UWOL #8 "Pressure" by Vegard Paulsen at DVinfo.net

Vegard Paulsen · April 22nd, 2008, 04:27 AM

UWOL #8 "Pressure" by Vegard Paulsen

First off I really didn't think i had time to deliver anything this round. I was stuck in Voss, Filming an eventvideo and some interviews for a client and had no sparetime what so ever.

Then suddenly, Sunday morning the 20.4 with one day left to the UWOL deadline while we waited for the rigging crew to get done i had an hour off before the tour-bus left.
So i ran down to the water and started filming the fresh new ice on the lake that was about to perish.

The sun was really hot that morning, and the thin ice that froze the night before was pushed up on land.
The result was this beautiful footage of what nature does to transform the surroundings.

When i got back i edited the the movie in 2 hours, added some score i created for another shortfilm that never got finnished, and started rendering on my slow computer. After 8 tries i got the quicktime movie file to be under 60mb and i uploaded with 30minutes left to deadline. Close call.

And last, the reason of the title "pressure".

-Quote from the movie "The Shawshank Redemption"
"Geology is the study of pressure and time. That's all it takes, really. Pressure and time."

Vegard Paulsen · April 22nd, 2008, 06:00 AM

The original entry file (59 mb)
http://www.spurv.com/43_uc8_pressure.mov

The HD-ready version of it. (138mb)
http://www.spurv.com/43_uc8_pressure(720p).mp4

Vidar Vedaa · April 23rd, 2008, 05:11 AM

Hallo Vegard.

You have a facinating film here from Vossavangen,I also is facinated
of ice.The sound the ice maked was special.

Good work!!!

Best Regards
VJV.

Trond Saetre · April 23rd, 2008, 05:22 AM

Hei Vegard,

Very nice what you accomplished in such a short time.
Nice, sharp images, crisp sound of the ice breaking up...

You made a good video, and I enjoyed watching it.
This shows that we can make great films out of what is "right next to us and things we often overlook".
Thank you for sharing!
Keep up the good work.

Bryce Comer · April 23rd, 2008, 07:11 AM

Hi Vegard,
Wow what a facsinating film. We don't have ice very much here in Australia, except in puddles on a cold winters morning, but of course that doesn't last more than an hour or two. I had never even thought about how it would lift & tumble rocks the way you showed it did. I loved the sounds you had, that really brought home the "pressure" that was being released as the ice moved. I would have liked to have heard maybe some ambient background music in the middle where there were other background noises, that i think you could have taken out completely & filled the gap with some music, then come back to the natural sounds you had again in the last part of your film.
Great job!

Bryce

Rob Evans · April 23rd, 2008, 07:27 AM

Hey Vegard!
This was a great, fascinating subject to watch. It made me think of the sound of running fingernails down a blackboard sometimes, but strangely that made it even more captivating!!!

Good stuff!

Mat Thompson · April 23rd, 2008, 07:59 AM

Hey Vegard

Nice piece and a very interesting transformational concept. I was captivated for the first minute by both the visual and the audio, both of which were great. However personally after that I was left thinking...ok and now !?? Maybe you good have added some variety with some weather shots, sun, sky timelapse or something to break (excuse the pun) up and add to the key concept....which was very nice!

Great stuff
Mat

Dale Guthormsen · April 23rd, 2008, 11:53 AM

Vegard,

It is proof that sometimes just being at the right place at the right time will get you astounding footage!!!!

this is awesome footage that I am sure any nature videographer could use some where in one of their videos!!

considering your time frame I think you had a fantastic entry!!!

No favorite footage here, I liked it all.

Meryem Ersoz · April 23rd, 2008, 05:40 PM

Really cool stuff...I loved the way you let the ambient sound carry the film, personally. It was amazing to actually witness the power of water and ice to move big rocks.

This was a very unique approach to the theme, and I really enjoyed it...a couple of images looked handheld that probably could have used additional stabilizing, but the original subject matter and the beauty of the water, rocks, and ice still carry the day.

So much happens around us that we don't even notice, and I'm always happy when a film transforms the way that I see the planet...that's really the essence of the theme.

I do have a strange thin red line on the side of the QT window...is that a compression issue?

Bob Thieda · April 24th, 2008, 07:57 AM

I loved it...watched it more than once....fascinating....

The sound was fantastic....was it really that loud or were you just very close?

One thing I could not get a feel for was the scale of everything...
Was that last rock that got pushed small or huge?
How thick was the ice?

Maybe if you or something familiar sized was in an early shot, I could understand the size of everything

Other than that...outstanding work.

Bob T.

Chris Barcellos · April 24th, 2008, 09:34 AM

Not being from an area where we see this happening, the total feel the film gave in both vision and sound really made me feel I was on the spot. Super job !

