so! when i conceived of this hare-brained scheme, i was hoping for, oh maybe twenty entrants.

forty-two of you signed up. didja get that? forty-two. my mind is blown.

thanks to chris for supporting it.

thanks to dylan for doing such an excellent job running the DV Challenge--i borrowed a lot of ideas from his model, and hope that i have learned a few things from observing his way of running a tight ship in such an easygoing way.

thanks to kevin and mat for their fabulous work and amazing efficiency on the website.

thanks to everyone who chimed in on the ground floor of conceptualizing this thing....

and, most of all, thanks to the forty-two entrants. i am sooo excited to see what you all produce.

and now, THE THEME

suggested by dale guthormsen, stolen by me:

THE LIVING SKIES


definition of skies: anything (skies, insects, clouds, weather, Superman, UFOs, architecture, humans, animals, etc etc) that you see up in the air that is higher than my single-story ranch house. for reference, see a single-story ranch house in your own neighorhood.

IMPORTANT NOTE TO THE 42 ENTRANTS: you have two weeks to e-mail me your working e-mail, so that i can send out the password for uploading your entry onto the UWOL website. this is your responsibility, to get on my e-mail list for the password. i won't have the time to track your e-mail down through DVinfo, there's too many of you. make sure that you send me an e-mail address that you check regularly.

GOOD LUCK! HAVE FUN! MAKE SOMETHING MAGICAL!

Great Meryem! I cant wait to start shooting! My mind is already flooding with ideas!

whats your email Meryem? would you mind to post it here? Or do I need to track it down via DVinfo?

Thanks to everyone that made this happen!
Best of luck to you all! And Happy New Year!
~Gabriel

Living Skies? Hmmm... should be an interesting competition.

Good luck everyone

Thanks Meryem!

The Living Skies.....great idea. Should provide some interesting material.

To send my email address, I clicked on Meryem's name on her post, and selected send an email. I hope that is what she intended.

Thanks Chris, I just did the same thing.

~Gabriel

Thanks for the contest. It certainly should be an equally available theme topic to everyone- except for anyone living in caves. I am really looking forward to it. I just have one technical question. On the website, it says videos must be submitted in Sorenson 3 format. In a quick bit of research, I see that is an option on FCP, but as a current PC user (thinking of switching to Mac and FCP) I don't have access to that now. Could I possibly use some other format? Thanks again. And Happy New Year!

Ruth

Sure appreciate everything you have done to put this together.

This should be a lot of fun! Am looking forward to seeing all the films.

Best wishes~
Bradley

It certainly should be an equally available theme topic to everyone- except for anyone living in caves.
Ruth

Ok, so here we go, we cavemen get bashed again! :)


Sounds like a fun topic. I'll get out my club, I mean camera!

Mike

It certainly should be an equally available theme topic to everyone- except for anyone living in caves.

....I'm screwed.


hehe... Anyway, should be interesting, got some good ideas here, hope I can find the time to make this happen.

Ok, so here we go, we cavemen get bashed again! :)


Mike

lol Mike! Watching too many commercials again? Me too. Obviously.

Best wishes~
Bradely

Damn! I just found out about this, a day to late. :-(
Maybe next time.

Good luck to all!!!!

Bill

yes, you guys did the right thing in sending via my dvinfo e-mail link. it's an active account and will work fine...whoops, i see it's working just right. 28 of you have already sent me e-mails. excellent.

and a whoopsy from me, smack!: i forgot to thank our esteemed judges and emmy winners, jacques and christi... they should have a fine time in a few weeks!

to answer ruth's question, if you don't have access to sorenson 3, i'd say it's okay to use mp4. what we need from you is a universal, cross-platform codec. so no .wmv, no h.264, etc.

you'll be DQ'ed if you use a codec that excludes viewers from universal ease of use.

Mmmm, all my first reactions to the theme aren't doable here so I'll have to think of something else. :)
Now if the theme was dead skies, I'd smoke ya all! :)

Mmmm, all my first reactions to the theme aren't doable here so I'll have to think of something else. :)
Now if the theme was dead skies, I'd smoke ya all! :)

Kevin,

Death IS part of life.

Bill

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike Teutsch
Ok, so here we go, we cavemen get bashed again! :)



Sorry Mike, I didn't realize there was a caveman on the thread :)
I am sure the contest won't discriminate against the daylight challenged members. And it's good to come out of the cave once in a while- guess what, it's 2007! Seriously, happy new year, and good luck- it should be a lot of fun!

