The nature and content of this story was basically determined by the weather. We had rain for almost two weeks solid so I was forced to do something that I could film indoors.

In order to achieve what I set out to do I used the time indoors to play around with different effects and do a few motion graphics. I gave myself the additional challenge of filming with a black background. Ninety percent of the filming was done at night basically because I was using two little LED UV torches to light some of the subjects.

Jelly fish and scorpions are probably the most famous animals with the ability to fluoresce so I felt it would be good to include both. The brief shot of the jellyfish came from my ‘By Design’ movie and used as permitted by the rules and the scorpion came from my box of dead insects and arachnids – despite much searching I could not find a single live scorpion in my garden because of the wet conditions!

As it turned out I did not have to throw out all of the shots that I took during our stay at a game lodge at the beginning of the month as I initially thought I would.

I learned a tremendous amount in the process as usual and was quite fascinated to discover all the things in my home that fluoresce.


[in]visible Light on Vimeo

Marj, I'm linking to your film here, so you have it in your own thread as well.
[in]visible Light on Vimeo

Hi Trond - Was already busy doing that! :)

A nice video can never be seen too often. :)
I'll comment more later about your film.

As usual Marj,
you have amazed me with the level of detail in your film. So much information, & really good information too. I was only talking the other day about how my camouflaged gear seemed to light up under the ultra violet light of the camera, & it looks like you have answered why that is in your video! Amazing stuff. I will definitely have to look further into this as just like flashing neon signs catch our attention, i'm sure with that gear on, i'm attracting a lot of attention too!
Thanks for another very informative film!
Regards,
Bryce

Well done Marj. I'll look at my bananas and peanut butter differently now!

Gordon

... I was only talking the other day about how my camouflaged gear seemed to light up under the ultra violet light of the camera, & it looks like you have answered why that is in your video! Amazing stuff. I will definitely have to look further into this as just like flashing neon signs catch our attention, i'm sure with that gear on, i'm attracting a lot of attention too!


That is quite amazing Bryce - you won't believe this but when I was checking the camo fabric I use to cover my camera I was wondering if your camouflage outfit glowed or not. Apparently camo fabric made in China has brighteners in it while some other manufacturers leave them out. Fortunately there are products that eliminate this flourescence if you don't want to buy a new outfit - just google it.

I also found this whole business quite astounding when I first discovered it. Fortunately most of my outfits (summer/winter) don't glow. Just goes to show it is not what we see that counts but what animals see.

Well done Marj. I'll look at my bananas and peanut butter differently now!

Gordon

Just don't mix them together - they may explode! :)

Oh yes - my apoogies Bryce and Gordon - I had a few distractions when I posted my replies to this and forgot to thank you for your comments.

Well done, Marj. Very nice research and execution. I’m glad you were able to use the game ranch shots as they added a lot. I always admire your animations. What were you using for the black background and how was it lit? Or perhaps I’m asking how it was not lit. How did you avoid light spill onto the background? And how did that scorpion creep in there! :) The wipe-on with the UV is very effective. Wish I’d have thought of that!

Entertaining and informative - I totally need to get a UV torch now. A great concept and you made good use of the imposed limitations - raining so much.
Maybe that explains why I didn't see much wildlife on my journey, they saw another neon scarecrow.

Your films Marg are always well researched, informative and that therefore makes them a pleasure to watch. You certainly understand your animation program and put a lot of work into producing this entry. I always find it hard to offer critique on others work in the UWOL challenges, especially as time restraints etc make it very difficult for all of us to gather all the elements we need to make a watchable film. My only comment is that I found the flow of the film at times is maybe a tad to pacey to fully take in all the facts as they were given. Or maybe its me just getting old!!!

Hi Marj,

You have already got some good feedback, and I agree with what has been said.
So I'll just chime in and say I very much enjoyed watching your film.
You always have a strong story and a great VO, combined with the visuals and the effects.
This was a good one!

Well done.

Thank you all for your encouraging comments.

Mick
A ‘tad pacey’. Not surprising - that’s my style – usually the direct result of squeezing a one hour movie into four minutes. . . and to think I was intending to do a music video this time round with NO talking at all for a change!

Andrew
Ha ha – I wonder if I should ask for commission on all the torches that everyone will be buying?! Mmm – maybe there is a business opportunity here. . . :)

Thanks Trond. Appreciate your kind comments.

