First-ever "Under Water, Over Land" Video Shoot-out

[Kevin Railsback]

Originally Posted by Meryem Ersoz

ah, senor railsback...at last we meet! you're on my short list for potential judges! there's no backing out now....

Meryem, not sure how I got on your short list but it's certainly an honor to be on it.

I'd love to see this take off and become a regular thing for us nature freaks.

I'm not into taking a self portrait using only the light of my oven or shots of peoples toes or other things like that I had to do when I was in college. :)

There's so many things that can be done with this. I'm glad I'm getting in on the ground floor. :)

[Meryem Ersoz]

glad to hear that you're willing to lend a paw, i mean, hand.

okay, so the other news is that the DVC challenge time frame has just been announced, and it will run this month. which is perfect for us, actually. because we can run the UWOL challenge starting on January 1st, with the official sign-up running the week before, maybe plus an extra day or two to account for the holidays.

if we run our contest every other month, which seems to be a general consensus, that means we can start it in the new year and run it beginning the 1st of every other month (Jan., March, May, July, Sept., Nov.). i would like a little predictability and regularity to the schedule. so we'll run six of these in the next year. if it gains traction, we can increase the regularity. it's always easier to add things than to scale them back. so for now, let's make this the guideline and see how it goes.

thanks for forebearing with me while i think out loud, everybody. we are pretty close to putting together official guidelines, i think, now that a few things are resolving themselves.

and no, mike, i can't say that i had shotguns in mind when i was playing with the animation. i was thinking more along the lines of rainbows and lollipops and care bears. but that's just me!

actually, i'm still going to work on the animation that i started, to have something in the event that no one else rises to the task. (due to copyright restrictions, i'm sadly forced to eliminate the care bears.) my animation is not super-complicated. i'm hoping someone out there has the skills to morph a turtle into the planet or something groovy.

[Gabriel Yeager]

That sounds great Meryem! I can't wait to start on it.
Lets just hope that I get a tripod and some more tapes for Christmas. Or I might be in a bad way! :)

~Gabriel

[Mat Thompson]

This sounds great....I'm glad theres a time scale. These things can be so difficult to organise.

Is there any shortlist of potential topics yet ???

[Meryem Ersoz]

will someone send gabriel a DV tape, for heaven's sake?? the lad needs a patron!

as for the tripod, the poor man's version is a beanbag or small pillow. you can do some pretty steady shots, even pans, that way....gotta improvise!

i have a topics list but am undecided. now that i know we're running six of these, i need time to consider the big picture. which six are in, which are best left for another day....

[Mat Thompson]

Well if you need a hand with anything at all....then give me a shout and I'll do what I can.

[Kevin Railsback]

Same here.
Let me know if you want any wildlife and nature stills or anything to incorporate into a banner or whatever.
I'm stoked for this to get started! :)

[Gabriel Yeager]

haha, thanks Meryem, I should be able to make it through. I do have a cheep tripod, I just wish I had a nicer one.

As far as the topics go, are you going to announce them before the challenge? or are you going to wait until after people have signed up? Or is htis still part of your list of things to decide on?

If you need some northwest footage/photos, I could try as hard as possible to help you with that. Sorry that I can not be of much more use then that.

~Gabriel

[Douglas Spotted Eagle]

Count me in...

[Meryem Ersoz]

fabulous. gabriel and DSE facing off in the UWOL Challenge. it's more than i could have hoped for. let the games begin!

i'll post guidelines this afternoon.

[Chris Barcellos]

If I recall, DSE is a skydiver, and will likely wrap up the over land aspects pretty well......is he Scuba certified too ?

[Fernando Ballesteros]

Hi Meryem
Great idea, count me (an Spanish wilderness) in as much as i can

One idea, perhaps when things had ruled for a while could be to make a kind of DVD or similar with the winner or finalist films. This could be a very good award if there is a sponsor somewhere (who knows?). Also, all the selected films could be presented in one or various events. I know is anticipate events but i have the conviction that so many points of view could make a great series.

Fernando

[Meryem Ersoz]

we have so many talented shooters here, i don't think anything is wrapped up! prepare to be awed. i am!

and bienvenido, fernando! it's great to see some new names popping up in the UWOL forum. spain has some beautiful landscape. looking forward to your interpretation of it.

i do have a few ideas about distribution for willing players, but let's shoot some footage first....

[Dale Guthormsen]

Meryem,

with so many high profile shooters its almost scarey to post anything!!

Kidding aside, this seems to be inspiring a lot of interest!!!


Question will be how long will the time frame be for the film, how large can the file be and will we all post in equivalent resolution so that true comparisons/judgements may be made??

[Meryem Ersoz]

Guidelines for The UWOL Challenge

The mission of the UWOL Challenge is to encourage outdoor and nature video enthusiasts to the develop their skills by participating in regular contests.

1. The UWOL Challenge will run 6x this year, beginning January 1. It will also run in March, May, July, September, and November, commencing on the 1st of each month. A fresh sign-up thread will be posted the week before the challenge begins. Contestants will be required to sign up for each challenge separately. Once the thread closes, no new players will be admitted for that Challenge.

2. On the first of the month, a topic or prompt will be posted. Players will have three weeks to shoot, edit, and post their videos online. This gives two full weekends for participants to take travel to exotic and difficult-to-reach locations with their gear. Submissions should be 2-3 minutes in length. Entries exceeding the 3-minute limit can be posted on the site but will be disqualified from the judging. Credits are excluded from the 3-minute limit.

3. All material must be original and shot for the purpose of being judged in this contest. All music must be fully licensed. If you use copyrighted materials (music or other copyrighted works), be prepared to show us proof that you own the right to use it. Without proof, we will remove your video from the site. You have the option of providing us with an image-only version, in the event that we are forced to remove it, since our goal is to enable players to make beautiful video images and to develop good production practices.

4. You retain the rights to your video.

5. We will be using this home page to post our videos:

http://www.youtube.com/group/uwolchallenge

During submission week, the password to the page will be released to the players only, who will upload their videos for the judging. These videos will be the judging copies, however players are also encouraged to post to their personal websites or other websites where they may be able to enhance image quality over what Youtube provides. This way, players can offer viewers a range of formats, file sizes, etc. At the deadline, the password will be changed, submissions will be locked, and no new submissions will be admitted. Our contest will be dependent on honor among the participants who will be given the password. Any attempts to delete or alter anyone else's submission constitutes grounds for permanent dismissal from the contest. *IMPORTANT NOTE* It's your responsibility to be sure that I have your most direct, up-to-date e-mail address, so that I can forward you the password to the Youtube page during submissions week. A reminder will be posted on the sign-up thread, but if I don't have your e-mail address, I can't send you the required upload clearance.

Follow this link for more information on Youtube's uploading guidelines. Note that file size is limited to 100 MB:

http://youtube.com/t/help_cat05

6. A new guest judge will be enlisted to help with the judging each month. I will pick the top 3-5 videos (depending on the number of submissions we receive), and the guest judge will be invited to pick the final winner. The guest judge will also have the opportunity to select up to 2 additional finalists to the named selections. The names of finalists will be posted, and a winner will be selected from among the finalists.

7. Winners will be awarded a prize package, to be determined.

8. These guidelines are subject to revision.


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last chance for feedback before i solicit a wrangler to turn this into a sticky....