Ruth

Well, I finally got an idea late last night as I was laying in bed trying to fall asleep.
Now if I can get it done before the deadline we'll be all set. :)

I've searched the posts (I thought) rather carefully, and have not been able to find any rules for the contest, such as length of entries, due date, format specs, does it need to be new footage, etc, etc. Meryem, would you re-post the rules?

Thanks,

Steve Siegel,
Miami FL

I've searched the posts (I thought) rather carefully, and have not been able to find any rules for the contest, such as length of entries, due date, format specs, does it need to be new footage, etc, etc. Meryem, would you re-post the rules?

Thanks,

Steve Siegel,
Miami FL


They are on or at the site!


www.uwolchallenge.com

"The living skies", thats a challenge with opportunities :-)

In the contest rules I read as follow:

3. All material must be original and shot for the purpose of being judged in this contest. All music must be fully licensed. If you use copyrighted materials (music or other copyrighted works), be prepared to show us proof that you own the right to use it. Without proof, we will remove your video from the site. You have the option of providing us with an image-only version, in the event that we are forced to remove it, since our goal is to enable players to make beautiful video images and to develop good production practices.

My question is:
If I make/compose my own music what kind of proof do you need, and how strict are you (The jury)? If I cant provide any other proof than my word?
I'm a member of Tono, wich is the caretaker for copyrighted music in Norway, but if i compose music for this contest it will take some time before it's registrated in Tono.

"The living skies", thats a challenge with opportunities :-)

In the contest rules I read as follow:

3. All material must be original and shot for the purpose of being judged in this contest. All music must be fully licensed. If you use copyrighted materials (music or other copyrighted works), be prepared to show us proof that you own the right to use it. Without proof, we will remove your video from the site. You have the option of providing us with an image-only version, in the event that we are forced to remove it, since our goal is to enable players to make beautiful video images and to develop good production practices.

My question is:
If I make/compose my own music what kind of proof do you need, and how strict are you (The jury)? If I cant provide any other proof than my word?
I'm a member of Tono, wich is the caretaker for copyrighted music in Norway, but if i compose music for this contest it will take some time before it's registrated in Tono.


We have to take your word for it, unless someone recognizes it.

Mike

Thanks Mike for "RA" (rapid acting) :-)
If anyone recognizes it...
... we can always show proof when we get it reg., but it takes up to a month or so.

hi geir: if your compositions are original, you just have to say so, and we'll take your word for it. and they don't have to be registered in advance with any organizing body. this isn't about spending much (or any!) energy policing what other people do--it's just about being as clean as possible with what we do with the contest.

we've also listed a couple of royalty-free music sites at www.uwolchallenge.com, if you need free compositions to include in your productions...i'm sure there are other sources of free music as well.

Hey Meryem, I was looking around trying to find out what sorenson 3 is, and I found that it cost $300. I dont have that kind of money. Thats how much I paid for my camera, lol. anyways, so I saw you said its ok to use mpeg 4, but how big can the file be?

Thanks!
~Gabriel

Hey Meryem, I was looking around trying to find out what sorenson 3 is, and I found that it cost $300. I dont have that kind of money. Thats how much I paid for my camera, lol. anyways, so I saw you said its ok to use mpeg 4, but how big can the file be?

Thanks!
~Gabriel


Check your NLE, what ever you use, and check under the setting for QuickTime movie encoding. It may be there. It in most NLE's I believe.

Mike

Check your NLE, what ever you use, and check under the setting for QuickTime movie encoding. It may be there. It in most NLE's I believe.

Mike

Thanks Mike! So whatever the preset is for QuickTime on Imovie is, I just use that, correct?

Thanks for the help!
~Gabriel

Thanks Mike! So whatever the preset is for QuickTime on Imovie is, I just use that, correct?

Thanks for the help!
~Gabriel


I don't have IMovie, so maybe someone else can jump in on that. Sorenson 3 is a subset you might say, like H265 or something, or one of the settings. You may not have it at all. I thought it was not the best thing to do, requiring one codec, but that's what was done. Got anyone to encode it for you from an AVI file?

If not, do the best you can whatever Quicktime you have and no one should know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It all comes out as Quicktime. :)

Mike

QuickTime Pro 7 cost me $29.99 for the unlock key (the player won't let you save or convert, just allows you to play files).

Once you have the unlock key installed (converts QT 7 to the Pro version), one of the save parameters is Sorenson 3.

You might check and see if your NLE saves in MP4 (MPEG4) file format. I use Pinnacle Studio 10.7 plus and while it does not have a QT option it does save in MP4.

