UWOL#8 Transformations in the forest

[Bryce Comer]

Hi all,
Well it's great to be here again, rather than in the shark tank like last round, although, i must admit i nearly slipped in there again this round. I've been finding it hard of late to find the time to do anything but work, so to have the full 2 days off over last weekend to work on my entry was pure bliss.
I had done some really long hard thinking over the first 3 & a half weeks about what i might do for this entry, but in the end, time was what killed all my other ideas, oh well, maybe some other time for them. In the end, my idea was a fairly simple one, & one that was very enjoyable & relaxing for me. The time i spent filming this round was fantastic, & i learned lots, now it's time to learn some more with all your help. One thing i will say though, is how i struggled to tell my whole story in 3 mins. Something i thought would have been easy in the beginning, but would prove to be a lot tougher than i would have ever thought. In the end, i think i got my message across, but it was certainly a shorter version, with a lot of things left out that i would have liked to have talked about. (Again, maybe another time)
Anyway, i hope you enjoy it, i certainly enjoyed making it.

Regards,

Bryce

[Trond Saetre]

Hi Bryce,

Fantastic! I loved every second of your video. You had a great story, awesome footage, so rich colors...
Thank you for sharing your part of the world!
I felt as if I was there with you, experience the same things as you did there.

[Vidar Vedaa]

Hi Bruce

I like this entery,facinating wood and good compocing.
And you have some grait color.Nice work!!!



Best Regards
VJV.

______________

[Dale Guthormsen]

Bryce,

Nice camera work, colors are awesome as mentioned.

Favorite shot is at 1:09 the sun behind the tree looking over the lake!

A good job on a huge topic done in a few minutes!!!

the hard part is cutting out footage in my book!!!

great nature audio too!!!!

I enjoyed every minute, all three of them!! wanted more.

[Catherine Russell]

Excellent piece Bryce:

The footage was great (the spider web was killer), you narrated very well and told the complete story. Great interpretation of the theme. Awesome job!

Cat

[Oliver Pahlow]

Hi Bryce,

I just watched your film and I have to say you are another one of those people who is blessed with fantastic scenery. I have to agree with Catherine about the spider web, I'm always looking for a huge spider web to film.

Oliver

[Meryem Ersoz]

Have you been studying Geir's films? Your presence in this film works really well, you have a nice full voice, and I admire how you people can frame your shots and then walk right into it and start talking so professionally and coherently.

Very nice lighting that you managed to put into this, especially considering you had only a couple of days to put it together.

The spider web rocks!

Great message and use of the theme...

[Bob Thieda]

Very nicely done!

Told a complete story....

I particularly like the spider web and the red moon shot. The transition from the beauty of nature to the logging operation was well done.

You appear very comfortable on camera....

There was one zoom that seemed to change speed briefly, but I didn't notice it the first time I watched....

Again, very nice!

Bob T.

[Ruth Happel]

This was a great film with an important message. You managed to get quite a bit in, though you spoke of wanting more time- the logging, burning, forests with deforestation- you really told the whole story in the video. You are a wonderful nature host- good pacing and level of information in your narration. The music was a good choice, and enhanced the message. I also really like your use of nature sounds- lush when the forest was lush, silent after the trees were cut- subtle but effective. I really enjoyed watching this.

Ruth

[Paul Mailath]

good stuff - I liked that opening shot panning around and the web

I wonder if the chainsaw sound might have been better without and soundtrack behind it - sort of raw (maybe you already tried that) but wow, what a moon.

I liked the reintroduction of the music toward the end but there was a zoom in to a possum in a tree that was a little short - I couldn't tell for sure what it was (that may be my eyes of course).

the last shot with you narrating on screen was great, very natural. There was one sound that bugged be - I think it came from the background music, it sounded like a Jews harp - I was looking around to see if someone had a watch alarm or if my cpu was giving me a warning tone.

all in all a great piece, a complete story.

[Bryce Comer]

Hi all,
Thank you all for the feedback on my film. After finishing this at the 11th hour, i was pretty happy with what i had put together & thought i had made some improvements over my last effort in round 6, but after watching all the other videos, i realised that i was still a long way behind the improvements others were making to their works!

