Tales of Wonder and Woe: UWOL #5
 

okay, first big weekend came and went, plus an extra bonus day today for those of you in the United States....happy labor day y'all.

so chime in and tell us what kind of big stinky animals you've been chasing after...

there is so much bear poop in the alley behind my house that i should do a scatalogical study. no sign of monsieur bruin, however, only lots of tipped over trash cans....

Spent the whole weekend in bed with flu....change of season here,going into summer.The good part about this is that it has given me time to plan this challenge a little bit and not rush out and film the first mammal i see (my dog)
Oh well only 5 more work days to go before I can get out and film something.

Man, flu is the worse!
Hope you're feeling better soon!

Hey people....Just got back from the Alps and lots of climbing, white water, and very, very dogdy glacier boarding fun. Anyway....just seen the topic....GREAT STUFF , and I have 2 ideas so far but I'm going to keep pondering for another day or 2 and see if I can have any other brainwaves.

Oh and true to form I fell down some rocks in France and my right leg is some great shades of black, blue and yellow with large grazes and cuts down the shin and knee...

and I havent even started UC5 yet ;-) oh my !


oh - Got some great views of Dipper/Yellow wagtails over there and saw an Osprey which I havent seen before.....great bird !

Mat, did you get any footage/photo of the Osprey?

On my way back from the Bears in Finland I managed to get some nice footage of an Osprey, shoot with Canon 300mm f4.0
A short QT-film: http://www.video-film.no/snutter/osprey.mov (2.2MB)


Well, I'm planning my uwol-5 entry, I got some very large mammals up in the mountains... ...this gonna be fun :-)

.

i looove ospreys, that is a phenomenal osprey, per!

Submission from the west coast - Norway
 

Well, this uwol competition gives me a challenge on several levels :)

1. What mammal am I to choose? It's not an easy task. Wild animals don't walk up to my door waiting for me to make them video stars in uwol :) and I do want to shoot a wild animal. Though my brother-in-law is a farmer, it would be too easy just filming some cows in the field.

2. Then I came up with an idea of videoing something more informative/documentary this time, within of reach. But if I'm to use narration, and yes I am, I have to "try" to get it in propper english, right Meryem? I think like a norwegian, talk like a norwegian and our languages are quite different in the way we put the words together in sentences. Now I've been gathering information, trying to put together a manuscript, storyboard and how to approach the theme. Not finished yet, but I'm working on it.

3. I've decided to start with the ending first. This way I think the rest will come pretty easy, or at least I hope so.

4. Weather conditions, well it's been raining for weeks and the Autumn is just around the corner. +5C yesterday.

5. When shooting, I have to remember to get those close ups, point of view and some cutaways, right?

6. My mammal? Well, my dream is to film the arctic fox in the wild, but my chances are small, so I've chosen another mammal/breed dated to be 3000 years old, almost disappeared in 1955 (just about 100 left) because of ignorance from high society ladies in Bergen, now theres 20 000 of them and I'm not talking about 20 000 ladies.

7. A tamed animal, but a few still live the same way they did 3000 years ago, owned by farmers, but still in the wild.

8. My video will be at two locations, main land and far out on a tiny island where my "chosen ones" are the only inhabitants.

9. Uwol is becoming an obsession, the adrenaline is pumping and I just love it :)

10. But will I manage to accomplish my plan? And who'll stop the rain?

The weather today was absolutely fantastic, not a drop of wind, bright sun and surprisingly warm for this time of year.

When the theme was anounced I pushed around a few ideas made a few phone calls and arranged a number of outings. Today was spent boating with a good friend we put on a ton of miles and yes I got some excellent opportunities but now I'm afraid to take a look just incase I screwed it up. If it's junk I'm off to the tank....Kevin move over.

Everyone all together now.... think good footage....good footage...hummmmm.

Brian

I'm sure you did just fine Brian. Besides, there's only room in the tank for me! :)

Since the challenge started I was hoping I could work in the elk rut in the Septembers challenge. Well it worked out well. Other than the fact that the public lands in this area have been closed to the public for over a month now because of extreme fire hazard. Even the National park here has restrictions on where you can go.

Gordon Hoffman

Some words of encouragement from a native English speaker. Your English grammar skills are very apparent in what you wrote here. If you can narrate as you have written in this forum, you will be fine.

regards,

-gb-

hey, geir, don't put it on me. i love your norvegian. i find you quite charming, and you express yourself really good, uh...er, i mean really well.