Adrinn Chellton · April 24th, 2008, 10:39 AM

This somehow is one of the most interesting ones I have seen so far. At first I was hoping for some narration, then as I continued watching I began to form my own narration internally, "The ice moves along inexorably as it shifts the position of stones large and small...." and so on. I think the lack of music and narration worked in this case for the most part.

The one major technical issue I saw was that thin red line on the right hand side of my QT window. It was dancing around in a very distracting way.

Interesting piece of work here I'm looking forward to your next entry.

Vegard Paulsen · April 25th, 2008, 06:55 AM

Hey again everybody. Thanks alot for all the great response. I never thought there would be this much response to the entry :)
I appreciate it very much.

So.
I'm going to try to answer you guys and girls as best as i can.

Vidar Vedaa: The sound it makes is unique in a weird way. I never thought it would be as loud as it was that day. It really made an impression.

Trond Sætre: Sometimes the things you are looking for is right in front of you. I've used alot of time myself turning my head around the themes in these competitions and i never get to come up with anything that both matches the time criteria and the theme itself. Its quite hard, and i guess this entry proves that if you just go out with your camera and look around in the nature you'll probably find more things to film than sitting at home trying to figure something out.

Bryce Comer: I guess you don't have as much ice as we have, but you shure do have alot of crazy animals :)
The ice and water is probably the two main things in nature that shapes large mountains and deep valleys to the way we see them today. It can move mountains and displace rocks. Kind of fun thinking of actually.
I was actually concidering creating a movie score to have in the background of the entire video, but when i was finnished editing the video, i had about 5 hours left to deadline, and i had not started rendering. hehe
So i had to drop the music and just use a short thing i had.

Vegard Paulsen · April 25th, 2008, 09:29 AM

Rob Evans: The noise is somehow so anoing that it makes the video more interesting to watch. If i had put an V.O. or a film score over it, i guess it would have taken the focus off the nature in progress. hehe

Mat Thompson: Since i filmed the entire video in 40 minutes, i couldnt do as much with it as i wanted to. I didnt even had a tripod to support my Canon Xh A1 on, so i had to use natures own support system. flat rocks, my hands, and so on. At one of the shots i actually stood with my shoes in 2-3cm of water with my hands completely soaked under the ice to get as close as possible while getting a steady shot. I had to go around without shoes on the entire bus trip home. hehe (8 hours). But hey. I can't complain. We had the smoothest tour-bus ever.

Dale Guthormsen: Its so true. Sometimes you just have to go out there to get the good shots. Tnx alot for your input

Meryem Ersoz: As i just wrote, i guess i could have needed some more stabilisers like a tripod or something, but i left everything in the tourbus and aimed for the water while i had the chance. If i had more time i could have done a stabilise of the handheld shots in After effects but since i was so close to deadline i just let it be. All the audio is actually recorded with the onboard stereomic on the Canon Xh A1. Kind of anoying since i had the Sennheiser Mkh 416 with the rycote windshield kit in the bus. But hey. Impulseshooting is fun no matter what. Everything was shot in hdv 1080p, and all the pan and zoom was done quickly in post. prod.

A few of you is complaining of some sort of red line on the side of the qt movie. I dont have it here, and i have tried it on 3 computers.

in case you want to see it without you can do so here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2IW_-eihrI

or in much better quality on my facebook page here
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=12010018049

Bob Thieda: It was that loud. Incredible loud actually.
Chris Barcellos: Again, Tanks alot. Always fun to give a new experience to others.

Adrinn Chellton: Both my bad english, the short time to deadline, and the captiating part of the ice breaking, made me decide i did not need a V.O. on this video. It kind of speak for itself :)
do check out the facebook or youtube version if you have qt problems.

Tnx alot for all your time so far. It helps alot doing this when the feedback is so brilliant as here in the dvforums.
Good luck to everybody!

Mike Beckett · April 26th, 2008, 01:36 PM

Vegard,

Wow! That was fantastic. The sounds outclass the picture - and that's saying something, because the shots were incredible.

The ice breaking up like that was almost spooky, and to think it was in real time too, not a time lapse. The detail shot from 1:35 was mesmerising.

I did get a little confused at one point when I thought something was a huge boulder, and it ended up being a small stone! But that was probably just my confusion.

Man alive, do you know how to compose a shot for video! Brilliant.

