Wow....I didn't know he'd left yet. I thought he'd been a little quiet on the email for a while! Yep what a lucky chap....I'm sure the results will be fabulous to say the least!


I'm hearing you on the whole time thing. I've got a number of projects on the go and finding the time to write a 20min + film is a challenge.....BUT as you say its in the blood huh ;-) !

Good Afternoon,

Matt, I really like your idea of gardens for wildlife!!! So much can be done to encourage life into your yard it is quite amazing, Brillant idea!!!


Chris, My uncle was a market hunter on the misouri river in the great depression (of the 30's) It was interesting listening to him talk of the "good old Days" a matter of perspective for sure.

I could show you groups of hundreds of thousands to a million or more birds while setting in one spot!!

I look forward to everyones endevors and learning along the way!!

First Shoot
 

Well,

I spent 6 days out on a shoot. For a change the weather was perfect for winter weather!! No wind the entire time. This was about as good as it gets, it only dropped down to about 10 degress Farenheit and warmed up to the low twenties. At Tronde's suggestion I purchased a polar bear but it is not hear as of yet. All the shots were off the shoulder action shots. We shot three hours of tape and I am thinking I have about 6 minutes of good footage, not bad for what we were shooting.

I am kind of working backwards getting winter follow up footage for the spring to fall sequences.

I can post a couple sequences on vimeo, but wonder if we are supposed to wait till next month?

I am thinking about making a documentary about an important place in the history of Norway. Aging a few thousand years back, through the time of Norway's first king in the late 800's, the viking age... until now.

My problem so far is finding enough (and most important, accurate) information about everything.
Still struggling with building a story around it all. Crossing my fingers.
Much work, combined with traveling every 2nd week doesn't make it easier. So basically TIME is my biggest challenge for the February deadline.
One way or another, I will make the video... within the uwol, (or hopefully not outside the challenge).

This will be the challenge of the challenges!
Good luck to everyone!

Hey all!

Nice reading all of your plans, looks like everyone has a busy year in store! Mat, funnily enough I had exactly this idea too on the "garden over the year" thing, I can just sit for ever and film great tits and robins, not to mention the macro possibilities that lurk in every corner. But, I decided I'm gonna do a year in the making of on a little bigger scale, a stately home and grounds called Cliveden, which comprises of chalk beech woodland, formal gardens, amazing scenery and a 2 mile stretch of the river thames. Got quite a few stories and species to start working on, fingers crossed I'll have time to fit it in alongside being a dad. Surprisingly the off road pram makes for a great dolly ;-)

Here's a quick shoot i did there last spring, testing out the letus. Hopefully I'll get there at the same time this year.

YouTube - Cliveden in spring HD

Also have just started tinkering with R/C gliders with maybe the idea of getting some aerial footage. All good fun!!!

Cheers!

UWOLers are the only folks who can say stuff like this and not get moderated into oblivion!

(ok, someone hadda say it...)

really enjoying listening to everyone's struggles...that's what we're here for!

Thank you Meryem. (whew) I thought I was gonna burst.

LOL, that was an honest inclusion ;-)

I had thought about the garden theme too, how ours is going to recover from the drastic effects of the building project - renovation and extension - to the house. But the building work still isn't finished, the shed is still sitting in the middle of the lawn, and I can't work up any enthusiasm for the garden at present. But . . who knows . . . in another few weeks . . . . .

Meanwhile, I have at last managed to fight my way into the shed, to the peanut bin, and filled up the feeders, which are now regularly visited by tits again.

Rob/Annie - Just to clarify a bit, my idea certainly isn't about following my own garden (which is great since I've moved!) throughout a year.

Its to explore what gardens in general mean for wildlife and how in recent years the tendency towards paving/decking gardens over, putting all your plants in pots and generally being too tidy has a detrimental effect on garden wildlife.

I'll be visiting many different gardens and looking at the positive and negative impacts of how people keep them and the different species that they attract. Also a key part would be the interaction of young kids with wildlife. If our gardens loose their butterfly's, bubble bees and song birds then children will grow up never having important first connections with some amazing wildlife and be further dis-connected from the natural world. This of course has much wider connotations...