Geir Inge,
your english is very good, and you should continue speaking this way... ...my plan will be to put together a story which will require some narrating too.
Good luck with your entry Geir Inge!

Hehehe, Meryem, quite charming?
I had to look in my English dictionary and translate it to Norwegian.
It says; lovely, nice, pleasant, pleasing and even graceful, so that’s it, from now on I’m using English narration in all of my videos :)

Still I'm trying to make a documentary in 3 min, thats quite a challenge, if I only had 2 min more to work on, I would be singing in the rain. But the rules says 3min, so 3min it is.

Per Johan; up in the mountains? I'm jealous, you might even get some snow in Dovre?

Good luck everyone and to you Kevin; you're talking about passion and I know exactly what you mean, but look at what we, the other uwolers have written. It says, stay out of the tank, we want to see your film in uwol5. Thats passion too I guess, he? And it is what this community is all about. Passion about film, wildlife and nature and at the same time, getting friends, taking care of each other, even if it is just in cyper space. There is no forum like "ours" in the whole world!

I hear you about the weather, Geir Inge. We have had our share of rain further south her on the west coast too. But today it's bright blue sky, and only a breeze. I better head out right now to see if I can find some mammals.

So far, the only mammals I have seen around here (except for humans of course), are a bunch of cows and some sheep. Not the most exciting animals in my opinion. But it's nice to have a backup plan, right.

I have another and better idea too, but not sure if I can accomplish that before the deadline.

6. I'll tell those old ladies in Bergen to behave good and save your mammals!

Hi Trond.
Yes the weather is sunny but sorry, only for today :(
I'm on my way out, shooting some mammals.
It's my day off, so how lucky can we be :)

Got to have a back up plan, thats cheap insurance.

Good luck Trond.

You picked the right day to have a day off of work, Geir Inge!
(does it count that I don't have to work until tonight? haha)
Yeah, sunny today only. So we better hurry and get out while we still have the chance to do something before the rain comes back.

GOOD LUCK to everyone!!

Fantastic Term
 

This must bee a graet uwol,I shod realy love to chelleng this time,
but I have not time,have 2mnd whid hard Wlldlife work to do.
I`s nere new yeare for a wildlifer,(oktober)It like opra for os.
Shere some old clip whid you.DEER-RUTING!!!!!

Best Regards.
V Vedaa.
____________________

Deer-Ruting Link:

http://web.mac.com/vidarjohannesveda...er/Ruting.html



____________________

Just be yourself, my friend. The way you speak is a part of you and what you are, and from the feedback you've seen here, you have all of our respect for what you do.

Don't worry about accent and talking like a Norwegian. You do it with charm and "presense" and it is a part of you.

I can’t get out to do much at the moment as the car is in the workshop, and I bet that’s going to cost me an arm and leg :-0 ..
The Red Stags may a little more worked up by then, and preformed for the camera better.

Geir Inge your accent reminds me of a underwater Documentary film maker, that I watched and listened to back in the 1950s, the great Austrian underwater film maker Hans Hass and his wife Lottie
http://www.scubahalloffame.com/hof/h...ttie_hass.html

Geir, use that voice.

I,m going to sit down a watch the a doc on the Norwegian Hero’s of Telemark.

Hi Ron.
The Norwegian Hero's of Telemark, from the world war 2 I guess, or is it skiing?
I know one of the guys who participated in 4th action (Gunnerside) in The Norwegian heavy water sabotage. The leader: Joakim Roenneberg.
He still lives in the city, Aalesund, 1 1/2 hours drive from where I live.

Brief history:
The Norwegian heavy water sabotage was a series of actions taken by Norwegian saboteurs during World War II to prevent the German nuclear energy project from acquiring heavy water which could be used to produce nuclear weapons.

Between 1942 and 1944 a sequence of sabotage actions by the Norwegian resistance movement, as well as Allied bombing, ensured the destruction of the plant and the loss of the heavy water produced. These operations — codenamed "Freshman", "Grouse" and "Gunnerside" — finally managed to knock the plant out of production in early 1943, basically ending the German research.

The raid was later dubbed by the British SOE as the most successful act of sabotage in all of World War II.

Hi everybody


Comming back from Chile I'm ready with news and old rushes. Foxes and Guanacos, but guanacos will be "better". I'll be ready to post next week.
but with all the other the contest will be hard.

Gilles

It's an amazing story !! I guess your watching the Ray Mears program Ron ? I've watched that a couple of times and it still amazes me. You can see why its such good film making material, I think theres been 3 made on it so far.

