Hello Friends,

While I have not been around much for some time. I loved watching the last round of videos.
For those that recall my sons brain tumor taking up 20% of his brain being removed fighting cvancer , not walking for 2.5 years, I am here to tell you he is doing great and living life well and even has a significant other in his life and has moved to the nearest city and is on his own. So thanks to all all the friends for prayers and support. I now feel almost free!!

that aside:

It would be really nice to have a challange or two where the theme is just the season, like summer, but the competitors can use any footage they have personally shot. that way all of the films will be summer for example. The footage can be of the highest quality a person can put up and that would make for some amazing videos. one challenge each year opened ended like this, but to the given theme, would be a blast. also I think we might have more succerssful completion by competitors,myself included.

When is the next challenge?

Dale it's good to hear your son is doing well.
I believe Trond said the sign up for the next challenge would be after the middle of this month.
All the best.

Gordon

Dale,

Such great news about your son!!

Next challenge is January so Trond will be putting up a signup soon.

A give us your best stuff challenge would be great to see what everyone has been doing. No excuse for not submitting a film since you've already shot the footage! :)

Hi Dale

That is great news about your son's progress! I have only one issue with your proposal, the southern hemisphere / northern hemisphere difference of seasons may make it hard for some to get extra footage if they find in the edit that they have a missing element.

Yep, next fun begins January 1st.

Sign up will be posted later this weekend or early next week.

"Seasons" have never been a theme because the seasons never is the same in north and south. In addition we have always required the footage to be filmed specifically for the challenge. It is important that every theme can be filmed regardless of where in the world you are.
I do not plan to change this.
When that's said, once in a while I break the rules and have the "fun shoots". Then Dale's suggestion or other ideas could be used.

Hi, Dale! It’s so good to hear from you (especially with your good news). I look forward to your next video.

I don’t want to hijack the thread, but with a subject line like “A Couple of Thoughts” I am going to add a couple of my own.

First, the last round left a very sour taste in my mouth. I felt, and still feel, pretty bad about the outcome. (Not the results. No problem there. I only wish I had congratulated the winners but at the time I was wondering if I would ever have anything to do with UWOL again.) I’ll admit that I completely missed the part in the 2016 rules where, in rule nine, it says “At any time after that, judges may send their votes…” I wrote detailed feedback for all of the entries and when I came back to post them all at once (like I always do) I was greeted by a thread titled “UWOL 40- The results” ??????? Results? How do we have results when the judging phase hasn’t even started yet? OK. I get it now. Judging starts immediately. It seems premature to me but rules are rules. What I still don’t understand is -when does judging end? It would be nice if we could get a notice (did I miss something?) that judging is ending hurry up and send in those votes. I felt cheated that I didn’t get the chance to vote. Worse, I didn’t even leave any feedback because I felt it would have been highly presumptuous of me at that point to give critiques to the winners that might have been construed as being condescending given that they had won and I obviously hadn’t. Should I have modified the feedback I was going to give those videos and would that have been fair to the others? I ended up leaving no feedback at all. For that I still feel bad, as well as for not congratulating Gordon and Paul when they so obviously deserved it. Oh, well, I have been around here long enough that most of you probably realize that when I sometimes get my nose out of joint I eventually straighten up and fly right. Now water under the bridge.

Second thought. If you go back thirty-nine pages and look at the first UC post you will see that Meryem opened up sign-up for the first Challenge on December 22, 2006. (It was ten years ago today that Sgt. Ersoz taught the band… Uh, sorry.) The next challenge will mark our tenth anniversary and I strongly feel we should do something to commemorate it. Perhaps the theme will reflect the anniversary? [Although Trond enjoys keeping us guessing… : ) ] I think this is something we should be thinking about.

Back in 2006, 48 hour video contests were all the rage (haven’t even heard of one lately) and our rules rather reflect that. I think it is time we evolve. I don’t think it is unreasonable that we might have over a hundred films in a round if we:

1) Revise our rules a bit to make it easier for players to make high quality films without feeling they might have to cheat a bit to do so. The short time limits and artistic themes can be very restrictive to many of us.
2) Actively promote this thing all over the internet with the goal of getting some fresh blood and new ideas in here. And-
3) With that in mind, offer real prizes. One of the reasons the DVChallenge always had so many entrants was the great prizes offered by their incredible sponsor. On the few rounds where we offered prizes we had many entrants. As the recipient of one of those prizes- thanks again Chris Hurd!- I can tell you that I was motivated to a much higher degree for that round.


