UWOL#2 "ShootinFerFun" by Bruce Foreman

[Bruce Foreman]

This entry reflects some degree of frustration. It started out as an attempt to contrast some "urban blight" with the clean open expanses and terrain features of West Texas.

However San Angelo is located between the Texas Hill Country to the east and the oil producing Permian Basin to the West and Big Bend area much further west. None of that convenient for me to get to at this time. So the opening sequence visually reflects some of my frustration in not going for West Texas spectacular scenics, and seems (according to family members) to also depict me not finding anything photogenic enough relating to "recreation" to point a camera at, which was not the original intent.

So this video project changed direction some. Of course the timing hit between some strong possibilities. Nothing happening at Ft. Conch which has a few very rich in living history events during the year. It is the best preserved and most restored frontier fort in the west, but alas, to my visual sense too over restored and too "clean". Nevertheless I used an officers quarters in the beginning stages of being rebuilt to illustrate "fun" photography.

Our local gun club (I serve as Executive Officer for special projects) has monthly 3 gun matches (action format!) but none falling during the time frame allowed us to shoot our video, or I would have been able to show a very exciting 3 minutes of either myself or a friend shooting action format tactical rifle, tactical shotgun, and handgun stages. So I had to settle for the usual "put myself out in front" of a remote runnning camcorder.

So I've kind of managed to depict 2 kinds of shooting I do for recreation. That it was more of a challenge than I had forseen cannot be an excuse for not coming up with something a lot better, but the viewers must judge for themselves.

As always, there are two facets of these challenges that make it all worth it. One being "getting something done", and the other is seeing what all of the other folks do with the theme.

[James Hooey]

Bruce,

I'm not sure what to say here.....I guess I'll preface it with "I have no opinion about guns" just to rule that out.

I didn't know where this video was coming from...actually you lost me from the very first shot...no pun intended :)

You open with a shot of a building with grafitti art on it....WHAT you say art??....yep. I see things a little different than you in that respect. I'm not talking about profanity or tagging (egotistical name spraying) but what you vidoetaped looked like it may be a very interesting visual art piece. I have ideas of going to Toronto Canada simply to videotape some of the incredible works of Grafitti I have seen there. You obiously have a different perspective on it as shown by the head shake but everyone has a right to their own opinion.

As for the rest of the video it didn't go very far for me either. There is a bit of a mix of scenery and the developing idea of shooting (albiet with a camera) and then WHAM....straight into a M16 (or something along that lines) pointed at my face! It was a little disturbing.

All in all it was a mixed message but I wind up with an odd feeling about the video. I think I would have been happier to see an engaging documentary about the recreation of sport shooting.

Keep on shooting though!!! pun intended this time. ;)

James Hooey

[Marco Wagner]

Makes me want an M16

[Ruth Happel]

I read your comments after looking at the film, and actually wasn't clever enough to come up with the shooting in two ways theme without reading it in your post. On first viewing, I was having trouble picking up the theme. Your comment makes it more interesting to tie it together as a play on words.

Your video quality was good- with a lot of variety.

Ruth

[Bruce Foreman]

Originally Posted by James Hooey

Bruce,


You open with a shot of a building with grafitti art on it....WHAT you say art??....yep. I see things a little different than you in that respect. I'm not talking about profanity or tagging (egotistical name spraying) but what you vidoetaped looked like it may be a very interesting visual art piece. I have ideas of going to Toronto Canada simply to videotape some of the incredible works of Grafitti I have seen there. You obiously have a different perspective on it as shown by the head shake but everyone has a right to their own opinion.

Actually I've been meaning to go there and photograph that and a few other samples of graffiti, need to just do it. Some of these guys are really talented.

Very interesting film to rent if you can find it. "Transit" is a feature length story shot with a rented Canon XL1 with a total crew of 7 if I remember. The author posted about it in another forum and I hunted it down so I could see what was possible on DV without going film distribution, this one went straight to DVD.

He gives a very "nitty gritty" look at the Los Angeles graffiti culture along with the inevitable "tagging" and gang conflict that followed. Technically, the production quality was lousy, grainy, some audio problems, poor lighting. But the story was compelling, the amateur acting very good and I got an education in that culture I would never have found any other way. I believe he sold it to a distributor for $30,000.00.

I see this graffiti thing from 2 perspectives. I appreciate the art side of it, but in what I do now (defensive handgun training) I sometimes have contact with people who are uneasy about the gang activity threat that seems to go along with the graffiti. To say nothing about the property owners who periodically repaint their buildings until they have to give up.

The "head shake" really was meant to go with a contrast between urban setting and wild country scenic I couldn't pull off cuz I couldn't get away to it at the time.

[Bruce Foreman]

Originally Posted by Marco Wagner

Makes me want an M16

Well, neither you nor I can own an M16, but living it the free state of Arizona you can definitely purchase one of the AR15 variants.

Mine is an M4 carbine, a civilian version of the same M4 our guys in Iraq have been using. I bought mine right after the original assault weapon ban died. The original purpose was for the growing 3 gun sport but my grandson has used it in competition more than I have.

As a youth shooter he has had a free slot in the Texas 3 Gun State Championship for the last two years, both times taking the trophy for high youth shooter.