While we're all on this subject of the Sorenson compression, may I ask why it was chosen? It's terribly outdated, poor quality, produces inefficeintly large files and is no better for cross-platform use than many other formats which should have been considered first. It also requires PC users (in many cases) to obtain QT for creation of the proper video. As noted, this costs $30 unless you run Premiere or some of the other PC NLE softwares that include QT.

Is it too late to reconsider which format/codec we're all going to use? Should we put it to a vote?

...Personally, it makes little difference to me as I can create just about anything and everything here. But many can't and there already seems to be a bit of confusion over the chosen format.

well, you all had a full month to weigh in on this issue when i posted the original "let's conceptualize this together thread." i'm no web guru, by any stretch, so i was looking to them for guidance. the one requirement is that your codec is universal available across platforms, without requiring additional software downloads by either mac or windows users.

sorenson is not that bad. i suggested divx, which would require *everyone* to download a single universal codec of the highest quality, and no one liked that. sorenson was one suggestion. mp4 is fine.

there is no way to please everyone when it comes to choosing a codec. if you want to make suggestions for the next challenge, please do.

frankly, all i care about is that i can click on it, and it plays. immediately.

sorry if i sound cranky tonight. the cross-platform debates make me cross. let's not indulge that now, please. all good suggestions will be incorporated, i promise, in time. extra points if you participate in the open discussions beforehand, rather than complaining after the fact. i will post a follow-up discussion thread to entertain post-UWOL #1 ideas and suggestions. that would be an excellent time

gabriel, to answer your question, sorenson is available in iMovie...you have to activate your "expert settings"

Edit
Share
Compress Movie for: (pull down the menu expert settings)
Click "Share"
Export (pull down the menu to read "movie to quicktime movie"
Click "options" button
Click "settings"
Compression Type: (pull down menu Sorenson 3)

good luck!

What Gabriel was referring to was the paid version of Sorenson 3 and for the money you get much more manual control of the codec settings.

Meryem, as a 3rd party, may I suggest MPEG1? Very inefficient I realize, but definitely the most cross-platform compatible because of its age. Pretty much everything out there can play MPEG1 files.

Just a thought, and it won't hurt my feelings at all if you say...naaaahhh, thanks anyway.

-gb-

Thanks Meryem, Sorry to be a hassle. That was not my goal. I am new to all of this, and so I only know what I read. And I read that Sorenson 3 was a 300 dollar program. But as Greg stated, I did not realize it was its own file format. so sorry about that. But now I know. Thanks.

And thanks for the directions on the menus. I am so bad at editing! :P

Thanks! Sorry to be the pain!
~Gabriel

PS: I like DivX, but Sorenson 3 is fine.

we've also listed a couple of royalty-free music sites at www.uwolchallenge.com, if you need free compositions to include in your productions...i'm sure there are other sources of free music as well.

Another source for music is wikipedia. They have Creative Commons music files.

Well I went out for a shoot yesterday....YILCHO !! the event I went to film has 'moved on'!! Now I am up against it !

Hope everyones getting on well :)

sorry if i sound cranky tonight. the cross-platform debates make me cross. let's not indulge that now, please. all good suggestions will be incorporated, i promise, in time. extra points if you participate in the open discussions beforehand, rather than complaining after the fact. i will post a follow-up discussion thread to entertain post-UWOL #1 ideas and suggestions. that would be an excellent time

Meryem, sorry if I pushed too far on the subject -- I didn't mean to make you or anyone else get all grumpy over it. I'll try to have some more constructive suggestions for challenge #2.

And I read that Sorenson 3 was a 300 dollar program. But as Greg stated, I did not realize it was its own file format. so sorry about that.

Not its own file format. Sorensen is a CODEC and a basic version of it which doesn't allow you much control is included.

A file format is a file with a given extension such as avi, wmv, mov, etc. Within those formats, a specific CODEC is used to encode the video and audio. In order to playback on another system, that system needs to have a copy of the same codec so that it can decode the video and audio for playback.

Hope this makes it a little easier to understand.

-gb-

hey gabriel, sincere questions are never a pain. i'm happy to answer questions, if i can answer them.

i only got grouchy because i asked for input beforehand. and i'll ask for more after the challenge is completed. this is a new thing and a work in progress. our web team is hard at work, spending a lot of their free time solving problems, and your forbearance is requested....

and i am happy to entertain suggestions, which are free from the complaining aspect. in fact, i encourage the web-savvy to have at it and hash this out. perfect the process for me, please! i certainly don't know enough to challenge anyone on these grounds. just keep in mind that no one wants to download anything new in order to play other peoples' videos. that's the only requirement. universal access is the only parameter....

believe me, if i click on it, and it plays immediately, you won't hear a whimper out of me! and if it looks great, all the better....

