Hi,

I shot this video in the woods behind our home with my daughter "going wild" for a day. I experimented with a couple new things for this contest, including using music as a background (Sony Cinescore), and editing together multiple takes as a video montage. It was a lot of fun, both getting the footage, and editing.


Here are the links to the movies-

Quicktime version- http://rockfowl.com/videos/reh_GoWild.mov
Windows Media- http://rockfowl.com/videos/GoWildHD.wmv

Ruth

You always make something special out of your films, and that I like.
This one was a little bit different then the two first ones, though. No talking trees or plants :) But the girl is very clever as an actress.
Thank you for sharing and inspiration.

Thanks for your comments! I guess I realized after doing talking plants and dogs, it might be easier just to have a talking girl. And the plants and dog were taking the day off :)

All right...the Wild Child is at it again! Seriously enjoyed your film, Ruth. Robin really adds a nice touch...she seems like she really enjoys doing this and it's great that you two can spend time together having fun. Thanks for sharing your work.

Rick

Hi Ruth:

Nicely done. Your home environment is beautiful! Is this your daughter? My, Hollywood next? She did great.

Nice editing and special effects. Thank you for a peaceful watch!

Cat

Rick- Thanks. it is fun doing these videos together with my daughter, she really enjoys it, and I do, too. It's a good way to spend time, and we both like being out in the woods.

Cat- I'm happy you enjoyed the film. It is nice having wilderness literally in my backyard. And my daughter is enjoying being a movie star! So it is fun for both of us. I tried some effects in this I hadn't tried before, so I'm glad you liked them. Video editing has come a long way since I was last immersed in it 15 years ago, so it's fun to explore all the options.

From your previous uwol films, I expected some talking trees or flowers, but instead a young actress showed up.

Your video is in my top5! Your daughter is a great actress. (Hollywood next?)
It was pretty wild, and again you managed to make me laugh.
Thank you for bringing the fun stuff into nature video!
Nice music too.

Looks like we are going to have a "regular" nature guide here on UWOL. Nice job with filming, and keeping the piece cogent.... Scenes were set up well, but maybe needed a bit more variety in type of locations. Robyn kind of reminded me of a leprechaun in the forest. Lots of fun...

Ruth,

Your films never fail to put a smile on my face. This one had a bigger smile than usual. :)

The only thing I'm really upset about is now I'm doing kicks and saying "Go Wild"! :) My wife doesn't think I'm very funny though.

Not only are your films fun but you can plainly see that they're just as much fun to create as they are to watch.

I think the funky walking on the log was my favorite. The walking stick bit was pretty good too! :)

Thanks again for putting yet another smile on this weary face!

Hi Ruth,

Watched your film and it really made me smile - enchanting.

But i have to admit, i was almost expecting an ewok to burst out of the scenery closely pursued by a speeder bike ;-) Thats a good thing.

Keep em coming.

Rob

What a nice way to take a look along this trail !! A kids eye few...fun and games :) Some very well exposed shots in there. Good stuff!

Trond- I'm glad you liked it. My daughter also really enjoys this, and after being the voice of the bushes and dogs, I think especially liked playing herself for a change :) I like to keep it fun, for me and hopefully the viewer.

Chris- Glad you enjoyed it. I had some other scenes but basically decided to go with a sort of feel of just a walk in the forest to show her moving away from civilization into the wilderness as a slow adjustment. When I tried cutting in anything more, it took away from the pensive, slow transition mood I was trying to create.

Kevin- Glad it made you laugh. For some reason these UWOL challenges are bringing out my silly side. Letting Robin improvise just adds to that!

Rob- Okay, for the next film I'll put out a casting call for an ewok.

Mat- Thanks for the kind comments. I'm glad her sense of fun came through in the video.

Nicely put together Ruth! It looked like you had it all planed out...

Your daughter looks like she had abit of fun doing this with you.. Thats cool.

The "bridge" was rather cool looking. I have not seen anything like that in this part.

Cool stuff! Keep up the good work!
~Gabriel

Ruth,
second what have been said about your entry. Your daughter has a great talent, Hollywood next I guess!

Ruth,

Nice to see the vibrant "Wild Child" again. I wonder how she is feeling now that she is becoming famous...

What I really love about your films is the sound quality. Very, very crisp audio. So how did you capture that? Lav mic? Really good shotgun? Very rich audio and beautiful scenery in this piece. I like the story line, how she was distracted by the sounds of cars and "civilization" and went off into the wilderness to escape. My kind of girl :)

really terrific stuff

Jeff

Hi Ruth,

Just watched the piece. I echo most everyone else's sentiments. One 'small' nitpick. The musician in me didn't like the way the music ended. On a repeating phrase such as that, I would have let it fade and cross dissolve to a nat sound like a waterfall that grows and then fades with the fade to black.

Or, you could have started the music fade at the end of the final scene and had it fade through the credits, reaching silence as the video fades to black.

