Tales of wonders and woe - UWOL #21

[Meryem Ersoz]

I was just going to offer my daughter Lucy, Lorinda - but if you know someone....

that's a very cute picture, Markus.

I'm looking forward to seeing your films...sounds like some good stuff happening.

[Lorinda Norton]

Markus, I've got a delightful young lady lined up for your voiceover talent, so if you'd like to email the script my way I'll get it to her. We are scheduled to record on Wednesday. I told her I'd try to get her the script a few days in advance; if that doesn't give you enough time just let me know and I'll reschedule her.

Steve, if you want to start the list we can add to it, and I'll ask about making it "sticky" so it doesn't get lost. For non-DV Info members (such as this young lady) who would be willing to be on the list, the member's name would be associated as the contact, unless the talent wants their contact info available for the whole world to see. Sound okay?

[Lorinda Norton]

Whoa! I was posting at the same time you were, Meryem! This gal is pretty excited about doing the work, but if Lucy wants to do it I'll call it off with Madison.

[Meryem Ersoz]

no, no - your person sounds like she's thrilled to do it - I was just trying to help out -

[Steve Siegel]

I would be happy to start the list, and be the third one to volunteer, if anyone wants an American sort of voice. Lorinda, I haven't a clue how to do this in a UWOL format. Any advice?

[Lorinda Norton]

Nope. I'm not even sure what you mean by a UWOL format. The only thing I was picturing is a thread that had an explanation and then names with short audio samples attached to each one. Which means, if you started the list you'd either have to gather other names/clips first or be number one. :) Brighter minds than mine will have to chime in.

[Markus Nord]

Wow! Sounds good Lorinda. My plan is to send it on Monday, You should have it on Monday morning (your time). It's a few things I need to rewrite and think throu.
If some part sound weird, feel free to change, English is my second language... Some part may sound good in my head, but weird when it read. Also, my spelling may be wrong or another word is written. But I think you'll understand. I send a description And put some notes in the script.

Cheers and good luck everyone...

[Markus Nord]

About the list... What if we start a thread there everyone that feel they can help write a short description about him/her and a link to a film or sound clip, then some contact info. that would be grate for other (out side UWOL) productions as well, but then it would be an agreement between them if any money would be exchange. For UWOL I think volunteering would be good ( but I'm in a position that I can only say "thank you" if volunteering would be our agreement, Lorinda).

[Lorinda Norton]

That sounds simple enough, Markus! As for the young gal helping with your project, I made sure she knew she was volunteering. The only thing I promised her was a link to the finished video. She's quite pleased with that idea!

[Markus Nord]

That's cool Lorinda... I put up a DVD file on a ftp that you could burn to her and ofcourse I upload a HD on vimeo.

[Simon Wood]

OK, I'm getting a story together here. I've never really done wildlife films before, but I have done a few documentaries.

The thing is I've never done a documentary with a voice over before; I always let the subjects do the talking and then I find the most interesting part is to try and assemble a coherent story from mixing and mashing the various interviews in post. That's going to be difficult with a purely animal based documentary, so I figure I will revolve the story around human & animal interaction.

I'll be filming next week at a few locations and I will see what I can come up with (I only just realized how tight the deadline was today; need to get in gear now)!

I've tried compressing some test footage with Sorenson 3 compressor (using Premiere cs3) as I figure the real problem I am going to have in this whole project will be in postproduction. I've been having a lot of problems with my editing computer (anything else other than dvd output is usually an uphill battle).
Can anyone offer any advice?

I'm shooting on HDV pal 25 fps. Editing on CS3 Premiere.

The footage looks good. So I export to Adobe Media Encoder.

Select Quicktime as the format, custom preset.
Video Codec is Sorenson Video 3 Compressor.
Quality 100
Frame Width 428 / Height 240
FPS: 25
Field Order: None (progressive)
Pixel aspect : Square (1.0)
Bit rate: 21.36

The resultant video looked like washed out mush.

[Mike Beckett]

Simon,

I was in exactly the same boat as you with CS3, and CS4 too. CS5 is a bit better at scaling, but still not brilliant. (I now use TMPGEnc for my HD work).

See this thread: http://www.dvinfo.net/forum/uwol-cha...on-issues.html

Basically, you export at 428x240, uncompressed AVI, then create a new project, import the AVI and simply export it as a compressed file. CS3 doesn't seem to want to rescale and compress at the same time without making s dog's dinner of it.

[Mike Sims]

Hi Simon. The UWOL deadline is a real bear. It’s the one thing I most wished would change. A voice-over is not required; there are many fine videos in the UWOL film vault without VO. It can really add a lot to the production and if you’ve never done one, I say go for it! The Challenge is a great place to try out new things. Especially since you can get feedback and people here really try to help you improve your technique. We are changing the upload requirements this round so it is hard to give advice about compression at this time. We have discussed it several times so you might want to take a look at those older threads. Once we get the new requirements, I’m sure we’ll talk about it again. *I see Mike’s already given you good advise.* You’ve already figured out the main thing- if you get stuck ask for help. Everyone here wants to see you finish a video. Good-luck!

[Simon Wood]

Thanks guys, that should help!

BTW - is anyone here using FCPX?

[Lorinda Norton]

Did I hear someone say something about the deadline being a bear? :) Then you may like this:

Originally Posted by Lorinda Norton

Big news, players! Talking it over with Meryem we decided that, in order to give us more time to implement the transition of the UWOL Challenge we're extending the deadline for UWOL 21.

That's right--you now have the entire month to complete your entry!

Deadline for submissions will be August 31, 2011, midnight anywhere in the world.

So, if you are almost finished you can either relax or spend that extra time you always wish you had to make it perfect. If you haven't started yet, no excuses--get out there and shoot something! :)