UWOL#7 "Elisabeth and friends" by Geir Inge B. Brekke

[Geir Inge]

”Elisabeth and friends” is the story about 3 good friends and how they explore winter activities in the mountains of Bjorli. Far away from the coast where they live.
Also it shows 3 healthy teenagers and the joy of making winter sports, a nice way to get in touch with nature and start loving it.
The stars of the show is Elisabeth (13), Iselin (13) and Stian (14).
For 3 days I’ve been following them as they have been trying out different activeties and YES, I’m excausted and I suddenly felt very old together with these lovely kids :)
They didn’t know then, but I gave them a surprise at the end of our winter holidays and they loved it. I made this the ending of my film.
Conditions:
We had different weather and lightning conditions.
Temp from -16C to +5C, snowy, rainy, sunny and a shaky camera (man).
That’s all I want to tell you about the film, except that we had a lot of fun making it and I hope you’ll enjoy it too.

The film in QT: Elisabeth and friends

Geir Inge

[Per Johan Naesje]

Wonderful piece Geir Inge!
The establisihing shots at Bjorli mountains was stunning and a nice pan too!
The sequence from the skilift was good althoug you could see the change in light at the end!
The low angle view from the snowboard running was stunning and very well done. I'm so astonished that it's possible to come down that hill on those snowboards, without breaking every bone in the body!
The last sequence with the dogs was also nice. But I would have liked more shots outside of the sledge as they was a bit shaky!
A very good piece Geir Inge. Hopefully you also got some rest too on your vacation to Bjorli?

[Bruce Foreman]

You captured a really fun adventure feel in this one Gier. Opening shots were beautiful and I really liked the way you introduced the kids.

The lift and snowboarding sequence was fun to watch but the real treat for me was what you did with the dogsled shots. You got some great moving shots that took me right along on the ride.

I especially liked the low angle moving shot from alongside the sled.

[Kevin Railsback]

Geir,

That was a lot of fun!!

First of all, you have an awesome speaking voice. It is very soothing and calming. You voice fit very well with the opening of the film.

I thought the transitional music when we first met the kids was perfect. It changed the pace for what were to see just right. From the serenity of the beautiful countryside to flying down a mountain on a snowboard.

My favorite shot of the snowboarding sequence was looking down at the kids with the valley below and you could see the buildings in the distance. Very cool shot!

I like how their heads turned at the close of the sequence with the beat of the music. :)

I thought while the music for the snowboarding was perfect, I thought the music for the dog sledding was too "country". It was more of a Yee Haw knee slappin music instead of something that really fits the beauty of your country and the dog sledding. Something a little more grand maybe?

The only other thing was some of the natural audio from the dog sledding was up there a bit and then the next shot was a distant shot and the audio just fell off abruptly. A little more of a cross fade or something would have made it a little less abrupt.

Another solid film for your portfolio!

It was a lot of fun watching but I'm sure not as much fun as the kids had! :)

Good job my friend!!!

[Meryem Ersoz]

the kids must have liked this...."dad needs a film, so we get to go 'boarding, dog-sledding, and tubing..."

loved the dogsledding sequence most of all, nice angles and photogenic...i don't mind shaky footage when it is a P-O-V shot, i think it adds to the effect of what is being experienced. of course i say that because mine is all shaky as well, as you will see...

very cute and enjoyable film...i always love Narration by Geir!

[Adrinn Chellton]

Geir, that was an interesting piece, I liked the footage you used and I thought the snowmobile towing the inflatable dinghy looked fun. I bet being pulled by dogs is an experience. I have never done that before, but would like to go for a ride someday!

Good work.

[Catherine Russell]

Hi Geir!

Your voice! It is a perfect voice for VO in film. It just sets the mood and makes you want to settle in for a great documentary. This was fun and very professionally put together. I can feel the wind in my face on that dog sled! That, was really cool!

Cat

[Geir Inge]

I'm just in for a brief respond to your comments.

First:
It so happens that for the last month I've been in negotiation with a local TV station. They offered me full time job as a video journalist. For this I have to say thank you to you wonderful people and friends of uwol, Meryem and company :) It all was because of my uwol films. TVSunnmore want to show my wildlife shorts and use me as a videojournalist for local news. I said no to full time job and asked to be a freelancer, and they said YES. So now I'm working one week for my "little" brother in his bowling hall and have one week off to work for TVS. TVS phoned me when I was on winter holidays and sent me right away on my first mission. The opening of the worlds deepest undersea road tunnel, not far from where I live. I didn't have much time for editing my uwol7 film then, as you all hopefully understand.

