Little Cold For My Friends at DVinfo.net

Dale Guthormsen · January 4th, 2009, 12:57 PM

Good Day all,

Sense nobody is stepping forward to start response threads I thought I would plumit into the foray of constructive criticism.
first, this turned out to be the hardest challenge for me in the last two years. With a theme like cold I would have thought it would be easy, how wrong I was. Sence I shoot solo and have no actors or crew to ever work with most of my ideas were ruled out. In the end I stuck to what I do and that is shoot nature. So the goal was to let the natural world tell the story even though it starts indoors and ends indoors (Kinda).
Inspite of camera failure I still adhered to the rule, "have fun". I truly did even with numb fingers and face at times. It was a cold experience, but that is kind of normal up here in the winter.

I hope you enjoyed it for what it is worth.

Link

little cold for my friends on Vimeo

Per Johan Naesje · January 5th, 2009, 04:20 AM

Dale, looks like you had a real cold experience here! Liked the snow owl very much, the hare (the live part) was also nice.
I know you had some technical problems during your recording and I think you did fine manage to upload something at all!
It seem that the footage is original 16:9 but it squeezed to 4:3 at the Vimeo viewing! I think you did something wrong in the converting process from the timeline, what setting did you use? It should be better quality if your original footage was in a HDV-timeline!

Chris Swanberg · January 5th, 2009, 06:02 PM

If any visual can make me cold to the core of my being, it would be something like the footage in your film with the wind (nearer the end of your film), especially starting about the time the windblown snow is sheeting across the road. Being from Montana originally.... that scene quickly brought to mind some VERY cold times in my life.

I too noted the aspect problem, but enjoyed your film very much. Thanks !

Dale Guthormsen · January 7th, 2009, 10:32 AM

Thanks for the comments:

I watched my rendered qt version from my computer and it is fine. When I post vimeo it is getting cut down some how. I will try again to post another on vimeo.

Trond Saetre · January 7th, 2009, 11:57 AM

Dale,

That looks really cold! Hope you didn't freeze too much while shooting that video.
Have you ordered the Polarbear cover for your camera yet?

Thank you for sharing the Canadian winter with us.

Catherine Russell · January 8th, 2009, 11:21 AM

Hi Dale:

Happy New Year friend! Brrrr.... you nailed the theme on the head with this one. What are the wind chills up your way? You are very hearty to tromp around long enough to get this kind of footage.

Your wildlife shots were superb. The snowy owl was awesome, and the hare. Were they quail trying to fend off the wind? The lighting just added to the chill factor.

Nice one Dale, I enjoyed this very much, even with the Vimeo resizing of your film. Don't you just love those inconsistencies at the last minute?

Cat

Lorinda Norton · January 8th, 2009, 12:40 PM

Because you posted early this was the first film I watched, and I agree with what Cat said--you nailed the theme! I've now seen them all (got a sneak peek at Vidar's) and this is still the one that makes me feel the coldest.

In any extreme weather, like lots of people, my first thoughts are always for the animals who can't escape the heat...or the cold. The birds in your film trying to find food or even stand against the terrible blowing wind drives home the struggle.

On the other hand, you had some shots that warmed me up, as well. Loved the hare!

Thank you, Dale, for braving the cold to bring us this very fine entry.

Vidar Vedaa · January 8th, 2009, 01:31 PM

Hallo Dale.

This film really moved me,you make here a film whit different wether
and I think that make a big diffrent.Here you can feel mother nature
and come near the closed rom in Wildlife. I had a good frend how was
a clever Wildlife-photograf he always say you must make youre cut in
bad wether. And I think you have proof that her Dale.

Really nice Film!!!

All Best
VJV.

_______________

Robert Martens · January 8th, 2009, 02:02 PM

I love that opening shot of the snowy field. The dim, overcast sky and the way the trees in the distance are washed out to that shade of blue-gray make for an eerie feel. Makes me want to visit, I feel so comfortable in light like that.

The whole movie felt otherworldly to me, really. Am I the only one seeing a face at 1:07 through 1:14? That plus the overall darkened quality of the daylight, that creepy rabbit staring at me, and the Clubbed to Death sound-alike music set one hell of a mood. A mood that enchants me, to be frank. Well done!

Of course, it's not all creepy. The birdsplosion at 1:54 was cute, as were the little guys skittering around in the wind toward the end. The snow blowing over the road in the shot immediately before that is mesmerizing, too.