Hi Marj,

i first echo what the other commenters have said - I thought the graphics were very well done, and informative - I especially liked the combination of image and graph, which along with your excellent (as always) commentary did a very good job of explaining the subject. I though the inclusion of the clothes gave an interesting twist to the story, and your ¨animal eye¨ views fascinating.

. . . What were you using for the black background and how was it lit? Or perhaps I’m asking how it was not lit. How did you avoid light spill onto the background? . . .


Hi Mike
Well you are asking a complete novice in this regard. As usual it was trial and error, but I set the challenge for myself and was determined to get it as right as possible with minimum expense.

For the black backgrounds I used paper and fabric.
I found some very black paper (yes, there are degrees of black when it comes to paper!) at a local art store. It has a near non-reflective surface. My subjects were small so I only needed a few sheets of this. For the clothing shots I used non-reflective black fabric – nothing special.

Three things helped here – keeping the subject as far away from the background as possible, organising the lighting to avoid light spill (ie focusing it on the subject) and setting the camera to maximise available light. I did not always get it right and, as you would probably have noticed, I forgot to set my white balance when shooting the fabrics under normal light, but I simply did not have time to reshoot those images.

Ninety percent of the shots were done at night time so it was completely dark when I switched off the lights.

Basically for the non-fluorescing subjects I used normal room light (daylight fluorescent on the ceiling behind me – as a ‘fill light’) and a small LED spot light with a diffuser (around 50-70 cm away from the subjects).

I used two LED UV torches for the subjects that fluoresce – each having a very small radius of light from a close distance (round 30cm away from the subject). Where I did get light spill it wasn’t much and a little work in post sorted it out.

Marj - I have to comment but I think that everybody has said it all. That was a very educational video and I've already forwarded the URL to a couple granddaughters, along with a few of my editorial comments, and I'm sure they will enjoy and learn something from it. I also put a plug in for the fact that this was done by one person with a video camera (hint) and a computer (they really like computers), and of course some applications. They are both very creative and I hope this gets them thinking.

They take pictures and video clips with their iPhones but we need to upgrade their technical approach to video capture and maybe this will help. They are also good story tellers.

Thank you for making this available and it will definitely help me to broaden the vision of not only myself but a couple others. Outer space certainly has a lot of glamour but "inner space" here on earth doesn't seem to get enough of the awe factor and something like this video really helps make us aware that there is so much we don't know and it's all in our own back yard.

As an example, just yesterday in the news was a report about a deep diving whale that had a dive that I think was two miles deep and was under water for over two hours. Unfortunately, with species of animals and plants disappearing at such an alarming rate much of our Earth's eco system will be lost before we will know it even existed.

Loved your graphics. I'm just getting going on Motion 5 and can really appreciate what you put together. The black "green screen" shots were good too. At least the black didn't glow under the UV light.

Thank you for your very viewable and educational video.

Thank you John - really appreciate your comments especially coming from someone outside the Challenge.

I would say it is about time you and your grand daughters joined us! It provides a great opportunity to learn new stuff as you go along.

One thing that absolutely fascinates me are the things that are not immediately visible to us in nature - I have tackled quite a few of these things in my movies for UWOL - we live in a truly amazing world but many people are totally unaware of the visible wonders never mind the invisible!

Appreciate your kind comments Paul. (I did not see it till now - slipped in last on the previous page.)

Hello Marj.
You always deliver great movies.
Your videos are full of information and knowledge, which has become your trademark.
To me, this creates the impression of a wise lady behind the films.
That's how I see you too, like a wise lady who loves what she does and is committed to nature and its well being.
This makes your movies believable and at the same time educational.
I am grateful to be able to take part in your world of knowledge.
Thanks for sharing and best wishes.

Now that's really something that I was surprised to learn. Our clothes glow in the dark?

But beyond the thesis statement, I was particularly stricken by the eloquence of your introductory summary of the nature of light and the difference between EMR and perceived, visible light.

This should be playing in a museum!

Appreciate your comments Geir and Finn.

Wise lady? no definitely not a wise lady. But maybe Finn is the better person to tell you about wisdom. :)

Our clothes glow even more during the day because there is much more UV light around to make them fluoresce – only problem is we can’t see it – at least not without the aid of a black light!