“Blindsight” - Norton, Martens, Rehder & Bates - DVC15/UWOL Charity
 

Sounds more like a law firm than a bunch of video nuts…

About a week into the challenge Robert, Björn, Ken and I collaborated on this film. What a blast that turned out to be! (For me, anyway.) Files and entertaining online chats were flying all over the place, often in the late night/early morning hours when normal people are sleeping.

They did all this knowing we weren’t eligible for judging, which I think is very cool. I need to add that if it weren’t for Björn’s creative input along with his work, this film would have been in big trouble. Ken and I hit enough technical snags as it was. (Got any hair left, Ken? How ‘bout Almond Roca?) :) Then there’s Robert, my new render settings hero! He made everything so easy and taught me concepts in a language I understand.

Guys, working with you was a thrill ride any gal would love--I laughed so much and enjoyed every second. You are WONDERFUL--each one of you. :) Chime in here as soon as you can.

Now, it helps if folks have seen Last Words and Soot Happens, but hopefully this sequel stands on its own. That was the intention, anyway. That and to bring everyone another laid-back glimpse of life in the slow lane with Mason and Jeff.

http://www.vimeo.com/2704209

Very nice. My favorite bit is with the lighter :) LOL

Lorinda,


Very fun to watch! Those guys look like they are from up here!!! the guys did a great job. truly a pleasure.

I liked the crdit clips/trailers at the end.

thank you all for going to the trouble to make this!!!

Since you first mentioned in an email how you would list the names for the feedback thread, I'd been planning to say the same thing when I had the chance. "Have you been injured at a construction site? Do you need cash now from a structured settlement?" Our last names gel very nicely, the rhythm strikes my ear with a certain ring that's irresistable.

If I had a nickel for every time I'd heard that ... I'd owe somebody a whole lot of nickels.

Thank you, Lorinda, I enjoyed this just as much. And you're welcome for the rendering explanation; years of detailing technology concerns to less-than-geek family members has given me a much better sense of how to speak about this stuff. If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to ask!

The movie, biased as I may be, was great. After finding out what I was working on for so many hours straight, my mom watched the finished film and loved it just as much as I did! Mason and Jeff got big laughs, as did the bloopers under the credits. She's a tough, honest audience, so you can be sure you did very well.

I look forward to this time of the year just for the reuniion with "the boys". "Another fine mess you got me into, Ollie", is an old Laurel and Hardy line that comes to mind when I what Jeff and Mason at work. To all, thanks for taking the time to bring them back once again.

O.K. you guys, what a barrel of yuk yuks! The infamous geese hunters couldn't help hide how much fun they were having... even before the trailer at the end!

Very funny and creative work! The special effects after the falls were a smash hit in my book, and the way you flawlessly incorporated sound effects (geese, the falls) and the normal dialogue was no easy feat.

Glad to see everyone make it through okay! I was expecting the two to go over the falls and then the credits .... without ever really knowing what happened.

Even though there "will never be a next time" we sure did enjoy it this time!

A floating hunting shelter down the river ... who would have ever thought?

Cat

It’s nice to come here and not see comments I expect. Simple and easygoing stories like these are boring to lots of people (even me!). It’s a relief and appreciated to read such kind remarks.

Robert, I’m glad your mom liked what we put together! I know just what you’re saying; aside from my son my mom is one of the toughest critics around. Maybe that’s why you and I tend to think alike in lots of ways…except in technical things… :)

Mugurel: Where were you this time? We missed you.

Dale: Last challenge I told a fellow from Alberta that his characters and landscape could have been in Idaho! We must have a lot in common.

Chris: I thought of you and your wife and Dick Mays when we decided to do another Mason and Jeff film (it was idea #4). The boys love it that there are folks at DV Info who stand by them. However, I noticed what you wrote to Andris on his feedback thread, and I think…..I think you and I should make a New Year’s resolution that we’re going to film something wildly different from what we usually do next time! Want to? :D

Cat: I’m thinking you saw that faint smile on Jeff’s face when it wasn’t supposed to be smiling! Or maybe it’s the little twinkle they can get in their eyes. At any rate, we do have fun, and someday we may bring them back for another misadventure.

Lorinda:

I thought a mob hit piece was moving in that "wildly different" direction, but you are right. Try something new.

Hmmm. Guess I better start watching some youth oriented cable channels.... But I am afraid I might hurt myself--- about 3 years ago now, I was actually trying to do dance revolution (video game), with some youngsters, and ended up mangling my left hand in a ceiling fan.... made me swear off anything to high energy, as I am a spaz....

