UWOL#32 Elements by Vishal Jadhav

[Vishal Jadhav]

A interesting month that culminates into the submission of the entry

As i read about the Elements i found that there are 2 major thinking lines across the world which have either 4 or 5 elements 5th is the sky/ space. Others Earth, Fire, water and wind are common across all the places. For this film i have used the Canon 5D MIII & 600 D, Panasonic GH4, gopro hero 3+black .

This is the very first video i have made with a topic in mind and yes this topic had a lot of open room for interpretation, challenging parts came due to the construction and when everything didnt go as per the plan, for this one i drove around 1600 kms, With no formal training in videos this was interesting to handle as my background is finance which i did for 19 years untill Sept 2014 .

Would love to get your feedback on anything you liked or didnt like about this as it will help me learn more. Guess as per rule 9 the rating of feed back i need is 1 so you are free to kill me on this :)

Elements on Vimeo

cheers
vishal

[Marj Atkins]

Hi Vishal
So nice to have you on board and to get our first glimpse of India on UWOL!

Originally Posted by Vishal Jadhav

This is the very first video i have made with a topic in mind . . .

Yes - it's very different from working on your own projects. Creativity is pushed to a different level as one is forced to work one’s mind around the topic. Certainly changes one’s perspective about filming and storytelling and of the world in general. I really enjoy working to a given topic even if it is challenging sometimes because I always learn so much about the natural world around us!

I really enjoyed your entry. I like the way you found insects, birds and animals associated with and using the different elements. (My favourite element was fire. Loved the creative use of the red and orange colours of the scarf, flame tree flower, Crimson Rose Swallowtail and Flamingoes legs and wings to get across the fire in the colours around us! Beautiful shot of the Greater Flamingoes taking off!

Overall quality of footage is very good. There were some really stunning shots in there Vishal. Beautiful nocturnal time lapses.

You made good use of natural sound. The music enhanced the mood of the location and feel of India but I did find the repetitive nature of the music a bit distracting. Also I found it a tad too loud over the natural sound. Your sound and Kevin’s sound are both very loud in comparison to the other entries. Perhaps you could look into that – I literally ripped my earphones out I got such a fright when it started.

The story is well planned and engaging. The story flows well, and is well aligned to the theme although I think a VO would have strengthened this film. I thought it was rather creative to use the dancer to represent the different elements. I particularly like the way you overlaid the dancer and the scene.

Well done Vishal – look forward to seeing more of your work.

[Steve Siegel]

Vishal,

Congratulations on your first UWOL entry. I really enjoyed it. I don't think I have ever seen water dripping from a snake before! I liked the weaving of the woman releasing the veil into the wind to tie various parts together. I also liked your playing with the legs of the flamingos. May I suggest that a dissolve cut into the whole flamingos would have worked well. The flamingo flight shot was also very effective. My only complaint was that maybe you put a little too much stuff in. But it was all so good!

Hope to see more of your images of India in future UWOL challenges.

[Trond Saetre]

Hi Vishal,

It is not the first time you have made films, that's for sure!
You gave me the feeling of India with your music and the dancing woman.

I would have loved to see the clip at 1:44 (sunset) as your end clip. Would have been a perfect ending of your film.

In general, hard cuts between the clips is a good thing. But sometimes it can be a little too rough.
Maybe you could have used a few dissolves a couple places.

The flower shot at 1:15. Maybe you could have began with the waterfall in focus, and then done a rack focus to bring the flowers on the edge of the cliff into focus.

The money shot: The water dripping off the snake! Awesome!

Well done! I look forward to see more from you in the future.

[Geir Inge]

Hi Vishal, so nice that you have joined Uwol.
Feedback is an important part of Uwol and something we should give and learn from.
Therefore, I will try to give as good feedback as possible, but English is not my native language so bear with me.
You provide a visual product that is divided into four sections, the four elements.
This is a smart move and you mark the distinction with the lady in various colored scarf.
Have you used green screen or blue screen for this?
It's fun to see all the different species and the one I liked best was the snake.
Have yet to shoot snake, it must be my next goal.
Stylish with rain that flowed down on it.
The music is somewhat high, perhaps lower the volume a bit?
I know how it feels to want everything in a video, sometimes one can say that less is more. Maybe take away some scenes and make the remaining somewhat longer? Just a suggestion and a personal opinion. I wish that some of the images lasted a little longer.
Given you mark the four elements as well as you do with the scarf lady, there is no need for VO - at least that is my opinion.

Congratulations to India and you Vishal, with a great first time video.
Thanks for sharing and hope to see you next time too.

[Vishal Jadhav]

Originally Posted by Geir Inge

Have you used green screen or blue screen for this?

Geir, i actually used a black screen in the studio for shooting the dancer, first time ever i shot in a studio so it was a learning experience of how much space it takes to shoot a dancer and how to use lights in a studio.

