UWOL 26 - Impact - Trees - Paul Wood

[Paul Wood]

Following a little bit my line on the effect of environmental laws here in Brazil, this time I look at the effect these changes have had on a small family business - the sawmill.

As ever, things didn't work as planned, and I was not able to get the interview footage I wanted at the sawmill, as the owner (shown here) was too busy.
In the end I went to his other business, a restaurant/weekend chalet/ event venue, and interviewed him there.

The story changed as well during the edit, so I ended up with a slightly different emphasis in the finished film.

Here it is - so please enjoy!

Impact - Trees on Vimeo

[Mikael Ewald]

Hi Paul!

I like this kind of films with interviews and i think you did a great job. A nice mix of different shots and it works very well with the texting even though english is not my major language.
The story works fine as well.

I hope i can do something like that some day.

/Mikael

[Catherine Russell]

Hi Paul:

This was interesting and well done! I thought it was very interesting how timber cutting is now managed and mapped out by satellite imagery. And also a side impact of the English coming and planting trees for combustion as they built the railroads. The beginning shots and music were a sharp contrast to the work in the saw mill and bringing up the title "Impact" then was very effective.

One thing for me is that the reading of the subtitles was labor intensive and I didn't always catch the video because I was so focused on the text. It would have been nice to mix up voice over with subtitles to give the viewer a break from reading. I would also have liked to know how the interviewee felt about the enforced regulations. I had the impression that he wasn't all that pleased with them and that he wouldn't mind going back to the old ways of just going in a cutting down. But I wasn't sure about this. It also is amazing to think that there was a day and age not that long ago where all the cutting was done by hand without the help of electric power tools.

Good film overall and it addresses the theme of impact very well!

Cheers Paul!

Cat

[Steve Siegel]

Paul,

This was very well done, and the comment Cat made points out the reason why. Your message is a positive one, that conservation and sustained forestry practices are winning out in Brazil. But the ambivalence of the sawmill owner, the fact that he really sounds like he doesn't understand why they are restricting his activities gives the piece a certain irresistible tension. Excellent.

[Trond Saetre]

Hi Paul,

This was very interesting! Thank you for teaching me something new.

I am so used to subtitles from tv here in Norway, so I do not mind that.
Actually I think it improved your film to use your own language and then add subtitles!

Opening sequence was pretty cool. Nice effect to point the camera to the sky!

[Paul Wood]

Thank you all for your comments!

Cat, I think you have a fair point with the subtitles - our hero speaks quite quickly, and although I could have left one section out, I wanted to get the key points across, and the pacing is deliberately fast to match the sawmill, and contrast with the opening scenes.

The latest Forest Law here is still being hotly debated, and has been several years in parliament before coming into action. There is a very strong farming lobby wanting to get their way, and this has led to some concessions for small farmers.

I would like to make a longer piece, but I will do a longer cut of this film, and add more of the sawmill owners views, perhaps as well as those of some local farmers. In my little part of Brazil, there are mostly small family landowners, as in contrast to other, more well publicised areas where macro farming is more common.

[Kevin Railsback]

Nice film Paul.

Lumber companies have always preached their product is sustainable. It is if it's managed properly.
The problem is greed and profit.
There are always people who would chop down the last tree to make a buck so without regulations there would eventually be nothing.

The human race uses more than a planets worth of resources. I can't remember how many Earths it would take to satisfy all the resources we use but its more than the planet can produce.

But like typical humans we will wait until the well runs dry before we worry about where we're going to get our water.

Would have loved to see a counter point to the lumber mill owner. He did seem upset that he just can't go chopping down trees with no thought or concern for anything but keeping his business going. Perspective from the other side of the coin would have been a nice balance to the film.

[Catherine Russell]

Originally Posted by Paul Wood

The latest Forest Law here is still being hotly debated, and has been several years in parliament before coming into action. There is a very strong farming lobby wanting to get their way, and this has led to some concessions for small farmers.

I would like to make a longer piece, but I will do a longer cut of this film, and add more of the sawmill owners views, perhaps as well as those of some local farmers. In my little part of Brazil, there are mostly small family landowners, as in contrast to other, more well publicised areas where macro farming is more common.

Hi Paul:

I think you should make this into a longer, more developed piece. This is a hot topic in your country now and who knows, your documentary capturing the moment might go far in Brazil.

The mill owner is a very interesting subject. He may not be quite ready for enforced change because he is doing what he and his family for generations have always done. It is what he knows. It is how he was raised. His father and grandfather were honorable people, working hard to bring a better life for their children. And now he might sense that this is under attack? We hungrily demand his products but also now are a bit reticent on how he must go about to provide them?

You are touching on real issues here and if you balance it well, you could touch a lot of people and help ease change for the better.

Cat

[Geir Inge]

Hi Paul.

You provide a great video and the format is fine.
Quiet atmosphere and relaxing start, before it goes to the main story.
Great use of the theme, and I really like that you have English subtitles with language originally spoken.
It shows that Uwol is an international forum/challenge and has room for multiculturalism.
The sound is great, including music, background and VO.
The editing is also good and you have a good flow of the story you tell.
The interviewee is engaged, in which he tells the story of the lumber industry, the different types of wood and who determines the process.
How did you manage to get him to be so natural in front of the camera? I always think an interview is difficult to get right, because often the objects get a bit nervous in front of camera.
Send him my greetings, he fascinated me.
Norway is also a country that has timber industry.
In my country, logs were sent via rivers and down through the valleys.
End of the line was wood processing factory which was located by the sea.
Today, the logs are shipped by trucks and most of the forest work is motorized, giving us more pollution.

Thanks for sharing, and I hope to see more videos from you.

[Paul Wood]

Kevin,
Thanks for your comments - I agree it would be good to see another side to the story - its hard sometimes to convey a complex issue in 4 minutes, and still get the ¨Impact¨ theme covered.

Cat - you make very good points - I will certainly make a follow up / re edited version, as I think the subject matter is very interesting. How people of my generation see things here is very much influenced by the rapid changes taking place - people aged below 30 have a different outlook, and as in the rest of the world, the ¨internet generation¨ is again different - lets see how my follow up pans out.

Geir-Inge, thank you! I find that helping people relax by explaining what Im going to do helps - also making it more of a conversation than a formal interview. The locations helps tremendously, having a subject in his ¨home ground¨ where they feel more comfortable.