UWOL #11 : "The River" by Kevin J Railsback
 

When the theme was announced, my first thought was to do something about disappearing habitat.
The weekend prior to the announcement, my wife and I toured several homes during the annual "Parade of Homes." Area home builders open up their recently constructed homes to the public as a kind of showcase for their company.

One of the homes we toured was a million dollar plus home built in a remote section of town.

While the house was truly incredible, what really stuck me was that the development was being carved out of a beautiful tract of forest. It was prime wildlife habitat that was being destroyed in order to build these opulant homes.

So, for a couple of days I thought about doing my film on the loss of this habitat. At the base of this development was a beautiful natural pond. And that's when I remebered a story that would have to put this idea on the back burner for now.

This was a story that I felt was huge but was reported as almost an afterthought.

During the massive 500 year flood we had this past June, the main waste water treatment plant was flooded and had shut down.

This meant that twenty-five MILLION, that's 25,000,000 gallons of raw sewage was being dumped into the Cedar River EVERY SINGLE DAY.


The river was closed due to all the debris from the flood so no one really seemed concerned that we were dumping raw sewage into the river at such an astronomical rate.

There were never any reports on what the sewage was doing to the river. Nothing about how it was effecting wildlife, nothing at all. How can you dump twenty-five million gallons of raw sewage into a river every day and not be concerned on its impact?

The more I thought about it, the more I knew that the river was going to be my habitat.

My early thoughts about "The River" had to do with the things that depended on the river. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the river itself needed to be the star.

As soon as I realized that the film was about the river itself, I knew I wanted to ask Bob Safay to be the river's voice. Luckily for me and for the film, Bob said yes.

The film just sort of made itself. I'd come home after a morning of shooting, lay down some video tracks in my editor and they just seemed to fit. Adding Bob's voiceover was the perfect finishing touch.

I hope you enjoy it.

Link to larger version:The River By Kevin Railsback On ExposureRoom

Hi Kevin;

I sort of spent all of my emotional reaction to this in my email before you put up the thread, so I'll let everyone else heap praise instead. Let me just say that you are a master at the "big cinema" feel to your films, your artistry with your camera work... you are an inspiration.

I think this is your best effort, and Bob's narrative and voice made it such a dramatic and compelling story. Way to go Bob! You were wonderful!

This was a masterful team effort that simply blows me away.

Thank you!

p.s. Is the problem fixed yet? Is the pollution getting attention? Can the river be reclaimed? You have left us hanging about this!

Cato

Safay and Railsback is a terrific combination. Why didn't you boys think of that sooner!

Bob, your VOs just get better and better, the pacing and tonality and your ability to put the sentiment out there. A script that could have come across as heavy-handed, instead has a lighter but still serious touch, in your hands. It's really like listening to the river or the earth speaking.

And Kevin, this is definitely your best shooting ever. Just beautiful. Even the ugly stuff is shot so beautifully that it almost takes away your point! That things are being wrecked by human indifference -- it's hard to be convincing of that when you yourself embody the opposite of indifferent. Fantastic cinematography, the lighting is terrific, and it is great to see you getting an entry together for this round.

But it is not just the shooting, but you are refining how you want to tell your story, and that gives it another dimension beyond pretty pictures and music.

Both you guys have such a deeply rooted love of the planet and combining your talents produced a fantastic piece. I usually try not to comment on these until after the contest, but the two movies that I have seen so far have been so moving, I could not help it.

Kevin,

Great images for portraying a message everyone should hear. Were I still teaching science I would include this clip in our study of watersheds!!!!

Cat is right, you capture the big cinima feel remarkably!!!


Great job!

Kevin,

Wow! This was amazingly shot. The colours were fantastic and I love the shot of the sun flaring from behind the tree stump. Works beautifully with the music. Story works well too. Fantastic work.

