UWOL#3 "Between Land and Sea" by Grant Sherman

[Grant Sherman]

Here's my little entry for the Challenge:

http://www.uwolchallenge.com/challen...landandsea.mov

I also have a compressed version on myspace:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...oid=2030243716

I'm pleased with the way that it's turned out. This was filmed with a £200 camera rather that the XL2 that I used for the first 2 films. The limitiations that this imposed made my think about the editing and the composition of the shots. It's the first film that I used a storyboard - even if I didn't stick to the original idea. I'm looking forward to the next challenge already.

[Rick A. Phillips]

Beautiful scenery. What camera did you use for this? I want some seabird cliffs in east Tennessee! We do have an occasional nesting Peregrine Falcon, but they only come one to the cliffsite...not thousands! Good work.

Rick

[Grant Sherman]

Thanks Rick,

The camera is a Canon MV940. It's ok but it doesn't like high contrast stuff - like black and white seabirds!

Grant

[Ruth Happel]

This was some spectacular seabird footage. I really like the combination of different shots. You gave a great feeling for all the local wildlife and sea. Very well filmed- and amazing with the camera you used, too.

Ruth

[Mat Thompson]

Man I SO want to go to Lundy...I always have since a kid, I may do a few dives out there this year!

Great great wides in this, a feast for the eyes !!! Some nice mids on the razorbills too,I don't know why you faded inbetween them though, this is a confusing use of the transition unless the something has really changed. I could see you struggling on some of those long shots, been there bought the t-shirt:). I found the editing a bit confusing and lacking some 'glue' if you know what I mean.

What a place...nice piece !

[Geir Inge]

Me to want to go to Lundy. It reminds me of Runde :)
I've been told that "Lundy" got it's name from "Lunde" which is the norwegian name for puffin, is that right?
Nice with the natural sound from the shore, the waves and the birds.
It's like I'm there with you. And I loved the Guillemot on the cliff.
I loved this one, but then again we have almost the same concept :)

[Trond Saetre]

I like your video.
Nice to see how you and Geir Inge have the same concept, but still so different videos.
Great scenery you got there.

[Catherine Russell]

Hello Grant:

Stunning cinematography. Great choreography and composition interplaying land and sea. You have kept up with your previous high standard of great wildlife filming. Thank you.

Cat

[Kevin Railsback]

Hey Grant,

Really nice film.

It looked to me like the dissolves Mat was talking about just came about because there were periods of inactivity. So, you dissolved to points where something was going on. That's my thinking at least. :)

What I usually do is to cut away to something else and come back to it. That way it doesn't bring as much attention to itself.

Maybe I can join Mat sometime and we can make a trip out there to do some filming together.

Beautiful scenery!

[Rob Evans]

nice one chap, really atmospheric feel to the place, some good use of wide and tele shots.
From a filmamking perspective, i'd liked to have seen a nice fade in and out with the audio,

and perhaps a little more variety with the guilemott group shots, perhaps with some in

flight? ( realise that is pretty difficult though!!)

Great film, really shows the stunning beauty of the place. I want to go back for a week

sometime ;-)

[Per Johan Naesje]

Grant, your coastline reminds me of Runde, as Geir Inge says.
Most have been mentioned to your film and I second that.
Some more close-up would have beefed up your film but regarding your camcorder used, this was real good.

[Brian McKay]

Grant:

I enjoyed your film but must agree the crossfades had me a bit confused. The coast line is stunning I'll have to research the place and maybe go there one day while on holiday. I'm going to be in your neck of the woods for a couple of weeks in late September then off to Hungary and Poland for three weeks in October so I'll have to check it out.

Nice film enjoyed it....Brian

[Gabriel Yeager]

Wonderful scenery Grant! Great job!

I noticed at one point you used autofocus. It looked like it was doing the pulsing thing... On my entry this time around, I had a major trouble with that! You can see that I still have some of it left in there.. Fun stuff......

I loved the close up the waves crashing into the rock's.

Nice stuff, keep up the good work!
~Gabriel

[Jeff Hendricks]

Beautiful scenery. My favorite shot was of the birds floating in what appeared to be a torrent of an endless sea...tiny things in a giant ocean, very cool.

My comment on the film would be to add more foley aside form what is already on there, such as the crushing sound violent waves when you shot that close up of the shore and the sound of the birds wings flapping, etc...for me it would have added to the richness of the piece and added to your beautiful shots.


Nice job

Jeff

[Grant Sherman]

Thanks for all the comments.

Mat: The razorbill transitions were to condense the action. I'd have liked to have cut to some close-ups to hide the joins, but this was at extreme zoom. I'm new to editing - any suggestions about 'gluing' the piece together would be gratefully received. My own feeling is that the start and ending were ok, but the middle section could have used more variety.

Geir: yes Lundy is from Lunde-Ey or Lunde-I which is meant to mean Puffin Island. Ufortunately we have very few puffins left on the island. We think that we've found 5 burrows this year. Hopefully the numbers will increase now that the island is rat free.

Rob: I'm sorry that you didn't see any puffins last Saturday. You'll have to come back for a holiday next time. June and early July are the best times for the puffins. In flight would be a challenge - I have enough problems trying to get still photos of birds in flight!

Brian: By late September the cliffs are deserted as all the seabirds have flown out to sea. It's a good time for migrants, and for climbing and filming rock-climbers. I'll be on holiday in New England for three weeks end of Sep.- early Oct. I'm hoping to go whale-watching out of Boston and see the Snow Goose migration and Fall colours in Vermont.

Gabriel: Thanks Gabriel, I wondered what was causing that effect. I'll have to turn it off next time. New cameras...

Jeff: The sound was a major problem. The internal mic on the MV940 is not good enough for this type of work - espeically in wildy conditions. I ended up mixing in a long section of audio that I'd recorded on the XL2 last month. I'll have to build up a library of sounds when I the XL2 comes back from Canon. (The chickens and ducks might be persuaded to flap their wings).