I think this whole thing is a great idea Meryem. I just found this thread cause I was out of circulation earlier this week.

Of course, being in Texas I love the "UWOL Challenge" name idea because as Ken put it, it sounds like you're saying "You all". Hehe, clever.

I would likely participate since I love capturing the great outdoors in HD.

The idea of using a single account on a web video sharing site and then changing the password at submission deadline is brilliant. It would lock out late submissions as well.

And finally, I love this quote...

this is adventure video folks! and there's adventure in my own back yard when a camera is involved....
regards,

-gb-

look at the big fish we netted! welcome aboard, greg--it's good to have a go-to wrangler with an interest in our contest, to keep things civil....

i want to use my canon HV10 to do the "making of" version of whatever you produce, so that i can see how your XDCAM performs in the field. i'm curious about that camera, since discovery channel certified it....as i'm sure many others are as well....

Another suggestion for title

" Out the Window "

I'd love to be part of this as well. Sounds like allot of fun. Course, why couldn;t you have suggested this when the temps were about 50 degrees warmer here in Iowa. :)

ah, senor railsback...at last we meet! you're on my short list for potential judges! there's no backing out now....

of course, i'm more than thrilled to have you participate as well!

i am more and more liking the idea of enlisting a different guest judge for each contest. that way, we get the benefit of a range of input into our contest. and we spread the responsibility around. if we go with me + a celebrity guest judge format, with a certain weighting towards the opinion of the guest judge, then the judging stays fresh. no sedimentation of opinion. also, that allows our guest judge to be a participant when he/she is not judging.

brendan, i like "out the window" quite a bit. very promising and not climate-dependent. and so many interesting windows from which to choose. does anyone know where i can rent a submarine?

keep 'em coming and spread the word....

If your still looking for a name, how about:

"OVER & UNDER SHOOTOUT"

Using a picture of a camcorder where the lens morphs into the barrels of a double barrel shotgun, or the shotgun morphs into a camcorder. I'm sure we have some talented artists out there.

Mike

you're reading my mind, mike. i started working on a little animation for this last night. but there are definitely better animators than i am, so perhaps we should open it up....

what i discovered, though, in playing with the animation, was that i am getting attached to the name "The UWOL Challenge" because it allies our contest both with chris' work here and with the DV Challenge which came before it. and it covers the planet, which is our muse.

so the name is officially set. if there's anyone who wants to take a crack at an animated version, please do. if selected, it will be uploaded to our submissions page. there's no prize for the winner beyond the glory. we'll find a way to acknowledge you on the page as the artist. this isn't a contest, just a chance to show off your skills. the requirements are: it has to incorporate "The UWOL Challenge" preferably with some mention of "Under Water, Over Land" for clarifying purposes. it should also clock in at 10 MB or less in size because most title uploads seem bound by that parameter.

so, if anyone has any free time on their hands, have at it!

you're reading my mind, mike. i started working on a little animation for this last night. but there are definitely better animators than i am, so perhaps we should open it up....

I'm confused, you thought of the shotgun/camcorder, camcorder/shotgun animation based on "The UWOL Challenge" name, or is it a different animation?

Come on animators, jump in here. We need a good one.

A possible name...

"Otherwise Hidden"

"The UWOL Challenge"------so the name is officially set.




It has appearenty heen decided.

Mike

ah, senor railsback...at last we meet! you're on my short list for potential judges! there's no backing out now....

Meryem, not sure how I got on your short list but it's certainly an honor to be on it.

I'd love to see this take off and become a regular thing for us nature freaks.

I'm not into taking a self portrait using only the light of my oven or shots of peoples toes or other things like that I had to do when I was in college. :)

There's so many things that can be done with this. I'm glad I'm getting in on the ground floor. :)

glad to hear that you're willing to lend a paw, i mean, hand.

okay, so the other news is that the DVC challenge time frame has just been announced, and it will run this month. which is perfect for us, actually. because we can run the UWOL challenge starting on January 1st, with the official sign-up running the week before, maybe plus an extra day or two to account for the holidays.

