UWOL 16 Tales of wonder and Woe!

[Marj Atkins]

Geir this certainly sounds familiar - but even when you have learnt the lesson and thought of everything the wheels can still fall off! I don’t think I could have been better organized than I was for a family wedding at a private game lodge this last weekend. I had organized lights and sound and spares of everything (which, incidentally, was very fortunate because I had to use most for unexpected eventualities!). I did a check five minutes before we left on our four hour trip – everything was there and in working order. I even organized a big trunk with locks and chain and ten spare keys to lock up spares and equipment that would be needed close to hand.

I had visited the game lodge with my niece a month earlier to check out the venue which is absolutely stunning but a videographer’s nightmare for different reasons: The lodge is set on a rocky outcrop above a fast flowing river that tumbles over a long low dam wall (a road) and in and around beautiful rocks dotted along its path. The ceremony was to take place outside on the wooden decking overlooking this breathtaking scenery. The white noise from this background made it imperative to organize sound from the sound system into my camera. An added problem was the decking itself - when people walked on these floor boards the vibrations and bumps were carried directly to the camera. I used the lens stabiliser to solve the problem although, to my relief, once lots of people were finally seated the problem seemed to resolve itself. The thatched roof supported on three sides by heavy timber poles creates dense cool shade but all round the sides the outside area is brightly lit. I organized lighting to fill the deep shadows. I also set up a camera on the roof beams above which gave me a very nice angle looking down on the bridal ceremony that I could use as filler shots for the times when lighting was guaranteed to spoil the shot. I went up a day early to set up my lights and cameras - so I was little miss belt and braces all round. What could possibly go wrong!?

Well firstly a week before the event I hurt my wrist which was very frustrating. Then when setting up the camera on the roof beams the backlight button on the Sony handycam was accidentally pushed and all the resulting footage was blown out.

Because the space in which to manoevre was very limited I had decided on two positions for my XL2 – one at the back when the bride and her entourage entered down a flight of steps and one at the front to record the ceremony. I made sure no one would be blocking my way to and from these two positions or my final view. Tom was on the opposite side with my HV30 with strict instructions not to turn off the camera for any reason. I enlisted Gary’s help to film everything on his camera that I would miss when moving from the back to the front. Wonderful... drumroll ....final what could go wrong, go wrong, go wrong......halfway through the ceremony I noticed I had forgotten to press the RECORD button! After all that!!!

Fortunately , I can rescue the situation for the most part: because the first half of the ceremony was mostly praise and worship, most of the river sound was drowned by the music so even though not ideal at least the HV30 picked up the sound from the speakers okay. Unbeknown to me, Gary had been watching me and was getting filler shots in areas where I wasn’t pointing so thankfully I had the footage from Tom and Gary to resolve the problem! I can remove the white noise up to a point from the little bit of the ceremony that was spoilt but in conclusion I have decided I am sticking to wildlife filming - and not the wild life of event filming!

Ignore the view bmp - could not delete it for some reason.

[Meryem Ersoz]

Originally Posted by Geir Inge

Good luck everyone and remember to bring along your tripod, your batteries, whatever..
.. and please, do listen to your wifes when they tell you to clean up your things and stuff.

I bet your wife is glad that you finally learned this valuable lesson...

[Dale Guthormsen]

Good afternoon,

I hope things are going well with your projects.

With only 8 days left I am glad to report we have some decent weather to do some filming!!!

I have shot the bulk, perhaps a couple retakes to do if we continue with nice weather.

Have 3:53 on the timeline

Time for the hard part, voice overs and ambience!!! Uggggg!


Dale

[Mat Thompson]

Hi guys

Good to hear folks are beavering away ! I'm all shot already, something quite unusual for me. This will be set somewhere different this round and I'm looking forward to start laying down the footage tonight :-)

[Mike Beckett]

I'm currently camera-less, waiting for my new one to arrive... unless a miracle happens, I think I might be swimming this time round.

[Trond Saetre]

Yesterday I shot ond hour footage. Hopefully I can use some of it for my project.
Still need to shoot more.
This will be the most footage I have ever shot for any uwol film.
But it's the sweet 16, so the result has to be sweet, right...

[Graeme Hay]

So Last week I started filming some macro shot (of some ants as a test to completing this challenge as I didn't have access to the higher end Macro lens). Took some really nice shots but they were a bit bouncy. That said overall I was happy with the video but in appears I brushed up against some poison ivy (and didn't know it) and ended up this week with some nice reminders on my arms and a leg (cause I will kneeling down for some shots) and a bit itchy.

:P

Hopefully will get out tomorrow to do the shooting for the video and avoid the three leaf terror.

[Kevin Railsback]

Finally had a chance to go out and shoot a bit today. I think I have some nice footage.
Captured footage that covered all aspects of emotions. Happy, Sad, we'll see if I can put something together now.

[Mat Thompson]

Good to hear that cameras been a rolling :-) - Look forward to seeing what you've got instore Mr Railsback !

[Mick Jenner]

Looks like I will be in the shark tank on my first entry. Still recovering from my recent op and not allowed lift or drive at the moment. Was trying to film something in the garden, unfortunately this has not materialised.
Maybe more luck next time around.

Mick

[Dale Guthormsen]

Good evening,

I actually have mine pretty much finished up, rendered a 57 mb version for the list and 118 mb version for vimeo. I pretty much had to finish it as I have three weddings and three event shoots in the next while.

The biggest problem with this round for me is the three minute limitation, I had to totally reduce my original plan and down scale the scope of the thing. Usually my ideas are always bigger than I am capable of accomplishing!

I am always invious of those people that have others to act, read script (or anything for that matter) or such and participate in their films it really gives things more depth!!

This is the first one that I actually had no problems of any kind, YE HA!



Really look forward to the completitions!!!

There is still four days!!! Time to get after it for those that have had prior issues!!! Just completing is a challenge in itself and a worthy accomplishment!!!



dale

[Mat Thompson]

May 24, midnight anywhere in the world !

More than four days fella :-)

[Kevin Railsback]

Yeah, there's no way I'd be able to get mine done in four days! :)

[Dale Guthormsen]

Whoa,


Hope I didn't put the fright into anyone, I was thinking it was the usual 20th.

That is great, those feeling pressured have plenty of time to pull something together.

And those swamped with wo-wo-Work have the weekend too.


Dale

[Per Johan Naesje]

Have been much too busy in the past, so I´m sorry that I haven´t been joining the conversation on this forum much lately.

But I have some days off from today and the rest of this week, gonna make something, I´m sure!
Good luck to you all!