UWOL #9: On The Wild Side by Cat Russell

[Catherine Russell]

Hi everyone:

This one was a blast and I can't wait to see what everyone else has come up with. Please forgive me in advance for not being able to resist just a snippet of my farm crew and the new birds we have.... but only a snippet I promise!

The lost opportunity to film the coyote was unfortunate, but I really don't mind because the other wonderful surprises I was able to capture made up for it.

If you simply want to be surprised at what wildlife made it into this clip DON'T read on from here. Just watch and enjoy!

The link to my movie is:

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

p.s. Hope to be filming in high def next round.


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For those of you curious about my experiences capturing these different critters read on.

The squirrel, pigeons, rabbit, swallow and hummingbirds are all wildlife co-existing with us at our home and so it was a safe bet to get some footage of these guys, although the squirrel turned out to be a fun surprise as to what he was doing.

Nothing short of a miracle and wonderful good fortune was the rattlesnake, zebra-swallow, frogs, lizard and honey bees. We had rain for two days and just by chance while walking the goats I stumbled onto the thunderous croaking of the frogs in a temporary rain-pond. I went back the next day to film it.... my hat is off to ANYONE who can capture these guys on film... I settled for the noise. A few days later, the pond was dried up and the frogs were gone. The rattlesnake was also a dream come true. My husband and I were on headed out on a wonderful goat hike and I had camera in hand. The rattlers were out but probability near zero to run up on one while holding a camera. I was just stating this to my husband about how incredible it would be to get a rattler for my UWOL 9 entry and wrote it off as dreaming when less than 10 minutes later I practically stepped on this guy! Ed steered the goats away and moved on and I was able to film happily to my heart's content. It's too bad the grass was in the way of getting a good look and it's eye (like Mat was so adept to capture beautifully), but I wasn't about to stick my hand out to rearrange it... they are deadly. This same walk brought us the wonderful surprise of the honey bees (I've never seen one in the wild before!) and the zebra-swallow butterfly and the lizard. So as you can see, it was nothing but good luck to stumble across all of these and I feel very, very blessed.

Thanks UWOL, for getting us out there to capture these fabulous glimpses of nature in it's everyday happening.

Sincerely,

Cat

[David Gemmell]

Hi Cat,

I've got to express my initial thoughts after watching your entry was just how enjoyable and entertaining your film was to watch. I sort of got into the beat and just sat back and enjoyed three minutes watching wildlife I have never seen before - which I always enjoy.

Music selection suited the overall use of your effects really well, especially the text beating to the music and the whole concept of using the letters of the Wildlife theme. You really are a master of using effects and I think you used them perfectly here.

In term of the animals, I really enjoyed the variety of shots you captured, particularly the squirrel and the hummingbirds hovering there at the feeder. I think youv'e got some baby goats just round the corner after seeing mother goat struggling up the hill.

You may want to consider using a polarizing filter in some spots as there was a fair bit of glare at times (being extremely critical here).

Well done on an excellent entry Cat

[Steve Siegel]

Nice job Cat,
I always enjoy the use of text and graphics in your work. This time you've raised the bar. Keep it up.

[Trond Saetre]

Hi Catherine, this was another cool film from you.
I tried hard, but it was impossible to know which animals would come next until I saw it. Perfect!
As David also commented, you are the master of the effects. I have something to learn from you there. :)

One tiny detail: The shots of the birds "interacting" in the middle of the film was a little shaky. Maybe you could have zoomed a little more in on the hummingbirds?

Very well made!
Thank you for sharing.

[Per Johan Naesje]

Hi Cat, very cooool!. You surprise me every time with your fantasy and poetic imagination! The beat substantiated the scenes very well. Keep up your good work Cat!

[Oliver Pahlow]

Hi Cato,

I injoyed your film very much. I liked the interaction between the graphics, music, and images. You had quite the variety of animals. I learned something from you. Thanks.

Oliver

[Rob Evans]

Hey Cat, great take on the theme once more!! It really adds to my feeling that you should be working towards kids programming - the innocence, colour and vibrancy of your work is the kind of stuff that will really inspire kids to get more excited about nature. Great fun, once again, thanks for bringing it to us.

[Markus Nord]

Nice one! Cool idea… some nice shot you got there, I liked the shot on the hummingbird, some close ups on that one would have been nice.

[Brian McKay]

Cat...wonderful of all the entries I've watched so far yours show's the use of Rule #11 the most. Great fun and excellent images.

Brian

[Vidar Vedaa]

Hello Cat

You must have allot of artist in your blod, allways some greait suprice
And you do it again.Facinating film Cat, loock forword to see your art-Work


VJV.


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[Catherine Russell]

Thanks everyone for the watch and comments. I so appreciate it!

Markus: Several people have commented on having the hummingbirds as more of a close up shot. In After Effects, you can take the same film footage and put it in 3D space. This allows you to "bring it closer" to the "camera" so that it becomes a much larger image without distorting it. It's a great capability! It makes me want to quickly redo the movie and do this, then upload the film again so that everyone will then comment on the Great closeup shots of the hummingbirds I have.... but that wouldn't be quite fair would it! ;-).

Rob: When I did this film, somehow I knew you would make this comment! I was thinking, *sigh* I'm attempting to do something creative and it's coming across childish... again! Oh well, the internet is universal... if you can get me a job doing nature clips for children that pays REALLY well, I'll consider it! ;-).

Thanks for the comments everyone!

Cat

[Rob Evans]

Hey Cat, I'm glad I'm being consistent ;-) Seriously though, your stuff is continually unique, inventive, colourful and touching - the last thing I would call it is childish. Keep it up!

[Catherine Russell]

Wow, thank Rob. Coming from you with all of your talent is a real compliment (deserving or not!).

Oh, and David: I had to chuckle to myself about your comment about the baby goats up front and the mother goat struggling to get up the hill....

Well, to be honest, the struggling mother goat is Bob. Yes he's famous for his beer gut but we love him to death! There is not a person that meets him for the first time that doesn't think he's about to drop 3 or 4 babies. He's a boer breed which are meat goats. They are built like line backers and they have metabolisms to make them big. They normally don't live as long as he does, so he's stretched out... so it's not all flab. Everyone falls in love with him after they get to know him, and don't be deceived, he's stronger than a bull and has better stamina than the rest. I know, it's a shock. I was wondering when someone in UWOL would pick up on that!

Cato

[Bob Thieda]

Ah fun, fun, fun....this is one I've watched more than once. Showed it to a couple of people who also enjoyed it.

No technical feedback from me. Plenty of others, with more knowledge than I, to do that.

Again...fun, fun, fun...

Bob

[Chris Barcellos]

Catherine.. not what I expected at all. This film has an original lively feel to it and is fun to watch. The viewer keeps watching, trying to anticipate your next description, and keeping the viewers attention is half the battle with these films, as I see it. Nice job.