I posted this in another place, but though I should make a new thread about it. Just an idea, as something to do during the UWOL 'off-season' period.

Given that the current UWOL group often consists of people from USA, Canada, Brazil, Scandinavia, UK, Uganda, South Africa, New Zealand (Australia?) - that means that we have got 4 to 5 continents, from the Extreme North down to the Equator, and then on to Australasia.

How about we arrange a collaborative UWOL project, whereby we produce a single film that comprises footage shot from the various countries? Essentially we would need to work out a collaborative theme, where the different countries are connected by a common thread?

I had tried to do this once for a UWOL project (last winter I think) where I had been in Finland for 3 weeks of the UWOL project, and then would be in Uganda for the last week of it. I was going to try and make a movie about fishing - one in Finland (fishing in the ice-holes) and then 1 in Uganda fishing on Lake Victoria. The movie would have tried to show the connection between the 2 different extreme activities (one in ice, and one in the burning equatorial sun) - in both cases it was the fisherman's love for fishing that was common.

Obviously, I did not make that film (I still hope to!) - but perhaps we could brainstorm a similar idea for a collaborative UWOL project?

We would not have to only shoot new footage though, rather we would be able to make use of the archive of material we all have from previous UWOL competitions along with new material shot specially for the collaboration. That way we could use some of our best footage in the new film.

I'm definitely with you, Simon!
This can be a very interesting project.
And what a great way to bring the uwol gang even closer together. :)

Well, I think it is a good idea. I proposed something quite similar a couple of years ago but it wasn’t well received at that time. I hope you get a big response. I’m certainly in to try and do my part.

Well great; thats 3 continents and 3 wildly different cultures & habitats straight off-the-bat!

If we were aiming to get say 6 contributors in total, and each aiming for a 5 minute cut, then we would have a 30 minute documentary.

Mike; we had joked about doing a cattle based showdown; Texan longhorns vs Ankole cattle. How about something like that?

Essentially we all profile a rancher, or livestock farmer in our area. In Texas I'm sure you could get an interesting modern day cowboy to talk about life on the ranch?

Trond - how do those cows survive the winter up North? Are they brought indoors for the worst months? Do the famers ride around on snowmobiles? How do they get enough feed to last the winter?

I know I could pull together an interesting story about cattle farmers here.

Perhaps the common thread would be the cattle, but the theme would revolve around the vastly different lifestyles (and incomes) of the farmers?

Something like this might work, and allow us to focus in on something really specific (for instance we could ask all the ranchers or farmers in the different countries the exact same questions).

I believe the farmers keep the cattle indoors during the winter months, feeding them with grass from last summer, treated with "something".
I have not seen farmers use snowmobiles. They use their tractors all year.
Farms in my part of the country are very small. Some might have a handful cattle, some more. Other parts of the country have bigger farms, but still not even close to an average Texas ranch.

My knowledge and experience with farms and their work and the farmer's life, is very limited. (I live in a city)

Hi Tronde - yes, I think the difference in the scale from a huge Texas ranch and a small Norwegian farm might be what would make it interesting; to see how people go about the same activity in such different ways, and dealing with different problems. I wonder if the attitude of the farmers would be different based on their culture, or the habitat they work in? Or would we find a common thread in the answers to questions?

But for sure; this is just one idea of a theme - hopefully we will see a number of different ideas kicked around!

Good questions you bring up.
Cultural differences are everywhere. We even see it between our neighbor countries, and to a certain degree within the country as well.

Well, you can count me in -
I had the same thought seeing the boda boda, as moto taxis are a frequent for of transport here as well, and then with all this talk of longhorn cattle!

I don't think it would be difficult - maybe the technical part could be solved by using some of the tools in Vimeo - I haven't used them but it may be feasible.

I had also planned to shoot some footage for the ´trees´challenge in Spain, where I was before xmas, then finish in Brazil, hence getting summer and winter in the same film - but didn't have time in the end

Sounds wonderful! Go for it, guys!

Cool; with Brazil onboard we potentially have 4 continents!

