Hey everyone, I got this idea late, so there might have been more polish I could have done. I was looking at the shark tank and wondering if I would be in it this time. I'm not much of a swimmer these days, so glad I didn't. The squirrels are great performers and I owe any acclaim to them entirely.

I will try to get a Vimeo version up, tried yesterday but there were interlace issues so had to pull it down.


http://www.vimeo.com/1224392

I had to let this be the one(due to upload limit of 500mb) even though I wasn't happy with the re-encoding that Vimeo did for me, it seemed to re-interlace the footage I had de-interlaced, sigh.

I thought your video was very well done, and cute as heck! I don't think I've ever seen so many squirrels in one place in my life. Wonderful video Adrinn! The storyline was great, and the footage fit so well.

Andrew

Way to go Adrinn:

That was a joy to watch. How cute is that? I have a ground squirrel in my video too, but not featured like the ones in yours. Interesting narration and subject. I liked the way you first focused on one or two and then led us up to the entire colony. Looking forward to your next entry, you just keep getting better!

Cat

Cool way you told this story, that it’s not just bad things happening and that animals can benefit on this. I miss something about predators, is it any animal that hunt them?

cute little guys - I enjoyed your narration and learning about something surviving close to a power station - We have coal power stations near us and they have done horrific damage to the lake systems

Hi Adrinn,

I really think you did a wonderful job filming and putting this together.

It was just like watching the Discovery Channel listening to your narration! I really liked the overall pacing, establishing shots, reference to the enclosure, then the shot with part enclosure and the squirrel in the background. The variety of close ups, young ones playing, group shots, pans, etc. I also noticed the sharpness of your footage - great compression settings.

Very well researched piece and a joy to watch. Well done.

That was really well done and very interesting Adrinn. You had some great shots and your narative is very well spoken. I learned something.

Oliver

Adrinn,

nice story to support some nice footage!! A some of the shots seemed a tad to bright on my monitor, other than that, awesome job!! Terrific voice over.

I was not expecting much from the subject, but I am pleasantly surprised by this film. Nice images, an interesting discussion, and great narration.

Thanks for your comments all.

Cool way you told this story, that it’s not just bad things happening and that animals can benefit on this. I miss something about predators, is it any animal that hunt them?


Markus, yes I had included a bit about the types of predators they have. For example Hawks, Snakes and Coyotes prey upon them. I realized I had no footage of those creatures to use, so I cut that part from the script.


Paul, I know power plants aren't usually a benefit to the local ecosystem. In this case I believe the boon was a complete accident, I thought it was interesting the way life can "make lemonade out of lemons" sometimes.


Dale, thanks for letting me know about the brightness level. I brought everything down a few steps in editing, good to know for the future. My camera can't compete with most of the rigs used in this challenge, it's a little HG-10 with only 10x optical zoom. Someday I hope to have one that's up to par.


Chris, yes I was going for a "sleeper" subject with this since I don' t have the focal length to capture more shy species.


For those who enjoyed the narration, it was very hard to narrate this. I had a bad cold and every time I listened to it I was unhappy with it. I almost cut all the narration and just put music over it. I think that would have killed the story so I'm glad I didn't.

Second what has been said about this film. Very informative and nicely done!
Thanks for sharing!

Nice work, Adrinn! BTW, if you can keep that cold around a bit longer, I think you could pull off a pretty convincing Rod Serling imitation.

Seriously though, it's all about storytelling and in that department, you did a great job. I learned a lot in those few minutes. I have 'bushy tailed swallows' (as we jokingly call them), on my bird feeder and around my home all the time. Was nice to learn about this particular variant and their habitat.

-gb-

Adrinn,
Your voice is fine for the voice over. Don't change it. I like the way you maintained a similar setting throughout and treated what is basically a rubble heap as animal habitat. Very effective. In your next presentation you might want to edit out the wind noise.

How fun was that?! Nice job, Adrinn, with telling such an informative tale in such a delightful manner. Greg is right about the Rod Serling thing you had going there...very cool. :)

I loved, loved, loved the junior squirrels at play; also the info about the squirrels recycling garbage was great!

I learn something every time I view videos here. I would never have thought animals would want to live in or close to a power station...I suppose with the loss of natural habitat its not just mankind that adapt to so called civilization....nice video

Adrinn,
Your voice is fine for the voice over. Don't change it. I like the way you maintained a similar setting throughout and treated what is basically a rubble heap as animal habitat. Very effective. In your next presentation you might want to edit out the wind noise.

Steve, you didn't feel that the wind noise/cars belonged there? I actually brought it in on another track to add some "nat sound". I felt it helped add some immersion to the piece and to help illustrate the close proximity of human activity. I know sometimes this doesn't work as well as you might hope, so thanks for letting me know how it seemed to you. Since I'm quite new to producing wildlife films, this area is still very experimental to me.

I thought it all worked very well.

Your shot selection was excellent and your voice, well....would you do my next video?

The sound was all well done...voice, wind, ocean...and yes, the traffic noise. I thought it was all very natural sounding.

I thought that squirrel that picked up the paper was going to stuff the whole thing in his mouth. :)

Nice work for only a 10x lens...

Bob

Adrinn,

Squirrels - dontcha love 'em?

I like this theme - unusual locations for wildlife. A bit like my own film, showing a bird reserve in the middle of a city's busy docks, it shows how man's impact on the environment can have unexpected up sides - in your case, a perfect haven for the ground squirrels.

You got some great scenes there. I just loved the shot of the squirrel gathering up the waste paper for her nest. Later on, there were some real cute shots of them "kissing" and playing, really good. I get the impression that some of them were filmed through the security fencing, but they are none the worse for it.

You did well in that wind, it seems quite fierce. If money were no object, maybe a blimp for the microphone ($$$ !), or maybe even just some careful selection of good audio would help. But it was probably permanently windy at that location.

Very interesting, and it pushed all the right cute buttons for me. Well done!

Hi Adrinn.

It was very funny to see so many squirrels that close to the sea, but I love it all the way.
Some windy sound from the location, but with a little bit lowered volume it would have been real nice. No music needed. Nice VO and very informative, I like that in a wildlife story.
Wish you all the best and good luck.

Geir Inge

Wow Andrinn - your best video yet - really enjoyed this one.

I must say that your framing is beautiful this time round. You used a variety of angles and close ups - especially good with only a 10X lens to work with. Positioning of the subject in the frame was spot on.

Your story is interesting and flows well. I find the behaviour of the squirrel collecting and disposing of nesting material quite fascinating - and really humorous to watch as it stuffs such a lot into its mouth - a highlight for me. You managed to follow it very well when it dashed off like that - good camera work.

Just something very small - following the second squirrel wasn’t as successful as the first because it suddenly stopped halfway along its path - something difficult to anticipate.
In this instance I would have cut the camera movement out from 57-1:00 and 1:03-1:05, when editing, just to tidy it up and make it less busy visually.


I believe you did the right thing by including a VO. Your voice is friendly and very easy to listen to.

I like the way your VO works to provide a lot of additional depth to the footage. I definitely learned a lot, both from just watching the squirrels, and with the information you provided. It helped to see that sometimes what is thought of as bad can be beneficial for wildlife. Thanks for sharing.


Ruth

Hi Adrinn,

This was fun to watch!
Nice story, thank you for teaching me something new!
Keep up your good work.