Well I'm still waiting for Sony to fix my A1U and my tripod now only has two legs. Now my back is screwed up.

Well they say it come in threes Hopefully things will come together before the deadline.

Guess I'll have to use the time to actually plan my shoot.

Did I say I miss my A1U.

Hello All:

I hope I don't jinks things by saying this but so far this challenge has been filled with tales of wonder with no woe to speak of.

Mother nature has been double kind to me. One the weather has been absolutely fantastic for this late in the year. Second the mammals have been very cooperative.

The footage from my boat trips is usable....not perfect but then I'm not all that comfortable hanging over the side of a boat with my camera stuck in the face of the mammal that's at the very top of the arctic food chain. Uncomfortable is an understatement....fall out of the boat and you will be lunch.

Now if the weather will hold and my free helicopter drop off and pick up works out I should be ready to edit next week.

Wish me good luck....Brian

Talk about wetting our appetites Brian !! So we are in for some Polar bear action for the UWOL vaults then :-) ….Now this sounds very cool indeed and I'm SO jealous!

Yes Mat it was the doc by Ray Mears.
The documentary was an inspiration to achieve a goal with such hardship. by re-enacted by modern-day Norwegian and British commandos,

The bears will play a small part in the overall movie but I was fortunate to get a lot of footage of them both in the water swimming and on the shore.

Here's a frame grab.

Brian

whoooooaaaa! can't wait to see this, brian. me jealous, too...

i guess the squirrels in my back yard don't stand a chance. good thing i am out of the judging....

the best thing about the UWOL Challenge is how much i'm learning about norway! who knew going into this that it would be such a crucible for knowledge about norwegians??

lol @ Meryem - You know what I was thinking that very same thing when watching the documentary the other day, fine ambassadors for their country :-)

Brian - WOW - Can't wait !

Hi Brian, can't wait to see this one.
This is the most exciting part of uwol, the long waiting for the participants films. I envy you, Brian :) they are not present on the mainland in Norway, I have to go to Svalbard to catch one of these.

Hello:

Don't envy me.....the bears being this near is a sure sign that winter is just around the corner. The high temperature for today is 8 deg C and the low is 0 C. So before too long winter will be on us and my world will turn white once again.

This time of year it's not uncommon to come across more than one bear in a small area plus it's relativly safe they are well fed and contented to save energy by lazing about in the sun.

I just hope I can get the remainder of the footage I need to pull off the story I want to tell.

Meryem....just for you I promise I'll put some squirrel (Siksik) footage in the film.

Brian

Brian, I can't wait to see your film. Sounds like you got some awesome footage. Those polar bears are amazing.

So far I have just been able to capture a couple of sheep just standing there like statues.
Yeah, I know, not the most exciting mammals out there.
Hopefully I can get something more interesting.
Right now, I don't even have a story.

Just want to say that sheep are allright animals :)
Look at this clip from NRK (Norwegian National TV): http://www1.nrk.no/nett-tv/indeks/97735
Sorry only in norwegian.

Yeah, those sheep were funny to watch, Geir Inge.
If the ones I found could have at least moved a little bit, it could have been fun.
I even tried to tell the sheep that I love lamb steak.
Obviously sheep do not understand Norwegian. No reactions at all, haha.
Oh well, better luck next time. It's a long time until deadline.

Sick
 

First weekend - Sick with something bad -flu, virus, cold, -don't know. Wife was on call as well so we couldn't even go out of the city.

Next weekend - I have a football game to film, oh boy that's some exciting mammal stuff, lol....

Sorry to hear your sick Marco... Its not fun.. My hole family had that for awhile...

Ooh... lol! You can go up into the bleachers and get some teenage action.. lol! Happens all the time, as sad as it is to say...

LMAO!!! oh man that's killer, it's Pop Warner, 7 year olds -so more the "mom" action than anything else, tee hee.

LOL!!! Oops! My bad... hahaha...

Hope you guys like kangaroos as every Australian mammal seems to have an affliction with sunlight (or getting eaten), as they all are nocturnal - other than Kangaroos.

With the drought, there are many roos down the local golf course - which doesn't exactly add to the whole feel I had in mind, but it will have to do (not particularly enthused about filming dogs, cats, cows, etc).

Trouble with roos, if they know you want to watch them - there so hard to get close to (like most animals I guess), but if your walking past with a set of golf clubs, you can get real close. Might be interesting with an H1 in one hand, and a golf bag with a tripod stuffed in it in the other hand.

Hope your chosen mammals are being good subjects for you all.