I like the cattle idea. There is definitely a video there. Perhaps we could even rope in some of the shooters from India which regularly post in the general UWOL forum but haven’t yet ventured over here (and possibly encourage them to do so). I also like Paul’s idea about forests. I’m doing a long term project in a forest type that once covered 18 million acres and is now almost lost. The largest of the eleven remaining stands (where I am working) covers just over 100 acres. Depending upon who gets in, we have a lot of scope for that project as well. I think we should all try to come up with ideas for a subject and then we can decide which is doable without anyone over-stretching themselves and that also includes the greatest number of willing participants. (We don’t want to get into a situation where the whole project fails because one person has difficulties or is forced to drop out.) Perhaps our goal might be a video aimed at one of the major festivals.

I have a couple of acquaintances that shoot video and also work part of the year in Antarctica. I have been encouraging them to get into the challenge because I would really like to see one with entries from every continent. They have expressed interest but, so far, haven’t found the right combination of opportunity and theme to jump in. A collaborative project covering every continent would be really cool. One area the challenges seem to regularly miss is Asia. There are a number of Asian shooters on the general UWOL forum.

I think this has turned into an interesting discussion but it needs more voices. Jump in!

I like the cattle idea. There is definitely a video there. Perhaps we could even rope in some of the shooters from India which regularly post in the general UWOL forum but haven’t yet ventured over here (and possibly encourage them to do so). I also like Paul’s idea about forests. I’m doing a long term project in a forest type that once covered 18 million acres and is now almost lost. The largest of the eleven remaining stands (where I am working) covers just over 100 acres. Depending upon who gets in, we have a lot of scope for that project as well. I think we should all try to come up with ideas for a subject and then we can decide which is doable without anyone over-stretching themselves and that also includes the greatest number of willing participants. (We don’t want to get into a situation where the whole project fails because one person has difficulties or is forced to drop out.) Perhaps our goal might be a video aimed at one of the major festivals.

I have a couple of acquaintances that shoot video and also work part of the year in Antarctica. I have been encouraging them to get into the challenge because I would really like to see one with entries from every continent. They have expressed interest but, so far, haven’t found the right combination of opportunity and theme to jump in. A collaborative project covering every continent would be really cool. One area the challenges seem to regularly miss is Asia. There are a number of Asian shooters on the general UWOL forum.

I think this has turned into an interesting discussion but it needs more voices. Jump in!

Yeah, I think we should put in as many ideas as we can think of. However, I think there ought to be a limit to the number of stories in the movie. Given the attention span of the average internet audience, I think anything over 30 minutes would be too long. So I guess it would be a balance between many stories of shorter length (like 10 stories at 3 minutes each) or less stories at a longer length (like 6 stories at 5 minutes each).

We could also look at possibly running 2 different themes simultaneously; in the spirit of friendly UWOL competition; so we would have 2 different UWOL 'teams' with a different theme, with different filmmakers in each 'team'. This would allow us to have more people included.

Lots of options!

Paul: would you be keen on doing a cattle based film - I know ranching is a big deal there with the deforestation and so on.

Hi Simon,

Yes, in fact it would be the easiest theme for me, as I live on a farm!

I have several ideas - I presented one, in my first entry, but of course there is also the high tech end of dairy (well, relatively) so lots of possibilities.

Of course, the forest theme also interests, as Mike mentions.

But, without wishing to ¨cool off the idea ¨, perhaps we should try something simple first - perhaps between a smaller group - one of the things that occurs to me, if we plan to make this into a finished 20 - 30 min film, is a consistency of putting it together.

I haven't quite worked out how that workflow could happen, apart from a Vimeo project, with 3-5 min individual episodes.
How would we pull all our efforts into one film? Or is that really necessary?

I'd love to see how we could make it work, as I think the idea is brilliant, and I think would enable us to reach a bigger audience, but of course it has to look, and sound good!

The best ideas I think work by osmosis - people see a good thing working, and want to join - maybe we should start with a trial project?

I guess if we all had fibre optic internet connection, it would be much easier!

I like Mike's idea about the forest too. Would be easier for me as well.
But I'm in regardless of what theme we end up with.

To make this into one single film, I guess the easiest way would be to send all the edited parts to one of us, who then put it all together.
(I volunteer to do this, if this is what we end up with)

As for publishing the final product, if we ask Chris, maybe we can use the uwol vimeo page?

