My UWOL entry is based on the Australian drought - which has now lasted 8 years! The country has been parched for so long and everything has been brown and dusty - until we received good winter rains in the last month.

My entry looks at the before and after, with a message of hope. I have also tried to show the wonders that rain brings in the form of lush vegitation and birdlife.

Unfortunately, my editing and compression skills have detracted from the finished product - with the quality no where near as good as the original. However, I guess we all have that gripe. My new XL H1 also decided it does not like the cold (anything below 4 degrees or so), and has now been sent of for repairs. This did not help at all!

I hope you do like my entry and I look forward to your feedback, as well as viewing all of your entries.

This sound like a very nice premise. Perfect for 3 minutes .....looking forward to seeing this one :)

Hi Mat,
Yes, I am pleased with the approach - I only hope the subject material is broad enough (already I am starting to think of all the things I could have done).
I think my movie will bring back some fond memories for you...I won't say any more.
Looking forward to seeing your entry.
All the best.
David

Now I'm really intrigued....ya bugger !

Good afternoon,

you have some beautiful footage here. my favorite is the kingfisher (so colorful compared to ours) and the pel;eican footage was very nice!!

Keep up the good work!!

David,

We started out with very similar intro's and I darn near used the same music score at the beginning as you did!

You had some very striking scenics and visuals, colors and compositions excellent.

Glad there is some hope there. We in West Texas are coming out of several years of drought and water shortages although we've probably had more periodic partial relief than you've had.

Your film is very well done in my opinion.

David,

The dry lake bed to the blue skies was great color.

I had a little trouble reading the text at first around :26 because it blended in with the light sky reflected in the water.

The roo shot was killer!

It was a little dizzying trying to read the text as you panned.

I liked how your opening score was very forlorn and then changed to a much more upbeat tempo once the rains had fallen. It made you feel what the birds were feeling when they finally found water. It was like a celebration.

Great job!!!

Hi David.
This was just a wonderful piece to watch. From the sadness in the beginning to the uplifting piano and survival scenes (Kingfisher) at the end. You’ve done a great job putting this together and it told me how important water is for life. I loved your film from the very beginning to the end – great job!

Geir Inge

David,

Very nice imagery in this film, as it was shot with grace and beauty. The kangaroo shot was sweet! I really would have liked to have heard you speak as opposed to having to read the story, I think that it would have added a bit more emotional/humanistic impact to the piece…and I bet you have a cool Australian accent as well.

I enjoyed it very much thank you

Jeff

Hi David

Well I was looking foward to this one as I loved the premise. Did you deliver....well I love a lot of your photography. The roo shot (Roo's have always been a personal fav) and your Aussie Kingfisher is very cool indeed, can't believe it came back to the same perch to eat its fish.....oh if only !! :-) The pink breasted parrots, whatever there name is for real were great to and it was great to see them taking a well needed drink. For me it fell down in 2 ways.

1 The texts, too much, too slow and not punchy enough. I think a narration would have worked well for this and placed it firmly in AUS !

2 The changeover wet to dry - A paning shot with no music and more slow text....I wanted it to be a big build up and then..........release!!! Just as its been such a release and relief to everyone and everything that lives there.

Great stuff
Mat

a very well told "good news" story...excellent.

brian

Very nice David! What an excellent film!!

It had a nice story that was with the theme perfectly! I very much enjoyed this one..

I thought the compression looked pretty good!

I do agree that the text was a little hard to read at one point, but it was doable.

Keep up the great stuff!
~Gabriel

Thanks Guys,

I really appreciate your feedback and am pleased to hear the overall story of despair moving to one of hope was evident.

The text side of things is something I need to watch in the future and I probably need to give the narration a go. My Scottish voice is quiet deep and doesn't sound as nice as I would like (wish you could download narration from Smartsound).

From my perspective, I had a great time filming with my son (who sat patiently with me for hours on end), and managed to share something with you all. I think the whole UWOL approach is just wonderful and look forward to really spending some more time on my UWOL #5.

David,
It`s fantastic to see how you are making yor movie.This film
was a realy good story.I like the cuting,color and the photo.

Must tell you this is one of the best I have watched so far,Aus is very similar to South Africa in places.well done.

hi david: welcome to UWOL. glad to see more entries from australia. it's such a big country that there's so many ecosystems from there that we haven't seen. seeing the parched land was a bit of a shock.

nice first entry--looking forward to more!

I have always been fascinated about Australia, and always wanted to visit there someday.

To see your film was very nice, and I loved every part of it.
I agree about what some of the others have said about the texts, but that's just minor details.

I'm looking forward to your next films.

David, wow, what can I say! Your footage is stunning! I have a long time wanted to go to Australia and after seeing your film I may be packing my backpack and go right away!
Sorry to hear about the drought anyway other part of the globe have floods these days.
What I didn't like in your film was the scrolling text, even if it had a seriously message. It would have been much better if you had been doing a narrating. Even if you didn't like your voice, I think very few do, try. I think you will do just fine.
I'm very happy you managed to get this film finished, even with your problems with the XLH1. The cold should not be any problem for the camcorder. I've used mine in temperatures in -20 degrees celsius and lower without any issues. Hope you got i fixed soon.
Stay warm!

Thanks Per,
It means a lot to me to hear that you liked my footage, as I believe you really set the standard in nature filming.
My XL H1 is still with Canon Australia. I delivered the camera personally to the service counter - where they verified the problem by turning the camera on to see the error message (which displayed in the viewfinder straight away). Unfortunately, the camera has worked flawlessly since the technical team has had it. So we have been trying to replicate the problem since (placed in the fridge overnight, etc) - but we are having no luck. This is so frustrating, as I never experienced one day with the camera where I got more than 15 - 20 mins without the problem arising!
Anyway, I am sure it will all work out.
Thanks once again for your feedback - it is greatly appreciated.

Hi David:

I'm in the camp with Per. To me, this was stunning and beautiful and well put to music. Sure the text problems have been covered and not to be gone over again. I loved this film. I would actually say it's in the top 5. It just took me in. It was moving. Watching the birds drinking, drinking, drinking... I don't know, it just moved me deeply. I'll put this one in my back pocket of treasures.

Thanks for this entry!

Cat Russell

Hi Catherine,
It was lovely to read your kind words.
I'm very pleased that you enjoyed my entry.
Thanks,

David
I really liked your video. Some really interesting footage there. The only thing I have problems with, is having to read at the same time but it does work and it is one of my favorites.

Gordon Hoffman

This was really beautiful footage. I was totally blown away by some shots, like the kangaroo, birds drinking, and especially the kingfisher. That was amazing to see it come and go like that at such close range. Great job, this was a fun film to watch.

Ruth

This was a fantastic film David, I know exactly where you're coming from with regards to the drought, i'm in Gipsland & we haven't had it much better here. Yes the rains in early winter were great, but the latest dry spell hasn't been too good. Luckily we've had some rain here recently so hopefully i can get up to some of my favourite places & do some filming myself. I have only just found out about this contest, & just missed out on getting in on the #5 challenge, but hope to have a crack at #6. Your films are an inspiration, & i only hope i can come close to emulating what you have produced for this contest so far. Good luck with #5 your film is another ripper!
Bryce Comer

Hi Bryce,
Thanks so much for your kind words.
All the very best with your filming, and please keep in touch.
Regards, David