UWOL #11 : “ The Red Breast”... By Ron Chant.
 

After too many Shark tank dives, I’d better get going on an uwol short.
I shot this short video at my local Natural History Society
wildlife reserve.
In April I began making a film about the reserve for the NHS.

My first idea for the challenge was to do a story on a pair of Kingfishers that live around the reserve lake,
but after five consecutive days I had only shot three minutes of video of them and much of that had leaves obscuring them.

While I sat waiting for the Kingfishers to arrive, and hopefully feed in the shallows of the scrape,
a Robin was singing his little heart out in front of me, so now the theme slowly changed from the King of fishers to the little brave heart,
Robin Redbreast.

Ron,

some very nice images in your video. the information on your robin is quite interesting. Our North american robin is quite a different bird actually (there is one on a dead choke cherry in my video for a comparison).

I thought it was a tad slow actually getting to the Red breast, I think you are over the half mark. Perhaps cutting in a glimmer or two earlier on to wet the appetite and then finally laying it all down in the later half. Just a thought. Very enjoyable as it was.

I loved the kigfisher shot, appears as if you were hidding behind the branch!!

The red breast in the end was a tad soft, perhaps a compression issue. focus on constant moving birds is always a huge challenge!!! I have a huge appreciation for those who undertake the job!!!

Very fine first entry!!!

That's funny, I kept looking for the robin, until I realized how different your robins are from ours. Doh! UWOL always has this way of getting me out of my own head and my own tiny little patch on the Earth, whether I like it or not!

Your robins are much more colorful than ours. Now I suddenly understand why the old poetry calls them Robin Red-breast. Ours are orange, not red, and that always puzzled me. Ding ding, another dim bulb goes off in my brain!

I think I would have switched the order of your VO, with the poem coming after the info...as it is, the poetic opening sets us up for one expectation, and then the scientific voice shifts us to another type of film. Although the opening shot is a beauty, and I can see why you would want the poetic accompaniment ( a little too red by the end of it, I would say, pull back on the red a hair--that may be a compression thing, though, compression has a way of distorting colors at times...). Still, I think the trajectory of science to poetry, rather than poetry to science, is a little less jarring.

I'm always happy to hear that the UWOL adventurers are out there, stomping around with their cameras and having fun. Will we be able to see what you're shooting for the nature preserve?

Dale, this isn't Ron's first round, he's a veteran...I'm sending you back to the website to review the players' names!

Hey Ron:

Nice to see you back in with the swing of things! Filming was awesome and as Mereym said, your Robins are so different than ours... they are very pretty and beautiful to watch! The VO for some reason on my systems hardly registered (I hate it when something like that happens!!!) and thus I was distracted from the lovely footage to try to decipher what was being said.

Over all, well done friend and welcome back to UWOL land!

Cat

Ron

I too had some trouble with the audio. It was very quiet.

The images of the Red Breast were very nice. A couple were a tad soft, but the light on them was lovely. I did feel it was a film of 2 parts. The first being the poem and shots of other birds (nice Kingfisher swallowing a fish), the second being about the Robin itself. Perhaps interspersing the footage and connecting all with the VO would have evened it out a bit more?

Well done.

Ron

Maybe it was a bit too long before Mr. Red Breast appeared in the frame. I liked the freeze frame with the twist, they worked well. If I could give you and suggestion… don’t use the zoom in or out if you don’t what to “tell” something with it, or if it gives the shot some more emotion. If not, cut before or start after. The fourth shot (with the sun light) was really good. Perfect exposure with a nice lighted breast!
Well done and a nice story.

Markus

Nice job Ron. I like the backyard safari feel to the film. Was a bit long get to the point at the beginning.

Hi Ron,

Most have been said by the others already, so I'll just say that I really like what you made here. Stunning images.

Like some of the others, I also had trouble with the low sound level of your VO.
You might want to bump that up a bit.

Thank you for sharing!

Hi ron how do you get to see your robin I can not see the link.
regards alan

You have made a fine film about the redbreast. The same birds we have in Norway.
It is delightful to only hear the birds singing after all the films with different kinds of music.

Alan, you can download all the UWOL 11 videos here:
UWOL X FIlms
They will soon be available under "The film vault" on the UWOL website.

Trond thank you for your help much appreciated.

My best regards Alan

Ron,

Loved the dreamy opening shot.

Had some great imagery. Loved the simple movement in some of them.
Thought you had some great natural audio as well.

I had to crank the audio up quite a ways to hear your VO but that's not a real biggie.

Great job, really enjoyed it.

I too liked the opening of the film...I enjoyed the opening shot where it went from animated to realism and the poem was a nice touch. I thought the robin/red breast portion was very easy to watch and I learned a thing or two as well.

The film felt as if it had 2 acts and ended a bit abruptly. The first act was that of the poem and such the second act was the meat of the film with the red breast and then it ended...no resolution no third act. Perhaps another poem at the end to book end it? Just a thought...

Anyway nice piece overall.

Jeff