if we run our contest every other month, which seems to be a general consensus, that means we can start it in the new year and run it beginning the 1st of every other month (Jan., March, May, July, Sept., Nov.). i would like a little predictability and regularity to the schedule. so we'll run six of these in the next year. if it gains traction, we can increase the regularity. it's always easier to add things than to scale them back. so for now, let's make this the guideline and see how it goes.

thanks for forebearing with me while i think out loud, everybody. we are pretty close to putting together official guidelines, i think, now that a few things are resolving themselves.

and no, mike, i can't say that i had shotguns in mind when i was playing with the animation. i was thinking more along the lines of rainbows and lollipops and care bears. but that's just me!

actually, i'm still going to work on the animation that i started, to have something in the event that no one else rises to the task. (due to copyright restrictions, i'm sadly forced to eliminate the care bears.) my animation is not super-complicated. i'm hoping someone out there has the skills to morph a turtle into the planet or something groovy.

That sounds great Meryem! I can't wait to start on it.
Lets just hope that I get a tripod and some more tapes for Christmas. Or I might be in a bad way! :)

~Gabriel

This sounds great....I'm glad theres a time scale. These things can be so difficult to organise.

Is there any shortlist of potential topics yet ???

will someone send gabriel a DV tape, for heaven's sake?? the lad needs a patron!

as for the tripod, the poor man's version is a beanbag or small pillow. you can do some pretty steady shots, even pans, that way....gotta improvise!

i have a topics list but am undecided. now that i know we're running six of these, i need time to consider the big picture. which six are in, which are best left for another day....

Well if you need a hand with anything at all....then give me a shout and I'll do what I can.

Same here.
Let me know if you want any wildlife and nature stills or anything to incorporate into a banner or whatever.
I'm stoked for this to get started! :)

haha, thanks Meryem, I should be able to make it through. I do have a cheep tripod, I just wish I had a nicer one.

As far as the topics go, are you going to announce them before the challenge? or are you going to wait until after people have signed up? Or is htis still part of your list of things to decide on?

If you need some northwest footage/photos, I could try as hard as possible to help you with that. Sorry that I can not be of much more use then that.

~Gabriel

Count me in...

fabulous. gabriel and DSE facing off in the UWOL Challenge. it's more than i could have hoped for. let the games begin!

i'll post guidelines this afternoon.

If I recall, DSE is a skydiver, and will likely wrap up the over land aspects pretty well......is he Scuba certified too ?

Hi Meryem
Great idea, count me (an Spanish wilderness) in as much as i can

One idea, perhaps when things had ruled for a while could be to make a kind of DVD or similar with the winner or finalist films. This could be a very good award if there is a sponsor somewhere (who knows?). Also, all the selected films could be presented in one or various events. I know is anticipate events but i have the conviction that so many points of view could make a great series.

Fernando

we have so many talented shooters here, i don't think anything is wrapped up! prepare to be awed. i am!

and bienvenido, fernando! it's great to see some new names popping up in the UWOL forum. spain has some beautiful landscape. looking forward to your interpretation of it.

i do have a few ideas about distribution for willing players, but let's shoot some footage first....

Meryem,

with so many high profile shooters its almost scarey to post anything!!

Kidding aside, this seems to be inspiring a lot of interest!!!


Question will be how long will the time frame be for the film, how large can the file be and will we all post in equivalent resolution so that true comparisons/judgements may be made??

Guidelines for The UWOL Challenge

The mission of the UWOL Challenge is to encourage outdoor and nature video enthusiasts to the develop their skills by participating in regular contests.

1. The UWOL Challenge will run 6x this year, beginning January 1. It will also run in March, May, July, September, and November, commencing on the 1st of each month. A fresh sign-up thread will be posted the week before the challenge begins. Contestants will be required to sign up for each challenge separately. Once the thread closes, no new players will be admitted for that Challenge.

2. On the first of the month, a topic or prompt will be posted. Players will have three weeks to shoot, edit, and post their videos online. This gives two full weekends for participants to take travel to exotic and difficult-to-reach locations with their gear. Submissions should be 2-3 minutes in length. Entries exceeding the 3-minute limit can be posted on the site but will be disqualified from the judging. Credits are excluded from the 3-minute limit.

