UWOL #5 Winners and Runners-Up Announcement

[Meryem Ersoz]

Howdy players: Your fearless leader here. There were some issues with the judging of UWOL #5, including the lack of naming specific runners-up. As the second judge and also as the contest's spiritual advisor and gatekeeper, I'm going to add some judging comments to the ones already posted.

First, let me announce that for this Challenge, we are going to have co-winners.

I don't want to take anything away from Bruce with this announcement. He posted "Cinco," a lovely film that explored the spiritual and emotional connections between our most beloved domesticated animal and ourselves. He told a great story. And Bruce is always a pleasure to have on board with our contests. He is one of our most consistent players, is always generous with his comments and his spirit, and he has been spreading the UWOL love by sharing many of our entries in his local, offline community, with his photography club. I always enjoy seeing what sort of original take he is coming up with, in every Challenge round, since he is still in contention for the free t-shirt, as well as winning this round. He's the kind of guy who makes this Challenge so much fun. I only wish we had 20 more like him.

He will be sharing the winning spot with a relative newcomer, David Gemmell who posted "Australian Spirit." The beautiful job of compositing, the pacing, the money shot of the too-large roo entering and exiting the pouch, the digeridoo music, the pacing of the editing....it was the complete package. The sense of place was so grounded in this film...I could really feel the Australian spirit. A great UWOL film is one that takes you to faraway places and makes you feel that you're already there while you're sitting at your desktop.

Congratulations to you both! You will both be receiving matching prize packages, with the booty listed in this thread:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=104849

First runner-up: Per Johan for "Musk Ox, King of Dovrefjell"
Per gives us a glimpse at worlds which we might otherwise never see. The autumn colors in his opening vista are wonderful, but the money shot in this piece was seeing Per at work in a blinding snowstorm, keeping his camera stable in extremely tough and fast conditions. I could hardly get good images of buffalo standing still in 75 degree weather, while Per was out there in a blinding snowstorm shooting moving targets and getting stable footage. His shots are as stable in a 30-mph wind as mine were on the calm, peaceful prairie. That's either extraordinary talent or a really, really good tripod. And a really good shooter doesn't compromise on the quality of the gear, he goes that extra length to chase down the great images. So for bringing us beautiful footage from above tree line, Per wins the first runner-up spot. No prizes, but oh, the glory!

Second runner-up: Ok, this got a little bit tougher, but the slight edge is going to Ron Chant for "The Deer of Sheen Manor." He and Mat Thompson both put up gorgeous films of the same location and same red deer. And I loved how Mat moved his film from the city scenes to the preserve--it really gave some narrative flow to his piece, plus they were just splendid shots and pieced together nicely. But when Ron cut from the sunrise to that scene of the big buck's breath, visible in the morning light, it took my own breath away. A breath-taking shot of breath. We have had lots of judges giving us feedback about being more story-oriented, but frankly, I do this for the moments that bring me to tears with their beauty, I do this for the tiny rare moments when I feel a sacred connection to what I am shooting or seeing in someone else's shots, story be damned. There are a million, gazillion stories out there, check your TV for listings. Or your library. But being privileged to a moment like that is what nature and outdoors shooting is REALLY all about, seeing through the third eye of our lenses how lovely and seductive and perfect and dangerous the wild world is. On top of that most excellent edit, he also managed pulled off that great shot of the deer hooking his antlers in the tree. We really got into their world in this day-in-a-life of a deer story, which is what this theme is really all about. You want humans? DVC has humans, our mission here is to explore the wild!

And a shout-out to Cat: girl, you were thiiiiis close this time. I loved your piece. I have to agree with some of the feedback--I too was expecting a horror film, based on the musical selection. And the FX were *slightly* heavy-handed for my taste. I would have preferred if you had backed off them a bit, because you got such great footage, doing for goats what Ron did for deer, taking us into their world with humor and depth.

And one last hellooooo to Gordon. Your footage was soft at times, but oh my, the subject matter! You really got out there!

Okay, before I get carried away and have to name every damn entrant a winner, I'm going to close this by saying, this was hands-down the best batch of films to date. It is great to see everyone honing their craft and growing into such a fine, strong community.

Stay tuned for UWOL #6 -- your last chance this year to shoot a UWOL film and win faaaaaaaaabulous prizes!