Bruce Foreman

[Marco Wagner]

Yeah I was looking at the AR15, nice. Got the trusty blue steel police edition .38 for now.

[Per Johan Naesje]

Bruce,
I saw you film first before I read your comments and it didn't give me so much. I think it was to static. To be the actor yourself didn't work this time! You could have varied with some more close-up, but I know it's difficult when you are both the DP and actor!
I think you should also done some narrating instead of display text.

The video quality was superb! Did you use any filtering (CPL) in your shoots?

[Bruce Foreman]

Per Johan

Your comments and observations are right on. In retrospect I should have stuck with one activity, probably photographing things and exploring that in more detail.

Weather was a factor, although the storm and precipitation patterns were in the area there was some time with no rain but the skies were dull & gray. I had just about decided to not even do anything when we did get a day and a half with open blue skies.

And yes, I did use a filter. A linear polarizer. The rationale for the LPL rather than CPL was that I was not dealing with a reflex viewfinder, so I tried the linear. The effect was not as dramatic as I had imagined it would be however the video does have a "richer" look to it for the most part.

But you are absolutely right in everything you said.

Bruce Foreman

[Kevin Railsback]

Hey Bruce,

I didn't mind the two different activities. I think it was just the way that all of a sudden you traded in your camera for a gun.

I thought maybe if there had been canons or something of that nature that you could have photographed, you could have done some sort of shot where you kind of pondered the big gun and then transition into the gun piece.

God job on putting the disclaimer on the remote camera. I'm sure you would have caught some flack on that if you hadn't.

Did you notice the camera movement from the shock wave or whatever it was when you first shot the gun? :)

I would have liked to seen some of the targets you were shooting at as well.

Congrats on finishing too! Sometimes that can be quite the task in and of itself!

[Chris Barcellos]

I think I needed bit smoother transition between your two passions in this video. Understood how both are important to you, but maybe something tying the two in for this film was needed. Great camera work !

[Geir Inge]

Nice pictures in this video Bruce.
I'm one of those who don't like shooting guns, but i liked your video though.
I think you've done a great job, in front and behind camera, I know that isn't easy.

[Gabriel Yeager]

Nice video Bruce. I like the angles of the different shots (not from the M16, altho, I liked those too, but from the camera).

I liked the music at the beginning. IMO, I would have the music continue during the shooting. But I would also say make it some metal for that part too, lol (I like heavy music).

Now you make me want to head out to the store and get that M16 Airsoft Rifle...

Anyways, nice video and so forth. I could sense what you wanted to put into it, and I think it was an excellent idea.

Keep up the good work, I can't wait to see your next one.

[James Hooey]

Thanks for your video lead "Transit" regarding grafitti, I appreciate it!

One other thing I wanted to mention about your video. I was very impressed with the sound quality when you were shooting. I thought something like that would overload most mics and sound like a square wave but it sounds very good. I liked how the camera seemed to shudder with every shot too...very cool.

James Hooey

[Bruce Foreman]

Originally Posted by Kevin Railsback

Hey Bruce,

I didn't mind the two different activities. I think it was just the way that all of a sudden you traded in your camera for a gun.

I made a few bad decisions on this one. Originally I was going to do some voice over narration and would have mentioned that I have two recreational "shooting" involvements, but I decided to try to do it with visuals and use music. Didn't pull it off very smoothly.

Originally Posted by Kevin Railsback

I thought maybe if there had been canons or something of that nature that you could have photographed, you could have done some sort of shot where you kind of pondered the big gun and then transition into the gun piece.

What would have been perfect for this topic would have been for one of the big Ft Concho events to be taking place. We have period re-enactors, multilple cannon barrages, cavalry demo's, frontier traders, and visitors who come in costume just for the heckuva it.

One of the things I'm going to do is a documentary on the fort with an eye to really spicing it up with video of what goes on at these events. It'll take me a year and a half or more to catch the re-enactors doing their thing, the fort itself has been so over-restored it looks too new.

Originally Posted by Kevin Railsback

God job on putting the disclaimer on the remote camera. I'm sure you would have caught some flack on that if you hadn't.

We have to do that. Otherwise some idiot will see something like this, or "Self Defense TV", or any of the instructional programs that use that camera angle and think it's OK to put a camera operator out in front of a shooter.

There is no shortage of idiots...

Originally Posted by Kevin Railsback

Did you notice the camera movement from the shock wave or whatever it was when you first shot the gun? :)

I sure did. The last time I saw that was when I had failed to tighten down the pan head movements. It was a handgun training video and with each shot the camera literally jumped. Haven't seen the effect since until this time. The .223 cartridge is a high velocity round and creates a lot more shock wave than pistol rounds. Everything on the tripod was locked but the bullet path on some shots was within a few feet of the camera.

Originally Posted by Kevin Railsback

I would have liked to seen some of the targets you were shooting at as well.

I didn't dare. They were somewhat "politically incorrect" in that although showing no real detail, the shape was a bit humanoid. The "tombstone" shape suggests torso and head shape enough that some clubs have switched to a different shape except for the official "classifier" stage in their matches.

Originally Posted by Kevin Railsback

Congrats on finishing too! Sometimes that can be quite the task in and of itself!

I appreciate that comment very much.