to make a contribution, although it was a bit amputated.