UWOL #8 Hidden Wonders - Marj Atkins
 

When the theme “Transformation” was announced, there was absolutely no question in my mind what my subject was going to be - the life-cycle of the Acraea Horta butterfly!

The reason? I have a keen interest in butterflies; I have 24/7 access to this particular species in my garden and being multi-generational (more than one generation per year and on the wing most of the year) I have them at different stages at the same time. They are extremely distasteful to birds so they are very conspicuous in all their activities and therefore easy to find and video. What I didn’t realise at the time was just how amazing the experience would be using a Canon x100 macro lens attached to my XL2.

Wrapped into a one millimeter near-spherical package are all the ingredients for this exquisitely delicate creature with a phenomenal life process and transient existence. It is almost impossible to bend one’s mind around this wonder.

I was in two minds whether to let this be an art video and allow the pictures to speak for themselves with background music or to make this an educational documentary with commentary. My family encouraged me to do yet another V.O. so, for all its worth, here goes.

Hey Marj

Fab..fab...fab !!! Its funny my first question on watching your piece was HUH!, this happened in just a couple of weeks but if you have access to different stages of development....hey you had it easy ;-) !!

First and fore mostly, great photography, lovely detail, colour and compositions. Secondly what a great detailed look at one species. In fact probably the most detailed look at a single species we've had on uwol. This really pushes the right buttons for me as I like the feeling of getting to know a creature in a film and of course learning some interesting info at the same time. Nice narration too, I think you could have got away with a purely visual piece to music but the VO was well delivered and interesting!

I wasn't keen on your lead in. No credit up front and the intro credit seemed to just appear at random after I'd already got into what I was watching. I also think a slow zoom in on that first shot would have really got me ready for my journey into this trees fascinating macro world.

Top notch piece again Marj!

Royal-Class
 

Marja what have you done here,this is in BBC level. Every thing is
perfect, unbelivebal entery.And the macros are stunning.Yes big
words but it`s greait!!!!

Best Regards
Vidar Vedaa.




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Marj,

Professional level documentary!! Great script, fabulous close ups!!

curiously, what did you shoot the close ups with???

Definitely in my top four!!

Marj....admit it....you really work for the Discovery Channel, don't you?

Outstanding....educational and outstanding.

The close ups were fantastic....as Dale asked, what did you use?

And your VO was once again, very good....

Bob T.

OK, Now I know winning this thing is totally out of my league. I just threw my camera into a dumpster.........

Just kidding. Wow, what great camera shots. I have somuch to learn.

Oliver Pahlow

Thank you all for your positive comments -its really encouraging.

Yes I had it very easy - that's why I chose this subject. If I had done this in January, however, it would have been done in three days and with a few more interesting steps included! (My Kiggelaria tree has an orange haze around it around Christmas time - an absolute delight.)

It was very convenient doing it at home, however I would have camped at a butterfly garden, where they have all stages of a butterfly on the go all the time, if I had needed to. You just need to know what you are looking for.

I concur! I wasn't sure what to do with the jolly title. I was concerned about interfering with the very quick series of shots at the beginning. I thought it would be too much to take in.
The missing zoom on the tree was a last-minute oversight! I exchanged a soft, flat shot of the tree with one done on a sunny day and when pulling in the handles to slip it into place I lost the zoom-in. I didn't notice until you pointed it out.

I used a Canon Macro lens EF 100mm 1:2.8 that I borrowed from a good photographer friend for the purpose because my XL2 20x lens doesn't quite have enough zoom for insects even with a 1.6x converter attached. (My little Sony handi-cam with a 1.5 converter and its macro facility gave me a very nice close-up, but nothing like this!)

I was totally amazed at the magnification it produced. I have never seen images like this and every new shot I took was another wonder to me. Needless to say I will be saving up for one of these lenses - it has opened up a whole new world.

Inpressing-stuf
 

Marj can I also ask a cuestion,are you milimerer or centimeter from
the object.This macros are werry inspereiting!!!!


VJV


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Vidar it just depends on the available light. The depth of field is minimal.
I think the closest I could get with good light was about 10cm. The close up of the caterpillar head for example was taken outside in good light from about 8-10cm away.
Some of the shots I had to do indoors at a window to get away from the wind. I found that frustrating at times because I don't have proper lighting for this sort of work as this is the first time I have used a Macro lens like this.
I had to bounce light from a reflector (car sunscreen!) to brighten some of the scenes such as those of the pupa that were in the shade.
I also had to can a lot of the early morning shots indoors because they were just too dark. Some I had to rescue in post because they were the best I could get. I must say these caterpillars could have been more considerate with their timings - most things happened first light and most times I was totally unprepared for it!