Well, the idea I had would certainly be to try and have one long movie with many locations from different contributors, rather than having a bunch of small individual movies. So yes, in this scenario the idea would be to individually edit our own pieces, and have the footage sent to 1 editor who would combine all the movies, along with an introduction, an ending, and final mix-down with the music and sound levels normalized across the different movies etc.

I have done movies before where people have sent footage to me by Dropbox (and vice-versa) and I am in the middle of a project now where footage was sent to me by courier (in a small 32gb flashcard, so it is inexpensive) - so there are lots of options available.

As some themes would be more suitable to some people based on convenience, perhaps we could look at running 2 themes concurrently with 2 teams competing against each other in the spirit of the regular UWOL challenge?

This would be more inclusive as more people could get involved?

Well this would be up my alley. That's one reason I never got my video done for the UWOL Challenge, I've been calving cows for the last month and a half.

Gordon

Haha! Guess you've got no excuse then. One more country to the list!

Well, as i just finished a project on forests - I vote for cattle farming as well - sounds like it would be a good first choice!

Good evening,

I certainly could shoot a cattle theme.

But to be honest, I feel the biodiversity of our planet will give a lot better theme that more people would enjoy watching!! It would then allow each area to be highlighted, or even do a Microcosims theme so each participant can nail down something that will not have to be to grand!

How about a planet tour from the jungle to the northern forest to even the concrete jungle.

"The Uwolers world" Representing where and what we do outdoors or environments we do it in.

UWOL impressions etc
Just some thoughts.


dale

Wow. That's an incredibly good idea, Dale. Why don't we do both.

This sound good peps! I've been thinking of this senice I started UWOL back at challenge #6.
The farming idea is interesting, but I would like to have an environment touch, how are the world changing and how is this effecting the farmer. Is the farmer consurned about the change?

I like the biodiversity of UWOL world too, the world we live in or like the UN film theme that was going on during wintertime, the forest we live in, city, jungle, tundra, rainforest, lack of one ( how is this effecting the living creatures?), the farming forest (that lack biodiversity) or the forest under the waves, kelp, seaweed, or coral reef.

When we decide on a theme and basic story, I think that one or two should write the storyline and "produce" the film (just an idea).

How about a planet tour from the jungle to the northern forest to even the concrete jungle.

"The Uwolers world" Representing where and what we do outdoors or environments we do it in.


I like these thoughts very much.
And Markus is also coming with great ideas. :)

Good to see tbe ideas are coming and so many seem interested in joining this adventure.

I see that you guys are trying to plan a lot of fun ahead.
And yet we are not finished with Uwol 25, haha - but it sounds like a good idea.
Not to pour a sour lemon into the slurry, but I think it is wise to think carefully before starting.
This mingling of ideas in the forum is a good start in this respect.
This reminds me of ULF. It's an interesting thought, but still ...
When we see that many of us are registrants for uwol rounds, before falling off in the end,
I think it's wise to put a time frame, then select a direction of the movie,
what should be filmed and then see how many are left.
Still, my experience is that if it gets too much pressure on the individual,
even if it is voluntary to participate in, some fall off towards the end.
I also believe that some questions should be asked:
Maybe one should select a coordinator for the project?
How will the ownership of the finished product be?
How and to what one should be able to use the end result?
What if there are four participants from Scandinavia and only one, or none from other continents?
Should there be a limit of participants, or...?
The answers to these questions will be helpful for planning
and perhaps also helpful in the choice of topic approach to the film.
I agree with Dale, that perhaps the film should show variation in their respective areas, more than just one species - like a cow.
Although I know several farmers, the idea of a more diverse and broader approach is more appealing to me.
What about the film's main direction in which the link between the various contributions are approximately as follows:

Simon (Uganda):
Filming in Africa and is talking around about "his" animal or whatever.
He says: And now we want to see what Dale is bringing us from his place; Saskatchewan in Canada.
And so on ...

These were just some thoughts from me and it will be interesting to follow.

Hi Geir,

You are right in everything you say. But at the moment we are just brainstorming, and a production would be some time off. Committing to the project would also be an issue, as if one person fails to deliver his part it could potentially waste everybody else's time.