[Per Johan Naesje]

Meryem, first of all thanks for your kind words about my entry. I'm very fortunate, also mention by others, to be in a position where I'm able to get footage of this strange prehistoric animals. Their behaviour and way of living facinate me in such a way that I can feel the call of the mountain whenever I'm not in that area!
After working with this mammals for more than a year, I also feel comfortable and are able to read their "language" when I'm going up close without put myself in any danger. Even if they seem to be harmless, they are still wild animal which in a given situation could attack you, and they are real fast:

http://www.video-film.no/snutter/kjapp.mov, so the safety distance of 200 meter will prevent you of episodes like this!
I often show people who ask me how close they can be to the Musk Ox this small clip. And believe it or not, this work like a dream preventing people from going to close!

Ok, back to this round. I think I have commented all others entries. To get feedback on my films is very important for me. I use it as a way of improving my own skills. And in this group of excellent filmmakers I have got very important feedback, thanks to you all.

[Mat Thompson]

Congratulations to Bruce, David and all the runners up. There really was some excellent film making in this round. I think the level of the production has gone up considerably, from nice eye candy montage pieces to full flavour short films. Keep it up folks !!! I just want to give a extra congrats to Geir whose film on a simple subject was superb in many ways and whose film making skills are coming along leaps and bounds.

Many thanks to Meryem the matriarch for guiding the judging in this round.

Bring on UWOL6 and lets round off year 1 with a real bang!

[Gordon Hoffman]

Thanks Meryem and congrats to all who entered a video. As has been mentioned people are putting in better and better videos.

Mat - "Bring on UWOL6 and lets round off year 1 with a real bang!" This sounds like fun. I can imagine what Cat will do in After Effects.

Gordon Hoffman

[Ruth Happel]

Hi,

I feel I can’t really let this thread go by without responding. First, I find it disturbing that someone assigned to be a judge is then told how to do his job. To me, this doesn’t make for a fair contest. Either we have a judge and their opinions are respected, or this contest is not truly being judged in a neutral way.

But what I find even worse is Meryem’s comment that the prime factor in deciding a winning video is shooting for moments. I agree that most of us here are inspired by beautiful moments in nature, and we are all lucky to have the time and inclination to be outdoors exploring the natural world with our lenses. But in order to truly share this love of nature, I think it essential to have a story. There are thousands of nature programs and documentaries, but the ones that are consistently popular are those with a story. If we really want to inspire others to care about wildlife in the way we do, the audience must be drawn in with a compelling narrative. I also am unsure how to take the comment- “you want humans”? Are we not a part of nature? I realize that most of my videos have heavily featured people, especially my daughter. And since I have never won, or even received special comment, I realize this theme is apparently not popular with the judges. But they show us exploring nature together in some way, as do many nature programs, as people are attracted by a human element. I have also usually tried to make my films humorous to make our videos entertaining, which I believe is what most people are searching for when they watch tv or movies. If this isn’t appropriate, then I have a hard time understanding the direction of this contest, since I think most people are more likely to appreciate the wild world by watching others do the same.

The UWOL community has been very helpful in helping me to grow in my skills both shooting and editing. I had done a lot of shooting but very little editing before this contest, and I now feel much more competent in how to select and put together clips for a film. The deadlines of this contest have been a great motivator for me. Because of that, and because of my commitment at the start of this year to do all the contests, I do intend to complete UWOL 6. But then I will be leaving this contest, since I don’t feel my own goals are in line with the direction of the contest.

I will miss many of the participants. There have been many individuals here who have made helpful comments that have allowed me to grow in the way I have shot and edited my films. I took my commitment to the contest seriously, and for every contest, I have made a response to every film. I feel I owe that to the participants, and I appreciate the others who have done the same. This contest has inspired me to grow as a filmmaker, and I will be pursuing my own creative ideas in video on my own site following the last contest. My final film for this contest will have information on this site, for any who wish to follow the progress of Robin and me in exploring nature through film.

Ruth

[Chris Barcellos]

I have been curious about what the criteria of UWOL is all about, too. I remember we had one theme called "Recreation", and of course that was taken different, but most entrants presented people recreation.

So Meryem's comments, as the originator of this contest site bring a clarifying "epiphany" to me.....

Originally Posted by Meryem Ersoz

A great UWOL film is one that takes you to faraway places and makes you feel that you're already there while you're sitting at your desktop.......

......Second runner-up: Ok, this got a little bit tougher, but the slight edge is going to Ron Chant for "The Deer of Sheen Manor." He and Mat Thompson both put up gorgeous films of the same location and same red deer.