3. All material must be original and shot for the purpose of being judged in this contest. All music must be fully licensed. If you use copyrighted materials (music or other copyrighted works), be prepared to show us proof that you own the right to use it. Without proof, we will remove your video from the site. You have the option of providing us with an image-only version, in the event that we are forced to remove it, since our goal is to enable players to make beautiful video images and to develop good production practices.

4. You retain the rights to your video.

5. We will be using this home page to post our videos:

http://www.youtube.com/group/uwolchallenge

During submission week, the password to the page will be released to the players only, who will upload their videos for the judging. These videos will be the judging copies, however players are also encouraged to post to their personal websites or other websites where they may be able to enhance image quality over what Youtube provides. This way, players can offer viewers a range of formats, file sizes, etc. At the deadline, the password will be changed, submissions will be locked, and no new submissions will be admitted. Our contest will be dependent on honor among the participants who will be given the password. Any attempts to delete or alter anyone else's submission constitutes grounds for permanent dismissal from the contest. *IMPORTANT NOTE* It's your responsibility to be sure that I have your most direct, up-to-date e-mail address, so that I can forward you the password to the Youtube page during submissions week. A reminder will be posted on the sign-up thread, but if I don't have your e-mail address, I can't send you the required upload clearance.

Follow this link for more information on Youtube's uploading guidelines. Note that file size is limited to 100 MB:

http://youtube.com/t/help_cat05

6. A new guest judge will be enlisted to help with the judging each month. I will pick the top 3-5 videos (depending on the number of submissions we receive), and the guest judge will be invited to pick the final winner. The guest judge will also have the opportunity to select up to 2 additional finalists to the named selections. The names of finalists will be posted, and a winner will be selected from among the finalists.

7. Winners will be awarded a prize package, to be determined.

8. These guidelines are subject to revision.


----------------------

last chance for feedback before i solicit a wrangler to turn this into a sticky....

Nice Job Meryem.... Looks good. But how do we get to see your great work ??

Can we use royalty free music ?

Don't see why not as long as you licensed it.

It shouldn't be any problem Joey, I'm going to use Smartsound Music.

Cinescore or Smartsound here....

It shouldn't be any problem Joey, I'm going to use Smartsound Music.

I will use SmartSound too (to the best of my limited abilities!)

Meryem,

I hate to whine but...

I'd like to play, but I'm going to be in Costa Rica for a month (leaving Jan 9th). Is there any chance of an early submission? If not, no biggie, but I'd just like to be part of the first ever UWOL. I could just post it under my youtube account for fun.

yes, of course, you can use royalty-free music. you need permission or to have purchased a license with it. a couple of resources for free music:

freeplaymusic.com
sonnyboo.com

ken, early submissions are easily arranged. i can give you (or anyone who signs up) early access to uploading to the page. that should not be a problem.

I am new to this website, and have been very impressed with all the information available here. It seems like a very friendly and helpful space, and I've especially enjoyed this forum, since my interest is particularly in nature videography. The UWOL Challenge sounds great. It will help motivate and inspire me. I'll be following eagerly for updates. Thanks.

Welcome to DVINFO.net Ruth! Its great to have you join in on the fun! You will be glad that you singed up, I am sure of it. :D

Best of luck!
~Gabriel

Welcome Ruth!
I look forward to seeing some of your work.

Hey guys.....Not seen much happen on this thread for a day or two!

Just wondering whether we have a topic yet ??? I'm itching to know whats being considered????

Mat

We are in the middle of DV Challange #7, so I don't think you will see this start soon. They are not going to compete with each other. And, there will need to be some time in between them.

Standby to standby.

Mike

Like Tom Petty said "The waiting is the hardest part." :)

hi mat: yes, the thread was pretty lively while we were working out the details of how to proceed. there's still time for feedback, so if you have a good idea, post it! we will be able to incorporate new suggestions throughout the process. a fresh thread for signing up for our January 1 start date will appear in about two weeks or so, so patience!

right now, i'm sweating my way through the DV Challenge, i suggest that if you are aching to shoot something, that you sign up for it....it's an open sign-up this time, and the thread is here:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=81014

i'm sure there is a way to shoe-horn some nature shooting into the topic, which is "Memories"....

oh, and welcome to the forum, ruth. i'm always happy to meet other women who are out there schlepping heavy gear through the wilder-wild.....

