Tales of Wonder and Woe: UWOL-Long-Form 2009
 

Ok, so this starts our wonder and woes for the long-form challenge. Hopefully this gonna be a very long thread with lots of ideas, thoughts, fails, those magic moments, the shoot I was missing (oh'boy) etc, etc...

I had a flying start, joined the dvc/uwol charity challenge. Got some great footage. I'm still developing my idea, having some plans to do a docu about the surrounding area of the Capital of Norway, Oslo.
A couple of persons will be involved "as actors" and of course the wildlife you'll find in the forest and parks in this area.

The story I’m working on involves a lone Turkey Vulture that leaves her normal territory and flies to the other side of the mountain to forage. Along the way she passes over several different habitats as the altitude changes. The vulture is a means to “look down” into the lives of various other animals in each habitat as she passes over. I think this is called the “chocolate box” approach. I won’t know what other animals are involved until I see what I can find. It makes it difficult to write. I hadn’t thought about actors. I could probably incorporate an encounter with campers… Hmmm. I can’t wait to hear what everyone else is planning.

So far I've seen through all my uwol videos, to get an idea.
I think the first phase has to be: planning the case.
What am I to choose?
Habitat, birds and animals in a habitat?
One bird, one animal, make a wildlife fiction?

Well, I have decided the working title of my uwol Long Form video, and that is:
"Wild on the shore", based on my uwol#3, 4 and 9 video's.
I will try to focus on the great skua, there are only 50 couples in Norway, and I think it is a fasinating bird. I know where to find an White Taled Eagle's nest, so maybe I'll try to put'em in. I have to visit Runde island, I have to make some trip's to the sea, and I have to take many hikes in the mountains to get the right cutaways etc,etc

Don't know, but if some of you need a free prg for planning/storyboarding, here's one for free downloading, link: celtx - Integrated Media Pre-Production

Good luck - or should I say: "Break a leg"

Geir Inge

I'm still searching for the angle for mine.
I'd like to expand on my river film since shooting water has become kinda my thang. :)

As for me, I'm heading out of here. Got places to go, video to shoot and a challenge to enter. My next international wildlife destination is........... Take care, Bob

Hey Per, don't you have a birthday coming up in March? If I recall this is a BIG one. Best to you in advance. Bob

Good evening,

Ahhh. "the plans of Mice and Men".

Good news, I received my xlh1 two days ago and will be shooting with the hd version of my xl2, lots to learn along the way. Per Johan, any outdoor preset you fancy??

Today I spent 7 hours driving my number one son to the S>E> corn of the province to undertake a new Oil oriented Job, Laborious.

However I spent a fair amount of time on my handy digital recorder hashing over plans for the Video.

1.) the video will be broken into three 26 minute sections.

part 1) In pursiut of a falcon
part 2) The nurturing of a hunter (may be Falcon or Gamehawk)
part 3) The Hunter and the Hunted
Part 4) The meeting (may not to be included) Alberta & Saskatchewan falconers field meets, possibily included in part 3 if time permits

Part 1

This will be broken into to two juxtaposed posibilities:
a) combing the countryside looking for wild nesting falcons
this should give images of a few different environs that falcons use.
Making the climb and legally taking a falcon from the wild
b) the domestic propagation of falcons in captivity
this will show some courting and food transfers and such.
c) documentation of two individuals and why they chose to follow their
rationale for taking a wild or domestic raptor

D) will show the taking of the young falcon and bringing it to its new home.

Part 2 The Nurturing of a Hunter.
a) raising the falcon in the home
b) allowing the young falcon to develop in a natural fashion
c) social Development and needs
d) discussion and documentation of the imprinting process
e) First elements

Part 3 The Hunter and the Hunted

the game
The falcons
Hunting dynamics
The dogs the game and the falcon relationships.

the falcons will be shown in the beginning learning on waterfowl
Fall Upland hunting
Winter hunting.

the Bond between man and wildlife, to be demonstrated through all three parts, summarized here.

closing shot of outragous sunset sillouetting a falcon falconer and dog!!


Well, that is it in a nut shell!! A rather big undertaking, but it is my mission for 2009!!!

I headed out tomarrow for a six day shoot for much of the winter part of the film.

