UWOL 11 Prairie Grasslands
 

Good day,

With such a broad subject area, Habitat, the difficulty is always narrowing down and still keeping things interesting. Uwol has helped me a lot in this regard, as I always tend to go for to much; here in the prairies we tend to look at things in a larger context.

I had great fun making it and only shot four hours of tape for the three minutes.

The constant battle was the wind and weather.

I also had a terribly narrow time frame and just squeeked this one out.

I hope you enjoy it and look forward to the commentaries!!!

Link:

http://www.vimeo.com/2031136

Hey Dale:

You are improving by leaps and bounds. This, I think, is your best yet (but you have had some good ones!). Interesting, beautiful, lots of great shots, angles and diverse subjects to keep us entertained throughout. You put this one together nicely from beginning to end. You never would have known that you had such a short time-stint to put this together. The place where you live is a thrill to see! Thanks for taking us there again!

Cato

Hi Dale -- you did a really nice job with this - I agree with Cat that, shooting-wise, this is some of your best stuff. I think shooting some macro seems to be making you more conscious of focusing and depth of field issues.

Your VO is very nice -- I like that you are putting some space in there for the image to unfold, not overwhelming it with sound -- maybe even a slight bit more space, although I found the info interesting, drawing our attention to something seemingly mundane, grass, and showing its essential qualities.

The white balance in your closing shot seems off to me. A little color correcting filter would help this.

For something you pulled off last minute, I think you did a fine job.

Mereyem, Cato,


Thank you for the comments.

Yes, shooting Macro does make one more conscious of focus and depth of field.
I have always had trouble with focus!!! I went to a FU 1000 and boy does it make a huge difference!!! Still getting used to the b&w view finder.

White Balance

My last shot I did a bit of correction and was having trouble trying to get it right, I was not real pleased with the shot, but I absolutely did not have a chance to reshoot. It was mid day, at about 3000 mm, in the wind as always when I shot it and it was the last day. Now if I could have used a shot I took in September it would have been beautiful as I have about hours of good goose video from before. But alas, it is a challenge!!!


It was fun emphesizing something other than just the wildlife!!

Dale,

Very nice film. Informative and looked great. The shot of the bird was a little to 'in middle of frame' for me, but aside from that small matter really enjoyed watching it. Had a nice pace to it too.

Well done.

Dale,

Even though you had a small window to shoot and battled the wind and weather, you have to be pretty darn happy with this entry.

One of your best films yet.

Good choice of music and story. Thought your VO was just right for this piece.

Had a good mix of master shots and macro too!

Great job!

Nice close ups Dale… but I missed them on the rock.
Nice story I think that we all pushed us a bit more in this challenge.
Good job Dale

Markus

Dale: Nice habitat story, great images of the subject matter, and on theme ! Didn't quite follow the buffalo rock story, can you elaborate on that.

Hi Dale,
Your skills keep improving, and this was fun to watch!
At least one of your best videos.

I like how you used the shallow DOF for the close ups. Very nice.

Thank you for once again teaching me something new.

Hi Dale:

I watched your film again and wanted to thank you. It is beautiful and I loved even more the second time through. I am amazed at the open space where you live!

Cat

Hi Dale,
The red algae in the long shot looks a bit like our Heath land Heather until the next shot close up/macro shot, the red buds look waxy.
Your VO was good, Informative and well laid out, as you say Dale your Robin looks quite different, almost twice the size of our bird.
You have a lot of land to walk over there everything here is postage stamp size.
Nice video.

The rocks
 

Chris,

The point I was trying to make, which I missed obviously, was that in a habitat even a rock can play an integrel role in a creatures habitat. the buffalo rock is a large rock that the buffalo walk around rubbing up against to help remove parasites from their coats. I did not have time to perhaps include footage a a bird picking grit, small rocks to help grinding food up in a gizzard, or a bird picking up a pebble which will stay in the crop rotate around picking up the grease off the inside of the crop and then being regurgitated after cleaning the crop. Another is a white tailed Jack rabbit that will hunker up against the south side of a rock (in the northern hemisphere) in the winter to absorb some of the radiant energy the rock gives off. One could do an entire video just on the essentials of rock in an environment. Of course one of the most important, water running over rock picking up essential minerals that all living organisms need. I could carry on with more.

Hi Dale,

thanks for telling us about the unaltered prairie that offers nice berries for the birds at this time of the year. This is of great interest to us who only know the prairie from western films. It was a bit difficult for me to understand parts of the VO. You have a fine combination of close-ups and distant views. The white birds in the last scene have a resemblance with seagulls. Am I wrong here?

Finn,

The birds in the closing sceene are Snow Geese from the Arctic, they are staging (they stop for a month to 6 weeks fattening up before the next long push to the south).

Dale this was a very informative piece and I found it interesting. I had to read your post to find out about the buffalo rock which to me was the most interesting part of the picture. I was struck by how the sky of the prairie looks similar to that of the ocean.

I would have liked to have seen some more shots of grass blowing in the wind with that distinguished sound the grass makes as it blows. I also would have enjoyed some more varying degrees of angles in the cuts. It appeared to be mostly c/u to w/a, and not much in between.

Aside from that nit picky stuff it was really a terrific film.

Your film had a different approach than most of the films and it stood out because of it.

Jeff