Well summer finally hit below the equator here. A predicted week of around 40 Celsius (100F) after a colder start. But I'm planning on making my video revolve around Cross Country Skiing. So I'm thinking I'll have to incorporate some training aspects for the sport - which will also make me try and build up from past chronic injuries and get some endurance back for this season. I figure I can make good use of available National Parks and other nature spots to do some good training whilst filming. There's come good bushwalks to do. Obviously there's other training involved, but I'll try and get the outdoor version.

I'm still thinking about the structure. At the moment documentary seems more straight forward, with me as guinea pig - putting a number of training principles into practice. I've had good results a few years ago, just slumped the last couple with injury and training for other things.

I'm pondering whether to split it into 2 parts. One being my training and skiing/racing, and the other part being skiing in Australia in general. I might even be able to film and interview some of the national athletes - having met a few, and I'm aquainted with the coach. It's a small sport in Australia - quite the opposite to swimming.

So the nature side is really the backdrop for the training, but particularly the sport itself. You have to venture into the hills to get snow (At least 1300m to get anything most years). And on a good day the views are brilliant. Don't know how I'll go getting the camera to some of the places I'd like to though. I want 3CCDs (no handycam), although that's probably less of a problem than getting the tripod there. If I go to Mt Bogong it's a 1000m ascent the easy way. But the view is worth it. Time to suffer for my art I think.

Mat, I'm so with you on this one. I heard a report the other day that said that 75% of 10 year olds didn't know that the "big black and white bird" was called a magpie. Sad times indeed.
Sounds really interesting!

Rob, Mat,

Ironic as I sit at my computer (35 click winds and about -10 today, a warming front is coming) I agree that anything we can do to connect the youngere generations to the outdoors is a worthy endevor. The trick will be delivering your goods in a fasion that the younger set will take in.

After finishing a career as an educator all I can say is that few young people have this ink, even living out here in the country!!

My piece is primarily ducmentation of process to product. The trick will be trying to show the link between man, wildlife and the outdoor life as apposed to just an experience.

The whole idea of inlightening others is what it is about for myself.

Pulling it off will be another story.

This really made me smile. Here comes Arran the great naturalist - starting out in an off-road pram - next it will be a 4x4 pushchair! Looks like he's in for some fun with his Dad for sure!

Mat - A topic close to my heart! The problem lies with lifestyle - unfortunately people don't have time or inclination to tend gardens any more - a minimalistic look with containers of 'architecturally dramatic' exotics is a fashionable solution for many promoted by some garden designers and gardening magazines. In SA the city trend is to build huge double story Tuscan-style mansions on a tiny plot and to cover all bare earth with gravel and stepping stones and pots containing lavender and lemon trees. This is the look people want.

(Just as an aside - a few years ago I removed all exotics from my garden (including my beautiful roses) and went the indigenous route. It has been such a rewarding experience. My garden attracts butterflies and birds and other small creatures - I have counted 42 bird species in my garden - including visitors - over the period! Ironically indigenous plants require very little work other than thinning every now and then.)

Andrew - looks you have a very busy time ahead of you with your topic, but it also sounds like you have the energy to cope. I would be careful not to chew off too much though or you may run out of time. Look forward to seeing those beautiful places you visit.

As for me, I decided to use this opportunity practice some new video techniques like playing with time, green-screen work and animation and so I will be exploring the mathematical precision found in the natural world.

I am already discovering some interesting things -like plants move, even indoors out of the wind !! - they wilt and perk up and turn to the light quite dramatically over a period of time! Never water a plant just before you want to film it using time-interval and a macro lens - it perks up and before you know it, you are filming something completely off the mark and your focus is way out. :/
Gary is busy with the 3-D animation side of things. I have done a couple of 2-D animations but I decided that 3D would be better for most things.

Hi all, interesting to read about all the cool plans you got!

My piece is still evolving into my head!

Bingo, Dale! That's exactly what I will try to accomplish. As you perhaps have seen in my DVC/UWOL Charity Challenge entry, Ole Arne was one of the dominant part of this piece. He will be the major link between nature, wildlife and mankind in the long-form too!
He has a tough style and looking, and I think if I do my things right, this will be very well worth seeing! The hardest thing is to create that look and feeling on tape! But as said my plan is still evolving.
In fact our first real trip start next week, as we will do one of the major bird of prey scenes.