I have been casually surfing for general information on the contest and I just can't find any. I've viewed a number of old entries, though, so I have some idea.

But what are the rules, really?

People talk of "stories", but is that required? Is that the focus?

It's clearly, basically, wannabe-discovery-channel with a focus on animal planet (to toss out a few trademarks), but I'm thinking a bit outside the box on this.

Must there be animals? Can it be people instead?

I assume, obviously, narrative filmmaking and traditional character driven documentaries are out, but would the "view" of civilization work? Should it just be natural things? From the above post this sounds ok.

Etc.

I also have a tendency to get into some complex editing/FX, but I'll try to stay away from that here. If it simply enhances a shot, would that be ok? Or is this all in camera?
I also have a few post-FX in mind to pick up footage at night, so I'll assume that's allowed as long as it's in the spirit of capturing reality.

Seems like a fun challenge and I'm interested in getting involved.

Thanks.

If there's a link you can point me to, that's just fine, but I have yet to find any general explanation in a link.

Here are the rules:
http://www.uwolchallenge.com/contestrules.htm

Thanks for the link, Trond.

Any more specific info on the "story", required focus, etc.? Or is this just something that has developed as a result of patterns in the entires?

Hey Daniel,

There need not be a story if you choose not to have one. Heck, look at most of my stuff. :)

In the last challenge, I remember one shot in particular. A red deer breathing in the early morning light with his breath coming out in clouds of steam.

The rest of the film could have been about pickles after that. :)

You're free to make whatever you feel like making for your interpretation of the theme.

Take Ruth H. for example. For the theme "Recreation" She interpreted it as " Wreak Creation" and her film was about destroying the environment.

I think the most important thing most people will tell you is to get out there and film something. Your feedback thread will give you an idea if you're on the mark or not.

Daniel, firstly this is the challenge definition.

"The "Under Water, Over Land" (UWOL) Challenge provides a unique opportunity for documentarians, planet Earth-lovers, tree-huggers,extreme sports enthusiasts, bird-watchers, sea-dwellers, and all aspiring outdoor film makers to join a community of like minded people, swap stories, learn skills, win prizes and maybe get an exclusive place in the winners circle. "

You talk of story. Any film worth its viewing time will carry you on a journey, whether its an animal planet documentary or films like Microcosmos which although they don't have a narrative take you on a visual journey. This interpretation is entirely up to you. Take a look at the difference in the range of entries in previous challenges and you will see just this.

That said this isn't DVC and we are not about to start making pure narrative stories with actors and sets and such but it is open to quite a wide interpretation and although for me its about shooting wildlife and the beauty of the natural world one of nice things with uwol is peoples varying interpretations.


*Edit......Damn you Kevin....you did it again ;-) ! *Goes off to improve his typing speed!

Thanks, guys. Sounds good. Pretty much what I expected, but I was feeling a bit out of the loop.

Hi Daniel: Just to add what the boys already said.

You pretty much nailed the spirit of the thing--UWOL started out as a discovery-animal planet wannabe type of contest, and our original mission statement, quoted by Mat, still reflects that. But the Challenge has evolved in a few different directions since then, to support a broader range of interpretations of what "Under Water, Over Land" can be, and we welcome that....

Maybe it helps to think of it this way: the planet is our muse, and that means a lot of different things to people all over the world.

I think a re-enactment of the quest for fire would be a hoot, if that's what you're alluding to.... Round up the cave-folk and shoot it! Better than zombies....

Haha. That would be lots of fun. I was thinking a bit more modern (though I'll refrain from giving too much more away).

i think we need to chip in and buy bryce a flashlight. something with some wattage!

push that gain, open that iris. learn that camera! if you can do this one, bryce, the rest will seem sooo easy.

i'm going to start mine tomorrow night. i can't wait! i have so many ideas, that my plan is going to be to try them all and see what sticks....which is sort of my way of saying, i don't have a plan! just a bunch of interesting camera experiments!

well i'm fresh off the first night of shooting. I can't say it was overly successful -a very drunk band of, literally a band, of people would not stop playing and singing the same sad song (very badly i might add). It was so dark I couldn't see them, but they had to be like 200m down the mountainside. I tried to stay as long as I could, wanting a good time lapse, but gee whiz! So i spent most of the time driving around or hiking looking for something lol

Well, I'm back from Sweden, there was lot's of threads to read and interesting to hear about what others are planning and trying out.

I will start up this week shooting for my plan A. I'm a citizen in the capital of Norway, Oslo. It's lot of green areas, parks etc. surrounding the city. A city by night will always have lots of ambient light, which I think will be suitable to make decent footage and there are (hopefully) some animals/birds out there in the night.
This will be my first attempt to film something in an urban environment ever!

I'm a freaking wildlifephotographer which don't like the city and the noisy, disturbant environment... ...what I'm doing here... ...hmmm, maybe this can change my mind and discover other sides of the city which I haven't thought about before! This gonna be very interesting!