Ok, thank you guys. And thanks again Greg. Like I said, I am horrible at the editing/compression/etc. part of video making. But I guess its all a learning process. And the fact that I have only edited two things in my life, does not help. :D It will be fun to see how this video turns out. haha.

the Weather has been bad here too! its been nothing but rain for the most part. So far today I have seen a bit of clouds but no rain, thats a good sign.

Thanks everyone!
~Gabriel

Hey guys,

I thought Vegas 6d would have Sorenson as an output option but nooooo. I'm leaving monday and have to post this thing somewhere this weekend. I searched the help files on both Vegas and DVD Architect - nothing.

I may just put it up on youtube, unless anybody has any workable conversion solutions. I don't mind not being included in the contest, I just don't want to get flamed for 'not producing'.

Thanks

Hey guys,

I thought Vegas 6d would have Sorenson as an output option but nooooo. I'm leaving monday and have to post this thing somewhere this weekend. I searched the help files on both Vegas and DVD Architect - nothing.

I may just put it up on youtube, unless anybody has any workable conversion solutions. I don't mind not being included in the contest, I just don't want to get flamed for 'not producing'.

Thanks


Ken, if you have a fast internet connection and would be willing to let me do the conversion for you, I can probably have you send over an AVI and I'll re-encode. That may be more hassle though... I dunno, let me know what you think. I also don't have time to open up this option to everyone so not sure if this would be acceptable or not -- and I'm still planning to enter the contest myself, but will probably get flamed for not producing because all my plans are going down the sewer over here.

Not to bring up a sore subject, but this is why I was questioning the choice of Sorenson. It's not a standard encode feature on Windows systems and requires people to either buy QT Pro (or obtain it with NLE software) or to buy the Sorenson CODEC pack. Windows can play Sorenson3 as can QT, but to encode it is different. Some Windows based NLE software makes use of QT and will include it right in the package along with the Sorenson3 CODEC, but many popular NLE softwares like Vegas don't include QT or use it directly.

Thanks Jeff,

But I'll try to do it.

I upgraded to QT pro. But still not coming easy to me. to try it out I imported a wmv file to QT and then figured to Export it, thinking this is where the conversion to Sorenson occurs. Does Sorenson go by another name (3G) or is it just MPEG-4?

Yikes!

Not sure on a PC but on my Mac after selecting Export
I choose Movie to QuickTime Movie. Then I click on the Options. That opens another window where I can choose Settings. When that window opens I can choose Compression type and I then select Sorenson 3.
Not sure if it works the same on a PC though.

Kevin,

Thanks for the step by step. It worked.

Well, so far...

Hi.
In the sign up tread I read:
Sign up time: Dec. 22 - Dec. 31
Challenge begins: January 1st - the theme will be posted
Challenge closes: January 22 noon MST

And under "current submissions" I read (on the green page):
Submissions for first challenge 'The Living Skies' due on 14/01/07

My english isn't that good, so I wonder what the last date means?

Hi.
In the sign up tread I read:
Sign up time: Dec. 22 - Dec. 31
Challenge begins: January 1st - the theme will be posted
Challenge closes: January 22 noon MST

And under "current submissions" I read (on the green page):
Submissions for first challenge 'The Living Skies' due on 14/01/07

My english isn't that good, so I wonder what the last date means?


My english might not be much better, but you are right, the end date should be 1-22-07. That what it was when I signed up, and I have a number of irons in the fire right now and could really use that time!

Clarification please!


Mike

the website has a typo. the challenge will close January 22, 2007. i'll get it changed ASAP....

the website has a typo. the challenge will close January 22, 2007. i'll get it changed ASAP....


OOOOH, Thank you!

Mike

Thank you Meryem, that's a relief :-)

Meryem,

I haven't got a password to upload this to the UWOL site, unless I'm missing something.

But here is the youtube link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTnzF4sMhPg

I must say, this was a Challenge. Shooting 'Living Skies' in January!!!

As you could expect, rain is prominently featured. In fact the title is 'Waiting for Rain'. There are 3 short scenes that were shot prior to this week.

I've got about 30 more hours before I leave, and of that I've got less than one to spare, so I may or may not get it up on the UWOL site.

Good luck to all.

Ken.

hi ken: wow, you did it...excellent! i'm impressed. i'm putting out the call to get you the upload password...we've been experiencing a web glitch or two, which we're trying to get worked out before the official deadline....