Per Johan:
Thank you for comments.
The problem with filming dog sledge is that they need some space to turn around and go back again. It is all filmed with one camera and then you have to move to get new angels. Our problem was that on that icy snow the dogs get their feet cut to bleed. For me and the kids this was not easy task to handle. The girls even cried because of it. Kurt (the owner of the dogs) said this is normal and nothing to fear. Even better then using dog shoes as they would do more harm to the dogs hips.

Bruce:
Thank you for comments.
I'm glad you liked our little mountain adventure.
The dog sledge was really fantastic, we had never tried this before.
I was a little bit afraid of holding the camera alongside the sledge, at times it went really fast.

Kevin:
Thank you for comments.
The real challenge in this one was to film the snowboard scenes, the hill is very steep and I had to follow up the ski lift and walk down the hill to film some of the scenes, and yes I was afraid of falling and to damage/bust my camera:) I notice that one of the dog clips had a little bit to loud soundtrack, but sorry I didn't have time to fix it.

Meryem:
Thank you for comments. I'm blushing :)
I wonder is it only me that can't bear the sound of it's own voice, or...?
I always think that my voice seems rare when I listen to it.

Adrinn:
Thank you for comments.
The snowmobile (we call it snowrafting or tubing) was very fun. I'm just sorry I didn't catch the howling laughter from the kids though. Too long distance to the camera mic and too loud sound from the scooter.

Catherine:
Thank you for comments.
Once again I'm blushing and yes the dog sledge tour was great.
I have 8 different locations in this short. The dog sledge tour is in fact taken place in a mountain valley called (in english) Chest Valley or Breast Valley. It is the port to one of Norways most famous hiking area, Tafjordfjella. A wonderful place where you can hike for many days, and sleep in cabins (even got food supply) open for public.

I will start downloading your films tonight, now I have to go to TVS and finish my last shot for the news.

Geir Inge

[Markus Nord]

As many above me have mention, the dog sledding was my favourite too.
Nice job, not as strong as you other films… I would have liked to se more about the dog sledding.

Markus

[John Dennis Robertson]

Hi Geir Inga
So glad you got that job with the local TV company.without a doubt you are the right person for video journalism.The dog sled bit amazes me.Obviously we dont have anything like that here in this climate.I cant add too much more to what everyone else has said.Although I will mention the slow pan in the beginning of the vide....I need to practice to get that done as well as you do...
Very enjoyable video from you as we have all come to expect

[Trond Saetre]

Hei Geir Inge,

This was fun to watch!!
Well done!

Most has been said by others already.
It is easy to get the snow over exposed when filming people wearing dark clothes, but I think you managed this very well.

The shaky filming on the dog sledge did not bother me at all. To me that gave the feeling of being on the sledge myself. A few shots of the sledge with the kids passing by would have been great, I missed that. But I understand the limitations you had.
I agree with Kevin about the music for the dog sledge part.

And last, but not least...
Congratulations with the freelance tv job!!

[Vidar Vedaa]

Hi Geir Inge


You make good progres,I will say this is one the best film
you have made.Allower a realy good film.The mucik may bee
a litle high.But a realy nice woise-ower

Great-jobb!!


VJV.

_______________

[Dale Guthormsen]

Geir,

Congratulations on the free lance job first,

Not much to say that hasn't been said, other than I really enjoyed your short.

[David Gemmell]

Hi Geir Inge,

Congrats on the new TV position - that is fantastic news, you must be so happy!

As always, your entries are always of such a high standard and as others have said, your mastery of the camera really shows in this piece. I also agree with your wonderful soothing voice.

It really was quite an adventure you captured with the kids and a joy to watch.

Good luck in the new role.

[Geir Inge]

Thanks to you all for wishing me good luck in my freelance job. Yesterday I was out day-cruising with the police. On Friday I will be out to get some more action shots, following them at night. That's an adventure too I guess.

I have to comment myself first, as I wrote to Meryem that my voice sound "rare", hehe. In Norwegian this do have a little bit different meaning than in English. In Norwegian we write "rar" and it means "odd" and that's what I ment :) In Norwegian "rare" means something uniqe or valuable, and I do not consider my voice to be exactly valuable or uniqe, just odd when I listen to myself :)

Ok, thank you all for feedback.
About the shaking in the sledge clips, I did plan to put on a stabilizator in the editing prosess, but finaly chose not to. I do understand that some can find it disturbing to watch, but I wanted it be as close to real as possible.
I have no other explenation or excuse in this matter :)

Geir Inge