Your mention about coordinator is a good point, I was about to mention the same thing myself - that is going to be a key issue in order to orchestrate the different people in different remote locations.

With as far as creditation is concerned; there would have to be joint & equal creditation and joint & equal ownership. No single Director, only Partners in production. This would be the fairest solution. The process would have to adhere to Rule 11 too!

With regards to the the idea I envisage, there would be an organic story that would unfold from location to location, not an episodic film where one location simply hands over to the next. But thats not to say that an episodic film wouldn't happen, because we are still discussing the various ideas.

One thing I would be interested in asking about the forest/environment theme would be how would it work with the narration? Would we get one person to narrate the different segments in order to keep a continuity between the different sections?

With the cattle theme, the idea would be to focus on the individual animal as the continuity between the different locations. But the wildly different habitats and cultures would be the diversity of the film - the contrast between the lifestyles of different people doing the same thing would be where the interest would be. This juxtaposition of different means to the same end is what I think the audience would find interesting (so the movie would not really be about cattle, the cows are simply the 'macguffin' that forms the common thread between the different people). But as always, I prefer stories that involve real humans (and I have a preference against narration) - so this is simply me coming up with ideas that suit my sensibility in filmmaking.

But of course I am interested in all the ideas that may emerge here!

This doesn't have to be a one off thing, or limited to one idea. It doesn't have to happen now, or have any particular deadline. This would be a means for us UWOL fanatics to keep working during the off season and pool our resources when we want to expand into new territories, so to speak.

As Aristotle said; "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts". So essentially, our combined locations and experiences could potentially create a greater film than any of us could do individually in one locations.

I think that in 25 posts we have identified that there is an interest in a collaborative film project - and that inevitably there are some obstacles to be overcome in order to make it a reality.

Collaboration is the way all major films are made, but that probably requires a degree of compromise from some of us individuals along the way, both in the artistic sense, and in giving up some freedom of choice.

I would guess we are all reading this because we are keen film makers, and enjoy the challenges set by the DVInfo team, but maybe we are solo shooters most of the time (certainly my own case), and are unsure of how this project would fit - into our own time schedules, and our ideas of how to produce films, like the excellent submissions this round.

I reckon the best way to find out is to give it a try!

Chris Hurd and the DVInfo team have given us an excellent forum to discuss our ideas, to see if we can reach a consensus, and I hope we can bring the idea into reality!

Perhaps I could suggest some steps:

- Decide on the theme - first in general terms, then develop into more detail.

- Interested parties to ¨sign up¨to the project.

- Plan what roles will be required from within the group - director (coordinator), editor, technical expert, camera, etc, and agree who will do what.

- Decide a realistic timeframe, taking into account everyone’s possibilities of free time.

And I’m sure there are more!

Just my thoughts, and I realise that I am one of the newest to the group, so please excuse my forwardness!

Just to pick up on the themes discussed- I planned my first film submission on the idea of milk, but it turned out to be the story of a farmer.

Perhaps instead of us talking about cows - what if we said Milk?

Most of us use it each day - but how does it get to our supermarket shelf?
what environmental impact does our bottle of milk have?
Lives of truck drivers
Dairymen
Farmland and forest
Antibiotics in the food chain
and of course, cows and calves

I guess you could take other ideas and turn them upside down to get some inspiration!

Good Morning,

Geir's advice is good, it will be very much a exercise in organization and lastly execution.

Definitely a person willing to be the central director ( I mean this as an organizer/administrator)
Definitely a person to do final editing
Definitely a person to narate as needed
Definitely a script writer.

Obviously everyone will likly have some job to do; what in particular will slowly sort itself out.

I have only ever considered myself a camera guy and I like the idea of people with special gifts being optimized.

The most difficult part will likly be picking a theme that can be universally and uniformly addressed so there is continuity. After that the rest is just time and work!!!

So, before we make any decision to go with it a theme should be struck, then one could see what actual efforts of participation would be involved.

I have no doubts with the skills and people involved we could even get the final product televised. Heck I have had things televised and I am not half the film maker most of you are!!!

Dale

Some interesting ideas going around here; now that the current UWOL competition is over, perhaps we can start looking into this in a bit more detail.