Tanks allot Marj.

The reason I ask is that fore some year ago I do allot of photo
at the morning dew ,in the Golden morning sun, and it was magic.
So tanks Marj I think you have given alot of inspirasion here.



VJV.


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Wow!
What more can be said. Marj, i found your film awsome. Very informative, & those close ups!!! Brilliant! I don't no what more i can say.

Bryce

Hi Marj, this was really amazing - a very professionally produced piece which really held my interest throughout with wide-eyed anticipation. The choice of subject alone is inspired, I think there are few places and species in the world that would allow for this idea to work as well as it has in the time allotted. The VO was well paced and very clear, and the macro shots were stunning and perfectly framed - particularly the butterfly head - your eyes must have been popping out of your head when you filmed that!!!...

I would have also to say that the lack of intro took the shine off the start, and early on I felt that there were quite a few quick crossfades between quite similar shots - for me this didn't work too well - don't be afraid of using straight cuts in these scenarios. But really, that's a very very minor thing...

Top marks from me ;-)

Hi Marj,

Wow! I was expecting high quality from you after your first uwol video, but this was top notch! My favorite so far!
I agree with the other comments that have been made already.

Thank you very much for sharing! I look forward to see more of your future films.

Thanks for your feedback Bryce, Rob and Trond - really appreciated.

[QUOTE=Rob Evans;865800]

the macro shots were stunning and perfectly framed - particularly the butterfly head - your eyes must have been popping out of your head when you filmed that!!!...

QUOTE]


Yes that was amazing but the shot that thrilled me most (alongside the one showing the transparent eggs with the caterpillar inside and the little mouth nibbling its way through) was that of the butterfly drinking.
I think it is because I caught it with my hand as it landed to drink on the blossom (I’m not sure which of us got the bigger surprise - the butterfly or myself), calmed it down in a dark box and then coaxed it to feed on the flower (indoors) by gently holding its wings closed and introducing it to the nectar. It became so absorbed in this activity that I was able to get a couple of nice shots in before it became restless again.

Wonderful story - I've heard about coaxing lambs to feed, but never butterflies!!!! ;-)

Wow! Makes my little butterly video look like a grade school project. Very well done. I am afraid I don't have friends who have great lenses. And coaxing a butterly would never have ocurred to me. Nice job. A top contender.

You learn a lot of tricks along the way when you know people who run a butterfly garden and another who is a lepidopterist!
Another trick I learned is you can remove a pupa (carefully) and glue it onto another surface as they do at butterfly gardens. I used this to swop out the new and mature pupas on the wall to illustrate the development of the pupa.

Amazing work, I felt like I was watching the discovery channel while viewing, you have an excellent grasp on the whole production process, I'm more of an editor myself so these are tough for me.


Keep it up!

Marj,

When are you going to own up to ripping this off some Life on Earth/David Attenborough programme? Only kidding!

Seeing those little critters up close was truly fascinating, and I don't normally like bugs.

Your story has a really good flow, from laying eggs to the final metamorphosis. The amount of commentary and the detail given is just right in my opinion.

If only learning was always this fun. I just loved this!

out of the lurker's shadows and into the big leagues. I'm still stunned at how this shy, demure Saffy has taken our little contest by storm. And to think a free t-shirt was the big motivator....

I love shooting macro, because the process itself is inherently transformational -- it changes your perception of the familiar and the mundane forever. And I know how challenging it is, to frame shots and work with the shallow DOF of a macro lens. This is stunning. Great colors, great perspectives on the subject matter and fantastic composition, plus you nailed the theme.

I think I'd suggest backing off the VO slightly -- overall, I like the informational/nat history lesson, but I'd give the images a bit more room to run. Just scale it back a tad. It is a little bit challenging to concentrate on both simultaneously, since these are complex shots matched with a fairly technical narration.

I agree with Mat that the opening shot is a little incongruent with how it sets up my expectations measured against the actual content of the film...

Wow Marj:

From Macro shooting in the greatest sense to micro, all with the same splendor, depth, technical skill and presence.

You and Ruth inspire me.

Cat

Yeh had to have it and still love it!