I would suggest cranking up the bitrate on the audio track, though. The QDesign Music codec can produce decent quality if you give it enough to work with, but 24kbps is rather low. As far as your aspect ratio issues, may I ask what settings you used when rendering, and in what software? Vimeo, Youtube and the like base such decisions on AR flags in the video file, it's possible yours were either incorrect or non-existent.

Dale Guthormsen · January 8th, 2009, 03:17 PM

Good Afternoon,

Thank you all for the nice comments.

My computer I doo all my work on has been fully occupied rendering and burning up Dvd's trying to get a wedding dead right. Hence no time to try and rerender this video. I have to have it finished tomarrow so I will get at it this weekend and see what I must have done wrong in the compression issue.

Cat, it always drives me crazy when something comes up right before deadlines.

I had submitted an 80 mbt version then read that the program will not link t them if its over 60, so I recomprressed it down to 58 and submitted. I may have made an accidental change along that trail.

thanks for the tip on the audio, will give that some tries soon.

Tom Sherwood · January 8th, 2009, 03:28 PM

I had to put a jacket on to watch this one. You sure nailed cold. How you guys brave the elements for the shots your getting is unreal. I don't think I could stake out my own animals in the warm house and get as good of shots as you and the other UWOLers do.

The opening and closing scenes were really cool.

I had issues with my first few attempts posting on Vimeo too. Did two that never made it at all. Found this and it helped a lot.

Vimeo HD FAQ

Its for a mac, not sure what you are using.

Hugh DiMauro · January 8th, 2009, 05:22 PM

Since sound plays such an important part of any movie, I loved your composed background track. It gave an ethereal quality to your snowy images. I loved the way you caught the milky texture of the wind-blown snow across the roadways. Hypnotic! I also loved your rabbits! For some reason, I am in a better mood now! You dedicated yourself to the making of this movie by braving the elements. Excellent!

Meryem Ersoz · January 11th, 2009, 03:39 PM

cool shot of the roosting birds flying up out of the field, what are they, grouse?

i have no idea how you managed to even see that white bunny, he blends in amazingly with his environment.

some very nice shots, but what happened to the compression??

that's some serious COLD all right...takes a strong person to get out there in that kind of weather...

Dale Guthormsen · January 14th, 2009, 02:22 PM

Meryem,

The birds exploding up out of the snow are Hungarian Partridge.

The Bunnies are white tailed Jack rabbits, a breed of Hare. They weight 7 to 14 pounds and everything tries to eat them, generally making them wary and hard to get. When they are fully white sometimes they will freeze and you can actually get a shot or two. when I filmed the close up it was -39 c (at -40, C and F are the same) It took about an hour of slowly moving closer and closer with the pod until I got the shots I did.
I have been out two days sense looking for some good hare footage and have not been as fortunate, but then its 20 degrees warmer and the Hares are happy to romp about as apposed to hunkering down.

Compression: It happens when I go to a quick time render. I have checked the properties and all that and have not yet figured it out. I made another 2 minute " a little Fun" video for some friends and am trying to sort it out. I am going to go back to the old p4 and see what it does. I even restored my computer to no avail, I am thinking it is something in settings when I render it.
If I save it as an avi file and play on quick time it is fine. So it is a compression issue for certain.

It has warmed up to -10 F so I am going out to shoot with a new camera.

Per Johan Naesje · January 15th, 2009, 06:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dale Guthormsen

Compression: It happens when I go to a quick time render. I have checked the properties and all that and have not yet figured it out. I made another 2 minute " a little Fun" video for some friends and am trying to sort it out. I am going to go back to the old p4 and see what it does. I even restored my computer to no avail, I am thinking it is something in settings when I render it.
If I save it as an avi file and play on quick time it is fine. So it is a compression issue for certain.

Dale, I will try to help you out regarding this.
To start with your timeline in the editor, what's the preference? Then when you do the export settings, my experience is NOT to check any "keep aspect". Just set the appropriate width and high (I use 1280x720) if your timeline is set to HDV.
If you export to an AVI file or QT should'n matter, as Vimeo support both and several others.

