UWOL 22- Zoo in a Dewdrop- Mike Sims

[Owen Dawe]

The moment I saw the title 'Zoo in a Dewdrop' my mind flashed back to high school days and the biology class.

Fabulous opening shots of a real live zoo with large animals. Then smaller still smaller, and even smaller until we entered the world of a Dewdrop. There were all the living simple organisms I learnt about at school alive and kicking. So technically perfect. So very well told. A movie you can justly be proud of.

[Bob Safay]

Mike, HA, Not unless you tought in Denver back in the early 70's. I promise you will be seeing more of my videos. Again, I great job. Bob

[Mike Sims]

Owen- Thanks. I tried to choose critters that would be familiar to most folks.

[Mike Sims]

Bob- I was joking. I know full well that you are a cut above my former students!

[Bill Thesken]

Years ago they had a ride at Disneyland called 'Adventure Through Inner Space' where you got smaller and smaller till you were the size of an atom. That's where I thought this video was taking us. An excellent concept for this video Mike. I'll watch it again to see how small we end up. In fact, one of my kids is taking high school biology and should watch it. Now if only I could find a way to get that microscope into my tidepool...

[Mike Sims]

That’s easy, Bill. If the microscope can’t go to the tide pool then bring the tide pool to the microscope- one drop at a time! There will be lots of interesting things to see.

[Trond Saetre]

Hi Mike,

I think this is the first time uwol has touched the micro world.
When I watched your film and saw the smaller and smaller animals, I several times thought that "now you can't come up with anything smaller", and you got me every time. Very cool to see the tiny small creatures, and learning about them.

Well done!

[Simon Wood]

Mike,

Great little documentary you made! The stars aligned for you this round I reckon; I bet you had a big smile on your face when the theme was announced!

The visuals were fantastic; almost abstract images, and all the more amazing that they are living creatures. You really showed me a glimpse into another world. As almost everyone has mentioned the transition from a regular big Zoo descending down to the microscopic Zoo was an inspired idea.

Your choice of music was interesting. Did you ever see the documentary by Herzog called 'Encounters at the end of the world'? In that there were some some amazing underwater shots set to a surreal soundscape. Parts of your film were reminiscent of those scenes in terms of the tone and mood you set (in other words I think it was a very cool mix of visuals and music).

In terms of theme and production value; you nailed them both.

There is only one thing I didn't like; the titles at the end just seemed totally out of place and too colorful. But thats just my own personal opinion as I usually like very simple titles and text. It would have been cool if you could have got some organic looking titles maybe?

Anyhow; I think yours is the one everyone will have to try and beat this round. Excellent work.

[Mike Sims]

Thanks, Trond. Keep in mind that there are organisms more than two hundred times smaller than the smallest that I showed!

[Mike Sims]

Thank-you, Simon. The title was intended to be the video’s poster frame and the bright colors meant to make it more legible in the tiny thumbnail. The music is from Burundi, Australia, Tibet and India.