In Challenge 5, we had two kangaroo films, and we had two films about deer in the outskirts of London. To Meryem, these are far away places. Realistically, though, you have to accept that to those people, who live there, these are not faraway places, they are local places and very familiar places. To those of us here in the states, the prairies, back country of Texas, or the mountains of Colorado are familiar places. All of us tend to shoot in our local area, shooting scenes and wildlife from that area. To Per or Mat, those scenes might be as interesting to them, as theirs are to us.

Problem is, from the perspective if the a particular judge, they may also be too familiar, and therefore seem uninteresting.

So to me, in these Challenges, if your in them to "win the big prize", you are in a crap shoot.... One persons "far away" place is anothers backyard. One person's interest is another person's boredom..

So what I am here for is an interest in learning to do outdoor documentary videography. When I started with UWOL, I had never done anything like this. I am thankful that I have been able to make this connection with some great outdoor shooters. The ability to have a dialogue about their worlds, their equipment, and their techniques is so precious. I can learn a lot about the technical aspects of this type of filming from Per, Mat, Ron, Geir, David, Bruce and everyone else in these challenges. And that is what the real prize is in this process.

And in the end, And if you believe enough in your own style of documentary, don't let someone else's comments chase you out. Keep working on it, and developing it, and you will win the prize !!

[Gilles Debord]

Hi

we have just won against the New Zealand.

Thank's Chris for your comments, but UWOL is a challenge and i think that we have to accept the result, even if i prefer the Australian film (spirits) a really good clip.

In French now.

"Un film évoquant toute la tradition aborigène Aussie, avec tous ces mystéres et légendes. Que nous avons perdus dans l'hémisphère nord, j'avoue que c'est un continent que j'aimerai connaitre, mais pour l'instant mon quotidien est l'Amérique du sud, j'aime beaucoup les USA, une partie de ma famille vit en Pensylvanie "Apollo", mais j'ai peu d'occasions d'aller lui rendre visite, i prefer "wild wide south américa"

We won against the "All Black Killers" WOOOOOOW

Gilles

[John Dennis Robertson]

Congratulation to everyone who took the time to complete and post a video. In some way that makes us all winners. Meryem is so right in saying that this round the video’s were of a high quality. At this stage of my “film making career” I can in no way compete with most of the players here. I can and am however learning so much from everyone here. As far as judging goes I think if we had 6 judges this round even they would not have agreed on a winner. I suppose that this is a lot like figure skating or a dance competition. You sit in the stands and say “how the hell did the judge choose that skater over the others” They way I see it every judge looks for something that appeals to them. Bob said he was an old story teller at heart and this had a great making of a story. To me that’s the way the cookie crumbles, Bruce had a good entry and the judge liked it as did most of us judging from Bruce’s feedback thread. We could have had a judge that has a thing for Special effects, and then Cat would have won it. I know if I was a judge my top 3 would have looked different to Bobs and Meryems choice. If everyone just sat down and tried to choose a top 3 I’m sure you would all agree that we would apart from finding it difficult to do, we would all have a different view point. I think that’s great. To Meryem , Mat and everyone else involved in this silly crazy but oh so addictive event ,THANK YOU. Cant wait for # 6.

[Jim Montgomery]

Well said John

[Catherine Russell]

Dear Meryem:

Believe me, a "shout-out" from you is a dream come true and as good as gold. Thank you and I will sincerely consider your comments for next time.

Dear, dear Ruth:

Please reconsider stepping off the uwol bus after #6. We need you! I need you! Like John Dennis said, judging these films is very subjective so hang tough! If you have found that you have improved your editing skills through this event, isn't it worth it to stay on and continue the opportunity to improve? And as far as "shout-outs", I gave you one! I thought your film was wonderful, one of the few I watched more than once. I always look forward to your films AND your comments. You are very insightful you know? I respect your decision to leave after this year but I will personally be very sad if you do. I look up to your work. I look up to everyone's work in this challenge. We have the awesome opportunity, thanks to Meryem, to be guided and critiqued by the best! For free! The only dues is our own blood, sweat and tears putting up our own work, and ok, a quick sting that is short-lived when it doesn't make it into the winners circle. Can't be found anywhere else friend, so I hope you reconsider things ;o).

Meryem, you are brave to step in if you feel that rules are not followed... by judges and players alike. It takes backbone to maintain a challenge with integrity. Thank you for making this what it is.

Congratulations to all who have won, and to all who have entered. As our Norwegian friends say, "Velkommen skal du vaere!"

What in the world does this mean, Per?

Cat

[Meryem Ersoz]

Originally Posted by Ruth Happel

Hi,

First, I find it disturbing that someone assigned to be a judge is then told how to do his job.