Hey Meryem

Yeah I've actually written a little script vor it and I think its do-able in the time left........so lets see if.....!

I take the open sign up is still.....'open'. If I have it all planned tonight I'll sign up tomorrow and get things moving.

As far as the UWOL.......can't wait to get stuck in, I will formalise my ideas and post them into this thread.

Ok then....back to the writing :) phew!!

so, one suggestion is that we use divx's stage6 to post our videos.

pros:
upload quality is excellent (best-looking of any content community out there, i'm told....)
upload quality is excellent
upload quality is excellent

cons:
requires free download of divx viewer to view videos
requires encoding in divx proprietary codec (which is also downloadable but free)
less general exposure than what we will get using youtube

any feedback on this?

you can check out their content community at:

http://stage6.divx.com/

here's a good UWOL-ish link to try, for sampling purposes, (of course you have to download the player first....)

Galapagos Underwater
http://stage6.divx.com/members/200478/videos/1024453

My vote would be to use YouTube.

The reason is this: YouTube is simple, anyone can use it without having to download anything. I personally have had troubles with Divx on certain machines in the past (and therefore tend to shy away from using anything with the Divx logo).

Of course, as I mentioned before, people could always post links to the Divx or any other hosted higher-quality movie - in addition to the YouTube link. I just think that the YouTube plan would work the simplest to keep track of everything and keep it all in one place, without much hassle.

I'll check out the divx stage6 cause I really, really, really don't want to put any of my stuff on YouTube.

Question...does the stage6 stuff have to be uploaded to the stage6 site or can we encode it and upload it to our own site?
Really don't want to be uploading stuff to a divx site either. :)

In the end I may just do something out of competition and put it on my site in QuickTime.

kevin, i totally understand your concerns--in fact, i share them which is why i am keeping an eye out for alternatives, but it would only have to be up long enough for the judging, which will probably be completed in about 5 days. we can delete any works which participants don't want to leave up beyond the scope of the contest.

kevin, i totally understand your concerns--in fact, i share them which is why i am keeping an eye out for alternatives, but it would only have to be up long enough for the judging, which will probably be completed in about 5 days. we can delete any works which participants don't want to leave up beyond the scope of the contest.


So you think our works would be safe for 5 days? No one could copy and distribute them in that time. Personally, I wouldn't put my work on Youtube, and I'm not willing to download anymore new software to view video, as I have far too many already.

When I started entering these contests I bought webspace. For aproximately $65.00/year, it was of the best investments I have made. Why don't you buy webspace for the hosting? Could easily be paid for out of sign-up fees.

Ask the very gracious Mr. Hurd to host them, and only allow posting by those who have paid and entered, should be able to be enable or disabled by control. Could even be shut down at the deadline! At the end of the contest they could be deleted and those who wish to post them else where could do that. If fees are needed, by DVInfo.net, then apply the fees we pay to enter.

In the long run we do not need to have our entries posted forever, just for the duration of the contest. Then, we can handle the posting from there on out.

Just a suggestion.

Mike

Hey Meryem,
Are you talking for YouTube or for stage6?
If we can take the stage6 stuff down after the judging I'd vote for that route.

I looked at some friends footage they put up via YouTube and to say the quality was poor is an understatement. :)

Meryem, Mike,
Heck, give me a domain name to register and I'll go out and get it and pay for the hosting out of my own pocket if it means everyone can put up a high quality flick!

Meryem, Mike,
Heck, give me a domain name to register and I'll go out and get it and pay for the hosting out of my own pocket if it means everyone can put up a high quality flick!


I have offered to donate many times if that's what it takes. How do you set-up access? I'm no web expert by any means, and had enough trouble getting my own set-up.

Not necessarly true about the quality part though, as you run into download times that are long, but sure better anyway.

Mike

Well, hosting still doesn't solve the format issue but it can be set up to allow access to those who need it.

I think the real issue is what format the films will be in.

Once that's figured out I'd be more than happy to put my money where my mouth is and host the site if need be.

I know I entered a competition on another board with a 50meg file size limit and the quality was great. Not great for those who have dialup though. :)