I realize that making changes like this might possibly (likely) mean that I never win anything again. That’s OK. I feel honored to have ever won at all. I just can’t help feeling that if we don’t grow, if we only become an ever diminishing clique that we will be betraying Mereym’s wonderful vision that started us off and seriously failing the real Challenge that she set for us all.

This is my opinion. I realize you each have your own.

Hey Mike,
I'm on my phone so won't type much as it's a PITA but I'll try to come back and leave a lengthier response.
I know Trond does let us know when judging will wrap each round.
I'm sure he'll cover that in more detail.

Just like I like the critiques on my entries to focus on what I can do better, I really appreciate your feedback on UWOL. It's how we grow and make it better.

I've seen a decline in filmmaking challenges/events whatever you want to call them everywhere. The fact that we are still going is amazing to me.
DVC hasn't done anything in a long time.
The tests over at DVXUser are dead.
The 405 Challenge is dead.
It seems what dominates now is single clips on YouTube and no one really puts together films for things like this anymore.

We are in a small niche so I think our numbers will never be high but they certainly need to be higher

I think we were at our best when we had 3rd party judges.

I've been guilty of missing way too many challenges.
I decided a challenge or two ago to rededicate myself into getting entries done.

I'm. It sure what the solution is to try and revive UWOL and get back to 30'entries a challenge but I think that's where we all would love it to be.
We just need to open up some conversations and see if we can figure it out

Thanks, Kevin. I figured I had probably just missed something and over reacted again. I would have just e-mailed Trond but I think the rest of you deserve to know why I was upset and shamefully absent at the crucial time.

The info about judging process and deadlines for judging is always specified at the top/beginning in the same post/ thread as I publish the submitted films every challenge. Been like that for years.
I figured that writing the info there, everyone would notice. Maybe a separate thread could be made in addition to this.
I usually try to give about a week, and include at least one weekend, before judging deadline.

Feedback commence immediately after the films are released. Same procedure since the beginning of UWOL.

Earlier this year we used one challenge to try out an alternative judging and feedback procedure, which didn't work out well for various reasons. We then went back to the same system we have used since we began voting ourselves instead of using professional film makers as judges.

I know Meryem used a lot of time and effort to get the professional judges, and she has the network to get in touch with them. Unfortunately I don't. Anyway, it was a valid and well thought through reason to change from professional judges to let the players do the judging, even though that probably is part of the reason why we see fewer participants now than before.
Kevin's comments also touch this subject and other aspects of it.

As far as I know, UWOL has never had any sponsors for prizes to the winners, like the DVC had.
The few times we had anything for the winners, it was paid by Meryem herself.
(Maybe DVInfo.net has sponsored us a couple times, but that's all)

Yes, the numbers are very low these days, and that's pretty sad.
But as always, I am of course open to any ideas and thought about how we can improve UWOL Challenge. This thread could be one place to discuss ideas for our future.

In general, if anyone has any questions, never be afraid to ask!

Yes, it has been sad to see the numbers of entries, and the numbers of comments per entry go down over the past couple of years. Less interest overall. But that has been the trend in general with, at least, nature-type videos. There used to be lots more contests. National Geographic held one called "Wild To Inspire" with the prize a chance to go to Africa and film with a Nat Geo crew. What a prize! But it only lasted 3 years, and frankly, the entries in the last year were anything but inspiring.

When we started, amateur video was primitive. Tape. 4:3. Lousy color. First generation editing software. Audio like in a tin can. By taking what was there into the realm of Nature, we did some pretty cool stuff...sort of like what the pros did. But the equipment got better, and cheaper, and soon everyone was doing it. I remember when Trond (or was it Geir Inge) first put up a time-lapse. I watched it 3 times, overwhelmed. Now it's everywhere. It's boring. Today when a theme is announced, I go through my repertoire of favorite techniques, and subjects I enjoy and think "I filmed that once before. Do I really want to do it again, so four people will watch it?" I wonder if others of us get the same feeling.

