UWOL 25 - Top of the world, by Trond Saetre

[Trond Saetre]

Planned to shoot my entry during last week's Easter vacation. Some delays, and a very tired me, sent my initial plans to the trash.

Filmed a ski trip I made to the top of one of many mountains on the Hardangervidden, Norway. The goal was to show the spectacular view of the mountain area where I do a lot of skiing and hiking.

Anyway, this is a short and limited version of my planned entry.
Unfortunately there was no time for VO as I had to do all post production during breaks at work.
Added a couple subtitles/ text instead.

Hop you enjoy.

For original 1080p, see the uwol vimeo page.

A downscaled 720p on my own Vimeo page:
Top of the world on Vimeo

Youtube:

Top of the world - YouTube

[Chris Barcellos]

Hey Trond. What camera were you shooting with. Seems to have been shot in the right way to avoid blowing out the snow.

[Trond Saetre]

I use the Canon XF300. It always give me good image quality.

[Markus Nord]

Trond, that’s nice ski trip. Nice picture from the XF300, that a nice camera. Did you do the trip on your own of did you have someone with you? That would have been nice with some people to show the “struggle” of making the summit.

[Geir Inge]

Hi Trond.

We had the nicest Easter weather for many years, here in Norway.
Cold, but with plenty of sunshine and calm weather.
Unfortunately, I have a disease of the legs that make that I can not go skiing, or hiking with a long distance.
Trond, you have given me this year's Easter skiing trip through your video, and I thank you for that.
After all, Easter skiing trips is an old tradition in our country.
Not an easy task to carry camera equipment on a ski trip to northern Europe's highest mountain plateau. Hardangervidda covers an area of approx. 8000 km ² and in 1981 the Hardangervidda national park created on the central part of the plateau - just a little disclosure for non Europeans ;o)
If I should mention something I miss, it's a skier in some of the clips.
Otherwise, I liked the music that fits well with your video.
Hand held camera is never easy, but the video is well edited.

Thanks for sharing.

PS
Hope your DJI Phantom is working out fine.

[Trond Saetre]

Markus,
I agree with you. To have some people in the film would be a lot better. Unfortunately, my mother who was with me, doesn't like to be a movie star. And up in the mountains away from the machine-made ski tracks, there are very little people. It's almost as if you have the mountains all by yourself, even though you can see the tracks from others.

Geir Inge,
You are right about handheld not being easy.

Yes sir, the DJI Phantom is a fantastic quad. So easy to fly. and I'm impressed with the footage I get from the GoPro Hero3 (black). Might share some aerial footage later.

[Finn-Erik Faale]

Trond, the Hardangervidda is really beautiful. It is so liberating with these great white ranges. My easter skiing did not reach above the tree line.
Thanks for showing us your skiing and hiking areas.

Indeed, I should be happy to have your great camera.

[Bill Thesken]

It was inspiring to see that you were going to finish something just to stay in the game, and that pushed me to complete something also. Would have like to see some people whizzing by on skis, but maybe that is a different kind of skiing.

[Simon Wood]

Hi Trond; glad to see you managed to post something against the odds!

I have been to Finland a few times in the winter, and I tried to make a short documentary there once, but failed. I really have a lot of respect for you guys that work in those conditions; I know how tough it is to work with gloves, or even worse to deal with freezing cameras with no gloves. Then you have all the issues with condensation coming indoors etc. Makes working with dust and heat in Africa seem not so bad, after all!

I can only agree that it might have been nice to have some other skiers in the picture, at least to help give an idea of scale, but if its not possible then you have to work with what you have.

But anyway, the footage looks nice; I like cross country skiing; especially when the sky is blue, the air is fresh, and you can see for miles.

Looks like you had a good trip!

[Trond Saetre]

Finn-Erik,
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, I am very happy with the quality of the camera. I hardly ever need any color corrections, and it follows me everywhere. :)

Bill,
I totally agree. Would be much better if I had some other skiers in the film. Unfortunately I had this part of the mountains almost by myself.

Simon,
The cold isnt any problem. I use a heat cover for the camera. Even when the outside temps has been as low as -20C, the temperature inside the cover stays above freezing point. (It keeps my hands warm too)
This also greatly reduce the risk of condensation.

[Mike Sims]

Wow, Trond! I have done very little video or photography of ice or snow but I’ve always considered it a very difficult subject. I’m amazed at all the shades and nuances you portray and I’m just blown away by that blue sky! Are you using a polarizer? If we had a prize for “single clip that best portrays the theme” I think you would have won it four times. I’m glad your injury didn’t prevent you from completing this gem. I can’t wait to see what you do with your new flying machine.

[Trond Saetre]

Mike,
Thank you. Im glad you enjoyed the film.
No, I have still not invested in a polarizer filter.
What you see is how it was, and the sky was so bright blue.

[Paul Wood]

Hej Trond,

I'm also glad you managed to submit a film this time - I agree with the comments above, but above all the important thing is to make the effort - things sometimes don't work out as we planned!

I particularly enjoyed seeing the scenery - that nice blue look is sometimes nice to see, especially here in the tropics!

Thanks, and well done!

[Trond Saetre]

Thank you for the feedback. I'm glad you liked it.
I agree. Uwol is my life and rule 11 my guideline in life. As with everything, we should never give up.
To make an effort to complete, is important. :)

[Dale Guthormsen]

Tronde,

first I think it is great you made a submission in spite of everything. If you miss one like I did three back then all of a sudden you can't seem to get at it!! Better to keep producing even if it isn't up to your personal expectations. Because, people like me like you panoramic video sceenes that we could never enjoy without out your video!! Yea, I know I'm selfish!!! keep up the great efforts!!!

Truly some spectqacular scenery!! Imagine if you had a great tripod and a rubber band with you on that ski trip, Iknow as well as anyone how hard it is to truck that stuff around in the raw cold, deep snow and wind!!!

I think you should try using mercalli or a stabilizer of you choice to smooth things out a bit, but then agaqin that take4s a pile of time and you were short on that this round!!!

Your exposures were great, that 300 is in good hands!! Shooting low key sceenery is the most difficult of all video and you did a good job there.. Did you use any filters, post and what presets did you use?

goood job Tronde, you did not dissipoint!!1

Dale