This is a contest. It runs on rules. The players have rules. I send the same, pretty much identical e-mail around to all of the judges instructing them on the expectations and rules for the contest. Judges have procedural rules.

And I abide by more rules than anyone else, period. If I break my word--if I don't mail out the prizes, send round the passwords and instructions, respond to your e-mails, instruct the judges, etc etc., then the contest fails.

At no time do I EVER instruct judges in matters of taste, only procedure. But we do have certain procedures in place which were designed to ensure that the spirit of the contest is maintained.

Bob is a friend and a mentor to me. A 2-time Emmy winner with a pedigree as long as my arm. I have the deepest affection and respect for him and intend to approach the subject with maximum respect and sensitivity.

Players come and go from contests. That's the nature of the beast. Thank you, Ruth, for your contribution to helping build this one.

[Paul Mailath]

Originally Posted by Meryem Ersoz

Players come and go from contests.

That they do - and I might be doing my best aussie crawl trying to keep that white pointer from biting me on the butt - but I'm still swiming.

I'm not about to comment on individual entries apart from a general WOW! about the quality, I'm learning a lot and I'll be here for the next (I've got some floaties) and I'm aiming for one thing... eventually - one of those moments.

Cheers

[Trond Saetre]

First of all, I agree that there must be guidelines that both the judges and we as participants need to follow. No question about that.
At the same time, there is a reason we have used independent judges from outside the uwol community. I believe that is because they will judge our videos based on the actual video itself, and not who we are, and what our reputation as videomaker/previous experience is.
So far I believe we have accomplished this well.
Judging, as mentioned by others, will always more or less be subjective. And that is something we should accept.

It is fine and in Meryem's right to do extra judging like she did here, but still, one part of me feel like she was a bit overruling the judge, and to me, that's wrong. Like Ruth said, the judging is then no longer independent.
Yes, the judge did not specify who was runner up nr 2,3,4 and so on, but still I think he did a good job mentioning which videos he liked, and especially why he liked them. Based on this, I think he accomplished to mention who were the runner ups.

A few things I feel the need to comment:

Originally Posted by Meryem Ersoz

A great UWOL film is one that takes you to faraway places and makes you feel that you're already there while you're sitting at your desktop.

We have had lots of judges giving us feedback about being more story-oriented, but frankly, I do this for the moments that bring me to tears with their beauty, I do this for the tiny rare moments when I feel a sacred connection to what I am shooting or seeing in someone else's shots, story be damned.

Is this a change in direction for the UWOL Challenge? There must be a reason (good or not) that the judges have kept commenting about the need for a story to back up the videos. That stunning footage with no story so far has not been a winner in the judges opinons.

Meryem, from your comments, it seems like what will be important (from uwol 5 and in the future), is mostly to capture the great moments. And that we should concentrate more about finding the exotic/remote/far away places which will give stunning footage, and not so much think about building a story around the footage? Is this really what you meant by your comments?
In my opinion, we need a little of both.

Originally Posted by Meryem Ersoz

At no time do I EVER instruct judges in matters of taste, only procedure. But we do have certain procedures in place which were designed to ensure that the spirit of the contest is maintained.

I am very glad you clarify that, because it seems like there were some missunderstandings about this.


When this is said, I also want to say a big thank you to Meryem, Mat, and Kevin for all the work you do to keep the UWOL Challenge running. Thank you!

--------------

Originally Posted by Catherine Russell

As our Norwegian friends say, "Velkommen skal du vaere!"

What in the world does this mean, Per?

This translates to "you are welcome".
---------------

To Ruth, and everyone else:
Please stay with us. I hope all of you will continue to be part of this wonderful friendship uwol has developed into. We need different video types.
Only watching musk oxes, or kangaroos, or deers,... it would be boring after a while. We need some comedy, some serious stories, and of course the great moments out in the wild.


I am looking forward to UWOL 6,7,8...

[Meryem Ersoz]

to clarify a few points and answer a few valid concerns:

This comment:
"A great UWOL film is one that takes you to faraway places and makes you feel that you're already there while you're sitting at your desktop" seems to have triggered a few misunderstandings....

We have had 3 of the past 5 judges give us the identical feedback: story is paramount. This has been excellent advice which has tremendously enhanced many of our entries and improved our skills. Some of you seem to be reading what I said as a denial of that feedback...it's not.