We do need more people. Prizes are the key. And there is one prize that everyone wants, and that won't break any budget. Recognition. Widespread recognition. 100K views on You Tube recognition. We aren't going to generate it with 4 minute videos on UWOL. Could we do it with a real movie? I know, we tried a collaborative once before, and it went nowhere. There was no story. We need a story, because we sure have the filming and editing talent to fill it up with spectacular images. Our "film crew" is already world-wide. Imagine what the BBC pays for that.

The problem with this idea, of course, is that it would take years. Does anyone want to spend years? Probably not. But wouldn't it be fun to show that a bunch of guys and gals with some cameras and some imagination could put together a nature-type film that people would want to watch?

Hi all. As I have been banging on for for sometime about the the the decline in numbers and in particular new entrants I thought I ought to add my two pennies worth to this thread.

Mike alluded to viewing and voting which is something I raised and a different system was tried for a challenge. Wasn't like by some, so we reverted after one round.

At this years Wildscreen I approached Jason Peters of https://twitter.com/Wildlife_Film who I thought might like to help promote these challenges and with his contacts have a ready supply of judges he could call upon. After some discussion I found out he was involved with BWPA (British wildlife photographers awards) They have a 1min 30sec video category award which unfortunately suffers from very few entries, although they have promoted it well etc. He was therefore reluctant to get involved with or promote UWOL for us.

This leads me the conclusion that maybe these type of changes were of their time when digital videography was in it infancy and maybe no longer relevent in thier present formats

Not sure the above helps but maybe its time to throw baby out with the bathwater and come up with a new radical way to enable our UWOL Challenge community to flourish again.

When coming up with ideas please note that the main forum also has very little traffic these days so maybe we need to think outside of the box !! Mick

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. Much appreciated!
I think Steve really touched it in the last part of his post. "Getting recognized!"
Question is how to make it happen.

Some uwolers have already got their name out to the industry. We have Mat Thompson who used what he learned from the challenge to get a job with wildlife filming, traveling around the world.
Vishal, in the process of getting his name and film out there. Kevin and Mick working on their films.
So it is possible to get recognized.

An idea I received privately from one of the uwol players:

What is at the end of the year we take the five winning films and the five 2nd place films and we vote for one film and it gets submitted to a couple film festivals?
Then we have ten films to vote the best and one moves on to be submitted to a few festivals that we can decide on just by looking to see what nature and wildlife film festivals are out there.

.......
Maybe Wildscreen 2018 could be one target festival if we try this out in 2017?
Could generate more traffic to dvinfo as well, if the submitted film had advertising for uwol challenge and dvinfo.net in the credits or something like that. (A good motivation for Chris Hurd to maybe sponsor the festival fee for the winning film?)

Any thoughts?

I think that every one of you is touching on a reason that video challenges aren't as popular as they were. With the DVC, prizes stopped bringing in people, even with the amazingly cool prizes Guy Cochran offered and with several of us promoting the challenge in every way we could muster. There is the issue of everything having a season...and that season passes.

But rather than go down the downer road, my eyes lit up at Steve Siegel's mention of a twist on collaborative efforts. I went to YouTube and watched short nature films with views in the tens to hundred thousands. They were good but lost my interest because, like Steve said, they didn't have a story.

What if you keep the number of challenges per year. Everyone has a say in a theme and story. People shoot and share footage with everyone, then each player provides, through their edit and choice of narration (or a chosen script if you want) a finished piece for competition. As the challenge year progresses, the top shooters, top editors, top storytellers, top narrators, etc. would emerge. At the end of the year, either remakes of past efforts or a fresh theme/story is produced, using the chosen footage, editor, etc. Where it would be submitted is a question, but it's way past my bedtime; I just wanted to offer a little late night snack for thought.

Edit: Also, if someone just wants to do one aspect, such as submit footage or edit without doing an entire project, I think that would be a nice way to encourage more participation.

That's an interesting concept, Lorinda. In a way it reminds me of the collaborate project we tried, but didn't finish, a few years ago. Could be worth trying out.

