Calling UWOL #5 "Foraging Mammals" by Dale Guthormsen
 

Hi Dale:

I hope you don't mind that we start a thread for your entry?
The prairy at your place is huge man!!! And long lenses is required to get any good picture of the animals I think!? It's not easy to find any hides out there!

You got some stunning shoots there, especially when the wolf appear among the pronghorns, wow that was very interesting to view!
I think you should have consentrated more about those two mammals though, but this is often about how much footage you get and so on...
I also notice that your horizon is a bit off on some off the footage, which is very noticable when you are using those long lenses.

This is one of your best entries so far Dale, very good work!

Hey dale
Nice wide open spaces you have there Dale.
I liked the slow motion at about 1:52. as Per said you probably need long lenses for that part of the world. I Like the little critter in the water in the end,Im glad you got your video up and posted would be a pity not to have you being a part of this.

Hi Dale,

Finally we were able to watch your film too. I have been waiting for that.
My favorite shot was that of the wolf chasing the other animals.

It can't be easy to keep the animals in focus and to follow them when you use those long lenses. (I believe you used a long lense and had to zoom in quite a bit.) But I think you managed that very well.
Some of the panning could have been a little more smooth, but that's just a detail.

Thank you for sharing the prairie with us, Dale. It is always nice to see how the nature is other places compared to what I am used to where I live here in Norway.
I'm looking forward to see your future films too.
Keep up the good work!

Hi Dale.
First I have to comment your choice of music. This song is known by us Norwegians as "Du er den ende", sung by a Swedish singer, translated it means "You are the only". When I read your ending text I understood your film more and it braught to me a higher meaning. It so beautiful together with your shots from this wonderful landscape of yours. A bit unsteady now and then but still a great film.
The action between wolf and mammal was great but I'm not sure about the, is it a water rat? It somehow distracted me from the beauty of the prairy, but thats just my opinion.

Wish you all the best Dale.
Geir Inge

Hi Dale:

Beautiful film. Yes friend, praise to God for His creation that gives Him glory. Well done. This is your best. The lighting, the music, the creatures, the scenery the cinematography... very beautiful indeed.

I agree with Geir in that the beaver (?) at the end was a real switch from the rest and I would have been happy to keep it to the wide open expanse.... where were you by the way? You captured it so well! The beaver footage was really good, in and of itself, but I just wanted to stay in the rapture of the open grassland. I'm sure that's just a personal thing though, not a high tech critique.

The only other thing that got me was the film scale switched at the very end. But these points are minor compared to the absolute gift in this entry. We have all been looking forward to your film and you certainly didn't disappoint.

Cat

my entry
 

Good evening,

Per, thanks for starting the thread for me. I have been the busiest I have been as long as I can remember.
Having to comute to the new position cuts out most of my free time to film. I kept one of my cameras with me all the time. I discovered the antelope herd on my morning drive in. On the way home I hunted for them and found them. I did not have time to set the tripod up and all the footage was shot free hand, hence the shakiness; but, I am glad I got the footage I would not have got otherwise.

The chase scene was so fast that I had to slow the footage down 250% to just make it visible. On the full resolution version you can actually see (if you look close) the coyote (large northern male) reach out to bite at the rear leg to try and stumble one of them.

It was a challenge to just find some interesting mammal footage.

The Muskrat I filmed solely because I spent 3 weeks in July trying to film them for the water challenge and never got a foot!!! Now they are out and I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. The priarie is a Mosaic of amazing wildlife large and small.

my theme was foraging animals, not just the vast prairies, hence the reason for having the Rat.

The trick in these challenges (and I believe they are a huge challenge) is getting all new footage in the 3 weeks between work family and friends.

this time I wished I had more personal time during the 3 weeks to do a higher class job in the post!!!


thanks you all for the comments, I agree with all of them.

Good morning Dale ( it's just 8.15 am over here).
I agreed with you on this one, we have just 3 weeks to shoot and post our films and as it have to be from the wild or nature it's not easy. When I mentioned the jump from the antelope to the muskrat (i figure it had to be a rat) it's just my personal feeling. Your antelope scene put me in a very emotional mood and the muskrat braught me over to another. A big jumpcut, maybe a nice cutaway would have made it an easier jump?
As I said your film is great and I loved it very much, and I thank you for sharing with us.

All the best.
Geir Inge

Dale,

I really liked the magnificent vistas of your film, and the chase sequence was amazing. Looking through earlier comments, including your own, I think all the animal footage was appropriate, but maybe just a reversal in order would have worked better for me. If you started small, with the muskrat, that would maybe be a better flow, going from the intimate life of the wetlands to the wide open spaces with the antelope. But I liked it a lot, and found the music worked well with expressing the feel of the place. Great job.

Ruth

Dale
This is an interesting video. Being busy makes these challenges a real challenge. I'm sure if you had more time you're edits would have been different. Looks like that coyote had his after burner on trying to catch that antelope.

Gordon Hoffman

Hi Dale,

Just got a chance to view your entry.

Very nice footage - particularly the pronghorns - which you captured in beautiful light.

You certainly do have some long lens there - which I would imagine is a must in that environment.

I would also imagine witnessing the coyote chasing the proghorns would have been a rare event to see? Surprised that coyote would actually try to catch such large prey.

I think you did very well to capture this footage, considering it was all freehand.

The only point you might like to consider relates to zooming. Perhaps composing the shot (using zoom), and then hitting the record button, ie avoid zooming whilst recording. Alternatively, edit out all zooms out - unless you are doing a slow establishing zoom. Just a personal view.

Music worked very well I thought and I also liked your closing comments - very nice sentiments.

Great to share the rare moment with you Dale. Thanks

Great subject matter and some really nice shots in a your sequence. I think you need to lock your shots down more, some of the camera movement is quite off putting and brings down otherwise well exposed nicely lit shots. The edit could have flowed a bit smoother too. That chase shot was fantastic I would have loved to have seen some more of that. The Muskrat didnt seem to fit but the footage is fab and I can see why you sought it as a subject. I'd like to find out some more about these little fellas...nudge nudge ;-)

Nice stuff dale....well done!

Mat,

Thank you for taking the time to critic my clips. I agree with what you have mentioned. The editing: I thought it had to be done the 21st and felt rushed to get something in, when had i read the posting I could have used a few more days, shame on me. I wasn't happy with the editing but i didn't want to go into the tank. promise the next one to be smooth.

I only had time to run and gun shoot as i drove to and from my new position.

If I was going to use the rat, in hindsight it should have been first, perhaps doing small mammals and move into large mammals. original thought was having it end with the rat vanishing and leaving just the reflective water as and sliding into the sunset with the crickets I recorded a different evening. It really didn't work at all

Antelope are not all that common here on the northern prairies. I was lucky to get the footage I did. I have looked for that herd several times sense and they have vanished into the vastness of the prairies.

here the huge lenses are often esential and a puf of wind makes for shake. Of course we have winds up to 40 km/hr almost daily, sometimes much worse. Getting footage in these conditions is a real challenge to be certain. My ratio of useable to non useable stock is way to high!!

I may rebuild it just on principle.

I very much appreciate the constructive critiques!!

I will do better next time, but I am worried about what meryem will pull out of her bag.