UWOL 38 A dream Holiday, by Mick Jenner

[Mick Jenner]

Hi all, well this round was to to say the lease fraught with the difficulty on time. Although away and in an ideal position to make a film I was working on other projects, the consequence of which is a rather mishmash entry due to a lack of cutaway and establishing clips and editing time. In the end I put together bits and pieces, some of which were filmed two weeks prior to the theme announcement and alluded to in my voice over, in order to complete and entry. I am fairly aware of its short comings but nevertheless any views and opinions would be much appreciated. In particular comments on the encoding, as usual best viewed on 1080 setting, and the colouring. In the past comment have been made re more saturation. Thanks for watching. Mick

UWOL 38 A Dream Holiday on Vimeo

[Catherine Russell]

Hi Mick. Nice video here. I am in deep respect of your wildlife filmmaking in the sense that you know so much about the creature you are filming. In seeking after your prize shot, you know where to look, how to look and you know what they are doing when you find them. You also have the real patience and stamina to wait for what you are looking for, and to keep at it for years. I’m glad you got the otters after four years of hard effort.

I too love the dippers. I have some on film as well, but ours over here in Colorado are uniformly grayish in color, with no white at all. But the dipping is identical and they are captivating to watch. Nice job finding them and their nest and being able to judge how long the estimated time will be before the babies fledge.

Solid production, nice voiceover and balance between narration and music. I liked your transition between dippers and otters, it worked well because you really were completely changing topic. As you mentioned, the otter footage wasn’t technically taken during the film month and it comprised over half your entry, but for me it was taken close enough to the challenge month to be perfectly admissible. In my mind, this UWOL rule tries to keep an entry submission from being entirely based off of great footage taken years ago and passing it off as something recent. Not your case in the least.

It’s obvious the theme recreation is the foundation for your footage taken being on holiday, but you could have perhaps woven the word in a little more in the narration script to bring it to the forefront of the purpose of the video? I don’t know, what do you think?

Cheers,
Cat

[Geir Inge]

Hi Mick.

This was a surprising video.
I am thinking of the recordings of the otter, which is one of my favorite animals.
Nevertheless, the dipper is the Norway's national bird, it is also loved.

I've just been on holiday in Spain (Albir/Altea area) with my wife.
I promised her to leave the camera at home, so even if the theme is recreation I have not vacation recordings in my own film.
Between you and me, so have my cell 4K recording.
My wife knows me all too well, some recordings were made in between with my cell phone :)

I think you have a nice approach to the topic.
Vacation is relaxation at its best and sublime when it can be combined with the hobby.
You're a pro on recordings of bird, I must say.
The video flows easily and comments are explanatory.
Nice balance between commentary, music and background sound.
Was it a western yellow Wagtail around 1:04?
They exist in Norway too, but I have not yet seen them around where I live.

Thank you for taking us along on vacation and gave us a great nature experience.
Wish you all the best.

[Vishal Jadhav]

Hi Mick,

The footage you have in the film is wonderful , i especially like the dipper and the otters.

I find the footage a touch dark, might be due to the shade in the river , the theme of holiday and recreation starts nicely , however i think may be the Caravan traveling between the species might have brought about some more continuity in the film and might have covered for the shortage of footage as you say. Just a thought .

[Mick Jenner]

Hi, thanks for all the comments
.
Cat, Thank you for your comments.I thought long and hard about adding the otter clips knowing that they were recorded just before the theme announcement. That's why I alluded to it in the VO and let you all decide if it was legal or not !

Vishal, Thank you for your comments. You are quite right the otter footage was difficult as the further they travelled along the river they moved into area shaded by large overhanging trees. Also it was early in the morning with some gain added. I did try to balance the colours and brightness but could not get it to my satisfaction, and time was against me to play about with it further. In fact I am quite disappointed with the result. You are quite right more clips and cutaways to travelling with the caravan would have been desirable. When I came to edit I quickly realised how devoid of them I was.

Geir thanks for the comments, much appreciated. The wagtail although looking yellow is in fact a Grey Wagtail quite common over here. We do get yellow wagtails migrating here in the summer to breed

[Geir Inge]

Thanks for the additional info about the Grey Wagtail.
Then I will hopefully be a little wiser :)
Cheers!

[Bob Safay]

Mick, what luck having your holiday coincide with the challenge. You did a great job! I loved watching that little dipper bounding up and down. I hope you get to go bad for the fledging. The otter's was a special treat, I am glad you included them, they must have been a challenge getting those guys. My one and only comment, and this is very minor, when the music came on I had to lower my volume as it came on to load. Other than that, a great video! You definitely nailed the theme of Recreation. Bob

[Trond Saetre]

Hi Mick,

Always a pleasure to watch your films. Your knowledge about the wildlife is really good. Impresses me every time. Haven't much to add to what has been said already.

The otter part which was filmed prior to the challenge, matches well with your film, even though you are balancing on a line there since it is a "long part" of your film, but at the same time the film is not built upon this part as the "main feature". Therefore it's within the guidelines.

[Paul Wood]

Hi Mick,
Only to echo what has already been said - excellent footage - especially the otter sequences, although I'm sure, as you say the conditions are far from ideal. Just to add to what Bob has said, I guess you were suffering a bit recording your VO - the levels were a bit low, and the quality not as good as your usual. One of the downsides of recording in a caravan!
Thanks, and I hope you and your wife enjoyed the holiday!

[Mick Jenner]

Hi Bob,Trond and Paul, thank you for your kind words re my entry. The points you have raised are perfectly valid. Paul you are quite right it does fall well below my normal standards. This the nature of this type of challenge, I could have easily jumped in the sharks this round but, felt I owed to to you all to post an entry, especially as I was instrumental in getting us to try out the new voting system.

Mick