Lorinda brought up a very important point in saying that everything has a season, and that season passes. If you watch TV nature shows, you will remember that once upon a time, footage like ours was popular under the tutelage of people like Sir David Attenborough, where a show featuring short segments of individual species doing their thing was all the rage. When was the last time you watched one of these? Now if it isn't dangerous animals killing each other, it never gets to the screen. Unless it's animation. The most popular science programs today are animated. UWOLers haven't the money.

Does this mean we have lost our niche, and should just curl up and die? Not quite. There is a new niche that, if it isn't open yet, it could be, especially in the United States with our recent political antics, and the resultant assault about to be leashed on the environment. There are probably dozens of environmental and wildlife protection groups out there, in all countries, who have a message to get out. They are mostly not rich. I wonder if, as a group, UWOL could offer to donate, or film fresh, material that these organizations might want to place in their programs or advertising. Sort of like Getty Images for Nature non-profits, but at no charge.

It will be a hard sell. I've tried it. Believe it or not, it's hard to give your stuff away. Any good administrators in the group?

Steve,

My goal has always been to make a difference for nature and wildlife.
I've donated my footage to non profits before to help their cause and I'd be happy
to do something like this through UWOL.
If this is something others want to do I'd be happy to give towards it.

Hi Dale,
Great news about your son. It must be a huge relief for you.

On the subject of change: In recent years, there have been many threads & posts about how we could potentially change, or tweak the challenge to make it better. A lot of these have had some great suggestions as to how we can make this forum even better. We should embrace change. If nothing changes, things go stale & interest will be lost. There have been some very talented people, & continue to be some very talented people here on the UWOL forum. Pushing the limits of our abilities is what will keep the interest, & I believe attract interest to our community here.
Constructive criticism, I suspect, is what elevates decent films to great films. This of course can only happen in the production stage. It’s all well and good to suggest a bunch of things that could have been done better after the film was made, but imagine if we gave feedback on each other’s films & then were able to go back & re-do parts of our films based on the feedback we get. I wonder what each of us would come up with then? Of course this gets away from the whole “contest” type of thing we are used to. I’m just thinking it may be a way of working out where to go next.
While the round the world collaborative challenge never quite achieved what it set out to achieve, the idea itself was great, but maybe just needed some massaging. Perhaps we could look at something similar once again, but before we get too far down the road, really discuss ideas of what the finished piece should look like.
Lorinda had a very interesting idea earlier in this thread that I think could work, but again, I think we should take an idea like this, & fully discuss how to make it work for all.
I had a similar idea a while ago that suggested using the challenges as part of a longer film with the winning entries making up the final longer film. Of course, this would only work with enough pre-planning that each of the winning films jelled with the theme to became a sequence of the film. Maybe going back to what I suggested with the feedback, the winning films could be re-worked to elevate them over and above what made them the winning films & perhaps fit better with the overall theme for the full film. As Lorinda suggested, this could then be submitted to various film festivals. Everyone involved in the challenges, would be part of the collaboration to produce the film. It would be great to see everyone involved have a certain amount of input. There are so many different skills here that I see every round that together I’m sure we could make a short film worthy of recognition amongst those we look up to.

When I put my name forward, it was with some apprehensiveness as the view from the outside was, to me at least, that this is a small clique where everybody seemed to know each other which might put off new people entering. I realise that this is not the case, however the perception is there, I have no idea how this could be overcome to lessen that perception.

I prefer the challenge where it still is a challenge to the videographer/film maker rather than almost forming a film company. It indeed was a challenge to me to produce an entry in such a short time, even though we had a month. it transpired that I had six days to film and a day and a bit to edit. I usually do that in reverse with editing time often stretching to two/three weeks.

A collaborative effort while attractive would, IMO prove to be an organisational and production nightmare, there'd be so many opinions, egos perhaps conflicts it might prove very difficult to maintain agreement and discipline to bring a project like that to fruition given the potential amount of personnel that might get involved. I couldn't see it, maybe i'm too narrow minded, who knows?

I think if the challenge is known beforehand then people will cherrypick,

I was surprised at how few films were entered compared to how many contributors to the UWOL thread there is! I know once I put myself forward I would enter something even if it was half done or whatever.

With reference to the rules etc. I thought it was pretty clear when voting ended.


Judging:
Everyone who SIGNED UP for the UWOL40, can and is encouraged to vote for the winning film.