April 22nd, 2008, 04:27 AM	#1
Vegard Paulsen Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Oslo, Norway Posts: 175	UWOL #8 "Pressure" by Vegard Paulsen UWOL #8 "Pressure" by Vegard Paulsen First off I really didn't think i had time to deliver anything this round. I was stuck in Voss, Filming an eventvideo and some interviews for a client and had no sparetime what so ever. Then suddenly, Sunday morning the 20.4 with one day left to the UWOL deadline while we waited for the rigging crew to get done i had an hour off before the tour-bus left. So i ran down to the water and started filming the fresh new ice on the lake that was about to perish. The sun was really hot that morning, and the thin ice that froze the night before was pushed up on land. The result was this beautiful footage of what nature does to transform the surroundings. When i got back i edited the the movie in 2 hours, added some score i created for another shortfilm that never got finnished, and started rendering on my slow computer. After 8 tries i got the quicktime movie file to be under 60mb and i uploaded with 30minutes left to deadline. Close call. And last, the reason of the title "pressure". -Quote from the movie "The Shawshank Redemption" "Geology is the study of pressure and time. That's all it takes, really. Pressure and time."

April 23rd, 2008, 07:11 AM	#5
Bryce Comer Trustee Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Rossland, British Columbia Posts: 1,024	Hi Vegard, Wow what a facsinating film. We don't have ice very much here in Australia, except in puddles on a cold winters morning, but of course that doesn't last more than an hour or two. I had never even thought about how it would lift & tumble rocks the way you showed it did. I loved the sounds you had, that really brought home the "pressure" that was being released as the ice moved. I would have liked to have heard maybe some ambient background music in the middle where there were other background noises, that i think you could have taken out completely & filled the gap with some music, then come back to the natural sounds you had again in the last part of your film. Great job! Bryce __________________ There's never enough hours in the day!

April 24th, 2008, 07:57 AM	#10
Bob Thieda Major Player Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Carol Stream, IL Posts: 541	I loved it...watched it more than once....fascinating.... The sound was fantastic....was it really that loud or were you just very close? One thing I could not get a feel for was the scale of everything... Was that last rock that got pushed small or huge? How thick was the ice? Maybe if you or something familiar sized was in an early shot, I could understand the size of everything Other than that...outstanding work. Bob T. __________________ Bob T. Last edited by Bob Thieda; April 24th, 2008 at 09:44 AM.

April 24th, 2008, 09:34 AM	#11
Chris Barcellos Inner Circle Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Elk Grove CA Posts: 6,838	Not being from an area where we see this happening, the total feel the film gave in both vision and sound really made me feel I was on the spot. Super job ! __________________ Chris J. Barcellos

April 26th, 2008, 01:36 PM	#15
Mike Beckett Trustee Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Antrim, Northern Ireland Posts: 1,569	Vegard, Wow! That was fantastic. The sounds outclass the picture - and that's saying something, because the shots were incredible. The ice breaking up like that was almost spooky, and to think it was in real time too, not a time lapse. The detail shot from 1:35 was mesmerising. I did get a little confused at one point when I thought something was a huge boulder, and it ended up being a small stone! But that was probably just my confusion. Man alive, do you know how to compose a shot for video! Brilliant. __________________ Irish Railway Videos on Youtube

April 22nd, 2008, 06:00 AM	#2
Vegard Paulsen Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Oslo, Norway Posts: 175	The original entry file (59 mb) http://www.spurv.com/43_uc8_pressure.mov The HD-ready version of it. (138mb) http://www.spurv.com/43_uc8_pressure(720p).mp4

April 23rd, 2008, 05:11 AM	#3
Vidar Vedaa Major Player Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: bergen norway Posts: 235	Hallo Vegard. You have a facinating film here from Vossavangen,I also is facinated of ice.The sound the ice maked was special. Good work!!! Best Regards VJV.

April 23rd, 2008, 05:22 AM	#4
Trond Saetre Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Bergen, Norway Posts: 3,375	Hei Vegard, Very nice what you accomplished in such a short time. Nice, sharp images, crisp sound of the ice breaking up... You made a good video, and I enjoyed watching it. This shows that we can make great films out of what is "right next to us and things we often overlook". Thank you for sharing! Keep up the good work.

April 23rd, 2008, 07:27 AM	#6
Rob Evans Major Player Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Berkshire, UK Posts: 390	Hey Vegard! This was a great, fascinating subject to watch. It made me think of the sound of running fingernails down a blackboard sometimes, but strangely that made it even more captivating!!! Good stuff!

