UWOL #7 "Vera In Wonderland" by Trond Saetre
 

Film title:
21_UC7_VeraInWonderland

Star(s):
Vera the dog
My sister, Trude

In this film, the star from my UC5 film "Exploring moments" is back.
We are following my sister's dog, a gordon setter named Vera, as she is running around, playing in the woods. Vera is now 7 months old and a true moviestar. She loves being in front of the camera, and the closer to the lense, the more fun she seems to have. And she really enjoy watching herself on tv.

The film was shot in about 2 hours, and during this time my sister was taking lots of still photos while I was filming.

In the film, Vera is taking the very first bath of her lifetime. Parts of the lake was covered with thin ice, and the water was cold. Unfortunately I wasn't able to capture Vera jumping in the water, since I was filming the opening sequence in the opposite direction. We were caught by surprice that Vera took a bath, because in general she hates rain, showers and being wet.

Hope you enjoy.


Trond

Since the film isn't available on the uwol website yet, I uploaded my film to youtube also:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeltIUsXtQ8

they sure grow up fast, those puppies! *sniff*

i can't believe that 7 months have whizzed by already...

a fun film, trond. with the musical selection, it almost felt like a dog cartoon. she sure is a cute girl.

i like the doggie dream sequence ending. what do those crazy mutts dream? well, now we know.

Meryem, thank you for the comment. I'm glad you like it.

Yes, Vera has grown up way too fast. She is a bright young lady who knows exactly how and when things should be done.

Trond,

I can't believe how big she's grown!

This was another fun film to watch. Vera looked like she was having a blast. :)

Well, until she took her bath. She certainly looked confused by what had just happened. :)

Nice choice of music and beautiful opening sequence scenery.

Nice way to wrap it all up with her dreaming about her day.

Yes, Vera was very confused about the wet element. Actually I think both Trude and I were equally confused, or should we say shocked, about what Vera did there. After that, Vera was running around to dry herself, (and get the heat back, I guess).
I'm glad you liked the film, Kevin.

Very fun....I love dogs, so I couldn't help but like it.

My original idea was very similar...
I was going to video our 18 month old coon hound as she investigated new things...
Everything is an adventure to a young dog...

Trond,
filming dogs is not an easy task, I know, I've tried with Anne-Kari's two dogs. I think you did very well with Vera.
There was a couple of minor hard cuts, but overall I enjoyed your film! Vera has grown very well since her last performance.

Bob, thank you for the feedback. You are so right, the dogs love checking out new things.
I'm glad you enjoyed watching it.

I appreciate your feedback, Per Johan. Means a lot!
Yeah, I am aware of a few (too) hard cuts. Think those are the ones you talk about. With 2 of the cuts, I had no options but make them a little more hard cuts than I wanted, since cross-dissolve transitions made them worse, due to Vera moving around.
Maybe I could have solved it in another way?

Hi Trond:

Well done friend! The best adventure of all is to go have a blast.... Vera seems to have mastered that part of it at least! Vera really has grown and is simply a bundle of energy in every way. Not easy to film a bounding bullet so you pulled it together nicely for the challenge of that. Great way to end it. A real joy to watch!

Cato

A nice exploring/adventures film, nice job. It looks like you hade a hard time to get the dog in the frame… :)


Markus

Catherine, thank you for the comment. Yes, Vera had so much fun. She even cried a bit when we had to go back home. Running around for "only" about 2 hours was not part of her plan. She would have stayed there if she could.

Markus, yes it was hard to keep Vera in the frame. To have her standing still for more than a couple of seconds when it was so much cool smells and other interesting things to explore was almost impossible.
But this is part of the challenge about filming animals. It's totally unpredictable and you have to prepair yourself for "anything".
Best of all, we had a great day with much fun!

Hi Trond


You make a realy nice entery her,very nice film!!


VJV

__________________

Hey Trond, that was a charming little film, with a great star. I loved your selection of shots, the variety and movement of them really flowed nicely. I think perhaps I would have liked to have seen some more of that location, as the filming did seem to be focused in quite a small area. My wife loved this one too - she's a big dog fan.. Good film!

Tronde,

ahhh, a Gordon Setter!! What a great bird dog!! This one seems to have real character!!

I love videos with dogs in them, right up there with raptors!!

I very much enjoyed you entry!!!

This was really fun to watch. Vera is growing up so fast- but she is still a bundle of energy. I liked the variety of shots, and the energy of the music NEARLY matched hers :)

Ruth

Vidar,
I'm glad you like the film.