Deadline for voting:
Sunday, November 6, midnight wherever you are........................




I also think a month is long enough to film and edit a 4 minute entry

I prefer the challenge where it still is a challenge to the videographer/film maker rather than almost forming a film company. I was surprised at how few films were entered compared to how many contributors to the UWOL thread there is! I know once I put myself forward I would enter something even if it was half done or whatever.
The main goal of the UWOL Challenge has always been to be a challenge for each and everyone of us to improve ourselves as film makers, while at the same time be a "contest". That's why the feedback is a very important part of the UWOL Challenge.

I was surprised at how few films were entered compared to how many contributors to the UWOL thread there is! I know once I put myself forward I would enter something even if it was half done or whatever.
You and me both. Often around 20 signups and only a handful submitted films. Would have been interesting to know why people aren't able to submit a film. Not enough time, the theme is too difficult?... Can be many reasons.

...the view from the outside was, to me at least, that this is a small clique where everybody seemed to know each other which might put off new people entering. I realise that this is not the case, however the perception is there, I have no idea how this could be overcome to lessen that perception...
Very understandable that it can appear that way, as many of us have been participating since the beginning of UWOL. Some of us have become really good friends, and unfortunately some come, participate in a couple challenges and silently disappear again.

Constructive criticism, I suspect, is what elevates decent films to great films. This of course can only happen in the production stage. It’s all well and good to suggest a bunch of things that could have been done better after the film was made, but imagine if we gave feedback on each other’s films & then were able to go back & re-do parts of our films based on the feedback we get. I wonder what each of us would come up with then?
Maybe we could try out a challenge or two where we have some feedback in the middle of the challenge, in addition to the regular feedback process after publishing the final films?

Lorinda had a very interesting idea earlier in this thread that I think could work, but again, I think we should take an idea like this, & fully discuss how to make it work for all.
I had a similar idea a while ago that suggested using the challenges as part of a longer film with the winning entries making up the final longer film. Of course, this would only work with enough pre-planning that each of the winning films jelled with the theme to became a sequence of the film.
I'd like to hear some thoughts about this. Like Bryce and Lorinda, I believe it can be a good idea and worth . What do you say, ladies and gentlemen? Any interest in trying this out?

Rob,

Glad you took the chance and found out that we don't bite! :)
I can certainly see how it could be tough for someone to jump into the middle of UWOL not knowing anyone when some of us have known each other for a decade. I think if it's possible we need some kind of outreach to show other filmmakers we aren't a bunch of snobbish gear heads.

It is sad that I've seen a lot of other forums become nothing but pixel peepers and great snobs.
Funny that I saw a comparison of images taken with an iPhone 7 and a RED camera and they weren't that different.

I think one of the main goals of UWOL besides challenging ourselves is to learn how to craft a story. It's probably the number one problem I have is crafting a tale. Luckily I have a lot of great people here to help me.

One thing I've gotten a lot of feedback on is lack of natural sound in my films. So that's on my list of goals for 2017 is to trey and being in more sounds of nature. When you get the same feedback over and over I think it's important that you listen to it and give it a try.

I can tell you my number one reason for not submitting entries and that's I tend to laser focus on an idea and when I see I can't accomplish it, I can't flush my brain to try and come up with Plan B. I'm getting better at it. I had to come up with a Plan C I think it was for the postcard theme. Not really what I wanted to do but another goal for 2017 is not to miss a submission.

Collaboration is hard. I tried it once with a few horror filmmakers here in Iowa. It never really got off the ground. People were worried if it made money who would get it, who would keep the awards if we entered it into film festivals, who gets credit? It went on and on.

The best that we could do was that we shot a film and each filmmaker was given the footage to edit the film how they wanted. Every film had to have the Iowa Filmmakers Guild at the beginning then after that, it was whatever you wanted to do.

Another thing we did was to take one script and shot three different films. Each filmmaker had their own actors etc but they had to follow the script. That's the best we could do without egos and all the other stuff getting in the way.

UWOL is still as valid today as it was ten years ago. There a re a lot of films I've made that would never have been made if it hadn't been for UWOL. I have five Gold Eddy awards and three Silver Eddy awards from the Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival that are all from UWOL films I've made.I even have a gold award from the Iowa Motion Picture Association for a UWOL film. None of that would have happened without UWOL.