April 23rd, 2008, 07:59 AM	#7
Mat Thompson Trustee Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Kent UK Posts: 1,397	Hey Vegard Nice piece and a very interesting transformational concept. I was captivated for the first minute by both the visual and the audio, both of which were great. However personally after that I was left thinking...ok and now !?? Maybe you good have added some variety with some weather shots, sun, sky timelapse or something to break (excuse the pun) up and add to the key concept....which was very nice! Great stuff Mat

April 23rd, 2008, 11:53 AM	#8
Dale Guthormsen Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: Saskatchewan Posts: 3,048	Vegard, It is proof that sometimes just being at the right place at the right time will get you astounding footage!!!! this is awesome footage that I am sure any nature videographer could use some where in one of their videos!! considering your time frame I think you had a fantastic entry!!! No favorite footage here, I liked it all. __________________ DATS ALL FOLKS Dale W. Guthormsen

April 23rd, 2008, 05:40 PM	#9
Meryem Ersoz Wrangler Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Boulder, CO Posts: 3,015	Really cool stuff...I loved the way you let the ambient sound carry the film, personally. It was amazing to actually witness the power of water and ice to move big rocks. This was a very unique approach to the theme, and I really enjoyed it...a couple of images looked handheld that probably could have used additional stabilizing, but the original subject matter and the beauty of the water, rocks, and ice still carry the day. So much happens around us that we don't even notice, and I'm always happy when a film transforms the way that I see the planet...that's really the essence of the theme. I do have a strange thin red line on the side of the QT window...is that a compression issue?

April 24th, 2008, 10:39 AM	#12
Adrinn Chellton Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Carlsbad, CA Posts: 195	This somehow is one of the most interesting ones I have seen so far. At first I was hoping for some narration, then as I continued watching I began to form my own narration internally, "The ice moves along inexorably as it shifts the position of stones large and small...." and so on. I think the lack of music and narration worked in this case for the most part. The one major technical issue I saw was that thin red line on the right hand side of my QT window. It was dancing around in a very distracting way. Interesting piece of work here I'm looking forward to your next entry.

April 25th, 2008, 06:55 AM	#13
Vegard Paulsen Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Oslo, Norway Posts: 175	Hey again everybody. Thanks alot for all the great response. I never thought there would be this much response to the entry :) I appreciate it very much. So. I'm going to try to answer you guys and girls as best as i can. Vidar Vedaa: The sound it makes is unique in a weird way. I never thought it would be as loud as it was that day. It really made an impression. Trond Sætre: Sometimes the things you are looking for is right in front of you. I've used alot of time myself turning my head around the themes in these competitions and i never get to come up with anything that both matches the time criteria and the theme itself. Its quite hard, and i guess this entry proves that if you just go out with your camera and look around in the nature you'll probably find more things to film than sitting at home trying to figure something out. Bryce Comer: I guess you don't have as much ice as we have, but you shure do have alot of crazy animals :) The ice and water is probably the two main things in nature that shapes large mountains and deep valleys to the way we see them today. It can move mountains and displace rocks. Kind of fun thinking of actually. I was actually concidering creating a movie score to have in the background of the entire video, but when i was finnished editing the video, i had about 5 hours left to deadline, and i had not started rendering. hehe So i had to drop the music and just use a short thing i had.

April 25th, 2008, 09:29 AM	#14
Vegard Paulsen Regular Crew Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Oslo, Norway Posts: 175	Rob Evans: The noise is somehow so anoing that it makes the video more interesting to watch. If i had put an V.O. or a film score over it, i guess it would have taken the focus off the nature in progress. hehe Mat Thompson: Since i filmed the entire video in 40 minutes, i couldnt do as much with it as i wanted to. I didnt even had a tripod to support my Canon Xh A1 on, so i had to use natures own support system. flat rocks, my hands, and so on. At one of the shots i actually stood with my shoes in 2-3cm of water with my hands completely soaked under the ice to get as close as possible while getting a steady shot. I had to go around without shoes on the entire bus trip home. hehe (8 hours). But hey. I can't complain. We had the smoothest tour-bus ever. Dale Guthormsen: Its so true. Sometimes you just have to go out there to get the good shots. Tnx alot for your input Meryem Ersoz: As i just wrote, i guess i could have needed some more stabilisers like a tripod or something, but i left everything in the tourbus and aimed for the water while i had the chance. If i had more time i could have done a stabilise of the handheld shots in After effects but since i was so close to deadline i just let it be. All the audio is actually recorded with the onboard stereomic on the Canon Xh A1. Kind of anoying since i had the Sennheiser Mkh 416 with the rycote windshield kit in the bus. But hey. Impulseshooting is fun no matter what. Everything was shot in hdv 1080p, and all the pan and zoom was done quickly in post. prod. A few of you is complaining of some sort of red line on the side of the qt movie. I dont have it here, and i have tried it on 3 computers. in case you want to see it without you can do so here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2IW_-eihrI or in much better quality on my facebook page here http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=12010018049 Bob Thieda: It was that loud. Incredible loud actually. Chris Barcellos: Again, Tanks alot. Always fun to give a new experience to others. Adrinn Chellton: Both my bad english, the short time to deadline, and the captiating part of the ice breaking, made me decide i did not need a V.O. on this video. It kind of speak for itself :) do check out the facebook or youtube version if you have qt problems. Tnx alot for all your time so far. It helps alot doing this when the feedback is so brilliant as here in the dvforums. Good luck to everybody!