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-   -   UWOL #17 - The Blink of an Eye (https://www.dvinfo.net/forum/uwol-challenge/485190-uwol-17-blink-eye.html)

Bill Thesken September 23rd, 2010 12:07 PM

UWOL #17 - The Blink of an Eye
 
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YouTube - The Blink of an Eye

Got busy, and I'm a little late posting this. I tried to make an uplifting little film, took a lot of footage over the 3 weeks and only used a little of it. Wrote and recorded the voice over, and final edited a few hours before the deadline, I guess I like the pressure. Had some technical difficulties, and I learned a lot about Vegas 9 as I worked through the glitches. I think my audio levels are a little off target.
One thing I'd like to say to the other entrants, and I've only watched a couple so far, is that we are not alone, and we're all in this together. As John Donne said in 1600 'No man is an island...'
Every fibre in the universe is somehow connected, and we did not make a single bit of it, not a grain of sand or molecule of air. I know some of my posts have poked fun, but that is just my nature dealing with the vast unknown, and trying to lighten things up a bit.

One funny story: I went to a semi-popular snorkeling spot for the underwater shots. I weighted the camera onto the bottom and was hovering just a few feet away watching the action. On two separate occasions, two different women snorklers swam right past me and dove down to grab the camera like they'd found some pirate treasure. And I'm blurbing 'Hey, Hey!" under water. I had to wrestle it from one of them. It seems that women may be attracted to shiny objects. :)

Here's a picture of one of the hands ready to make a grab for it-

Mike Sims September 23rd, 2010 12:54 PM

Hey Bill, that’s a great story. Thanks for the behind the scenes. I love that kind of stuff! Well, this is certainly less lighthearted than your previous entries and you pulled it off well. A bevy of beautiful shots to accompany an important message. What could be better than that? I really enjoyed the shots where you disturbed the coral rubble and the fish rushed in to feed. I could watch an hour of that. Good stuff. Looking forward to more stories from paradise.

Trond Saetre September 23rd, 2010 02:40 PM

Hi Bill,

Very nice underwater shots! All the colorful fishes I have never seen before. Interesting!
A cool effect with the sunglasses revealing the life below the water surface.
A nice film you made! Looking forward to your next one.

Mike Duvall September 23rd, 2010 03:33 PM

Nicely done Bill. Interesting story line and very nice underwater shots. I'd really like to be able to shoot underwater! Enjoyed the fast action traffic shot then transition to the slower waters. I think my favorite shot however were the see horses towards the end! They were quite large but very beautiful.

Bob Safay September 23rd, 2010 04:10 PM

Bill. I really enjoyed this video. I watched it a few times to just becaused i loved the special effects. In the opening, you run the video through that guys sun glasses right into the surf. Then the fast forwards and morphing the top of your SUV going through traffic to become a surfboard on at this incredible beach. Fantast video and a really well thought of story, although it does make you think of your own mortality and how really short our time here is. Bob

Steve Siegel September 23rd, 2010 05:59 PM

Hey Bill,
I've never seen a discussion of mortality quite like this. Short, to the point, and desirous of what gets left behind. Very nice.
By the way, it's not "They say" time goes faster as you get older. It does! Something to do with telomeres.

Dale Guthormsen September 23rd, 2010 08:09 PM

Bill,

I liked it all, the script was direct and to the point, I like that. I particularly liked the line, "We didn't create ourselves" a nice perspective piece!!! Well done.

I liked it when your disturbed the rocks kicing up some chow for the fish and they came in close!! Ocean fish are spectacular!!

the opening through the sunglasses was by far the coolest transition to a new scene!!!!!

Catherine Russell September 24th, 2010 10:14 AM

Bill!

Oh my goodness. I thought this was absolutely wonderful! I also think this is the first film I've seen you do so I came to it having no clue as to what to expect. Inspirational? It made me want to try running off a cliff to see if I could actually fly :)

Technically it showed lots of expertise of a high end filmmaker. I thought the transition from the train top (?) to the boat top (?) that looks so similar but with completely different environments and application was really cool. Also, zooming into the guy's eye (was that you?) into a vast open world was outstanding and the abrupt click after you said "...is a blink of an eye" were catchy transitions that kept it very interesting. I was expecting neither of these and was swept away by them.

Now the time lapses.... these were masterful. I have had comments on my piece suggesting time lapses would improve it. Would you be willing to share some tips? I've actually never done it before and I don't know a good rule of thumb for how long to expose for what speed of footage... like, do you have to take an hour for 10 seconds of material?

I also thought your use of a wide angle lens added to the grandeur of things.

My only critical thought was that after all was said and done, towards the end it looked like it was a little thrown together like you were out of time. Your intro explains that you were busy and things were done last minute so this point is moot. I can only image what you can come up with given adequate time and inspiration.

What fun Bill! And poke fun all you want. It's a refreshing way to get us all thinking about the bigger picture of things.

Oh yea, since I'm one of the few females on board, I can vouch that our gender is definitely attracted to shiny objects. If I had been there I think the 3 of us ladies together could have wrestled your camera away from you... if only just to marvel for a stint at what you can make it do! ;-)

Cat

Kevin Railsback September 24th, 2010 10:44 AM

Bill,

Loved the opening time lapse shots. I think time lapse and slow motion are my two favorite styles.

Time does certainly seem to race by. I think that is one of the reasons I enjoy nature so much because I slow down and operate at natures pace.

Did you mount a GoPro HD on the board to go from the street to the water? Loved how that was so seamless.

Since I don't have an ocean here in Iowa and the creeks are usually filled with Bud Lite bottles I find myself walking barefoot in the grass whenever I can. But I think I'd enjoy digging up some bugs for the wrasses much better. :)

Thought you had a great message especially in this day in age where we are always connected and always out of time.

Well shot and put together.

I'm hoping to take some advice from your film and try andslow down and enjoy the time I have.

Bill Thesken September 24th, 2010 02:15 PM

Thanks for the comments. Looking back now, kinda like Bob's entry points out, when the theme came out, scratching the noggin thinking now how the heck am I gonna pull this off. I had the whole thing mapped out in my brain within a half hour of Meryem announcinig the theme. But the ending changed on the last days of putting it together, and it's ironic in a way. I had planned to slow time down by taking everyone windsurfing with me since high action sports have that effect on a person, but I couldn't get the footage. Then it turned into a spiritual quest which was for the better anyways. I was able to get the goatfish swimming close to the camera using a technique I learned from my Dad of turning over rocks, since they come close and are almost like tame dogs sniffing out food. I've been feeding those horses for years now, I take a run down a country road with carrots or apples in my pocket and they come trotting up whenever they see me, we're great friends. So here's the ironic part, I had the fish and the horses end the film since those were the best nature shots I had gotten. But now when I look at the film again I see how very similar those animals are and I didn't notice it at first. The Horses with their big noses sniffing at me to see if I have any more carrots in my pocket, and the Goat fish with his big nose sniffing by my feet to see if there's any more crumbs from the rocks. Totally different animals and environments with near identical actions with me.
Kevin- yes it's the GoPro on the surfboard strapped to the top of my car and then in the water. The camera for the car set to video and then speeded up 300%, for the water slowed down to around 30%.
Cat - yes that was me, and for the timelapse I just used the GoPro set to take a photo every 2 seconds, for about 20-30 minutes, and upload into Vegas as an image sequence. That was the big learning curve for this challenge. I did use the Canon A1 for some speeded up footage, but it's way easier to use the other method.

Catherine Russell September 24th, 2010 02:54 PM

Thanks Bill:

That's a tip worth a million. I didn't even know about GOPro but it makes perfect sense to use image sequences!


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