I'm looking forward to the January challenge and hope I come up with a good idea for a film.
As long as we are discussing how to make UWOL better, it will become better. It shows there are a lot of people passionate about it and we will figure it out!

I just thought I'd throw this out here too.

Less than two minutes long and almost 6 million views.
I think it's a total package in half the length of a UWOL film
https://youtu.be/WmVLcj-XKnM

Nice film. Shows that films don't have to be very long to be good.
Same with UWOL, the 4 minutes is only a maximum limit. A one minute film can be better than a 4 minute.

Really, I'm touched and moved that UWOL exists at all ten years later.

I started it with the crazy belief that documenting the richness, diversity, and beauty of the planet was a way of paying homage to Mother Earth and showing her our goodwill. She needs all the love we can give her, especially when so many seem illogically bent on her destruction.

I'm with Lorinda that times change and everything has a season.

I'm not sure that I have any wisdom to add, as far as the contest.

I put a lot of energy into it, for three years, more than I would expect anyone else to exert. And I know that, in spite of our (many! heated!) discussions, the contest has brought some great films to life, enabled some life-long friendships, and sent a whole lot of love and good vibes out to the Great Spirit.

But I'm mostly just chiming in to say that I still hold that crazy belief. And I am glad that you all (UWOL!) do, too. That's the spirit of UWOL -- regardless of the amount of content the contest generates -- and I'm gratified that it still lives on.

Was just reading an article on how Minnesota is having problems getting painters to submit for their hunting and fishing stamps. So it's not just filmmaking.

Read another article about how filmmakers should stop suffering from GAS, Gear Acquisition Syndrome and actually start making films.

I think the GAS syndrome is very true.

Planet Earth 11 has just been aired over here with great emphasis being given to the fact that the stunning footage was acquired using the latest technology, but a little bird has informed me there was quite a mixture of old footage used including converting some 16mm film.

Very often its not the tools you use but, how you use the tools!

Some of you are well aware that I have been toying with getting a drone or maybe a DJI osmo. Well maybe for the time being I am going to explore more some of the features of my existing camera to add value add diversity to my films, slomo, timelapse etc. Its all there just that I haven't explored them sufficiently.

Mick

Mick,

That's really welcome news. I have also been working with reviving old footage. Some of it has a different feel, and you can use various editing tools to bring out previously unrealized features. It's kind of like exploring a cave.

Dale it's good to hear your son is doing well and wish you all the best.

Times are changing, the same applies to us humans.
In today's modern society there are so many pieces to fit together.
Regarding wildlife films, it has always and will probably always be a small niche in the market.
This is very strange - because; Here in Norway it is just nature films and wilderness series, which are among those with the most viewers.
One may wonder, what is causing this?

Latest news is that my wife and I just bought a motorhome/RV (yeah, yeah, you do not have to rub it in, I know I'm getting older).
The goal is to travel more freely, while it will give room for new goals with respect to film locations.
I think Mick has affected me positively, by occasional mentioning his travels with a camper :)

As to Uwol? A network will always leave room for creativity and new ideas, this is up to the network's members to decide.
I think we can make many good movies for Mother Earth.
Both individually and in cooperation with others. Today's technology makes us capable of it.
Although previous collaboration has mended, one should not be afraid to try again.
I firmly believe that we have a huge unused potential here.
Just think of all the material we have gathered in these 10 years? It's priceless.

I do not go more into the theme than this and will conclude by saying:
You're a lovely bunch and see you next year.

Nice to see so many participate in this discussion. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and ideas.
Based on this, I have a couple thoughts/ intentions for 2017:

1.
After the December challenge of 2017, we vote for the best of the 5 winning films of uwol 2017. This film will then be submitted to one or a few film festival(s).
Which festivals and also how to cover the costs involved, is to be determined later.


2.
Extend the March 2017 challenge to 2 months (theme release March 1 amd deadline April 30), and have some kind of feedback process for, say a week or so, about one month into the challenge.
Then at the final deadline, the temporary "half way" films are removed from vimeo as the players upload their final versions.
If this one is successful, I'd like to do it this way 1-2 times a year.


Thoughts and ideas for these suggestions are most welcome.

