UWOL 38 - Tales of wonders and woes

[Trond Saetre]

Yes, I have watched "the occupied". It was interesting.

Today I have finally filmed a little for uwol. Pure recreational day, but if the footage can be used, I'm not sure of yet. Filmed with gopro and some aerial for a change.

[Mick Jenner]

I don't often post in wonders and woes but!

In the UK European otters were almost driven to extinction a few years ago as a result of hunting with dogs, uncontrolled shooting, river pollution and competition with mink that were deliberately released into the the wild by animal rights activists from fur farms ( good intentions but with out thought of of the devastating consequences that ensued, not only otters suffered but many others were almost wiped out including water voles). This resulted in the otter only being present in some very remote places and some islands around Scotland. Otters were then given protected status, hunting with dogs banned and an eradication programme for the mink.

Slowly the native European otter population in our rivers have increased to the extent that all counties in the UK have now had sightings in one or more of their rivers.

For the last 4 years I have being following and filming a family of otters on a river in one of the western counties of the UK. I have managed to film all sorts of behaviour including entering and leaving an under water entrance to a Holt, bocking with freshly gathered weed as she left.

Although I had filmed her with her kits in previous years I always felt I needed better behaviour and interaction between mother and kits.

Well on the 24th March this year it happened (WONDER), not only did I film mum and two 12 week old babies hunting and playing along side the rivers edge I filmed the babies, probably for them, the first time catching fish for themselves. It was a magic half an hour that's taken 4 years of cold wet winter days to achieve and many stays in our caravan in the area. Not only was she so relaxed by my presence to allow me to film after taking the kits back to the holt she returned on her own to fish in front of me for another 20 minutes.

The WOE is that, this footage was recorded 8 days before the theme announcement and therefore not eligible for this months challenge

Having spent two weeks filming the otters we moved to South Wales primarily to film dippers, again for another two weeks. By this time the theme had been announced. So watch this space but unfortunately my entry won't feature otters.

[Catherine Russell]

Hi Mick:

This is fabulous news and congratulations on your hard-earned epic capture. But think twice about not using some of this footage in this entry. The rules (#5) are not so strict to not include anything (period!) taken outside of the challenge month, so think again. A part of rule #5 says:

Previously shot footage, as long as it is a minor part, for educational or illustrative purposes, was shot by yourself, and not the main story/feature of your entry, is permissible.

If you are able to use some of your footage in this context, then go for it. I know we would be overjoyed to see it!

[Mick Jenner]

Hi Cat,

You are right re previously shot footage, unfortunately I can't work a script around the footage that would not make it the main focus of the the film.

Mick

[Vishal Jadhav]

Mick,
Would have loved to see the otters

Finally some footage shot, now time to string in a sequence to match the idea I started up with or to see what new story it throws out.

Not sure I will be near the 4 min mark but that's not the objective, it's to be under that time :)

[Catherine Russell]

Originally Posted by Mick Jenner

For the last 4 years I have being following and filming a family of otters on a river in one of the western counties of the UK. I have managed to film all sorts of behaviour including entering and leaving an under water entrance to a Holt, bocking with freshly gathered weed as she left.

In honor of Mick and otters everywhere!

https://www.facebook.com/sungazing1/...0/?pnref=story

[Trond Saetre]

Cool video. Thanks for sharing the link!

[Catherine Russell]

The joy is all mine, Trond! :)

[Vishal Jadhav]

Struggle time

Story needs a beginning middle and end :)

Figured out by now how it will be , lets see if it works out that way as those are 2 different worlds .

However the process is interesting, i still remember the first challenge i participated in end 2014 when all was so new and everything was a issue, now the process is atleast known .

Finally it all boils down to " can we tell a story ? "

Hopefully i will be able to complete it in next day or so.

[Mick Jenner]

Hi Cat, thanks for the link. lovely ahh. True sea otters are only in the Americas. Although some of our Lutra lutra, European otters are by some refereed to as sea otters as they live along coastal stretches and feed in the the sea but are a totally different species to yours.

Still trying to rework the script so I can include some for for you all. May have cracked it!

Mick

[Vishal Jadhav]

Finally done,
Might be very rare for me to finish it this early.

The theme this time was such a interesting one that it left a lot of room for interpretation and Fun, when i saw it i had imagined a plan to execute "Plan A" and this was the first time i could execute Plan A without any changes. Yes missing footage and all those sort of things will happen however the original idea was executed .

And finally i realised why i managed this earlier this time :) it was a extended deadline this time round .

looking forward to the films this round and see how others have presented the subject.

[Trond Saetre]

We already have some films uploaded.
Hopefully many more will be submitted. Deadline is midnight tomorrow.

If you haven't requested the upload info yet, don't wait too long before you email uwol@dvinfo.net

Everyone:
Notice that there will be some changes to the feedback and voting system this round.
Basically you will NOT be permitted to make your feedback threads until voting is completed.

[Geir Inge]

Finally, I upload my video.
Have had some challenges during editing, flickering on some recordings with drone.
Must onto youtube to check if there is someone who has a good solution to the problem.
Can not wait to see your videos.
Cheers!

[Kevin Railsback]

Flickering is usually caused by too fast of a shutter speed.
I put on strong ND filters to get my shutter speed down to 1/60 to get rid of flickering.

[Trond Saetre]

Originally Posted by Geir Inge

flickering on some recordings with drone

This often happens when the sunrays pass through the rotors when flying towards the sun.