well the compatile film that was submitted can be seen at: http://www.uwolchallenge.com/challenge3/AH_UC3_lucid.mov

but a smaller, better (medium) quality WMV (10MB) can be found at: http://tailored-video.com/films/vids/AH_Lucid_(mq).wmv
a higher quality WMV (~42MB) is at: http://tailored-video.com/films/vids/AH_Lucid_(mq).wmv

Didn't end up travelling far for this one. Was planning on using a cave for the end, but time constraints stopped the 5 hour round trip.
Saw a kangaroo (Or wallaby, didn't get close enough to tell) the first day of shooting, and on the third there was a lyrebird and 2 wedgetail eagles, but we didn't get any on camera. It rained or drizzled every day, but the overcast conditions helped for surreal lighting.
Good to just get out and do something, even if it was only loosly scripted. Definitely up for more, hopefully we'll get snow soon - whether it gets used for filming or not.

That was very cool. Loved the concept and the colors being pushed around for the surreal effect. Very nice.

Andrew.. Spooky feel. The .mov version was sure poorer in quality than the .wmv version. Cool film, in my opinion, with a lot of suspense.

A very exciting and spooky film you've made, Andrew.
Cool, playing with the colours. I wish I could see the monster though, but I gues we have to leave something up to our imagination as well :)
Nice work and good luck in uwol#3.

Thanks for the feedback guys. I noticed there weren't a lot of dialogue based entries with UWOL2 (Not that mine has dialogue either, unless you count the whispers, but you need the sound turned up lots for those). It's hard to shoot great scenery and have a character driven story. I'm still downloading all the other films, so I'm yet to see what natural wonders await. Looking forward to watching them though.

That was a great concept Andrew!
I really like how you play with the colors and the sound.
Well done.

Great stuff,Interesting concept, nice to see some variety come to uwol. Not sure about the 'pixelating' effect and I think the monster sounds at the end were a little over done....maybe less would have been more there.

Nice stuff :)

i try to resist commenting on the films while the judging is in progress, but you really got at the essence of the theme--that thing where we want to go straight into the teeth of "the wild" --the contradictory nature of it....beautiful, threatening, a little spooky, compelling...

I like the way the film builds suspense in such a short time. The way you played with the colors was also neat, and enhanced the atmosphere. The ending was a classic, like a 1970s horror tv show. Enjoyed watching this one a lot.

Excellent job here. To make this a spooky thriller you could do nothing better. I thought this was really cool and special effects were stunning. It was great fun. I hope your film subject survives for UWOL4.

Cat

Andrew,
to me a new "angle" to show wildlifestuff! Liked it very much though the ending was predictable.

Wow, you guys are really getting creative this time around!

The color stuff was rather cool. And how you showed him(you) going to the place in the dream was cool.

That tree was huge!

Cool stuff. Keep up the good work!
~Gabriel

Mat; I think you're referring to the bad compression when you say 'pixelation'. I tried a bunch of settings, and with Sorenson 3 it's the best I could get for the file size. Maybe there's something I'm missing in the settings, though any format that's compatible with older systems tends to be less efficient for size. I probably need a more mac (cross platform) compatible, decent quality version.

Hi Andrew:

As far as compression, if you haven't tried the software package Sorenson Squeeze and can afford $500 it is a MUST investment. Last challenge I had the same trouble, painstaking work trying to get the compression size acceptable and degrading all the hard work going into the film. Ken Diewert told me about the Sorenson Squeeze package and it changed everything! You can buy it as a download and is very easy to use. It is amazing. This challenge, my movie was set to all the highest standards and it squeezed it to 38 mb. I am now on a mission to tell everyone about this! Hope this helps! Your movie was fantastic and this compression software will make it that much better.

Cat

Andrew,

What a creative story. It is my top four of the group!!!! Extremely well done!!
the wind noise was perfect for suspense.
the end was the best. Well the breathing hole's end is just as good, both very similar.

Thank you ever so much for making it!!!

Absolutely captivating. I have been thinking about you film for quite some time. My favorite films are ones that make me think about them for days afterward, yours did that for me.

For me the film had the touch of "A Midsummer's Night Dream" essence, with the surreal look of the dream sequence (colors). I found myself watching it and wanting to hear the dreamer's footsteps and movements and then when he crosses that plain form dream to reality (or vise versa) we suddenly hear the crickets and the backpack drop and his footsteps and....grrrrr.

I always say that people respond to people and their emotions, which makes outdoor nature photography so difficult. You caputred the human emotion in us and captivated an audience with that sence of wonder, anticipation and primeval fear (as you can tell from the everyone's comments).

And by the way...who cares about compression when your film is captivating it is captivating regardless of how it looks. It is the feeling and story that count. I thought the grain added to the film anyway.

Beautiful job,

Jeff

Hi Andrew:

One last comment and then that's it! Per mentioned that you had a good film but that the ending was predictable. Wouldn't it have been fun to end it by cutting back to the very beginning just as he looks into the tree. It would still be thrilling and leave it up to our imaginations as to what was going on... was he trapped in an endless cycle of a nightmare? Will he finally ever find out what is in the hole? Is it real or fiction? You know, it would keep the thrill but also keep the question instead of spoon-feeding us the end. But I had great fun with this one and felt you developed the suspense so very well. Okay, that's it, no more from me!

Cat

I enjoyed this one just as you did it. I like it so much I'd like to show it to our local photography club.

Email asking permission sent.

where are you shooting from, andrew, if you don't mind my asking? you mention kangaroos and wallabies, so i'm guessing Australia, but you don't list your location in your profile. if i had to guess, i would have said the US pacific northwest, because everything looks big and wild.

if you don't want to locate yourself, that's cool. it's just such a strange landscape. this film seems to have stayed on my mind long after i viewed it, which is unusual.

Wow, I wasn't expecting better feedback than my usual DVC entries, but I suppose I put more effort in, in the end.

Cat; that's an idea I hadn't even considered. Maybe I need an alternate ending.

Bruce; I've sent a reply, that's no problem.

Meryem; I was sure my profile used to say where I was from. Anyway, I live in the south eastern region of Australia. And even south east Victoria for that matter, in an area called the Latrobe Valley. Which used to be a big swamp, which is why we have coal to make power from. A mixture of primary industry and country. Yeah we have kangaroos, koalas, lyrebirds, wombats, and native birds all pretty close to home. Mountains and ocean are both about an hour away for the closest ones. So not a bad place to have choice of terrain/location.