Just thinking out loud and meant to be purely constructive.

Congratulations on a great job,

-gb-

Per - Glad you liked the film. My daughter and I are both learning a lot from making these videos.

Jeff- Actually, this film was the most basic of all in terms of audio dialogue. In previous films I did the narration in studio, with good microphones (well, it would be hard to mic bushes and a dog on camera)! This time I just used the on camera mic, but played a lot with the levels in post to bring everything up. My background is actually in audio, so a lot of times I spend as much or more time on the soundtrack than the video. I have used natural sounds in the background of the other two challenges, but this was my first foray into music. I just used Cinescore, and am not totally pleased with that, so am going to explore other options for music.

Ruth:

Thanks for the memories....I say that because your little girl reminds me of my own now grown up little girl. She loves that camera and that camera loves her..... a match made in heaven.

I had fun watching, nice and light and good for the soul.

Brian

hi ruth,

really enjoyed your approach to the wild. it's a very special, entertaining film. i can see both your love for the wild. very nice.

Gabriel,

Thanks for your comments. I think you mean the staircase when you say bridge? The effect on that was from shooting three takes of my daughter coming down and blending them together to make it look sort of abstract, taking part of the sequence from each.

Ruth

Greg- Thanks for the comments, and suggestions. I am not totally happy with the music, either. It was the first time I used any for the UWOL, and I chose a piece from Cinescore. That is literally how they ended it, very abruptly. I faded out on natural sounds since I thought that would juxtapose against the traffic at the start. But I would have liked a piece that worked more with the piece, rather than just being muzak. So I am going to try for the next challenge to make something more organic, using ACID to compose it myself.

Brian- Thanks. Glad it can bring back some happy memories for you.

Tom- I grew up with an aunt who inspired my love of nature, and it is so important I hope to do the same for my daughter.

Ruth
As usual you come up with different ideas to a theme. Nicely done, but ... are you not a little concerned that you won't be able to afford your daughter's talent if you keep this up? lol

Gordon Hoffman

Just a suggestion Ruth (maybe you already know).
You can also try out Sonicfire pro 4.5
In the new version you can edit different instruments (not the tune) and what parts of the melody you will use. They call it moods I think.
But Acid is great too, I've been using it a lot, and then you can play/make your own tunes :)

Greg- Thanks for the comments, and suggestions. I am not totally happy with the music, either. It was the first time I used any for the UWOL, and I chose a piece from Cinescore. That is literally how they ended it, very abruptly. I faded out on natural sounds since I thought that would juxtapose against the traffic at the start. But I would have liked a piece that worked more with the piece, rather than just being muzak. So I am going to try for the next challenge to make something more organic, using ACID to compose it myself.

I understand, Ruth. It's a pain when the piece ends before your scenery does. I liked the fade on nat sound, and that's why I was saying that a cross fade between the other piece and the nat sound might have worked better. The other thing you might have been able to do (or could do in the future), is an extension of the repeating musical phrase to pad it out longer. Fairly easy to do in this day and age of waveform editors ( I used to do it with tape and a splicing block).

I'm really glad that you are spending that quality time with your daughter most of all. Too many children have grown up with VCRs and video games as a substitute for parental interaction.

-gb-

Greg,

Thanks for the suggestion. I think maybe I should have followed my instincts on this piece rather than just going with the music as is. I let the piece go as Sony did it, thinking it should end abruptly like they had it for a reason. It would have been better for me to create my own ending by looping it, making it transition seamlessly into the nature sounds, as you said.

I hear you about the trials of early sound editing. I made the first 60 minute digital nature sound recording for Rykodisc over 15 years ago. I programmed the computer line by line without any visual feedback as in Sound Forge or ACID. Half the time, the computer would crash on its overnight run. I had to do 4 albums in a month for them- the series A Month in the Brazilian Rainforest. (You don't even want to know how I did the previous album for an Earth Day celebration- literally building up an ambient nature album sample by sample)!

After pursuing still photography much of the past decade because of a hiatus from sound recording (not compatible spending most of my outdoor time with a young child- but as you say, I value the quality time with her more than anything else), I'm getting back into audio, and now combining it with video. I still have a lot to learn on all levels- and music isn't my forte (it's my pianissimo, actually). So I appreciate all the advice here to help me move forward. My next video, I plan to focus a lot more on the audio, combining animal sounds as a form of music for a more organic soundtrack. No more Cinescore for me. Thanks again for your insights.

Ruth

my own wild child started throwing up at 5 am this morning, so we are on the couch watching "Paper Moon"--oh yeah, there's nothing like a little quality time together! and whatever happened to the raw comic genius of Madeline Kahn??

...sorry to get off topic, but i bet you both are going to enjoy looking back on these movie-making endeavors and have a lovely record of your relationship. worth the price of admission to the Challenge!!