UWOL #2: "Geocaching" by Kevin J Railsback

[Kevin Railsback]

Bruce,

Thanks for the comments.

Yes, those are whitetails. I was filming something along the trail and I usually take my time framing things up and quietly watch as I record.

I heard a couple twigs snap so I turned to see who was coming down the trail.

Turned out it was the deer. They were pretty far back into the woods by the time I swung my camera around and started filming them.

[Geir Inge]

Well, I've been away filming for a few days and now everyone has comment everyones film. So instead of repeat what the others says, I wish you good luck. I think you've done a great job in this film.

[Trond Saetre]

Kevin, that was impressive!

The opening sequence was awesome!
But I want to know what was in the box. That is the only thing I felt was missing.

I did not notice any hiss in your video.

[Catherine Russell]

Hi Kevin:

You have an absolute tallent for great cinematography and I put this up in the "wonderful" category along with Mat Thompson's piece. No wonder you both are having a dialoge about your work here and that Mat likes it, because both films have so much of the same qualities. The composition, eye for detail, choice for music, beautiful transitions synched well with the music.

Your beginning was great. I have to go back and watch that again. Very captivating and a smooth way of using special effects. Job well done. I also didn't hear any audio problems.

Finally, I think your comment to Brian Mckay about his film title: hold my beer and watch this, was classic.

Thanks for an enjoyable film on a tough topic choice.

Cat Russell
Spike Productions

[Kevin Railsback]

Trond,
I posted the coordinates. Come and find it and have a look for yourself! :)

Cat,
Thanks for the kind words. Mat does great work doesn't he?
I have the good fortune to converse with him quite often. Usually it's about how to get a foolproof uploader going but we do pause from time to time to talk about how our films are coming along. I thought it was pretty funny that we both had a kingfisher in our films. :)

Glad you liked the opening. Wish I had a bit more time to work with it but you know how it goes.

Hopefully I made geocaching look like an enjoyable recreational activity.

Thanks again!

[James Hooey]

I think this is honestly my favorite of the bunch. The opening timelapse and really interesting titleing just caught my attention immediately. As the video progressed I thought everything just occured very naturally and laid out the experience of geocaching perfectly. Excellent, stable shots, vivid colours and good use of effects really tied it together to make the video virtually flawless.

If there was only one thing I would add it would be to get a glimpse of what's in the cache but in a way it's unecessary, just more out of curiousity.

BTW...is it etiquette for geocaching to take an item and leave an item? If so I suggest you go back there sometime and leave a copy of this video in there.

Great entry!

James Hooey

[Kevin Railsback]

Hey James,

Glad you liked it. Didn't think a video about walking to a hidden cache would amount to much. But, it was all I could think of.

I did email the cache owner and told him I used his cache as the basis for my film. He was very pleased to know that and was going to get his kids to watch the film. :)
He said he decided to place the cache there because that part of the Sac-Fox trail was so pretty.

There were allot of happy accidents in the film. Like the trees reflected in the display of the GPS unit. My favorite shot though was of the sunlight dancing on the little rapids. I must have about thirty takes of that. Some at 24fps, some at 60fps. Some at 720p some at 1080p. Some with a warmer white balance, some with a cooler. ( The cooler wb was the shot that made it into the film.)

It sounds like there is a divided camp. Some wanted to see what was inside, others thought it should remain a mystery.

But I have to say that the absoulte coolest thing in that cache had to be the j876EYTBU97*(^&^^%$#*&&*&UGHGF&%$$^%&&*&(()IU(&R%$#$#@@# DISCONNECTED

[James Hooey]

LOL...nice.

[Gordon Hoffman]

Kevin
As others have said you have a good eye for detail. Nice shots and well edited. I've heard of geocaching but never gave it much thought until now. Looked up my area and there is a number of caches around here. Who'ed of thought! Anyway well done and I was wondering if you would mind telling me what software you use to compress your video.

Gordon Hoffman

[Kevin Railsback]

Gordon,

I just compressed it right out of the FCP timeline into Compressor.

Set it for Sorenson 3 and 1800Kb data rate and let it rip.

I had to monkey withthe keyframes a bit cause it caused some nasty artifacts. I finally settled on 240.

When I forst got into Geocaching I couldn't bellieve the number of caches I had passed by without ever knowing that they were there.

Let me know if you start getting out there and looking for them.

Like I mentioned before, I use my GPS to mark spots that I want to return to when the light is right to get some footage.

Not to mention they're nice to have if you need to navigate to some street address and you have no idea on how to get there. :)

[Trond Saetre]

Originally Posted by Kevin Railsback

Trond,
I posted the coordinates. Come and find it and have a look for yourself! :)

That sounds like a challenge. Maybe I should do that sometime, hehe.

[Gordon Hoffman]

Kevin
Thanks. I had my data rate down to 280 kb to get it down under 50 MB. Looks like I need to dig deeper in the compression settings to see if I have more option or do an upgrade.
I've always got my gps with me. I'm always marking locations of tracks, feeding activity and predator killsites. I then download them onto my computer on a topo map.
I'll have to grab some coordinates and give it a try this year.

Gordon Hoffman

[Grant Sherman]

Hi Kevin,

Great film, one of my favourites.