Tales of wonder and woe: UWOL 11
 

Hi everyone, this is where we tell about the good things, the not so good things, and most of all... how FUN we have making our uwol 11 video.

GOOD LUCK to all of us!
Always remember our most important rule, the rule #11: HAVE FUN!

Hello family…

Today I first sat down in my workshop to figure out my electronically problem with my UW lights, I got the problem and will fix the lights next week.
After that a friend dropped by and we packed up the dive bags and headed of to a nice dive spot. It's a slop that drops down to max 60 meters (200 ft) but we only dived down to 30 meter... the viz drops down to just a meter when we past 20 meter. It was a nice dive and I hade some time to think of what I wanted to produce for UC11.
Tomorrow I head out in the woods to one of my favorite place and will check if my idea will work out.


Cheers for now…
Markus

Well, two really great things happened to me yesterday and today.

The first, was I was out testing my new camera where else but the Sac & Fox trail.
It was getting close to sunset. I heard this sound that was like a cross between a sneeze and a huff. It was really, really loud and it startled me.

After a couple times, I realized it was a huge whitetail buck.
I was across the stream in some thick cover and he couldn't quite make out what I was. So, we sat there for about 15 minutes. Him huffing and me watching him.
To thick to get a shot though.
Finally, since he couldn't be sure what I was, he headed back into the woods.

As I was driving down the road, I saw him on the other side of the woods in a corn field. What a majestic animal. I hope he survives the hunting season so I can meet up with him again next year.

The second thing that happened was whenever a theme comes out, an idea pops in my head and gets locked into my brain. Down the road if I find for whatever reason, that idea isn't going to pan out, my brain refuses to come up with a new idea.

So of course, as soon as Meryem announced the theme, my brain jumps to an idea and all receptors are now in lockdown.

Well, as I sat thinking about the theme, I realized it wasn't going to work and I wouldn't have the time to do what I wanted.

So, I thought I was out of luck because my tired brain won;t allow me to come up with a new idea once the first one pops up.

But low and behold, a new idea popped into my head today and I think it's a better idea than my first one.

So now I'm all pumped up again because for the first time I have a fresh idea after my original didn't pan out and this might turn out to be something you guys will like.

Certainly different than what I'm used to.

Ok, I'm off to go try and capture some footage for my new idea!

Good afternoon,

Kevin, they do not get big unless they are smart. White Tails are amazing animals.


Ahhh, my nemisis is back, Unrelenting wind up to 50 kilometers today. I got some real nice footage yesterday in moderate winds. Today we were out at dawn and got a few bits and bobs that should work into my theme.
Rain due on Monday!! I need to be finished shooting by thursday afternoon. will return on the 18th and will final edit the 19th and post. Going to be a close timeframe this time.

Trying not to swim.

Here is a screen grab

Dale,
This guy was certainly big.

Went out again last night and ran into him across the creek again. Wish I would have been set up sooner. He was coming down to the creek to drink and I spooked him. Never saw or heard him the rest of the time I was on the Sac & Fox.

The UWOL gods must have been smiling on me yesterday.
Changed my idea for my take on the theme and one of the shots I thought of I figured wouldn't happen. Came around a corner and there was my shot. It's not a holy smokes that is awesome shot, but it furthers my story along. It was something I didn't expect I'd get.

Heading out this morning to see if I can build on it.

Hi all

My weekend was great… I took two short trips out to the area where I wanted to shot in. My first idea didn’t work out, but I came up with another one. I also encountered a new species for me, or more correct, the first time I met one alive.

I would like to ask Meryem and also every one here… for the idea I got I would like to make a 5 sec intro by using old clips from previous UWOL challenges. It’s just 5 sec and will not affect the film… just an intro. If anyone think that that would be cheating I won’t use it.

Cheers for now
Markus

I'm cool with it - please let's not get hung up on the 'competition' and 'rules'. we're here to learn, not to win.

Hi Markus
I’m not sure what you have in mind here, but I am assuming that you would like to show visuals of the same place in another season or to illustrate an event that takes place in another season around the habitat of choice.

If so, this was something I thought long and hard about before submitting this particular theme - the difficulty of only having a three-week window in which to work when significant things also happen in other seasons. I did think about asking Meryem if we could allow people to include a snap shot of a scene from a previous season to illustrate a point more graphically but I know she is very strict about including only what is filmed in the three weeks given for the challenge - for obvious reasons. At least this way everyone has to work around the same limitations, otherwise some of the new folk may be put at a disadvantage. I guess this is where a clever story or a VO description will probably have to suffice unless of course, Meryem has other ideas on the matter.

As Paul says if you do not want to be eligible for judging then break as many rules as you like . . . as long as you are in fact learning! I am of the opinion that you will learn more when you work within the limitations because you are forced to find other solutions which you may otherwise not have tried.

Marj

Hi Paul and Marj

I’m thinking about making a new episode of UWOL WebTV , but I wanted to make it more of a TV show so my Idea was to make a 5 sec intro from previous show.

But if I can’t compete, I will not use any old shot for this intro… probably I won’t make an intro at al then…

Okay - in that case it's Meryem's call.
Marj

Markus,

I believe the intro and credits are outside of the 3 minutes parameters of the movie so it should not matter. Kind of like using a lower third matte or such. Personally I think it is is within the parameters of what we are doing.

Guys........as co-ordinator and general uwol guru this is up to Meryem and her alone.

While we are a community challenge, there has to be a strict rules to this thing or it will become a real pain to run!

My tale of woe... jet lag. Big time! I can barely stay awake at the moment after flying back from Down Under. Official advice is that you need to allow one day recovery per time zone crossed. I make that about three weeks then!

I am formulating a plan that will probably involve my river again, so hopefully I will get something put together.

....zzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzz.....

Soooo, sooo tired!

Jet lag! I have a great jet lag story. When I was in Bhutan, I passed out from jet lag in an old farmhouse, and the trip sponsor woke me up to tell me that he had something that I needed to shoot. It turns out to be one of the three main spiritual leaders for the country has popped into the farmhouse for a visit.

So completely groggy, I set up my camera, ready to record Bhutan's message to America, and he is getting really into it, when the sound disappears -- turns out I hit a button in my total haze. So I have to ask him to stop, while I fix the durn thing, which I am too messed up to figure out, so I yanked out the XLRs and let the camera mic record it. How lame is that? The sound turned out reasonably well, but I can't say that it was one of my more professional moments.

Wish I had that one to do over.

Markus, to answer your question -- based on what you are saying, that the clip is a segue from your ongoing UWOL TV series (a "when last we met" type of thing? is that where you are going with this?), then I think it will be okay, because of the way that your particular format is evolving. If you still feel unclear about it, then you can always send me the segment (I can give you an FTP site to upload it) before the deadline, and I can give you an unambiguous answer about whether it qualifies for the judging or not. In general, my answer would be "no" to replicating footage from old challenges, but what you are doing is somewhat unique, and I can see where you might be using that clip to follow a TV series genre, not trying to cheat the system by recycling old footage. I allowed old footage once in the past, but it was to make a composited image with something that was shot for the Challenge. But there are definitely limits to what is acceptable.

Thanks Meryem for you answer… I think that your upload idea is good, I will make two videos and you may say yes or no. What I want to do is a short intro, like then I screen the UWOL logo in the beginning, but with 4-5 shot from previous UWOL webTV.