Uwol #3 - And The Winner Is...
 

For the theme is "THE WILD" -- "....the entry which best explores this mysterious, ineffable thing which summons us into nature and the outdoors."

As a judge, I was looking for how well the entire video was put together, from the cinematography, editing, narration and music. I was also looking for the videos that had an emotional quality to them, specifically films that had story. I feel that it isn't enough to just have beautiful photography, especially if you want to keep your audience interested for more then a few minutes. I have watched alot of adventure films over the years, and this seems to be the one element which seperates the good from the best. So, if I can encourage you to tackle that additional task, it will serve you better as filmmakers.

So, the winner is Rob Evans “The Wild Within” who hails from a place in the U.K. where there are snails, and other creepy crawly things in his own backyard. Rob's clear narration at the start set the stage for the viewer to discover the tiny world that exists near all of us. His beautifully shot macro photography was breathtaking, especially the close-up on the snail "eye". The editing flowed nicely from shot to shot, and his clever hint of where this tiny world really was, the plank of a wooden bench, gave the audience the first clue which was nicely summarized by his closing statement. It was a good story with a beginning, middle and end, and was well told. Excellent work!

Awesome job, Rob, and you deserve the winning vote for the third DVINFO.NET UWOL Challenge!

First runner up: Jeff Hendricks "Passages" which was almost my favorite, showing with quotes, voice overs: the basic nature of the wilderness we can't afford to lose. I felt touched by it. A lot of effort clearly went into capturing the journey, and finding the right locations, unfortunately the audio mix wasn't right on with the final mix making it hard to hear the quotes. It might have been better to just use either quotes or voice over, and not both. Clever dissolves between the hiking scenes and good editing.

Second runner up: Dave Trainer's “My Call to the Wild” which does a nice job of contrasting the frantic pursuit of the city with the pull of nature as Dave takes us to the wild of the seas. I hope that Dave will take this simple but emotionally powerful concept further in his future films. However, I felt that the ending wasn't resolved with the same kind of impact that we got at the start of the piece. Nice steady underwater work with the strong current.

Third runner up: Mat Thompson's "The Wild Point" which is the most stunning with its photography and rugged location. The music and wild life recordings really put you in the spot. The editing nicely flowed together too. However there was no story presented, only the place, and the dissolve of the filmmaker walking down the beach never to reappear only added more of that need in future efforts. Keep up the good work.

Honorary Mention: Geir Inge's "Wild on the shore" which has some of the most beautiful photography like the rookeries on the cliff face, and opens with an exciting intro by Geir on the side of the cliff. However, there is no payoff to the story that is initially presented so it ends somewhat shorten. But the filmmaker clearly shows a professional ability, and should continue to include himself in his films. Thanks for sharing your island with us.

And again, thanks for letting me judge this competition. There were many other well presented submissions, but these few clearly delivered on the presented theme and told a story at the same time.

Big thanks to Meryem Ersoz for keeping this venture alive. She has found venue for all of you, and I hope that you will continue to make films and inspire others to do the same.

As firm supporter of short filmmaking, I am looking forward to seeing some good work for UWOL #4

If you have any questions on my judging, please let me know.

Michael Conti
__________________________
http://www.fastfilmtv.com

Congratulations Rob!!
Well done.

Firsty a big congratulations to Rob....I thought you might get this one fella, very well done on a great little film.

Secondly, many thanks to Micheal for his solid responses and critique...I appreciate your honesty and can see why you've made the decisions you've made.

Thirdly well done to everyone for a great challenge, I think the standard has really increased this time and I look forward to seeing the offering for UC4.

Great stuff people :)

A new face in the crowd jumps in and scoops up first place, how about that?? Great to have you on board, Rob...that snail eye was definitely a "wow" moment for me! and I absolutely love macro shooting--

Congratulations to all of the finalists for making fabulous films and to all of the players for making this a fun round!

Mat definitely wins the Mr. Consistency Award--do I need to point out that he has placed in all 3 Challenges, whoa!

Congrats to you Rob and all runners up!
And an especially congrats to you Geir Inge, you've developed very well in the last round, keep it up.

It is hard to argue with Michael's logic, and he did a nice job of explaining his point of view. Well done Michael and congratulations to Rob.

It was certainly an interesting look and it kept my attention.

Woah. What do i say?

I guess thanks would be a good start :-)

"THANKS!"

It's a really wide field out there with some AMAZING work coming from all corners of the world, and I feel proud and honoured to rub shoulders with ALL of you.

Thanks Michael for judging, I know i wouldn't have chosen to be in your shoes for that!

Cheers!

Rob



errr, when does the next one start? ;-)

Congratulation to you Rob.
Your film was one of my favourites and I’m very pleased you won uwol#3.
To the “running up guys”, Jeff, Dave and Mat, you all did a great job in this third competition of uwol.

Fellow partisipants:
Thank you for sharing your films, thoughts, comments and ideas. Without you this challenge would be nothing. I feel I’ve learned a lot from every one and single of you, and I mean it from the bottom of my heart. Uwol must be the best school to learn wildlife filming, in every way of the sense.

Meryem: Thank you for keeping order and steady driving the uwol ship :)

The mighty judge:
Fair and square is the word that comes to mind, I reckon it was a though case judging so many great films. Thank you for giving me the “Honorary Mention”, it made me at least one inch taller. I knew from the start that I should have worked a little harder on the ending, and so was my plan. I intend to put some of my clips that didn’t reach uwol#3 on my uwol tread, just to show how it is when birds fly away just as you got focus on it, hanging in the cliff trying to film without a tripod, narrating in the field and you’re not in the picture, etc. But it’ll have to wait for a couple of days, now I’m on to Oslo for a meeting.

Hope to see you all in uwol#4.

Congratulations Rob, and all the runner ups! And to everyone who completed a film!

Great stuff, looking forward to the next!
~Gabriel

Way to go Rob...wonderful filmmaking.

Congratulations!

Jeff

So does Rob win something this time or just bragging rights?

Congratulations, Rob! :-)

I absolutely agree with Michaels decision! Your movie is simply beautiful and leads us into a different, magical world. I am looking forward to your next movies. :-)

Regards, Oliver

Congratulations Rob, and also to everyone else.

Well done Rob. Quite liked being drawn into the micro world, where little mounds become mountains. And you didn't have to travel too far.

well done Rob congratulations on a great film.

Congratulations to Rob and the other winners. And to all who participated- I enjoyed all the films, and learned from feedback on my own. The UWOL challenge has really helped me get inspired to go out and film, and this forum is a great community. Each contest brings out an amazing variety of content and perspective. I'm looking forward to the next one!

Ruth