Mike - This sounds like a great piece. Exactly the sort of intimate wildlife programs I love. I am intrigued by one thing however. Do you plan to takcle the vultures POV...because your story seems to be based on just that and would not work to well without it. Is there a microlight/glider session planned ? come on tell us what youre up to ? :-)

Dale - OMG - Not happy with one episode, your going for 3x26. Reaching for the skies in more way than one huh ! Fair play to you, I'm still scard by the prospect of doing one 26 minute piece!

Mat- Spot on! I think the vulture’s POV is essential. I’m approaching that problem in four ways:
1) Microlights are discouraged in the area I’ll be working. There’s a lot of smuggling there using them. When they are detected the Air Force flies F-16s within 100 feet and tries to knock them down with the jet wash. I’ve seen it happen- not pretty. The next mountain range to the north has similar habitats and topography and there’s a private airfield nearby. I’ll try to work a deal for a ride up there.
2) NASA’s WorldWind program (public domain) is easy to animate. I was thinking of using a WorldWind animation in the background and using Lightwave 3D to animate a vulture in the foreground to illustrate how thermals work. Perhaps animation could pick up some of the Vulture POV heavy lifting as well. Perhaps not.
3) I just got a cheap Chinese-made no-name-brand AVCHD camera. It uses cell phone batteries and records to flash memory. It only weighs a few ounces. I’m busy now mounting it to a model glider. If it works, more on that later.
4) In the past, to simulate a “bird’s eye view” I have mounted a camera to a 20 foot pole projecting out the passenger’s side window of a vehicle. With the camera angled slightly away you slowly drive down a mountain road with a shear drop off into a valley. If you set up the shot carefully it can be very convincing- especially on an inside curve.

Dale- Congratulations on the new camera. I hope she gets a good work out on your trip!

Still working on the story...pre writing phase. Notes like crazy, index cards....stuff everywhere but no footage yet.

You guys are lucky... I don´t even have a story yet.
Well, I have one rough/basic idea, but that would be impossible to shoot now during winter time. So I guess I will have to come up with something else instead.

I have made a pilot fore my project ,whit old cut from the area I will
make my film.The old cut is handheld but the retake will be nicer.
Do we send in the first view at 8-11 feb or 16-18 feb a bit confused?
My retake will start in mid April and end in 25 okt.


All Best
VJV.


_______________

Yes - Long-form rules #5 and 7 have diffferent dates for Feb - presumably rule #5 is correct as all other dates for submission throughout the year are given there.

Rule #7 date is fixed, y'all - changed to Feb. 16-18...the old dates applied to when we were brainstorming the rules. Feb. 16-18 is the actual. Sorry for the mix-up.

Glacier National Park Turns 100
 

My plan is an "outdoor" documentary about the 100th anniversary of a place very special to me, Glacier National Park in the US state of Montana (and Waterton Park where it enters Canada). I literally grew up near there and spent a lot of time there in my childhood and it holds a special place in my heart. It has a rare and unique beauty of a pristine glaciated overthrust fault mountain range, something occurring to my knowledge only in Montana and Canada (think Banff - all part of the same Lewis Overthrust fault so it all looks the same) and also in China. I stand to be corrected if there are more. I will show you billion year old seabeds sitting in broken blocks at 7000 feet elevation, and also the first life on earth - fossilized stromatalites (algae colonies - the only fossils in the park due to the age of the rocks). Also share some beautiful glacial erratics and striated blocks that were dragged along by the glaciers in their retreat, I will take you onto disappearing glaciers that will vanish, at present rates, in another 30 years.

The early part will of necessity be a "Ken Burns like" treatment of historical photographs, selected in concert with the Park's archivist and historians, and I am trying to set up those connections early. The Park itself opens on Memorial Day and the pass through the Park later than that usually assuming a good winter. Backcountry hiking trails often do not open until mid July due to snows.

This is true wilderness and home to one of only a few remaining (and apparently sustaining) Grizzly bear populations in the lower 48 - my definition of "wild". (Grizzlies are the "Canaries in the Mine" for our wild places.)

I will do my field shooting in the summer and fall.

I am still not sure what I will be able to post in February. That is troubling me.

Chris Swanberg