When I started this thread my initial idea was that we UWOL shooters could look at doing a collaborative project with the idea of collaboration instilled into it from the beginning stages (in terms of collaborating to work on a 'theme'), the filming stages (where we all film pretty much simultaneously with a start date and finish date), and then the post stage (where we all edit our section and send it off to one final person for the final mix down). Thats pretty much in the same spirit as the UWOL competition, and seems fair enough. Definitely this is something that can still happen if we are able to hammer out all the details and make it happen.

However, in retrospect I think that the initial idea is a bit flawed, as by being collaborative in all stages of the production means that it could take a very long time for everyone to agree on the details through all of the stages, and then actually make it happen through the whole process. Films don't happen by committee, I guess, and that would be the reason why you generally have a 'Director'.

Probably we are looking at this from the wrong angle. After some thought on the matter I would propose the following alternative idea:

1) A UWOL member thinks of an idea for a collaborative film. Just for examples sake lets say Trond wants to do an international film concerning "Dwindling Forests".

2) Trond posts a new thread in the UWOL pages with a Collaborative Tag, and states the theme he wants to explore, for example: Collaborative UWOL Project - Dwindling Forests - Trond Saetre.

3) He then states the theme and a rough synopsis of what he wants to investigate. He can then ask for a number of people to voice their interest to participate in the film. If he has specific geographical needs then he can state these in the thread to help filter his requirements.

4) Interested UWOL shooters can then reply to the thread stating their interest, and offering their services for the film. At this point the interested shooters can also offer up their ideas for helping to collaborate on the film. As an example Paul Wood could come in and say; "Yes he is interested, and he would be available to film a section on the Amazon coastal forest". He might mention whether or not the impact on animals is relevant, or would it be better to interview people effected by the deforestation (or even interview the people employed to cut it down).

5) Trond comes back to the thread and considers the new ideas, and assembles an overall plan for the film based on the interested parties and what they can offer. Shooting dates are arranged and post-production plans are agreed upon.

6) Once an overall plan has been arranged by the Original Poster, the individual shooters film their sections, and send the footage to Trond for final editing (or they handle the post workflow as per the agreement).

7) Presumably it would be in the UWOL spirit to have equal credit for each persons section; but perhaps there would be a: "Conceived by Trond Saetre" or "From an Original Idea by Trond Saetre" credit in addition to the regular ones?

So, this would be essentially a platform for we UWOL filmmakers to collaborate on original ideas, and assist each other with international projects. UWOL members would just post the idea, and interested parties are free to join in, or not, depending on whether the idea interests them.

We all pretty much know one another (in terms of our location, what equipment we use, what style we favor, and what our individual strengths and weaknesses are). As I said before: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts; so I think its a great opportunity for us to get involved with and make something bigger together than we could ever make alone.

Trond and Paul - you will excuse me for using your names as examples (its just I couldn't write about myself in the 3rd person) and it seemed easier to use real regional examples!

I see I have a lot of hard labor waiting for me, haha.
Simon, don't worry. I don't mind being used in your example. :)


Anyways,
Many great ideas and thoughts are brought in already.
As for credits/ ownership of the finished film, in my opinion that would be an equal share between the participants.
I believe it will be best if one person do the final edits / put everything together.
But this does not exclude the participants for doing a rough edit first. The procedure must of course be agreed on in advance.

I agree with Dale about his suggestions of dividing the workload, and having one or a few making a script and controlling the progress of the project.

No, no problem with using me as an example, either :)

I would be quite happy to go along with these suggestions - as I said, picking a theme has got to be the starting point, and Simon's suggestion is a good one.
I'll try and work up a couple of ideas, and post when done.

Uwol was conceived in 2006 by Chris Hurd and the first competition (Uwol # 1) in January 2007 with Meryem Ersoz as our guiding star and leader.
What if we made ​​a film about us participants, being a part of Uwol and what we do?
After so many years we have accumulated a lot of material, from all continents.
Uwol is best known among us who participate, not that known for the rest of the world.
What if we made ​​a nature video with Uwol as theme and starting point?
A film that deals with how we work together across continents and countries, with the Internet as a venue? And we are celebrating the 25th round?
I think it will be of great interest for many TV stations around the world.
Few of us have met, still we talk to eachother as good old friends.
I think it will be a scoop; "world cooperation of nature videographers".

