An Odyssey Delayed by Chris Barcellos UWOL Challenge 16
 

This film records a little journey taken by our friend Chris Swanberg with his daughter Katie Swanberg as she recovers from her life threatening illness.

I shot it with the Canon 5D Mark II, and the Canon T2i.

Vimeo link is here, when it is ready. Comments welcome.

Chris, thank you for sharing this. It puts a lot into perspective, time spent with family, one of the most important God given gifts to this world.

Chris- Thank-you for making this video. It provides wonderful closure for all of us who took that emotional roller coaster ride with our friend Chris Swanberg (admittedly we were only on the kiddy version of the world-class stuntman ride Chris took). Seeing Chris and Katie in the field together was wonderful (where was your cameo?). Katie’s positive attitude is an inspiration for us all.

Speaking of inspiration- I noticed you have added a T2i to your toolkit. You may have noticed that I shot with one this round. I just wanted to make sure you understand that it was your fine work with the 5DmkII that got me interested in these cameras to begin with. Keep up the good work!

Hi Chris,

Thank you for sharing this moment with us. Good to see Katie is doing so well after all she went through.

Interesting to see how great quality video you can get with a still camera.
Keep up your good work!

Chris,

I’m not participating in UWOL #16 but I wanted to comment on your film. I was very touched by it and I think it was brave of you and you daughter to share this insight into a very personal and emotional subject. It was brilliantly shot and the sound was perfect. Really, really wonderful; in my opinion, this is what UWOL is all about...thank you for this uplifting piece of work.

Well done Chris B. A very moving piece and really wonderful to see you in this film Chris and Katie. This film brings a new dimension to Uwol.

Chris,

What a lovely film. So good to see Katie doing so well. The love and happiness in her dear old dad's eyes and heart is so apparent from this, and what a bonny lass she is.

The filming style is very intimate, and very appropriate. A cross between cinematic (style) and home movie (intimacy). I don't think I can find any fault in this.

That "little journey" is so simple, but must have seemed so far away for them until recently.

Chris S and Katie, I wish you all the best. Your journey has been a hard one, but it has turned out so wonderful in the end.

Chris,


All I can say is, "Powerful and Moving"!!

As I have gotten older it seems I have become more emotional as this one just sucked it out of me!!!

Life - the most important journey of all. And the one that is so easy to take for granted.

An excellent film all round.

Chris B, Chris S and Katie!
This gave me a so touchy feeling that I had to sit down for some time, thinking over what life is!
Often you are angry and depressed for minor things happening in your life, watching this make me rethink what life really is!

Thank you so much for making this piece, you did all very well.

Some technical questions: what kind of lenses did you use? How did you record the ambient sound? Looks like most was handheld, any equipment used?

I´m very eager to start shooting with a DSLR, so I need as much information as I can get.

All over a very nice edited piece, a touchy story, VO very well executed. Congrats with first runner up to you all!

Hi Chris

Firstly excuse the delay in revewing your film I have been away for the last 10 days.

A touching piece of wrork and something that seems even closer because of the dvi updates that Chris provided on his daughters condition. I thought it was emotional, evocative and nicely shot. It puts into perspective trivial issues we all moan about every day! - I did feel that if I hadn't already known aboutthe situation a viewer might have been left a little confused and indeed my girlfriends friend was just that. I think the situation didn't a little more definition. I also think you seem to cover the some of the same ground twice albeit with a differing slant.

Nice work and great to see everything has gone well with Chris and his daugther.

Mat

Per,

I actually was trying out my new Canon T2i (my B cam) on a light tripod, (car interior, and railroad track shot) and the 5D was with me also for the shoulder mounted shots. I did some stabilzation of the the shoulder shots in post. So shots were varied.. I was using the Kit 18mm-55 on the T2i. On the 5D I probabably had a Nikon 50mm ,or a my favorite 70's/80's vintage Takumar 28-80mm zoom.

I rig most of my own equipment up, so the shoulder mount is a homemade affair made from aluminum tubing. The next to last shot was shot (with them staring up) was shot with T2i on the light tripod, with an old vivitar 70 to 210 zoom that I stuck on to try a long shot at a small bird.

These cameras are very versatile, and are a lot of fun to shoot. And the great thing about them is you can clean out your lens closet and find some gems to adapt and shoot with. I think the 5D is the best image, but the T2i will do fine work too, and with the smaller sensor, a 400mm becomes a 620 or so.

Sound of their conversation during the hike was recorded with IRiver 895's mp3 recorder and Giant squid mics on their persons. As I recall, I did not mic the camera's, so whatever is there from camera is from the tiny pinhole mics on board. The camera mics can surprize you sometimes. I shoot the 5D with Magic Lantern to avoid the automatic gain issues.