My sole intention with that comment was to swing the pendulum back in the direction of an aesthetic of pure, raw spectacle, (what I'm flippantly calling "the money shot") which is what much of the nature and outdoors genre is built upon. Nobody watches Planet Earth, for instance, for the story, which is pretty much summed up as "we're all eating each other." We watch it for the spectacle.

I think what we do here has, to a degree, an element of contrast to the goals of what the DV Challenge does, which is to make great narratives. Otherwise, why even bother throwing all of this time and energy into having a second contest? Dylan runs a great show, a fun show. In one of his Challenges, that I participated in, he actually built in a requirement that the players show the spectacle of location, because the entries were so heavy on story and not so much on the spectacle of place, and the entries were greatly improved by this advice/requirement.

So my feeling, is that we have been getting somewhat redundant advice regarding storytelling (3 out of 5 judges) and my intention was to spark a return to the basis of the contest, which was originally oriented towards spectacle. These things don't have to come at the expense of each other, although sometimes it seems that they do. We can, and should, have both.


And Chris, you make a great point, too, about how one person's back yard is another person's exotic locale, but I think I was thinking somewhat symbolically about the spirit of the contest, rather than referencing the actual, literal locations. For instance, though we have never met, Cat lives 20 miles from me, but her barnyard view is quite different from the urban-mountain environment where I live. I observe way more deer in my yard than goats....and I think it was David who said he shot his roos on a golf course. Not exactly a wilderness setting. It's about trying to capture the spirit of where you live. Or don't live...I don't think Per actually lives in the inhospitable environments where he shoots. And the prairie is pretty foreign to me, I was merely trying to convey its charms....

And to Trond: The runners-up issue was not the only procedural issue with what went wrong, nor was it the most important. It was one I mentioned because we have been kicking around the idea of adding space for mentioning runners-up in the website, for acknowledging those films formally, and it would be strange to have one Challenge where these contributions went unacknowledged.

Let's keep in mind that the whole idea of independent judging and of bringing in outside judges was my own. Frankly, I don't usually agree with the judge's choice of a winner. But my opinion is completely beside the point. I'm happy to have a range of opinions and advice. I invented it, yo! But I invented it with an idea that these outside judges also need a context and sufficient guidance in that regard. That's why I send them a procedural e-mail and talk with them on the phone, when the phone is an option. I don't just throw them in here without context and say, "g'head, pick a film." That would be pointless. They need to know our project.

I've been asked to judge a video contest in Colorado this month, and the panel of judges are expected to spend an entire afternoon (4 hours!) receiving instruction on the expectations of the contest, before we ever sit down and view even a single film. Now what do you suppose happens if I don't show up the instructional session? Or if I attend, and then ignore it anyway?

Probably what I need to do is take myself out of the equation entirely, find a volunteer who is willing to join our team and take on the task of working with and finding the judges--someone who is not me, so that players don't confuse my running of the contest with my opinion about it. I try to keep those two things quite separate, but apparently there is a disturbing perception that they're too close. (This would DQ you from actually participating competitively, though you would be free to post non-competitively ....). Any takers? Send me a private e-mail if you're interested, and we can discuss.....

Please keep in mind that this is a work-in-progress, I'm far from feeling that I've perfected this...and every Challenge seems to bring about a new set of holes that need plugged.

[Trond Saetre]

Originally Posted by Meryem Ersoz

So my feeling, is that we have been getting somewhat redundant advice regarding storytelling (3 out of 5 judges) and my intention was to spark a return to the basis of the contest, which was originally oriented towards spectacle. These things don't have to come at the expense of each other, although sometimes it seems that they do. We can, and should, have both.

And to Trond: The runners-up issue was not the only procedural issue with what went wrong, nor was it the most important. It was one I mentioned because we have been kicking around the idea of adding space for mentioning runners-up in the website, for acknowledging those films formally, and it would be strange to have one Challenge where these contributions went unacknowledged.

Meryem, thank you for clarifying.

I agree with you that having great and spectacular footage is important in this challenge.
My point was just that combining it with having a story is a good thing. And I am pleased to see that you agree with the thought that both story and spectacular view should be included the videos we produce.

The idea of having the runners-up mentioned on the uwol website is a good idea in my opinion. And I think we should go forward with that.

I think that the reason some people (including myself) were questioning the judging or what happend this round, might be that we did not know how the procedure about picking a judge was done, or about any of the trouble you experienced. (i.e. that they were given specific rules to follow, and the other issues)
Now when we know a bit more about the background, I don't think we have any reason to question those procedures or the judges you choose.
So in my opinion, we can continue having you pick the judges as you have done so far, if you want that.