This is only a thought, but why shoot new footage when we have so much unused and ready to be broadcast? It does not matter whether we use what we have presented in Uwol.
In Norwegian we call it recycled, which is good for the environment ;o)
This will be a feature film that shows "Best of Uwol". The job is to edit the monster :/
AND pick the right tracks.
AND ask Chris if we can use this forum.

Imagine, 5 minutes on each will be a feature length nature films from around the world.
What do you say, is it worth considering?

Well, I've used Google translate to this post,
so you can do crossword puzzles work and reshuffling words so it is proper english :)

Geir: the translation works very well, and I really like your idea!

Way to go, Geir Inge! This is the best idea yet. We could also use this as a starting place to begin reassembling the videos (at very least the winners from all of the earlier rounds) that we lost when the archive disappeared. There will be some format problems, but nothing we can’t deal with. Hopefully the owners of the earlier videos can provide versions in the higher resolutions we now use. I think the story of a group of strangers that came together ostensibly to compete and ended up forming a community dedicated to helping and encouraging each other resulting in a world-wide collaboration has an incredible amount of “human interest”. We can do this. I’m going to start giving this project a lot of serious thought and I hope others will too. Please, let’s hear what everyone thinks!

... when the archive disappeared. Would somebody please bring me up to speed on this? What, when and how. Am I already aware? I'm not sure! I've been paying my hosting company *something* for quite some time with a UWOL earmark on it but I don't claim to know anything anymore.

CH, until someone who knows better chimes in I'll take a stab at it. I believe that you moved the archives from uwolchallenge.com to DV Info servers a couple years ago. You took over hosting the Web site and storing files...I think, which would mean the archives are not lost. If I remember correctly it would be the cool site Mat Thompson designed and Kevin Railsback was funding that disappeared. Ring any bells? :)

Ah so. Yes, the web site appears to be long gone but it looks like I've got an active UWOL-branded server using a 40GB slice with fresh back-ups. So the data should be there. I'm not exactly sure how to get into it, but we'll figure it out.

Geir Inge's idea is a great one!
No matter what skills each of us have, no matter where we live (in a city, on a farm...), this theme is something that everyone should be able to accomplish.

So the data should be there. Excellent! DVInfo to the rescue. I should have known…

Sorry for continuing this even further OT, but I wanted to let you all know that I have successfully accessed the old UWOL Challenge server and everything from the old site (including all of the video clips) is indeed intact and safe & sound. The only thing that was lost appears to be the domain name. Without it, the site itself is really not functional due to the internal linking structure. However I downloaded and watched a few video clips, one of which was Mike Sim's "Over The Mountain" long-form challenge entry, among others. So despite the loss of the domain name, everything else survives and is perfectly healthy. We'll work on getting it restored to public view soon.

Good to know all the submitted entries are still there.

Chris,
Thank you very much for all you do for everyone here. DVInfo.net is really the one and only source for quality information.

I like Geir's idea (although I only have a short history here!), as it could make a good human interest theme of the group of like minded individuals across the world. I am very happy being accepted as part of the group!

The way I see it would be each of us doing a short piece to camera, (with a common set of questions to answer) covered with supporting B roll, either shot for the event, or using existing footage - especially for those with winning entries - which would form the body of the B roll.

I would also support Simon's original idea, of having several projects running at once - this should also be achievable, as long as people have time, and the two do not overlap in the subject.

Any thoughts?

I've been thinking about this off and on; haven't formed many definite thoughts, but I want to try to help keep the ball rolling...or balls, as it appears to be two projects.

For the "farm" project, I suggest that Simon Wood head that one up as director and editor. He would start a thread dedicated to the project and you all go from there.

As for the UWOL history project...this one is obviously going to be a big job from a communication and data gathering standpoint. Wondering if duties could be split up, with perhaps Chris Hurd starting a thread detailing the plan, maybe Trond contacting some past participants to see if they want to get involved, and then everyone deciding on other details.

Both projects = large commitment, with extraordinary payoff!

