UWOL 8 "Rejuvenations"
 

Good morning/evening,

Below is a site you can get a glimpse of my entry for this round.



www.vimeo.com/917984

For some reason the title isn't shown but it is the one with the goose thumbnail.

I had a lot of fun making this one to be sure.

Hi Dale,

You are the master of the bird videos! And once more you deliver the high quality work I am expecting from you.
I really like the close ups of the bird's head at 00:45, and of the feet when the bird was walking on the ice (at 00:30).
Very good that you were able to capture the sounds of the birds fighting. May I ask how close you were able to get to them without interrupting them?

Nice closing shots too, where the 2 flowers seem to be the only thing with colors.

Well done! Keep up the good work! And thank you for sharing.

Hi Dale,
Wow nice shots as usual. If they were wild turkeys at the end of your film, then i'm dissapointed i didn't get to see them while i was in Canada recently. There were some near where i was staying, but each time i went for a look they weren't there. I guess it's still a little early in spring for there to be too many flowers like the ones you showed in the praries, but i imagine it must be incredible in a few weeks. Just one note with your music, although i liked it, i thought 3 songs were too much, i would have liked just two, transitioning from where the ducks & water ended & the shots in the praries started.
Good job!

Bryce

Nice job.

My Quicktime player indicates that your video is twice the allowed size. Did you accidentally upload the wrong one? It certainly didn't suffer from the larger frame size.

It is still so gray up there, isn't it. Makes me appreciate living in Florida. Although a lot of the people who "winter" here are heading back up north already.

Dale,

I really enjoyed watching this. Although I would have thought spring would be a long time away for you, watching the displays of the birds toward the end of your video showed that spring has arrived even in the north. That was amazing footage- how did you get that?? I also really liked the details of the webbed feet walking on ice- okay, so it isn't totally spring yet :)

Thanks for sharing this- you have a nice flow in the film, and some outstanding footage, especially of the birds. I thought the music worked very well with the film, matching up well with the action. Great job!


Ruth

Hi Dale

Yes a nice entery again,you make a butiful film her.I must ask about
the bird at the end some grouse or? Realy facinating bird ,whid the
bilding in far bacround.


Nice Entery Dale.


VJV:

__________________

Dale,

My ducks were warmer than your ducks!

I loved the shots of the goose's feet walking across the nice. Panning when zoomed in this far is so tricky, but you've managed it very well.

The best bit for me was the birds at the end showing off what I presume are mating displays - the sound was great of that, and the way it was framed with either the camera really low or the birds on higher ground to put us at their eye level worked really well.

Really nice work.

Good Afternoon,

Here are a few answers to some of the questions:

Spring is always turbulent here. April 3 I shot the establishing shot, old wives lake, 1.6 trillion pounds of ice to thaw.

The geese and ducks are not domestic, I shot these with a 100/400mm canon lens stretched out most of the way.

The fighting birds are the provinvial bird, native Sharp Tailed Grouse. I set a blind up the afternoon before in 50 km/h4 winds, set out my microphone stand where I knew I could get better audio with my shotogun mic plugged into a wireless transmitter. The wind was so bad I had to shut off the third audio channel and go with the standard senheiser mic.

The flower is a native crocus. It is the first to bloom in the northern prairies, usually in may. Dancing/fighting grouse and the crocus are the first two signs that spring has sprung.

I set my blind so that i was between 30 and 50 yards from the birds lek. In this case I used the standard 20x lens most of the time. For the ones further out I used the 100/400 and It was set at about 250, equivalent to 1900mm 35 mm lens.

Music was an issue to me, it was my first effort with smartsound. I was not fully pleased but i could not find exactly what i wanted for the end and I waited way to long to compose, play one and record it myself.

Biggest dissappointment: at 60 mbt on the computer the establishing shot does not look like it did in the original footage.

I was going to voice over but it was suggested to me by outside critiques that they felt the voice over would detract from an obvious story.

Do you think it needs a voice over??

I just don't know how you can get those shots of the fighting birds....and yes, I read your explaination....a patient man, I guess....

Very nice close ups.....I can't even get my dog to sit still for that. :)

I like the shot of the crocus amoung all the brown.....cool!

Bob T.

Hi Dale,

I'm going to have to think of a better way to get close in to get those kind of bird shots. I'm using my Sony VX2100 and they would always fly away before I could get the camera setup. Great shots on your part.

Take a look at my website if you are looking for free music. My library is small at the moment, but I intend to fill it up with share music of my own creation. No copy rights. Maybe there is something there that you like.

www.blindchildproductions.com

Oliver Pahlow

Dale, I am taking both you and Bruce out to the woodshed, and I am going to make you both re-compress your files to 428 x 240...100 times each.

No more cheating the standards, boys!

Great bird shots though. It looks as if you had a very interesting time shooting this....

Hi Dale:

I think this is your best yet. And the music! Thank you for this piece, and the wide open spaces you bring to us each contest.

Cat

Dale, nice job. The fighter birds are especially great. Looks like they are dead serious..... know what was meant about voice over. I had one on mine, but pulled it...

Hi Dale,

You used quite a variety of visuals to portray the transformation of season taking place. In the shot of the goose walking on ice I kept thinking a bird voice saying "Where is that warm sand, anyway?". Yeah they're used to it, good shot.

The colorful ducks were magnificent and all the shots that followed helped tell the story.

I understand the frustration with the music. SonicFire Pro and SmartSound music are worth sticking with, though. Being able to purchase and download single tracks using the Maestro is a really handy function. That's how I got the music for mine this time.

I enjoyed your entry.

compression
 

Meryem,


It ain't intentional!!!!

I cut two, one vimeo and one for uwol!!!

the one was 57 and the other over 100, somehow I must have sent the wrong one!!!!


sorry, sorry sorry!!!


da da dale