UWOL #9: "A Sunday in the Wilds" by Chris Barcellos
 

It is what it is.

Vimeo version here: http://www.vimeo.com/1216236

Very nice Chris. I liked the colors and music, and you had great movement. The opening tilt revealed wonderful scenery.

Andrew

Hi Chris,
Very nice video you have. So bright colors and sharp images throughout your video!
Nice scenery. Looks so peaceful to be there.
Thank you for sharing!
Keep up your good work.

Chris,

This one is an inspiraton for me!!!! You took some normal appearing countryside and turned it into the actual beauty it actuall is Watching this one I told myslef, that is what I need to do, make what appears normal and turn it into something beautiful!!!
It reminded me of the film "Soylant Green", (does anyone recall it?) when the old man gives up on life and goes to the suiside center. They put on some beautiful music and scenery on a big screen and he enjoys them as he drifts off into nothingness.

The pans were dead slow and smooth and helped give some life and movement to otherwise static sceenes.

For me this was your best yet!!

Awesome Job, definitely in my top 4!!!!!

Hi Chris:

This is lovely! I agree with Dale, I think it is one of your best entries. Slow moving pans, razor sharp images with deep rich colors. And your own creative music adds to the big cinema feel. What a nice Sunday you had there!

Cat

Chris, your pans and tilts are beautiful in this video. The score substantiated the film well. Would have liked to see some more wildlife!
Keep up your good work.

A nice serene hike in the wilderness, that was refreshing. You captured many points that I would have been interested in seeing on the way. Red-wing blackbirds were one of my favorites as a child. Thank you for the journey!

Chris nice open shot tilt slowly up to a lake and then into green woodland and wild flowers back to the clear deep blue sky.
very well put together, the music so calming reminded me of the scores that Hugh Miles used in his films A passion for Angling
Loved it.

A beautiful film.

Beautiful scenery, beautiful shots, beautiful light and beautiful music.

Beautiful.

Pete

Chris,

I learned a lot from this work...mostly, that it's not what you're shooting, it's how you shoot it.
You took what look like fairly normal countryside and turned it into art.

Outstanding colors! Nice composition! You've got it all going.

Well, back to the drawing board for me.

Bob

Smooth and nice… I would have liked some more animals or some close ups on the different plants (maybe some flowers or something). I liked the soundtrack, it fitted nice to the film, but I’m a sucker on VO… something to let us know something…

Thanks all for comments
 

Hey all, thanks for nice comments.

This film was shot with my HV20 on a Sunday afternoon, as a back up film. I was worried about my schedule, and had a free Sunday afternoon. Of course, wildlife doesn't really come out on a Sunday afternoon, so I had to live with what was there, and this the flora is part of wild life, in my view.

I had planned another shoot on this last weekend on the coast of California, knowing I was cutting it close, but that did not come to fruition due to vehicle breakdown issues on the coastal trip. So backup was there.

Chris,

That was very nice, very relaxing. The colors were amazing - that's the sort of greens I expect here in Ireland, and all I got was haze and heat shimmer and washed out shots!

I loved the red winged blackbird. You just have to go one better than the plain black variety we get here, don't you? Another of those times you'd love to have a three-foot long lens on the front of the camera. And the shots (and pans, and tilts!) of the trees and wildflowers were well executed, kind of makes the scene come alive a bit.

If this was the back-up film, the main feature must've been quite something. Very well done.

If "It is what it is" than it is simply beautiful. But you must have been wearing day-glow orange and banging pots and pans together because other than those two birds I think all the other wildlife must have been behind you? LOL I'm just having fun with you Chris. I really liked your video. In fact I liked it so much I'll give you an idea for your next venture out there -

However anyone else who reads this will assume I'm completely cracked...


As much as I love my tripod, recently I have found great freedom in sometimes walking away from it. "Dolly shots" to me feel very much alive - probably because we rarely look around this wonderful world while standing so still in just one spot in slow motion pans from left to right, or from down to up. But I don't have a jib, I can't afford a Steadicam, and any time I go hand held it looks like an earth quake just took place. So last week while I was filming those seals I took my $100 boom pole, turned it upside down, and screwed it into the accessory threads of my top camera handle (and my camera is HEAVY). Quite remarkably Chris, (and again, if you tell anyone I suggested this I'll deny it all the way to my grave) as I walked holding the "Bottom" of the boom pole, with the camera now suspended somewhere around my knees, it was amazingly steady. In fact I used a few of these shots in the dock scenes of my Sea Lion video. Of course in one of the shots the new "broom-cam" was suspended from my other new high tech toy - the "Van Cam" (Ford Econoline E350 traveling at 3mph).

Just a thought Chris.. Nice work either way

Hi Chris,
Very chilled, great composition and a good variety of colour and contrast - a perfectly paced film. Sometimes those "backups" just click don't they? ;-)

What a pretty little pond you found there! I really liked it accompanied by such a blue sky.

Isn’t it just like animals to be nowhere around when you really need them? ;)

You did a good job of mixing pans with static shots to give the eyes a chance to simply rest on a nice image. One thing you might try if you haven’t already, Chris, is the diagonal pan. I use it a lot, maybe because my eyes work that way when I’m scanning an area, but mostly because I think it adds interest and gracefulness—like a gentle sweep of an area or group.

Hi Chris,

Nice entry with lovely rich saturated color. Camera work was excellent and it had a very nice soothing feel with the slow pans and tilts combining with very relaxing music.

Well done.

Love the colors in your video,mine always seem to be washed out after compressing....did you enhance it at all in post?

Hi Chris,

That was very beautiful. I loved the rich colors and the music fit well with the change of scenery. Did the red winged black birds attack you like they attacked me?

Oliver

John: I use Vegas, and encode to a quicktime there. I find that in the process, I lose saturation, so I push the saturation up for the render.

Oliver: Noisy, but no attacks !

Hi Chris,

Yes, it is what it is...and it was lovely to watch. The music was a great choice for such a serene type of film. The colors were very vibrant and your camera work was well mixed and executed. Nice footage and yes, it would have been nice to have mixed it up a it with some wildlife however, I do agree, finding wildlife on a Sunday avo can be difficult (same here in Aus).

Not bad at all for a quiet Sunday afternoons work. Well done Chris.

Hi Chris.

Something funny happens when I open up your video file, it starts playing at 3.03 ?
I have to push the rewind button and then it's OK :)

This was a beautiful video to watch and the music is just right. Great colours. No VO needed in this one as the music and clips do tell it all. Building up expectation and then the sound from the bird comes in and finally we get to see it. I just wonder if we sometimes forget that trees and plants are living hings too, eh? And that birds and animals need a habitat to live in? I just wish I had some of your skills when it comes to putting together clips this way. A wildlife film dont have to be a "stuffed turkey", if you know what I mean :)

All the best.
Geir Inge

That's what a Sunday stroll should be like - good and peaceful. Who needs a church on a Sunday when you have God's creation all around you!

Pity the animals weren't a bit more forthcoming, but it makes them something to be enjoyed even more when they are there.

A nice, contemplative film. Beautiful images, especially the blackbirds. You have a great way of focusing on the essence of a scene, really bringing it out. Great film.


Ruth