That was gorgeous. Beautifully shot and edited. I loved the slight movement in some of the shots, very smooth. Only thing I might have done differently would have been to space out the VO a bit more throughout the piece, but that is just one man's opinion. One question, were those dogs swimming across early on?

Kevin I thought I was watching a film from the Steven Dempsey stable just brilliant.
I hope you don’t mind me say that.

Opening scene the pan across the sun on the river was as steady as a rock, and then the close up, smooth as silk.

From beginning the end, your Film was just magic, going on from the opening to the last two scenes the water flowing
over the rocks then the slow transition to that long shot looking up river was a stunner.

The Voice! You gave a great narration Bob, polished and crystal clear with a storylie and message that hit home, a great combo.

Kevin,

Very well done. This was a very emotional piece for me. Great editing, narration and music. Looked like you were using an indieslider type device on a couple of shots. It added a lot to the visual impact. On a personal note people just don't get that it takes more money and resources in the long run to screw up our natural resources than to take the "earth friendly" route in the first place.

WHOOO HOOOOOooooo Kevin and Bob! Super job, I love it!
A fun thing is that I’m working in a story just like this one… I’m pitching it next weekend for a film support organization here in Sweden. In my story I want to use a female voice, but Bobs “rough” voice fitted very good too.
A very strong story, I’m holding this one as my top choice.

Good job boys!

Markus

Wow--- beautiful imagery and soundtrack. Quite stirring.....

Kevin and Bob, what a great team that is!
One of your very best videos so far, and my favorite this round.
Nice filming and editing.

The video had a really good and informative story.
Bob, you did very well with the VO!
And I like how the story was told from the river's point of view.

The opening shots have amazing colors.
In the shot at 0:41, is there an animal swimming in the river, or just some debree?

Well done!
Thank you for sharing.

wow.....fella! Great work, this is the full package from the Silver phoenix. Message, beauty, drama and all round Railsback mastery of the wet stuff. I have a couple of small editing crits but nothing major.

Top notch!

Hi Kevin and Mat:

Forgive me for jumping in and chatting on your own thread Kevin but I was just perusing around a bit before heading out to animal chores and I'm thrilled to see Mat is back! Mat, how was your trip? Did you get a film done and just wasn't around to submit? If so, you should definitely put it out there anyway, we would love to see it.

Kevin's and Bob's film is wonderful, no? O.K. I'll sign off. But Kevin, I still laugh at your comment on my thread about wondering if we perhaps aren't all a part of some kid's ant colony... ha! Actually, I was going to bring it all to that very suggestion, but I ran out of time in the 3 minute time requirement ;-).

Cat

This film moved me!
A strong film with a serious theme.
I can't forget these ending words:

"I am the lifeblood of your planet. If I die, surely you will follow."

I wonder how you could manage the slowly movements in the river?
What sort of equipment did you use for this take?

Thanks again Kevin and Bob:

Watched your film again with my husband. Truly an inspiration.

Cat

Hi Cat

Yes my trip was pretty amazing but wasn't to do with UWOL. I was a finalist in a film comp at the Wildscreen festival in the UK. Had to shoot a film in 1 day / edit in 5 hours....crazy experience but amazing. The screening/premiere had 300 people and was hosted by Steve Leonard (BBC Presenter). Its been a great experience and I'm hopeful of other things un-folding because of it.

But nothing for uwol from me this time.

Looking forward to watching all the others though!

ps - sorry for yakking in your feedback thread fella

Kevin,

This was a true piece of art. I have always been a big fan of your stuff (I say that every time) and this stands out as one of my favorites of yours. It really had the feel of a big budget movie trailer especially at the beginning with the perfect music set to those UNBELIEVABLE images.

My only critique would be the "white noise" was a little distracting on the VO track. It seemed like it could have used a noise reduction or something and perhaps a slow gain in and out on each time he speaks so that it is not so abrupt because the sound sort of cuts in and out.

Otherwise very pro, rich and beautiful piece of art.