I had a quick look on withoutabox, without much luck but filmfreeway shows 25 free festivals that have categories for short, documentary, 3 minutes.

why not submit the winner of each monthly contest to a free festival? - we've got nothing to lose. These festivals may be small, unknown, new festivals but so what - if a film get's entered in to a particular festival, we can promote that, if it wins something, we can promote that - no cost to the group or individuals except time.

If we wanted to submit the annual winner to bigger, paid festivals we either get the winner to pay the entry fee of we all in a couple of bucks to cover entry via a specific paypal account.

I think we would need to discuss exactly how to submit but I would suggest that it be done by UWOL as opposed to the filmmaker. The filmaker will still have their credit but UWOL would be the submitter and draw attention to the group and the contest.

We have a presence on vimeo but not youtube and no unique domain as such - www.uwol.org is available. We have a facebook page but not a great deal of activity and no embeded videos.

If we do want to expand the group to get more entries, we need to market the group to get interest, that will take time and energy and may involve some financial costs as well - if we want to go that far.

Firstly, nice to hear the news, Dale - as everyone has said, it takes a weight off your mind a bit.

As ever, there is an awful lot of common sense in the comments above - and of course the same enthusiasm which drew me to the group in the first place!

I still like the idea of some sort of collaboration, although I do remember how the UWOL RTW effort sort of petered out, due, I guess, to the same reasons we have a lot of sign ups and less submitted projects - life gets in the way!

I think Trond has some good ideas - voting for the overall best film of the year surely cant do any harm, and could be both an extra incentive and a way for UWOL to gain more exposure outside of the forum.
Extending the March challenge to allow a review mid way through is fantastic - I have certainly made re-edits of past entries based on comments, and Im certain they have been improved as a result.

I also wonder whether adding an announcement to the DV Info Net Announcements page as well as the UWOL pages may add interest from other forum members. Although I now tend to browse ¨New Posts ¨, for a long while I only went to my specific areas of interest, which at the time was the hot news of the Sony VG10 (ah memories…), and I completely missed the rest of the forum.

Finally, Paul has added some valid ideas about the wider world - certainly worth some thought. If we start to look at getting wider exposure, and perhaps incurring costs, maybe we should consider looking a getting some sponsorship? I know it opens a whole new can of worms, but we should certainly add to the discussion.

Good to hear the news Dale.

Lot of wonderful ideas i could read above, i suppose everyone at the end would like to have a bigger outreach for their videos/work and yes Film festivals are surely something that can give that outreach.

I see that a collaborative project was started and didnt go a long way before, however it doesnt mean that it will have the same fate next time we try, might be it may be successful, hope is the only thing that we can always work by.

Just came up with the idea and this may sound pretty weird to all but just think about it, we everytime have a topic which we work our films on and we have a 4 minutes hard deadline, what if we can come up with a combined film with shots from all the submitted films , it may give a flavor of worldwide production as well as get everyone involved .
Once we have the judging process completed, we start with this process where by everyone of us might try and string together shots from all films and make it into a compelling story . What say.
Who edits the final one is a question i couldnt find a answer to ..

This film with multiple contributors may also do pretty well at Film festivals or we can have a Youtube channel for them.
In this case we have a small film but participation from multiple people and might be new people may like to join in as they may not be able to put up the best film at the start but they might be contributors to such a joint project.
I just felt that this may increase the participation and also give a new output to the films we make.

Thanks everyone for your ideas. Much appreciated!
I agree with Paul M that it doesn't matter if the festivals we end up with are small or free. Maybe we get more publicity from several small ones than from being a small film in a huge festival?

Vishal, I am interested in your idea of trying to make a film out of all the submitted films. Could be fun trying it out sometime. It would probably be best to do this when there is a couple months until the challenge after.


The January challenge will run as normal. (Standard procedure)
This gives us more time to discuss the film festival submission ideas.
(Which festivals, if every winner or only the winner of the winning films each year should be submitted, and so on...)

The March challenge will be extended with one month, to allow for the intermediate feedback process, as suggested earlier in this thread)

Nice to see so much input! UWOL is far from dead!!

I think it would be great if Chris would sponsor the submission to a really amazing festival. Like maybe Wildscreen '18 or something.