I went out with Claire on Saturday night for a meal and drinks. On the walk back we heard probably the most un-stealthy fox ever....I guess he had probably found a leftover of can of strong lager or something and was a little worse for wear! Anyway he was trying to haul something out of some bushes and making a fine ruckus doing it. As he scampered past us he dropped his quarry by mistake, it was obviously something tasty as he came back again and then trotted off up the carpark.

I think Foxes are great. Am I taking my camera back into the town centre around all the drunks.........NO WAY !

But it was still cool to see the un-stealthy fox!

Thanks for the encouragement Meryem,
I've just got back from my third night out shooting, & well, to be honest, i haven't yet rolled the camera on anything that i'm after. I'm still formulating my plan B just incase i have infact set my own bar waaaaay too high. Ok, 2 more weeks left, that means i will have to get something in the next week & a half, or atleast have my plan B ready to roll, or i'll be going for a swim!
Bryce

I just found out that what I want to shoot doesn't start until the 12th. SO, I guess I just have to be patient.

wow, we drove per out of his mountain lair and into the city to grab some fake light...this *will* be interesting.

i can't wait to get mine going tonight. i finally have a little time to shoot and...it's nothing but bright sunshine and blue skies out there--damn these conditions!!

Meryem, this might be of help to you:

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorials.html?id=1

:-0

I'd give a lot for your sunshine and blue sky.
It has been raining nonstop since before sunset yesterday.

Still twisting my brain trying to come up with a good idea for the NIGHT.

rob, that is pretty funny--see, everybody, there are people are paying good money to generate an effect that you get to produce in nature for free! where is the gratitude??

trond, get some wattage and illuminate that rain and work it in slow-mo...i bet you could make something pretty. one of my favorite opening shots in a UWOL entry--i think it was steve siegel's but i'd have to check, in my opinion, was for WATER, and it opened with a shot of rain running down a window. it was a very pretty daylight shot, but for night, you could light it from indoors from all sorts of angles and not even get wet. water is an excellent reflector.

Hmm, an idea is tumbling around in my head...
Thanks for the tip.
I think Per Johan has done something like that too, some time ago. (also daylight)

Yes, thats correct. In fact that was long before the uwol-challenge. High up in the mountains in a small cottage, with only wood-burning stove, there will always be dewdrops inside the windows, especially in wintertime. I was sitting inside looking at those dewdrops and decided to make some footage of them. I also did some slow motion clip of drops from icicle. I'm sure that could be done in night with some light too.

OT: Meryem, I was joining a display of the Red camcorder in Oslo tonight! Wow the 2/4K screening was just amazing to view. If I had the budget I would order one right now. And of course a huge Mac Pro with FCP2 (6.02 patch is around the corner), a huge disk-array, accessories etc, etc... ;-)
I gonna be very jealous when you got yours!
But I'm not sure if I could have used it up in the mountains anyway. Think I gonna need a couple of sherpas!

i've seen the amount of gear you carry, my friend...you *are* a couple of sherpas...!

it is gonna be interesting to find the lightest possible set-up...we'll see how my plastic tripod handles RED...

(joking!)

They screened some footage taken in Bergen (Hi Trond!) by night. The only light was ambient light found in the street they was filming.
The two professional cinemaphotographers who was doing the trial was amazed how bright the camcorder was in low light conditions, so was I when I view the screening! Whish I had that camcorder right now for this challenge ;-)
This camcorder, I think it was #35 is very bright in daylight conditions, which we could see in some of the samples, some underexposure was clarly recommended by the team. Note that they didn't use any ND or other filters in this trial.
The specific camcorder was unfortunately not present, so we couldn't have any hands on to it, could have been cool :-)

Tonight's the night the focal point of my proposed film arrived during the wee hours of this morning and will depart shortly. So I shoot tonight of come up with a complete new plan. The bad part in all this is that it's very cold -25 the wind is blowing and from time to time snow gets thrown in just to add more to deal with. Avoiding frost bite will be as much of a challenge as shooting in low light.

I'll report my success or failure tomorrow.

Wishing everone the best of luck.

Brian

Hey all, I'm a touched confused (and stuck for ideas)

For the UWOL challenges do our videos need narrative story lines as such? I'm having a bit of trouble coming up with ideas at the moment. Do we need to create video that simply shows landscapes, seascapes, nature etc... Or do we produce narrative videos that incorporate nature in some way?

I'm a bit baffled and could use some pointers please.
Sorry if this has been asked before.

Dave

Sorry, I just read back a page or two and someone had asked this question, so I now have the info I was after, thanks anyway and sorry to bother everyone.

Dave

The ball has started to roll!
 

Ok, i've finally captured something tonight. I was really starting to worry that i wouldn't get anything after having spent 3 nights out in the bush. Hopefully with the weather on the improve, the wildlife will also improve! I haven't yet digitized anything, so i'm not sure how it's come out, but hopefully it will have been worth the wait.
I hope every one elses plans are also coming together.

Bryce

Bryce,

Glad to hear that you have something in the can.

I've rolled my camera a couple times but still haven't come up with anything.

Still haven't hit the idea that clicks.