LOL!!! You may be right! At our ages we may really hurt something important if we try to get too wild. But I'd visit you in the hospital if you visit me... :)

Lorinda, extremely funny to watch! When I'm in a blind, there's seldom any humor present, just staring looks for those magic moments.... ...hmm next time...

Hysterical to watch the blind floating down the river, reminds me of a friend of mine (not Ole Arne) who almost did that a late spring a couple of years ago...

Overall very well done. Almost felt seasick of the tilting camcorder. The behind the scenes at the credit was a killer, I'm still laughing :-)

Very good work, Lorinda!

Hallo Lorinda.

I must say I love the hidden humor you have when you make your film.
Ther is also some odder fellow in this round how have the same humor.
It make life so easy.And I must say you make a nice film here.



Tanks fore shering.

All Best
VJV.

__________________

Midnight Oil
 

Well, that was a fun challenge (sry) as I learned a bit about codecs and video formats. Namely that you can actually have a QT file that is over 100MB and still be only about 2 sec long. Quite frankly, I don't know that it was worth the effort. Don't get me wrong, I loved the technical challenge of working on it but what I was hoping to add to the film, was very small compared the all-nighters spent trying to get it to work, and it still didn't. ..very well...
I should have known to offer help on something that I am such a novice on.
My apologies to Lorinda on that.

However, I loved the story, the film, the tight, in-close angle and the pathetic lovability of those two door-knobs! : ) I think an even more concerted effort to reprise their respective roles is in order, and will be very much appreciated by us all.


Lorinda, Robert and Bjorn, the real question now is...."who are we going to bill this hour to..?"

Ken, I'm the one who owes the apology! Looking back, I'm thinking there was something very wrong with the clips I was uploading to you. Unfortunately, I still haven't figured it out!

If I could have matched up the clips from you better (why on earth was the timing of the video off, as well as the color? Aaaagh!) the foggy breath segments would have been way more effective. I still like them, even if I couldn't get them right!

But I have to say that the fun and pleasure of working with you far outweighed the frustration we experienced. That all-nighter was a killer, I must admit. And you had to work the next day! But our earlier experiments and discussions had me laughing out loud.

Hope to try something again one of these days. We'll figure it out, by golly!

I got in such a hurry responding to Ken I forgot about you guys, Per Johan and Vidar!

It has been so much fun mixing UWOL and DVC. I get really tickled reading your comments because they are so fresh and charming. :)

Sorry we made you feel seasick, Per.....okay, I want to stop right here and ask you to clarify something for me. How do you like to be addressed? Per? Per Johan?

Anyway, I tried to keep the tilting to a minimum because I suffer from major motion-sickness myself! By the way, it is the combining of the two contests that contributed to the idea of stranding the guys in a blind. When I entered the UWOL challenge I couldn't believe you guys could spend so many hours in a blind waiting for something to happen!

Vidar, thank you for the kind remarks. You seem like a gentle soul who would pick out the subtle (hidden) humor, and that makes me feel good.

Adobe, by the sound of it. Somebody spill the beans, what exactly did you guys try that didn't work? Lorinda, what types of files were you sending Ken? Too late to help this project, but I'd love to try and figure out some sort of solution for you two, in case this situation comes up again.

The joys of file exchange, yes? If you really want to talk about file size, imagine working with uncompressed 1080 HD. 1920 pixels wide, times 1080 tall, 24 bits per pixel, and 29.97 frames per second gives you files that take up almost 180 megabytes per second. Uncompressed storage of HDV footage, at 1440 by 1080, only brings the number down to a still-less-than-reasonable 134MBps. Thank god for frameservers.

Speaking of which, I feel I owe a few credits for my end of the effects, namely the following:

Avisynth, the frameserving application
Donald Graft, for his DGMPGDec Avisynth plugin
Pismo Technic, and their File Mount System
and last but not least,
Joe Lowe's Avisynth Virtual File System

I don't want to clutter the thread with details, but the stuff I did--amateur as it may be--would not have been possible without all of that software. The procedure was a variation on what I detail in this thread from the 5D Mark II forum, with extraneous bits of info in a similar discussion, only with the extra steps of rendering an uncompressed Targa sequence, then bringing it into Avid Liquid to render my final HDV2 format MPEG files. Easier to set up and use than it sounds.

Attached, interested parties will find a screengrab of the schematic view from the most complicated shot's combustion workspace. You can bet I ended up making this far more intricate than a real professional would have, but whatever works. I did end up learning a lot doing this, so thank you for the practice, Lorinda!