Can't believe I left out one of the first thoughts I had regarding the history project: Someone needs to get in touch with Meryem and ask for her insight, advice, and inclusion! The UWOL Challenge is her baby!! :)

As for the UWOL history project...this one is obviously going to be a big job from a communication and data gathering standpoint. Wondering if duties could be split up, with perhaps Chris Hurd starting a thread detailing the plan, maybe Trond contacting some past participants to see if they want to get involved, and then everyone deciding on other details.

Both projects = large commitment, with extraordinary payoff!

Can't believe I left out one of the first thoughts I had regarding the history project: Someone needs to get in touch with Meryem and ask for her insight, advice, and inclusion! The UWOL Challenge is her baby!! :)

I will do my best to contact all the previous participants within this week.
And yes, Meryem must be included. :)

I think we should just pick up Lorinda’s suggestions and run with them.

I really like Simon’s original idea about cattle. If he decides to do it I would like to participate. I have several ideas- from the world’s largest cattle ranch to a small cow/calf operation run by a little old white-haired lady, a small town cattle auction to a huge commercial feed lot. Unfortunately, with my current travel restrictions it would take me the better part of the year to collect that footage, also, for me, the best time for cattle related footage would be February (San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo) and March (Houston Stock Show- the world’s largest). Whatever time frame Simon chooses I will try to contribute something.

I think we should get started on the UWOL project now and just let it take how ever long it takes. Trond would also be my first choice to coordinate it (if he is agreeable). I would think it would require interviews with Chris Hurd, Meryem Ersoz, Catherine Russell and Lorinda Norton. We might also want to each record a one or two sentence self-interview. Other than that most of the footage should be in the bank. How about this as a working title-“Under Water, Over Land- Around the World”?

Sounds good to me; the more projects the merrier!

I would certainly like to be involved with the UWOL Around the World project in some back-seat capacity; so if something is required from me I would be happy to provide it (such as the source footage from previous entries or new footage - whatever is needed). Editing all that will be a big task; so I hope some stalwart editor is up to the job! It should be an exciting project, and I look forward to seeing how it develops.

With Lorinda's blessing I will start a thread on the UWOL Great-Cattle-Drive (name still to be decided!) later this week; I just want to get my thoughts in order first.

Mike - I think this will be a long-haul project; and I reckon it would do best with some footage from Winter in the Northern Hemisphere, so I think we can definitely wait until February and March of next year (considering how great those events must be). Canada and Scandinavia might be most interesting in Winter, contrasting with Equatorial Africa & Brazil the most. But I reckon a Texas rodeo will be about the coolest thing we could imagine having for this theme! Also, I cant believe we might get our Longhorn / Ankole showdown after all...I'm very excited about all the possibilities!

A timeframe of 1 year to film will allow us to coordinate the Cattle Drive as well as can be done, and also allow us to get all the various seasons filmed where needed. I am also thinking this might give me time to travel over to Tanzania at some point to try and get some film of the Maasai. Lots of factors to think about!

I would also be please to help with the UWOL Around the World project in any way.

Reading Mike's post, I reckon there would be an interesting contrast between Brazil and Texas - I have close by small farmers, but could also visit some of the very large ones - we also have rodeos, although I'm not sure of the scale of them - the local ones are pretty small scale.
I like Simon's idea of visiting the Masai - that would be excellent!

I will try and fit in with whatever timing we agree on, and I agree it should take some time to get the best footage.

If it would be of interest for the farming film, I got a local organic farmer close by. He is in this film and he is working a lot with making his farm more environmental friendly.

Phosphorus Wetland – How, Where, Why on Vimeo

Looks good! Perhaps I'll just start the Cattle Drive thread today so that we can keep all the posts tidier.

I have now sent a message to Meryem, with link to this thread.

Seeing that it has now developed into two separate projects, I'd say that I'd follow Geir Inge's idea about the "UWOL Around the World" theme. I feel I can do a lot more in that project, than a "farm theme" which I know very little about. But having said that, if needed or wanted, I will of course help as much as I can for both projects.

I'll start a new thread for the "UWOL Around the World" project, so spesific posts for that project don't get lost.

Still, posts/ideas/thoughts and everything else valid for both projects should be posted in this thread.