UWOL #5 "Marvelous Mammals" by Ruth Happel

[Ruth Happel]

This was a fun theme, and I decided to have fun with it. This video evolved into a spoof of the nature documentary genre, showing the development of a pseudo show about mammals, with a focus on alpacas.

Back by popular demand are talking mammals- including my favorite mammal, my daughter :)

I want to thank Brad White for allowing me to use his beautiful pan flute music. His song, Jungle Flight, from the album Isle of Dreams, was a perfect backdrop for the video. Visit his website, pan-flute.com, for more of this gorgeous music.

Here is the link to the video on uwolchallenge.com:
http://www.uwolchallenge.com/challen...ousmammals.mov


And here are the links on my own website:

http://rockfowl.com/videos/reh_uc5_marvelousmammals.mov - Quicktime

There is an additional link on my website to an HD version of the video-

http://rockfowl.com/blogs/sample_web...s-mammals.aspx


Thanks for watching.

Ruth

[Bruce Foreman]

Robin is turning into quite the actress. She's cute, but also quite expressive, and appears to have quite a sense of humor.

I enjoyed the way you alternated back and forth between her and "critters", the closeups of the animals really added a "closer feel" to the whole thing and it worked quite well.

[Per Johan Naesje]

Ruth, I enjoyed this alot :-) Robin's work as an actress is very good, just some minor flaws in the sound when cutting from Robing to the Alpacas.

Good work Ruth and Robin!

[Trond Saetre]

Ruth, as always you deliver videos which are fun to watch.
Interesting to see how Robin's skills as an actress has improved too. She's getting good!

Thank you very much Ruth and Robin for sharing and bringing some fun stuff to watch.
Keep up the good work.

[Catherine Russell]

Hey Ruth!

Your best yet! Sign Robin up for film.... she's a natural and very funny! You used very interesting angles and closeups for the Alpacas which added much interest to the film. And the hippo and bear in the beginning! They were speaking English!

I just had to watch this one twice :o).

Can't think of one critical point to the piece. Loved it!

Cat

[John Dennis Robertson]

Nice work Ruth
I love everyones take on a common theme.This is very original,and like me you are fortunate enough to have your daughter help you with your video,makes having a passion so much more fun when you can share it with people you love.

[Ruth Happel]

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate all your comments.


Bruce- I am glad you liked the way the footage alternated. Originally I cut it with longer blocks of Robin and the alpacas, but shortened everything up to make the film flow faster, so I'm glad that worked for you.

Per- I appreciate your comments. I know there is a noticeable jump in audio levels where I had to increase the level of Robin's voice in a couple segments, and couldn't edit out the background in my audio editor. In order to get different angles with her, sometimes the camera was further away and this complicated getting the right audio levels. It's always hard getting everything evened out in the mix, but I keep working at it.

Trond- thanks for the comments. Robin is improving, and though we come to it with a script, I'd say two thirds of any film with her is just her improvisation- she is naturally funny and good at this.

Cat- I'm glad you enjoyed this. The opening was actually oneof the hardest parts, trying to sync the hippo and bear to the slowed down audio, to create a wacky tone right away.

[David Gemmell]

Hi Ruth,

I just love watching your films - actually, our whole family just love watching your films (think my youngest son is in love). For entertainment, they are just fantastic. Robin is just wonderful and a natural in front of the camera.

You shot the footage very nicely and the audio was spot on.

I personally feel this is your best entry to date.

Well done Ruth, we at the Gemmell household are looking forward to some more.

[Ruth Happel]

Thanks for commenting.

John, I am slowly getting through the videos, and will watch yours soon. I have really enjoyed working with my daughter on the videos, and I'm looking forward to seeing the same collaboration with you. It definitely makes it a lot more fun to share making these.

David, Robin is glad to have a fan. :) I'm glad you liked it, and it is encouraging that I am improving. There is so much to learn in this sphere, that's what keeps it fun and interesting.

Ruth

[Mat Thompson]

Hey Ruth

Marvelous talking mammals indeed. I don't what was more marvelous the animals or your daughter....your really getting her used to being in front of that camera huh....priming her for great things ;-) !

Nice piece, both fun and funny and I love that ending...you did that really well!

I love our uwol variety :-) Keep up the good work Team Happel !

[Jason Sovey]

If I didn't know this was part of the UWOL challenge, I would have thought this was a Saturday morning nature show. It has a nice lively, light-hearted feel to it, which is very entertaining. The host is very charismatic.

It had a kept a nice pace throughout, but I think I would have split up the intro, by placing a shot of an animal between where she says "Marvelous Mammals" and begins to sing.

The CU's of the animal's heads was great, but a couple of wider, full body shots might have enhanced it.

This is very well done!

[Ruth Happel]

Thanks for the comments.

Mat- I'm glad the ending worked for you. When I was first working on the structure, I had a lot of ideas for it, but this one seemed to flow most organically, with the animals' revenge in a nature show gone wrong.

Robin is enjoying being an actress, and these contests even inspired us to make a video demo tape for a tv show here in the US this summer- Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader? They called me twice asking her to audition but she was still in school then so we couldn't go. But maybe someday this will lead to great things :)

Jason- Thanks for the comments. I eventually did split up a lot of video with her talking and the animals, but for the particular take you mention, I wanted the flow of her talking and being an over the top host established right away. I also did try working in a few full body shots of the animals, but since she was basically a talking head, in the end it seemed more compelling to use the CU shots of them, since that mirrored her. Plus, it brought our their personality more, which I wanted since they eventually took over the show. It's always good to get feedback, and will help me get ideas for my next videos.

Ruth

[Geir Inge]

Hi Ruth.
"May I do a movie dad", that's exactly the words my youngest daughter asked me after wathcing "Marvelous Mammals".

I'm a great fan of yours and this contrubution don't make make me a less fan as I admire your work very much.
Your editing skills goes way beyond my reach. How you put together each single clip with talking animals, music and your wonderful acting daughter is just splendid. Your sence of humour is still present and thank you for that :)
Your uwolfilm nr five is; fast, entertaining and also a bit educating.
It's cold up there, right? You need a good fur to live un such a place, right?
Another thing I want to mention is your focus on the animals eyes, it's where they got their soul, eh?

Once again you've made a good piece of work and thank you for sharing.
Almost forgot to say both of my daughters loved your film and I promissed to give you this "LOL" I don't know what that means, youngsters you know, but I hope it's something nice :)

Best wishes Ruth.
Geir Inge

[Ruth Happel]

Geir,

Thanks, I really appreciate your comments. I am glad to maybe inspire someone else to include their daughter in a film. It has been a creative and learning experience for me and Robin, one I would highly recommend.

LOL is good- at least here it means laughing out loud, so hopefully they appreciated the humor. But I'm glad you learned something too- that's always a plus to mix education with fun.

Thanks again, I appreciate your positive feedback a lot, and feel this contest, with its camaraderie and helpful critiques, has really helped inspire me to learn more about shooting and editing video.

Ruth

[Gordon Hoffman]

Ruth
You and Robin just keep getting better. It's always fun and interesting watching your videos. Nice job.

Gordon Hoffman