Dear all,
I agree with the music being a bit loud and it was my fault of recording it to high and actually it has clipped, i managed to circle around with my friend who played it and we found that it was clipped in some areas due to recording it at a too high volume, i managed to correct that now however this feedback i received later from my friend/musician . Guess this was one more learning.

Some of my footage was more due to me traveling a lot and trying to find it everywhere, finally landed up with too much of footage , even thought i missed some of the shots i planned.
Your feedback is very essential as it gives me a better perspective.

thanks again
vishal

[Paul Wood]

Vishal,

Thank you for your first entry to UWOL!

Let me first say, I very much enjoyed your film, but as you asked for level 1 comments:

Firstly - I imagine you had a story in your head as you put this together - for me (I seem to be concentrating on storytelling this round, despite not having entered a video), what was missing was a story.

We start with the title sequence - the clouds, the dancer and the music building to the lightning strike then the rain - I would have cut to the river, and begun a story - something from an Indian legend about the elements or similar.

Then I have the audience - I cut to the drop of water on the snake, then the snakes head.

OK you get the idea - a story will also give you pacing / rhythm and you can cut your shots to suit.

I know that other have different ideas, but that was my initial impression - fantastic - now imagine someone telling me about ancient interpretations of elements....

[Gordon Hoffman]

Hi Vishal welcome aboard. I don't have much to add that hasn't been mentioned. I did enjoy this, especialy the wet snake, something I've never seen before. The

night timelapses were also interesting. I know one of the hard parts about editing you own footage is having to cut some of the stuff out. You want to show as

much as you can but sometimes a bit less works better. I'm glad you got your entry in, a nice look at India.
Thanks.

Gordon

[Mick Jenner]

Hi Vishal, congratulations on completing your first (of many I hope) entries. I won't go into breaking down and commenting on various sections of the film, others have covered that well. Your filming skills are very good with some stunning clips, but you need to edit in a more structured way to tell the story. be it with or with out narration. You certainly had the the clips there to do that. A good tip is even if you are not going to include narration still write down the story you are going to tell and as you lay clips your on the timeline you will then see the story unfold in a chronological order that is easy to watch, follow and even without narration to understand. Telling a story or creating a visual masterpiece without narration is a very skilful art and difficult to master to a high standard. Having said that I very much enjoyed watching your entry and can't wait to watch your next.

Mick

[Andrew Hood]

Great first entry Vishal.

Formal training is obviously overrated, getting out there and learning by doing is more important. And such dedication with the travel.
It was nice visually linking the pieces together with the dancing. Some great shots in there - the snake, the timelapses.

I agree with Paul; in that you had a definite structure (4 elements, 4 segments) linking the shots together, but a real story (even without voice over, just the music) would have taken this another level up - really put the icing on the cake. It's still an enjoyable and engaging piece, but I also wonder what more it could become.
I think the middle timelapse had some very 'hot' pixels - the bright star-like spots that remain stationary. I say that because I had a similar result trying to capture the storm the other night - made me worried about the sensor. Might be due to temperature in part... the other 2 looked clean though.

Hope to see more of India next round.

[Vishal Jadhav]

Thanks all,

Appreciate your feedback.

Andrew,
i actually put a story down when i did the edit, the snake shot being before the stream is just due to my story has someone getting wet before i see the trickle of water flowing, not sure anyone realised it or not but if you see the snake the head is downward to start with, thats how they will weather out the rains in the evergreen forest, the snake actually drinks water in the shot thats accumulated on its face.

In the middle time-lapse there are some hot pixels for sure, was the 600D in there, other time lapses are with the 5D MIII, time lapses making is a addiction and you just start to think of scenes in time lapses :)

The topic inspired me a lot and i could think of many shots that were possible to make it even better , however some of the footage i could not gather in the period of december, like people ploughing the field and the green fields as that was during the monsoons, in december there was only one day of showers. ( hence i have them missing in the entry)

for last few days i am gathering the older footage to make the film more impacting and i am sure as i do that and implement all the suggestions i am getting from your folks , it will surely be better structured.

cheers
vishal

[Dale Guthormsen]

Vishal,

Very nicely done!! almost everything was in slo mo except the beautiful setting sun of course. I felt robbed on the croc shot at 1:28. I would have liked to see it longer, I am not attention deficit and do not like little longer shots than so many others. At 2:07 was my favorite shot of the stars. Back in 1966 I shot some still shots and rotated them for the same effect they did not place in the photo contest but were given honorable mentions. done in video it was spectacular 100 times better than stills!!! A few shots the colors seemed slightly washed out and would have been as awesome as the rest if you had gone into your editor, reduced saturation to make the clip black and white, adjusted exposure, returned back to1.25 saturation then adjusted your color curves to liven them slightly. Just a thought.
It was rreally nice and very much enjoyed!! You also used some good elements of design, particularly the leg shot!! nicely on the theme in more ways than one!!

I will look forward to your next endevor!!

[Vishal Jadhav]

Thanks Dale,

Would try and see if i can correct the parts .

In the mean time i have worked on the film further and its like 4 min 56 sec long now.

cheers
vishal