UWOL 41 - Rain

[Jim Cowan]

The best laid plans of mice and men... too much work, too much rain, too complicated an original plan (maybe something for the future).
One week left, listening to the drumming of the downspout, inspiration, what could be more repetitive than rain.

Hero3 in the underwater case on a gopole, H2 under a few plants for outside, GH3 inside.
Should have:
1. started eariler, lots of car traffic tires sssshhhh'ing on rain covered roads
2. medium view instead of wide, couple nice shots lost because they picked up too much road/curb.
3. wipe lens cover each time with clothe, the licking method doesn't work all that well

UWOL41 - "Rain" by Jim Cowan on Vimeo

[Paul Mailath]

I must admit I thought it was a POV of someone going to the loo in the early morning at first! You could have boosted your VO as I couldn't really hear that clearly.

You're in the same boat as me - at least we got something up and we'll do better next time.,

[Mark Hartopp]

Rain is difficult to film, maybe try to enhance the rain by using a hose pipe on spray? Just an idea, not sure if it would work. Worth a try. Your plants have loads of repetition.

[Trond Saetre]

Hi Jim,

That was repetitive! I see we both got lots of rain, and it was nice to see you made your film about the rain. That's a challenge!
I like Mark's suggestion of adding water to the natural rain.

Some of the footage was a little shaky. Which editing software do you use? I know Premiere and probably the others as well, have "warp stabilizer" which helps a lot against the shakiness.

Looking forward to see your future films.

[Gordon Hoffman]

Hi Jim. The one thing that I wonder about is your ambient audio. It seems that it needs a little more to help carry the shots or some narration maybe. You have nice shots but it seems to loose something considering the way you start out and it goes fairy quiet at least to my ears. Weather is always a challenge!

Gordon

[Mick Jenner]

Hi Jim, pleased that you completed and uploaded an entry this round. Others have already made comments that I would have made so i'll leave it there. The important point is that by experimenting and trying out different approaches we develop and improve

Mick

[Jim Cowan]

Hi Paul, Mark, Trond, Gordon, Mick,
Thanks watching and critiquing.

I see (hear) that I need to raise the audio levels, I'll use your videos as a gauge in the future.
I edit with headphones (well, actually that's all I have) and I imagine that contributes to the
low sound level.

The VO. Well, it's surprisingly hard to hear yourself, or at least I find it so. I guess its
a matter of accepting that I sound like that and get on with the narration where I need it.
The wake up to rain I added so that it'd have a little bit of humor. Better sound levels and
script might have helped. The day I shot it was a week before the end, and I'd already had
2 weekends of rain. It was how I felt when I woke up.

Thinking about the comments on showing rain. I didn't think about a hose/spray as
most of what I video'ed was no where near a supply, I'd have to drag a hose around, and
it would loose a bit of the 'nature' element. I think also, in the rain, that might not
have been much fun.
Thinking on it what about using a waterproof light?
Because of the cloud cover everything was evenly lit, so maybe having a wide angle light
would cause the the rain drops to light up with specular reflections and be really visible.
Maybe something as simple as this:

DIY PVC GoPro Dive Video Lights - Ver.2 - YouTube

I use SonyVegasPro 12. I could have run it out to VirtualDub/DeShaker or Mercallie.
Perhaps I should have. The mistakes were allowing the deadline to loom, getting frustrated
with not doing my original plan (the local trails are closed because of the rain), and
letting that keep me from being critical enough of what I did do to fix what should have
been obvious.

Thanks for the opportunity and feedback.

thanks
jim cowan

[Andrew Hood]

Jim I think you covered a lot in that post. I was also thinking a light source could help the drops to show up better. Backlighting the droplets can help, or maybe even the side. I don't think it will look very good from the front though.

For stabilising the camera, attaching something that gives you a better grip and more control will help - some kind of dual handle grip should help.

It would be nice to have some macro shots of water droplets in there, but that's probably difficult with the GoPro.

[Mark Hartopp]

Hi Jim, You mentioned the cloud cover was due, even lit. Maybe try the opposite to having a light. Use a pop-up reflector, that has a black side just out of shot to reduce the light on oneside of your subject. Which increases contrast. Then in your editor you have a bit more room in the picture to play with. Just by increasing the contrast level a small amount.

In short you are removing light. Maybe try a black bin bag to start with.

[Paul Wood]

Jim,

Most of my comments have already been covered - I too have only silence after 00,20, which made the rest a bit hard to follow!

Well done for submitting, and taking the time to post your own feedback - one of the nice things here is that we learn a lot!

[Dale Guthormsen]

Jim,

the audio wasn't even hearable after the first scene on my computer. you have some nice images to show.

thank you for taking the time to join the challenge this round (wish I had at least completed).

I will have follow your example next round and finish. I look forward to seeing more of your videos in the future.