I've had three or four ideas that I thought would work but as I thought them through I realized there wasn't enough there to really make something of it.

Dave, look at thread #41 in this thread. Daniel Ross is questioning almost the same as you, read some of the answers from Kevin, Mat and Meryem and you are on the road again!

Plans for uwol#6
 

OK, then I'm on the road :)

Plan A:

Date: Evening/night time 10th and 11th October - no matter how the weather is, and of caurse it's gonna be terrible - it's uwol time folks and we've been having rain/bad weather since before uwol 5 :)

Location: my fathers boathouse at the island of Kvamsoy.

Equipment (some of it):
Wetsuit (oh, so cold)
Video lights
Bonfire, some kind of...
Seaweed :)
Canon XLH1 + tripod

Story:
Well, that's yet to be a secret :)

Narrations: yes

Music: I think so

Plan B (hope not):
Hmmm, let's see....
Our cat out on the porch looking for night life.
Me inside the house filming the cat through open window.
And some great music from Sonicfire Pro.


Hehehe, thats my plan for uwol#6

Geir Inge

Nice to see you have a plan Geir!

I've got to say I'm looking suspiciously like shark food at the moment. I have something in the pipeline but It relies on other people too and with only a little over 10 days shooting left I'm kind of doubtful its going to come off!

I guess I should be thinking of a plan B....oh dear!

I'm thinking shark food.....

I went out last night straight from the office in an attempt to capture the key to my proposed film. I put about 20 minutes in the can, froze my fingers and toes went home had a double of warm up then viewed the capture. End result I have 20 minutes of nothing, crap, turd.

It's back to the story board and maybe the tank......

Brian

Well tonight will be my first try to get anything, but when I read what others have reported I'm not too optimistic!

It's a cold and clear evening here tonight, so even if the footage don't do I will get some fresh air :-)

Tomorrow I’m heading out to a nice location. It is an old pier, that’s the spot I’ll hunt for my creatures from the deep blue… I got a really nice idea; I hope I can get it on tape. Meryem, if I want to incorporate the UWOL logo (the one from the website), is that ok and if, can I get it in .eps or .png (or what every is possible)?

Markus Nord

I'm done except for refining the edits and adding a touch of music. Two of us went out night before last and set up lights to film some outdoor night activity.

Despite a cold front that literally blew in causing constant blown over lights and stands, we got enough done.

The wind was so bad it was the first time my Deadcat windmuff couldn't handle it. The audio is OK but without the Deadcat, sound would have been unusable.

So unless a sudden better idea comes along, I'll be requesting the upload password in a few days.

Low light settings
 

Just a note about low light settings. If you have the Canon XL2 or XLH1 there are som information here at the DvInfo.

For XLH1 there are presets to download:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=66776, look for PRESET07.CPF: LOWLT12 -- for shooting in low light with 12db gain.
I will use this preset tonight and will report back my opinion.

For XL2 I found this intesting thread:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...light=lowlight

Hope this can help some of you, struggling in the dark. If others have any tips for different camcorders, post a thread!

My only plan - it better work!
 

Just bought a new campervan for some family get aways recently and we're all heading off for the first trip this weekend to a nice riverside caravan park.

My plan is to take my fly fishing rod and fish towards the campervan, where my wife, or any of my three boys, can put the high beam of my car on to illuminate the area of the river I will be fishing.

Hopefully, the fish are jumping and I am also hoping there are platypus around (and it is light enough to capture them). The last time I fished this spot it was wonderful, in terms of nature subjects however, that was twenty years ago, so who knows what it is like now.

So fingers crossed that I can capture the "evening rise".

If this plan doesn't work, I suppose I could submit 2 or 3 minutes of darkness - with some narration explaining what you can't see. Then again, my boys tell me they would love to show you how to cook the perfect marshmallow over the fire. Not exactly what i had in mind - so let's hope the car lights over the river works to some degree.

No matter what, I will certainly be submitting something!

Markus : Who do you dive with when you go shooting and what time of night do you dive night dives. I've never dived at night yet but its something I hope to try out when I can get some clear water.

Bruce : Very jealous....I not shot a second yet !

Per : Looking forward to hearing about your results!!

David : Platypus are just one of animals that are truely awe inspiring, such a mish mash of evolution. Do you often see echidna another crazy Aussie creature? I would be stoked to see some footage of those fellas.

David I love the fishing idea so much that with your permission I'm going to steal it and do the same thing. My only modification is that I'll use a boat. See the attached picture that was taken yesterday afternoon. I wonder if I will catch anything.

Brian

hi markus, it's fine with me if you incorporate the logo for a uwol film, you can drag it off the website, but if you want a better version, you'll need to e-mail mat....

glad to see you people rallying! UWOL knows no defeat.

of course, i have not shot a thing yet myself, but i have plans, many many plans....

i'm feeling so guilty, i am going to have to lob a cream puff theme for the next UWOL in february.

DJ, who is sitting at the desk next to me editing her entry that she shot at 4 am this morning has suggested that i make the next theme DAY.

heh. good one.