And the Winner of UWOL X is...
 

And the Winner of UWOL X is …

Ahem… before I get to that, I want to thank everyone who participated. It was great fun to view all of the entries and to learn about the good things people are doing for the planet. Thank you also for the opportunity to be your judge: I was impressed by so many of the entries. Choosing the top three was a difficult choice, and I felt several others came quite close.

And now, drum roll, please ……. The winners are:

Gold Medal: Marj Atkins and “Free Me”
I just loved this video! It was short, fun and conveyed the message without words or talking heads. The music, the speeded-up video, the editing – I enjoyed it all. I really liked the bucket theme and following the bucket around from the city to a home to the refuge, then seeing how it was employed to help the critters. Throw your change in the bucket for the wildlife refuge!

Silver Medal: Ryan Farnes and “Wilderness Utah”
This is a gorgeous video of a gorgeous state. There are so many beautiful shots in this video: the opening shot that moves to an underwater shot; the grains of sand moving to the sand dunes; the shot that changes focus between the forest and the trees, so to speak, to a single leaf. The video moved well between shots of Utah to the two gentlemen speaking, and the background music wove it together. Beautiful video.

Bronze Medal: Rob Evans and “Binfield Badgers”
I thought this was a very effective PSA: spare but moving. Although the beginning felt a bit abrupt, the video effectively conveyed the problem, the solution (the path), the threats that could prevent the badgers from using the path, and the likely result. The map showing the badger path, the surrounding development and the roadways really helped to show the issue graphically and succinctly. I really liked all of the shots of the badgers moving at night, which help the viewer to understand and empathize with the badgers. The shots of the cars at night cutting to the dead badger at the side of a road were distressing but effective. I would vote this PSA the best for opening my wallet.

This is a great idea for the contest, and I understand that many of you are still working on entries to be submitted at a later date. I want to congratulate everyone who took on this task. There are so many small environmental organizations that are doing so much good work behind the scenes, and they can benefit from your help and support. I want to encourage all of you at the UWOL Challenge to keep up the good work.

Congrats Marj...you now join the ranks of 2 time winners.Ryan and Rob,good work guys..both were great entries...

Congrats Marj and to you Ryan and Rob.
Also to Jenny for judging this round and to all the competers.
You all deserve a "bucket full of love" :)

Geir Inge

Hey Marj - I had a feeling you would do well, your video had some much fun to it!!! Congrats on another win, it's well deserved. Ryan, i haven't had time yet to crit your entry but sure enough, i loved the feel and look of it....

Jenny, thanks for taking time out to cast your eye over the preceedings, your thoughts are balanced and well presented.

I'm still planning to add comments to the other videos I haven't got to yet - been hectic with my first music video this week,and just about to deliver ;-)

Cheers!

Congratulations to the winners. There were some great entries in this round but these 3 definately stood out! Well done folks.

wow, our third 2x winner...we are going to have to start a Hall of Fame for UWOL...

even better, now I have a theme pick AND a new judge, my job is getting easier by the minute!

congrats to Marj and to the other "medalists" --

...and to anyone who took this challenge, you all deserve medals, in my book, for completing the hardest one yet...

Congrats Marj and to you Rob and Ryan too.

Congrats Ryan and Rob and to all who completed this round and thanks again to you Jenny for taking the time to judge UWOL X. You are a wonderful example to all of us of what the spirit of this theme embodies.

Meryem - you too must be commended for your vision and thank you for giving us this opportunity to use our privileged positions to help others even if we are just inexperienced amateurs. We have benefitted immensely in different ways from the experience.

To the UWOL community and everyone out there - 235 PSA’s is the target. We have started the ball rolling with nine official entries. Anyone, anywhere can submit a PSA/commercial any time to help out a local NPO doing a worthwhile work. All you have to do is upload it here and the team will support you all the way. (I still have plenty of work to do on mine after this, but it will be better for all the constructive help that has been given here.)

As for UWOL #11 - I have submitted a theme that I would enjoy doing myself, so I hope you will too. I look forward to watching your entries.

Meryem I feel honoured being nominated to judge the next round but the timing could not be worse for me, so as much as I would like to, I’m afraid I have to decline. :(
(Fortunately you have another two-time winner waiting in the wings, who in my opinion always gives perceptive, constructive and sound critique and would do a really excellent job of judging!!!! :)

Marj

Congratulations Marge!!!

It was an awesome entry!!!

Well earned!!

Congrats to every one who completed!!!

Well, you can't blame me for trying! After all, that's how you got started in this contest anyway, as a film critic lurking in the shadows...

I think our other 2x winner has been "on the road again" too much to judge. The ink gets soggy when you're trying to jot down your ideas and dive the Red Sea at the same time....

But no worries, I am pretty good at fingering strangers to jump in and serve, in a pinch....I just tell them that it's easy and won't take much time, and then start bobbing and weaving. So far, no injuries.

Thanks for the recognition and congratulations to Marj and Rob.

I look forward to hopefully being able to do more of these UWOL challenges. And sometime next year, perhaps shooting them with the Red Scarlet camera.

Ooooh. Aaaaaah.

Congratulations to the winners, your films were definitly the best of the bunch.

Nice going Marj, and all entrants...

Congratulations to Marj, Ryan and Rob!

Just chiming in my congratulations to Marj, Ryan and Rob. Your recognition is very well deserved!
Amelia