Uwol #9 "Encina Squirrels"
 

Hey everyone, I got this idea late, so there might have been more polish I could have done. I was looking at the shark tank and wondering if I would be in it this time. I'm not much of a swimmer these days, so glad I didn't. The squirrels are great performers and I owe any acclaim to them entirely.

I will try to get a Vimeo version up, tried yesterday but there were interlace issues so had to pull it down.


http://www.vimeo.com/1224392

I had to let this be the one(due to upload limit of 500mb) even though I wasn't happy with the re-encoding that Vimeo did for me, it seemed to re-interlace the footage I had de-interlaced, sigh.

I thought your video was very well done, and cute as heck! I don't think I've ever seen so many squirrels in one place in my life. Wonderful video Adrinn! The storyline was great, and the footage fit so well.

Andrew

Way to go Adrinn:

That was a joy to watch. How cute is that? I have a ground squirrel in my video too, but not featured like the ones in yours. Interesting narration and subject. I liked the way you first focused on one or two and then led us up to the entire colony. Looking forward to your next entry, you just keep getting better!

Cat

Cool way you told this story, that it’s not just bad things happening and that animals can benefit on this. I miss something about predators, is it any animal that hunt them?

cute little guys - I enjoyed your narration and learning about something surviving close to a power station - We have coal power stations near us and they have done horrific damage to the lake systems

Hi Adrinn,

I really think you did a wonderful job filming and putting this together.

It was just like watching the Discovery Channel listening to your narration! I really liked the overall pacing, establishing shots, reference to the enclosure, then the shot with part enclosure and the squirrel in the background. The variety of close ups, young ones playing, group shots, pans, etc. I also noticed the sharpness of your footage - great compression settings.

Very well researched piece and a joy to watch. Well done.

That was really well done and very interesting Adrinn. You had some great shots and your narative is very well spoken. I learned something.

Oliver

Adrinn,

nice story to support some nice footage!! A some of the shots seemed a tad to bright on my monitor, other than that, awesome job!! Terrific voice over.

I was not expecting much from the subject, but I am pleasantly surprised by this film. Nice images, an interesting discussion, and great narration.

Thanks for your comments all.


Markus, yes I had included a bit about the types of predators they have. For example Hawks, Snakes and Coyotes prey upon them. I realized I had no footage of those creatures to use, so I cut that part from the script.


Paul, I know power plants aren't usually a benefit to the local ecosystem. In this case I believe the boon was a complete accident, I thought it was interesting the way life can "make lemonade out of lemons" sometimes.


Dale, thanks for letting me know about the brightness level. I brought everything down a few steps in editing, good to know for the future. My camera can't compete with most of the rigs used in this challenge, it's a little HG-10 with only 10x optical zoom. Someday I hope to have one that's up to par.


Chris, yes I was going for a "sleeper" subject with this since I don' t have the focal length to capture more shy species.


For those who enjoyed the narration, it was very hard to narrate this. I had a bad cold and every time I listened to it I was unhappy with it. I almost cut all the narration and just put music over it. I think that would have killed the story so I'm glad I didn't.

Second what has been said about this film. Very informative and nicely done!
Thanks for sharing!

Nice work, Adrinn! BTW, if you can keep that cold around a bit longer, I think you could pull off a pretty convincing Rod Serling imitation.

Seriously though, it's all about storytelling and in that department, you did a great job. I learned a lot in those few minutes. I have 'bushy tailed swallows' (as we jokingly call them), on my bird feeder and around my home all the time. Was nice to learn about this particular variant and their habitat.

-gb-

Adrinn,
Your voice is fine for the voice over. Don't change it. I like the way you maintained a similar setting throughout and treated what is basically a rubble heap as animal habitat. Very effective. In your next presentation you might want to edit out the wind noise.

How fun was that?! Nice job, Adrinn, with telling such an informative tale in such a delightful manner. Greg is right about the Rod Serling thing you had going there...very cool. :)

I loved, loved, loved the junior squirrels at play; also the info about the squirrels recycling garbage was great!

I learn something every time I view videos here. I would never have thought animals would want to live in or close to a power station...I suppose with the loss of natural habitat its not just mankind that adapt to so called civilization....nice video