Thanks Meryem - appreciate your comments and especially the constructive help.
I must say I feel that it is more than the just the first clip that is a problem. I messed with a few of those clips at the last minute.
After I had found the first batch of eggs that hatched I found twelve more batches - some newly laid - when looking for leaves for the hatchlings to eat.
This indicated to me that the females were still laying eggs - just that I was never around to see it. I had really wanted to include this but it was only after I had completed my video that I spotted two females looking for a place to lay their eggs.
There was a brisk breeze blowing and these butterflies were being tossed to and fro on the branches, even though I tried to make a wind break, so the footage was not good.
I had a quandary - to include a bit of it for the sake of the story or leave it out to keep the flow of the video. The story won.
Lesson learned? Don’t fix something if it ain’t broke!


Thanks Cat, Mike and Andrinn for your comments too.

Congratulations from the Shark Tank. I set out to do a similar project, but couldn't get all the life stages together in the allotted 3 weeks, so I just let it go. Good thing, too, because you would have beaten the pants off me.
Your macro work is stupendous. I hope you don't mind if I steal a few of your ideas.

What are you doing in there Steve?! I was looking forward to seeing what you were going to do this time after your fantastic video of last time.

It’s not possible to get all the stages of a butterfly within 3 weeks unless you have a butterfly that is multi-generational and there are several stages going simultaneously like the Acraea Horta. Many butterflies only have one generation per year. Most pupas and caterpillars are near impossible to find outdoors because they are so well camouflaged unlike these ones that are safe from birds due to the cyanide in their systems.

Not sure what you have in mind but generally the butterfly gardens keep those butterflies that are multi-gen. and if you ask the staff, they are sure to help you find what you are looking for.

WOW Marj… this is the winner… really nice… if it’s any thing to comment, it would be the establishing shots. I thing a wider shot of the garden with grass and more sky would fit better.
In some shots it’s a little bit of camera shake, but that’s not a problem.
Well done… I thing this one is yours.

Marj

Due to circumstances beyond my control (and annoyance)I am unable to enter this competion as I am not in a position to edit effectivly between February and November, but that does not mean I am not interested and eagerly await viewing each of the bi monthly challenge entries.

Yours, this month the most complete entry I have seen to date in this competion. Forget the comments about titles etc (its nice to see a break from tradition) what you have produced is first class and IMHO a winner!

Mick

Thanks Markus and Mick for your comments - very encouraging and helpful.

In this case Markus, it was not camera shake but the wind blowing the branches of the tree on which my subjects were active. This fact is not obvious when viewing the final result so close, but it is definitely something to watch out for when doing macro work. This is the reason I filmed as much indoors as I could.

Oh yes this one is a winner for sure.Not much more I can say that has not been mentioned by everyone else here.Congrats Marj.A most deserving winner this round

Thanks John - appreciate the encouraging comments - especially from another Saffy.

Marj... for now I'm just a lowly lurker watching and learning, but while I concur in all the other positive comments abut your video this time around, the one thing I did not see commented on was the tight editing.

Many times I watch a video and either feel I was torn away from a scene too soon, or, and more often, that I was on a scene too long.

Every one of your edits was perfect... never left me feeling I needed to stay, nor overstayed the view, but overall left me hungry for more of the story.

I would say this editing job was the best I have seen to date. I learned a lot, thank you.

Chris

Hi Marj.

What a great film this is.
In just 3 min you give us a full length film.
I think much of the film lies in how it's put together in the editing prosess and the information you give us as narrator. Also weant to mention the suitable music in the background and your VO is great.

Wish you all the best and longing to see your next film in uwol#9.

Geir Inge

Hi Marj,
I'm new to UWOL and late in getting a look at the videos... and just viewed yours - it's simply charming and very professionally put together in every respect. It seems you may be able to license this somewhere... I can imagine that there would be plenty of public tv stations that may be interested; and I've also heard of documentary filmmakers licensing short films to airlines, for pretty high license fees. Just something to keep in mind. It's just such a gem, it would be nice if it could be shared with a wider audience.
I'm very much looking forward to seeing more of your videos!
Amelia

Thank you Chris, Geir and Amelia for your comments.
I must say Chris it was quite a task to squeeze so much into a 3-minute movie, so the editing was probably dictated by that. There was so much more I could have included.

I am still working to complete this video Amelia with all the steps included in more detail. I missed some things like the caterpillar in the process of pupating because I wasn't prepared for it so early in the morning, but this morning two of the little hatchlings featured in my video pupated - and I was ready and waiting. It was fascinating to watch. Having looked after them for the past five weeks or so, it was like watching my kids graduating :) although I guess the celebration only finally happens when the butterflies emerge in a week or two!