Below you can view my settings for the final export from my NLE. Note that this is on a Mac Pro and FCP, but I think we could find something for your NLE too

Quote:

Note that I'm editing in FCP 6.0.5. Timeline setup is HDV 1080i50 (PAL). I'm not changing any settings at timeline (like ProRes) before exporting to the final H.264-file.
The export settings is: 1280x720, fps 25, AAC stereo 44.100kHz, compressor set to high quality.
When I'm done in FCP, I upload to Youtube, using the Bulk Upload Plugin, this also gives you a percentage upload status

January 4th, 2009, 12:57 PM	#1
Dale Guthormsen Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Saskatchewan Posts: 3,048	Little Cold For My Friends Good Day all, Sense nobody is stepping forward to start response threads I thought I would plumit into the foray of constructive criticism. first, this turned out to be the hardest challenge for me in the last two years. With a theme like cold I would have thought it would be easy, how wrong I was. Sence I shoot solo and have no actors or crew to ever work with most of my ideas were ruled out. In the end I stuck to what I do and that is shoot nature. So the goal was to let the natural world tell the story even though it starts indoors and ends indoors (Kinda). Inspite of camera failure I still adhered to the rule, "have fun". I truly did even with numb fingers and face at times. It was a cold experience, but that is kind of normal up here in the winter. I hope you enjoyed it for what it is worth. Link little cold for my friends on Vimeo __________________ DATS ALL FOLKS Dale W. Guthormsen

January 5th, 2009, 04:20 AM	#2
Per Johan Naesje Trustee Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Akershus, Norway Posts: 1,413	Dale, looks like you had a real cold experience here! Liked the snow owl very much, the hare (the live part) was also nice. I know you had some technical problems during your recording and I think you did fine manage to upload something at all! It seem that the footage is original 16:9 but it squeezed to 4:3 at the Vimeo viewing! I think you did something wrong in the converting process from the timeline, what setting did you use? It should be better quality if your original footage was in a HDV-timeline! __________________ - Per Johan

January 7th, 2009, 10:32 AM	#4
Dale Guthormsen Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Saskatchewan Posts: 3,048	Thanks for the comments: I watched my rendered qt version from my computer and it is fine. When I post vimeo it is getting cut down some how. I will try again to post another on vimeo. __________________ DATS ALL FOLKS Dale W. Guthormsen

January 8th, 2009, 12:40 PM	#7
Lorinda Norton Wrangler Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Southwest Idaho, USA Posts: 3,066	Because you posted early this was the first film I watched, and I agree with what Cat said--you nailed the theme! I've now seen them all (got a sneak peek at Vidar's) and this is still the one that makes me feel the coldest. In any extreme weather, like lots of people, my first thoughts are always for the animals who can't escape the heat...or the cold. The birds in your film trying to find food or even stand against the terrible blowing wind drives home the struggle. On the other hand, you had some shots that warmed me up, as well. Loved the hare! Thank you, Dale, for braving the cold to bring us this very fine entry. __________________ Lorinda

January 8th, 2009, 03:17 PM	#10
Dale Guthormsen Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Saskatchewan Posts: 3,048	Good Afternoon, Thank you all for the nice comments. My computer I doo all my work on has been fully occupied rendering and burning up Dvd's trying to get a wedding dead right. Hence no time to try and rerender this video. I have to have it finished tomarrow so I will get at it this weekend and see what I must have done wrong in the compression issue. Cat, it always drives me crazy when something comes up right before deadlines. I had submitted an 80 mbt version then read that the program will not link t them if its over 60, so I recomprressed it down to 58 and submitted. I may have made an accidental change along that trail. thanks for the tip on the audio, will give that some tries soon. __________________ DATS ALL FOLKS Dale W. Guthormsen

January 5th, 2009, 06:02 PM	#3
Chris Swanberg Major Player Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Sacramento, CA Posts: 904	If any visual can make me cold to the core of my being, it would be something like the footage in your film with the wind (nearer the end of your film), especially starting about the time the windblown snow is sheeting across the road. Being from Montana originally.... that scene quickly brought to mind some VERY cold times in my life. I too noted the aspect problem, but enjoyed your film very much. Thanks !

January 7th, 2009, 11:57 AM	#5
Trond Saetre Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Bergen, Norway Posts: 3,375	Dale, That looks really cold! Hope you didn't freeze too much while shooting that video. Have you ordered the Polarbear cover for your camera yet? Thank you for sharing the Canadian winter with us.

