Introducing our Judge for UWOL #3...
 

We are taking a slightly different approach to judging this contest. Our guest judge for UWOL #3 is Michael Conti, a pioneer in the fast-filmmaking movement. He runs the 24-Hour Filmmaking Festival ("The Shoot-Out") here in Boulder as well as Group 101 Films, which does what we do, only in a local, non-virtual format. Without the nature focus!

I had the opportunity to meet Michael recently when I screened Per's and Mat's winning shorts at the Boulder Adventure Film Festival's video producer's workshop. He is a kindred spirit, he does a lot for local filmmakers in our communicty, and I am pleased to have him involved as a judge for our modest contest.

Here is a link to his online bio:

http://www.alchemy4.com/alchemist-mu...-authoring.htm

and a link to his front page, which i love, because he UWOL-ishly incorporates the primal elements into his mission statement for his multimedia company, Alchemy 4:

http://www.alchemy4.com/index.htm

and finally, Michael has been kind enough to link our uwolchallenge.com website to his growing list of fast filmmaking sites--worth a look!:

http://www.fastfilmtv.com/index.php?file=alllink

He is also new to DVInfo, so his account will be up and running shortly when Chris has a moment, but please welcome him, both to DVinfo and also to the "Under Water, Over Land Challenge"....

Welcome Michael!

Its great to have you with us here on DVinfo.net and being involved in the Uwol Challenge.

Thanks for judging!
~Gabriel

Welcome to DVInfo and UWOL Challenge, Michael....

Welcome on board uwol, Michael.

Welcome Michael!
Nice to have you with us.

Welcome Michael,
great to have you onboard!

Thanks for the warm welcome!
 

I am impressed with the turnout and quality of films that this new festival has been gathering since it first launched. Thanks to Meryem's kind introduction of myself and our work with The Shoot Out 24 Hour Filmmaking Festival Boulder now it's fourth year.

As a filmmaker, I am very appreciative of the work that goes into making anything movie related, and most importantly, the extreme sport of filmmaking, the fast film. I look forward to seeing what THE WILD brought forth this month, and will post my results on Tuesday (we have a National Holiday on Monday).

I invite everyone to visit the FastFilm website at http://www.fastfilmtv.com It is meant to be the hub for all fastfilm films, and there are alot of great shorts posted there. Please feel free to contribute and share your thoughts to this website.

Best,

Michael Conti

Welcome Michael.

Shoot, with my footage I was hoping for a mother with a very young child. Sigh.

Oh well, now it will get judged fairly, but I won't have a chance!

Welcome to UWOL Michael! This is a fun and diversely talented group with the few beginners (I'm speaking for myself here!) growing up fast. What a wonderful thing you have done here, not only judging our UWOL 3 contest but linking the UWOL challenge to your fastfilm list for greater exposure to the media world. Thanks and have fun!

A quick question to Meryem:

What is the slightly different approach to judging this contest you mentioned in your opening thread? Is this also the type of question that falls in the category: 'you could tell us but then you would have to kill us'? Ha, I'll retract the question if it is!

Cat

Hi Michael,

Thanks for joining in the fun. What I've found great about the UWOL challenge is the encouraging praise and gentle criticism we share. Also, learning from other films, finding new ideas and techniques I never would have thought of on my own. And the excitement and challenge every couple months to do everything- plan, shoot, edit, and compress, in a short time. It's been a fun education for me here.


Ruth

Michael
Welcome aboard. This is a great group.

Gordon Hoffman

Yes, Michael - welcome aboard. I am also new to this board (and to film making) that has quickly turned to be my one and only video forum. Great community, good spirit. :-D

Regards, Oliver

consider your life spared, for the moment, heh.

by "slightly different," i meant that my original intention was to find some of the most seasoned shooters from the "Under Water, Over Land" forum (the forum from which we derived the contest name) to act as judges, meaning they, too, would be nature and outdoors-focused producers. what i would call Michael's specialty falls more in the "fast filmmaking" category than the nature and outdoors-specific category, although he undoubtedly takes on some of that work, too, since he lives in scenic Colorado....it's pretty built-in...

just a little different flavoring, to keep it all lively.

personally, i like inviting a range of different outside judges to participate, because it keeps the judging fresh, and they are not aware of our reputations. as a group, we quickly develop who we are, as in "per's a great shooter," "gabe is the youngest" etc....and it's better from the judging standpoint, if they are a blind to reputation. that gives everyone an equal chance to improve from whatever skill level they begin and to ultimately have a chance to win this thing!

Thanks Meryem!

When you are allowed to speak you thoroughly address the question, and I second your reasoning to bring in fresh outsiders to judge the contest without knowing our backgrounds in UWOL. That's what makes this such a great and exciting challenge, you honestly feel like the slate is wiped clean and that you have a brand new shot at putting something great up with each new challenge! The only difference is that with each entry, we have gained a lot of good feedback and experience, so we are all bound to improve. What a great and powerful thing this is. I have even read somewhere in all the comments that Per mentioned that he feels that he is improving because of UWOL. Now that's a testimony to the challenge and your goal with it.

Cat

Yeah I agree, it's good to have someone impartial, and also with a slightly different perspective. It's hard when your making these films to remove yourself and see it from someone else's point of view. It's good to get a reality check from time to time.

Welcome Michael, you've got your work cut out for you.