I'm glad the spiderweb has been mentioned, it was my second choice of shots of that web, the other shot i had i thought was much nicer, but i had to leave it out because of time restraints.

Dale, i too like the shot of the sun coming up. I actually shot that with timelapse using a slow moving tripod for the pan, & the fog in the valley below does look like a lake the way it moves.

Bob, i'm glad you mentioned the moon. There is a story to that shot. On the first day of shooting, i had to go out in the evening, so after getting home, i rushed to get ready. I was right on time when i walked out the door to drive into the city to where i was going to meet some friends. As i walked out the door i just happened to look to my right, & there was the moon, as red as red can be. Well, needless to say, i was late to dinner! The red colour was due to all the smoke in the air from the controlled burning they are doing to the east of Melbourne at the moment, & through all that smoke, the moon looks red. The following night was a full moon, i planned to shoot it again, but this time with a tree in the foreground, unfrotunately though the wind came up & blew all the smoke away. In the end, i had a shot that i had taken the day before of a tree, with a beautiful blue sky behind it so i was able to use that shot & key out the blue sky, darken it so it appeared to be night, & put the moon in behind it. I was quite pleased with the effect, but i must say, wow, you should see the original in HD!

Thanks Paul for your comments. I was trying to create some drama to the shots of the chainsaw & burning logs, & had infact tried to bring in the music after the chainsaw, but the clip then was too short for the music creation program i used, & it didn't sound right at all. I think too, that that piece of music comes in too suddenly, & that i think detracts from it. The 2 zooms you speak of i agree were horrible, but the shots fit with what i was trying to get across with the selective logging, & unfortunately i didn't have any other shots i could put in there. I also agree with your comment about the music at the end. This was the first time i have used Sony Cinescore for my music & am not sure if i can take that part of the song out like i could with SonicFire Pro 4. I will have to look at learing to use Sony Cinescore better though, as i thought the type of music worked fairly well.

[Mike Beckett]

Hi Bryce,

I can identify with the work problem - at times I was working such long days I wondered if I'd get anything done at all for this round. The three minute limit caused me pain too, I kept ending up at 5 or 6 minutes and being surprised every time.

You've got a great voiceover for a nature film! And there's some super bird shots in there at the start. The cut to the chainsaw and the fire was almost painful to witness, but was well executed. The red moon was positively evil.

Lots of well framed shots here, and beautiful colours. The birdsong takes me back to Aus, waking up to that wonderful noise each morning. My next holiday just can't come soon enough, you're giving me an appetite!

Those forests are incredible. It never ceases to amaze me just how resiliant they are - they practically NEED fire to survive, and time and again I've walked through forests that have blackened eucalypts yet are just teeming with life. Remarkable.

Every shot seemed to be just about perfect in framing and exposure, and the story was interesting and well told. You have a great on screen presence. Very well done.

[Bryce Comer]

Thank's Mike for your comments.
We really had similar stories to tell with our films, just on different sides of the planet! I had started out with a more damning story to tell about the logging in Australia, & to be honest, there is a lot to be said for what goes on, & what has gone on in the past. However, i was pleased to see, upon closer inspection, that things do recover quite quickly, & that selective logging is becoming more the normal practice. With our extremely fragile ecosystems here in Australia & an extinction rate of animals higher than any other place on the planet, we really do need to look at every possible way we can reverse this trend.
On a technical note, thanks for the comments, i really was helped though in a huge way by the beautiful light mother nature provided.

Bryce

[John Dennis Robertson]

Where to start?.With my limited skill I could find nothing "wrong", but oh so many things right.Your Vo is good...I need to work on attaining that level.All shots were great and a message well told and portrayed

[Bryce Comer]

Hi John,
Thanks for your comments. I think it's funny how you say you like my VO & want to improve on yours, but i feel exactly the same about mine needing improvement & would love to get it to the same level as yours & others here on the forum. I guess it's just easier to listen to others voices than your own. Still, one of the best things about all the people here is they are all very humble, & that's why i think we see such big improvements with every round. With so much talent here in this group, & the willingness of everyone to help eachother out like they do, i can see someone here making it big one day.
Thanks for the encouragement.

Bryce