January 8th, 2009, 11:21 AM	#6
Catherine Russell Trustee Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Lyons, Colorado Posts: 1,224	Hi Dale: Happy New Year friend! Brrrr.... you nailed the theme on the head with this one. What are the wind chills up your way? You are very hearty to tromp around long enough to get this kind of footage. Your wildlife shots were superb. The snowy owl was awesome, and the hare. Were they quail trying to fend off the wind? The lighting just added to the chill factor. Nice one Dale, I enjoyed this very much, even with the Vimeo resizing of your film. Don't you just love those inconsistencies at the last minute? Cat

January 8th, 2009, 01:31 PM	#8
Vidar Vedaa Major Player Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: bergen norway Posts: 235	Hallo Dale. This film really moved me,you make here a film whit different wether and I think that make a big diffrent.Here you can feel mother nature and come near the closed rom in Wildlife. I had a good frend how was a clever Wildlife-photograf he always say you must make youre cut in bad wether. And I think you have proof that her Dale. Really nice Film!!! All Best VJV. _______________

January 8th, 2009, 02:02 PM	#9
Robert Martens Major Player Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Miller Place, NY Posts: 820	I love that opening shot of the snowy field. The dim, overcast sky and the way the trees in the distance are washed out to that shade of blue-gray make for an eerie feel. Makes me want to visit, I feel so comfortable in light like that. The whole movie felt otherworldly to me, really. Am I the only one seeing a face at 1:07 through 1:14? That plus the overall darkened quality of the daylight, that creepy rabbit staring at me, and the Clubbed to Death sound-alike music set one hell of a mood. A mood that enchants me, to be frank. Well done! Of course, it's not all creepy. The birdsplosion at 1:54 was cute, as were the little guys skittering around in the wind toward the end. The snow blowing over the road in the shot immediately before that is mesmerizing, too. I would suggest cranking up the bitrate on the audio track, though. The QDesign Music codec can produce decent quality if you give it enough to work with, but 24kbps is rather low. As far as your aspect ratio issues, may I ask what settings you used when rendering, and in what software? Vimeo, Youtube and the like base such decisions on AR flags in the video file, it's possible yours were either incorrect or non-existent.

January 8th, 2009, 03:28 PM	#11
Tom Sherwood Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Los Angeles, CA Posts: 83	I had to put a jacket on to watch this one. You sure nailed cold. How you guys brave the elements for the shots your getting is unreal. I don't think I could stake out my own animals in the warm house and get as good of shots as you and the other UWOLers do. The opening and closing scenes were really cool. I had issues with my first few attempts posting on Vimeo too. Did two that never made it at all. Found this and it helped a lot. Vimeo HD FAQ Its for a mac, not sure what you are using.

January 8th, 2009, 05:22 PM	#12
Hugh DiMauro Trustee Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Central Florida Posts: 1,207	Beautiful, Dale! Since sound plays such an important part of any movie, I loved your composed background track. It gave an ethereal quality to your snowy images. I loved the way you caught the milky texture of the wind-blown snow across the roadways. Hypnotic! I also loved your rabbits! For some reason, I am in a better mood now! You dedicated yourself to the making of this movie by braving the elements. Excellent! __________________ Interesting, if true. And interesting anyway.

January 11th, 2009, 03:39 PM	#13
Meryem Ersoz Wrangler Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Boulder, CO Posts: 3,015	cool shot of the roosting birds flying up out of the field, what are they, grouse? i have no idea how you managed to even see that white bunny, he blends in amazingly with his environment. some very nice shots, but what happened to the compression?? that's some serious COLD all right...takes a strong person to get out there in that kind of weather...

January 14th, 2009, 02:22 PM	#14
Dale Guthormsen Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Saskatchewan Posts: 3,048	Meryem, The birds exploding up out of the snow are Hungarian Partridge. The Bunnies are white tailed Jack rabbits, a breed of Hare. They weight 7 to 14 pounds and everything tries to eat them, generally making them wary and hard to get. When they are fully white sometimes they will freeze and you can actually get a shot or two. when I filmed the close up it was -39 c (at -40, C and F are the same) It took about an hour of slowly moving closer and closer with the pod until I got the shots I did. I have been out two days sense looking for some good hare footage and have not been as fortunate, but then its 20 degrees warmer and the Hares are happy to romp about as apposed to hunkering down. Compression: It happens when I go to a quick time render. I have checked the properties and all that and have not yet figured it out. I made another 2 minute " a little Fun" video for some friends and am trying to sort it out. I am going to go back to the old p4 and see what it does. I even restored my computer to no avail, I am thinking it is something in settings when I render it. If I save it as an avi file and play on quick time it is fine. So it is a compression issue for certain. It has warmed up to -10 F so I am going out to shoot with a new camera. __________________ DATS ALL FOLKS Dale W. Guthormsen