Oh I know....but it's fun makin' a bunch of noise while she is trying to sleep :)

that's fine for you guys - it's nearly 10pm on the 1st here and not even 6am in Colorado. It's past my bedtime!

Maybe I can give Meryem a call now and she can give me a hint, I'm sure she'd understand.... where's that phone directory?

c'mon people, it's trash day here, i have things to do. drink my coffee, scoop the cat litter....

Bring it on Meryem. I'm ready to take on anything that you throw my way. My batteries are charged, I have fresh blank tapes, my lenses are clean, my toenails are trimmed. I gave myself a green light. Let's go.

Oliver

I have refreshed my browser page about a 100 times already...Im dying here!

I think I've worn the icon off my web browsers refresh button too.

I'm going golfing in about an hour... My score (and handicap) will seriously go in the crapper if I don't know the theme before I hit the links!

Get after it!

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=127136

Can someone give me directions to the shark tank please? Don't want to count myself out so soon, but don't really know how I'll be able to put an entry together for this. If I could retire at my age this would be a little more do-able. Darn! And UWOL 11 is so far away...

(I just want to say that this is a wonderful topic Meryem... so please don't think I'm being a stick-in-the-mud about the theme.)

Good luck everyone!

Of course, my first time, and I have nothing in the can, that I can use, or do I.....?

I've got some ideas, just have to make some contacts.

Darn, this is gonna be difficult, my vacation time is at the end of the month, I guess I will need that time to recover, if I can get this happening, soon.

Hey, it's a long weekend here, I guess the home projects will have to wait, a little longer!
The wife isn't gong to like that.

Trying to guess the theme of one of your curved balls, Meryem, is impossible but as you were inviting ideas - here are a few fairly easy themes that you can store away for a future date. Wasn’t sure where to put them and decided this was a good a place as any so here goes:

“Patterns in Nature” (An easy theme - open to many interesting interpretations.)

“At the water’s edge” - with emphasis on ‘edge’.
(An opportunity to don our gumboots and check out life in the mud - things that are found on the banks, in the reeds, in rock pools or along the ocean shoreline.)

“Down to earth”
(Lots going on down at ground level - terrestrial creatures, different geology producing different habitats etc. - obviously with a prohibition on disturbing nesting places.)

The very simplest theme I could conjure up was “All things bright and beautiful . . “ also open to more than one interpretation but less demanding in general.

Hope others will add to this list because as sure as Norman the mini donkey I don’t want another theme like this one!!

It's funny really, I for one have really thrived on this round - it's opened up so many horizions for me, led me to meeting some really nice people who love and protect the nature around them, and presented me with some of the most memorable wildlife watching sessions I have ever had, oh and the filming too ;-) I'd quite happily do it all again!!!

From the start I knew you were enjoying this Rob and like Kevin it has opened wonderful doors for you - which I think is fantastic. I am really looking forward to seeing your video.

Don't get me wrong - to me the idea was great, meeting these people who do a wonderful and self-scrificing job and doing my bit to help was also fine - it was trying to achieve a high enough standard that was my biggest issue. I was constantly conscious of my total lack of video production experience. I know I can't compare apples with pears but most ads that make it to TV have about ten people working on it - each one an expert in his field and they have plenty of the clients's money to spend. As John said - making an ad that sells the client short is not so nice - even though you know they are neither paying for it nor compelled to use it. I guess I worry too much - they loved it in the end but as for achieving TV standard - I'm not so sure. I found it more difficult than enjoyable.
(BTW - A lot of my chirping round here is to rag Meryem (sorry Meryem) and try to open up some dialogue :)

Don't worry, you folks have taken me to school around the themes, and I won't do anything hard again. It's too hard! Nothing but easy stuff from here on.

In fact, I think it is time to let someone else pick the themes. After ten rounds of me, you're all probably over it and ready for a breath of fresh air. Change is always a healthy and refreshing thing.

I nominate Marj, she has great ideas. Think about it a little bit, Marj, and shoot me an e-mail. That will be the theme for UWOL #11.