For Christmas my parents never really want anything because they have everything that they need. SO I usually donate money to an animal slitter in their name and they love that.

So I was talking to Karina about that and she said why not just give them the money and let them donate themselves or use the money for something else. I think that somehow diminishes the idea for me.
So I think if we sponsor a festival for the winning film of the years winning films, it should be entered in the festival.

My goal for 2017 is to complete a film that I can submit to festivals in 2018. I tend to be low key about my work and only occasionally enter in my local festival but after being at Wildscreen, it's changed my outlook on things. All of us should attend a major festival even just once. It's quite the experience!

Also like the idea of a collaborative film or something that we all can work together on in some capacity.

I just saw a memory on Facebook of Whispers of Winter, a UWOL film I did like nine years ago. I wonder what it would look like if I did it today. Would it be better, the same or can you never go home again?

All I know is that I can't wait for the January challenge to start!

Dale that's great news, hopefully you can use some of that free time for UWOL.

I can totally relate to Kevin with focusing on Plan A, which if it falls through then I struggle to make a plan B or C happen. Usually if I have time (2016 was mainly restricted by theatre commitments) I still don't get a solid enough idea to film till really late. Something to work on, just come up with a simple idea and get out there. If I conceive something better in the meantime maybe I'll change course.

Some great ideas mentioned! I think changing things up and trying different formats is a great idea. The worst it can do is keep entries a little lower, but will hopefully get lots of people involved.

A collaborative effort sounds promising - making it happen might not be easy but it would be great if we can get it off the ground.

Lots of great ideas here in this thread.
I thought this was a great idea of Vegard Paulsen in the sign up thread for the January challenge.

"Its always just luck for me to actually remember to log on to dvinfo and at the same time as a signup tread before it closes! I really wish for a reminder email service everytime a signup is open."

Maybe if an email was sent out to all the former participants, letting them know of the upcoming challenge, we would have more participation??

Sign up email reminder would be great at some point in the future. I always seam to remember a few day after sign up closes.

I'll check into this and see if it is an easy way to do it.

Wow,

what a great sub thread.. Tronde you should colate te ideas and make the thread official!!

I had Maajor hand surgery last fall i couldnt film as i was in a cast and splint fot 3 months after 6 weeks of therapy the right paw works but just had the left paw done so now its casted up for 3 months.

Im still going to sigh up february 15th. maybe the morphine will give a differnt perspective,LOL.

I would like to see another long form challenge.

sometimes after seeing so many great films i dont think what i have is good enough, that happened to me on uwol 36, or i think i dont have anything good enough to film at that time, say winter when things just look ugly out there.

a lot of good ideas put out there.

misoula montana has a film festival every year. perhaps individuals or teams could make entries for it. using uwol feedback and get together at the festival ? would be cool.

UWOL Winners Wreath:

Hello,
I've been reading few post about promoting the competition. I think a Winners Wreath graphic would be a small token of well done to the winner. This would need to be talked about in detail. This would cover ideas on how the graphic is used on your work does & don'ts etc. Get the DVINF log within the design to promote the website; And where possible enable a clickable link.

I've just knocked up an idea and how it works on a light & dark background. I do have a vector master if the moderators request it. Any thoughts.

Thanks, Mark!
We have used similar badges for the winning and runner up films for a long time already. (Attached the badges tothe films on vimeo). These have been made by Mike Sims.
Which reminds me that I haven't received any for the uwol 41 and future uwol challenges yet.

Cool - It's already been done.

Yes its been done but I like how distinctive Mark,s looks.

Very nice Mark. Agreed Dale, the colour in them does give them a lift. Its an evolution rather than a revolution which fits in well with what we are trying to achieve to move the challenge forward

I think if you all ask/talk to Mark Sims he might update his version. I don't want to tread on any toes.

ok I was looking at this and someone mentioned colour, well why not add another bit of colour!

this is a suggestion;

http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/members/90176-albums202-picture925.png

Like that one as well Rob

Yes, I also like what Mark has made, and Rob's added colors look nice.
I'm open to change to one of these.

Mark, you are not treading any toes. Everyone is of course welcome to suggest ideas and improvements to the uwol challenge. That's how we get better.

I do like the color in robs.