Rob,
You are right, it was all filmed in a very small area. Maybe 50 x 50 meters.
I'll keep that in mind to next time... Include more of the location itself.

Dale,
You bet Vera has a character.
You can see it in her eyes when she's up to something.

Ruth,
I am really glad you like it. Yes, Vera is a huge bundle of energy. She loves running around, and it seems like her favorite is playing in the snow.
Nope, the music isn't even close to match Vera's energy, haha. (Maybe in the film, though)

Thank you for the feedback!

Hi Trond,

Well, Vera certainly had quite an adventure!

Lovely film - very relaxing and enjoyable to watch. I think you captured the situation very well however, I also would have liked to have seen some wider angles of what looked like a pristine lake.

I notice you used disloves as well as sharp transitions - which did detract a little from the start. I probably would have overlapped the disolves on the timeline - or just used the sharp transitions throughout the film however, I am nit picking a bit here.

This is definately the best in image quality I have watched so far - very sharp indeed.

Nice one Trond.

Like most people I cant believe how big that Dog has grown.I understand how you feel when she jumps into the water and you have your cam pointing in the other direction.Great colours in you video.....I need to get some compression tips from you because every time I compress my video all the rich colours wash out

I use Sorenson Squeeze 4.5 for compressing/encoding to quicktime.
I'll check the settings when I get back home from work, but I think I had the bitrate fairly high at around 2400kbps.

Edit:
John, sent you a mail.

Trond, what a great video of Vera and your sister. It was so much fun to watch them playing in the wild. What fun. Makes me really miss my old doggie. Bob

Hey Trond, good film. At the end were you suggesting the whole thing was a dream. If so we have both cat and dog dream adventures represented this time. Also, I liked the idea of having the small frame in her eye reflect what she saw. A good way to do that is in Photoshop where you can take a still image and trim the edges to fit the eye just right and use an opacity gradient, takes more time though. Anyway, I liked it, keep it up.

Adrinn, yes the ending sequence was supposed to show that it was all a dream.
I am aware that it is possible to do it better in Photoshop, but the time was running out, and I just did it in Premiere instead. But thank you for the heads up about this detail.

Bob,
I'm glad you had fun watching it.
Having fun is an important part of the uwol challenge, both when making and when watching the films.

Hi Trond, Vera and Trude.

Nice film and Vera is becoming quite a moviestar :)
You've made a fine mix between original sound and music. Also your editing skills has improved. I have just one comment (personal opinion), maybe you or perhaps Trude should try out to be Veras voice? Text in a small videoframe somehow dissapers from the viewer.

Wish you all the best my friend.
Geir Inge

I will definitely keep your suggestion in my mind for future films of Vera.
These kind of comments is what I learn from, so thank you very much.

Trond you make me miss my dog. And I'd just gotten over him too! Nice fun film.

Trond
Vera is really growing. I thought you did a good job putting this one together. As mentiones a couple of rough cuts there is the things I noticed. Maybe a cut away would work to transistion between them? Anyway you are improving each round.

Gordon

This was a delightful movie Trond. I really enjoyed seeing the stunning scenery that formed the backdrop to Vera’s adventure and thought the transitions at the beginning were very effective. Your images are very clear. Thought your ending also very effective although I’m not sure the square image coming from the eye in the scene before worked that well.

I just loved the scenes of Vera’s bath and her reaction to it and then the way she went back and barked at the water/reflections - not sure she’ll do that again in a hurry!
Oh yes Trond - I distinctly heard Vera say “C’mon guys!!! what’s the hold-up?!!” at :39 :)

Eric,
Yes it's amazing how close we get attached to the dogs. They really become a true family member.

Gordon,
Yes, the rough cuts should never have been there. Thanks for the tip about using cut aways. I'll remember that.

Marj,
I'm glad you liked it.
I can see what you mean about the square image. The idea was to do something special instead of only the regular transitions. Guess it didn't work out as it should. But it was fun trying it. Might have worked slightly better if the image was round instead of square?
Oh, and at :39, Vera was waiting for my sister to take a bunch of photos of her.

Wonderful film
 

It looks like Vera was having a ball out there. Great shots and a beautiful area. I liked the part where Vera was sleeping and dreaming of her adventure.
Thanks making this film, I really liked it alot.

Hi Trond,
Nice film! What an energetic dog you have, & what a beautiful place you filmed in. I would have liked to see more of it in between some of the shots of Vera. Some point of view shots would also have been nice, just to reinforce the adventure as being hers.

Bryce