Maybe I'll finger someone different for each round to be the theme-picker, and that way, the contest will always stay fresh. Not a bad idea...

Me and my big mouth!!!

The only rules are:

1) You can't use these because you already spoke publicly about them, and that puts ideas in peoples' heads that gives them an unfair advantage over new players who may not have had these threads.

I have a personal, unwritten rule of never posting a theme that I have publicly discussed or spoken about, within the last 3 months. Even if a player posts a suggestion publicly, I will wait several rounds before using it, to make sure that the idea is completely fresh and appears as new at DVinfo...

2) It can't be something we have already done.

You can write the theme announcement thread, including the headline, send it to me in an e-mail, and I'll add the standard UWOL boilerplate and deadline info and post it, but with full credit to the theme picker. I think having someone else actually post would get confusing, but I'll put it up verbatim with proper attribution.

. . . on second thoughts Meryem - you have my offerings above - you choose one and then at least I can still enter - otherwise I'm out of the contest :(

If you insist that I choose a theme can I do it in December as I don't think I will be able to put in an entry during what is normally a very busy time of year for me?

And Meryem - just a word of enouragement - despite all the ragging done round here you do a wonderful job. I would far prefer a challenge I can sink my teeth into than an easy one any day. (Just this one taxed my level of experience!)

Addendum - Okay I got this in too late - you got to it before me! Will give you a whole bunch more.

Any uploading instructions,directions or orders yet?

coming right up....been waiting for that first request! just gotta get the password secured...

I think its a theme that does what its meant to 'challenge you'. I'm just gutted that I haven't been at home in August more than a few days and been able to get an entry in. What I will say though is...Meryem please do have more themes like this and please do push us to become better film makers. I can completely agree with Robs sentiment, I bet it was a real buzz to use your skills to help and provide a great resource for a good cause.

I'm looking forward to the resultseven more than usual and well done to all that have completed a film!

Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #285
 

Marj,

Next time remember Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #285:

No good deed ever goes unpunished.

Yip - Hoist by my own petard here I'm afraid - but hey that's okay I'll take the punishment as deserved - although I'm sure it wasn't intended as such :)

Watch out everyone - those were my nice one's - now come my slightly more difficult ones! You better plead with Meryem to let me off the hook - after all she had an "easy easy" one for you!!

Marj:

You should become a charter member of our new society... see my PSA here:

http://www.makeyourfilm.net/downloads/UWOLSharktank.mov

Hahahahahahaha!!!! Genius!! Loving it Chris!!!

Well, I'm about to drive off for a week and a half to the wild west of scotland, hopefully filming some otters and basking sharks along the way. I probably won't have internet access, so look forward to seeing all the entries and giving feedback when I get back!

Cheers!

Rob

You simply have to submit this as a non-entry and post a feedback thread tomorrow so we can all make our comments! :)

Chris, you should win a prize for the best way of diving into the tank!

Okay, I will do that for the fun of it....

That was excellent Chris...

...and thankfully had far less nudity that I had feared!!

Chris,

That was very funny. I guess I have been taking this way to seriously and I shouldn't. It should and still have been fun. I aproucht it the wrong way. I won't make the same mistake.

Oliver

I think perhapes for future challenges. A "dunk in the sharkTank" video is the way to go?

Oliver:

We all enjoy these challenges, but when all else fails, we just have to laught it up....

I'm not sure but I think Chris hatched this idea during an underwater scene in our 48 hour film challenge shooting a couple weeks ago. What he told me was this general idea, but that once he was in the tank we'd hear voices saying hello to various individuals who had already announced their shark tank status. I guess the lawyer in Chris thought better of that idea. In any event I liked it the way it was.

I too was worried about the "nude furry animals"... thankfully this one gets a PG rating. <G>

A very lean round in respect to number of entries.A very rich round in respect to raising awerness to very deserving organisations.Congrats to everyone who completed an entry...I was this { } close to not getting one in...I have visited the links to all the organisations featured in the PSA's..I live probably about 20 min or so away from Marj,yet I had never heard of the Free me organisation...I am busy drawing up a list things to donate after reading there wish list...Still feels good to be part of UWOL