Thank you

Jeff

Thanks to you all for your kind words about my VO. Working with someone as talanted as Kevin is an inspiration. His color, and camcorder movement was incredible. We would email clips and audio back and forth. Jeff, thanks for the feedback on the white noise. I went back and checked my original VO. It sounded great. I guess when I rendered it to .wav file and sent it to Kevin as an attachment something may have happened to it. I will email myself some audio clips and see if I can find the problem. Again, thanks to all. Bob

Thanks for all the feedback.
I'll try to answer some of the questions when I have a bit more time.

Steven Dempsey was kind enough to do a audio mixdown for me and took out the white noise and sweetened up the audio in general.

I'm so used to just laying down a music track and editing that adding VO tracks and natural audio tracks is something I'm going to have to focus on in the future.

It was a lot of fun working with Bob.
Like he said, we'd send clips and test edits back and forth so he could see how it was coming together.

Pretty amazing when you think about it that two people, one in Iowa and the other in Georgia can work on a film together like we were sitting next to each other by the computer.

Updated version with Steven Dempsey's audio mix.
The River By Kevin Railsback On ExposureRoom

Never mind, I can't attach images here because the IMG code is off so it makes this post pointless.

Well, I would have posted them but it seems the IMG code is turned off. What's up with that?

Just got word late last night that "The River" is an official selection of the 2009 Cedar Rapids Independent Film Festival!

Last year I took home the Silver Eddy for my UWOL film "Wild No More."

Hopefully they'll like this one enough to take home the gold! :)

Congratulations Kevin. It is certainly a worthy piece and I'll wager you win something with it. When is the festival?

Well done fella! :-)

Kevin, great news. What an honor. It was great working with you. Best of luck and please keep us all posted. Bob

Well done Kevin,
You deserve it! I wouldn't be surprised to see a lot more films from this community entered in film festivals, & i would expect them to do really well considering the quality that many here are producing. The best part about this group is that everyone's films just seem to be getting better & better each new round & i think it has a lot to do with the more experienced guys like yourself that freely give out your wisdom that makes that happen.
Congratulations,
Bryce

Thank You All! Now I need your help
 

First of all, I want to thank Meryem for putting this challenge together. Without it, there would be a lot of films that would have never been made.

Secondly, to all my UWOL family. Your feedback has helped me become a better filmmaker. I learn from you and hopefully you've picked up a thing or two from me as well.

Anyway, "The River" picked up the Gold Eddy award last night at the Cedar Rapids film festival.

It's the highest award the festival awards.

It's also one of the few festivals I enter because you get to meet with the judges afterwards and get a one on one critique of your film. The cool thing is that even if your film doesn't make the cut for the festival, you can schedule a critique of your film to find out why they didn't select it. Very, very cool festival.

Have to give a shout out to our Bob Safay. The judges made several comment son how pleased they were with the voice-over. The loved the tone, the pacing and thought his voice was perfect for the piece.

Another shout out to Steven Dempsey who did the final audio mix for me. You may remember him as one of our judges. The judges thought the mix was just right. Not overpowering but strong enough to make an impact.

Ok, here's my problem with all of this. Every year when I get my critique they always give me some tips on where they would like to see improvement.

Last year I won the Silver Eddy for "Wild No More" another UWOL film. So, I followed both yours and their advice and made "The River."

So, I sat in the room this morning to get some feedback on my film. Well, they said they had nothing for me on how to improve it. The thought it was the best cinematographically ( is that a word? ) shot film of the entire festival.

It was kind of awkward because they didn't have anything to say other than there's no way you could have made it any better.

So what the heck do I do for next year?

I usually set the bar very, very high on myself. While most people see the good, I see the "I could have done this much better."

So now I worry that anything I do for the festival will be downhill from here.

The long form challenge certainly is one thing. But I'm still struggling with figuring out how I want to do that. I also worry that I'm not going to be able to sustain the level of The River for twenty minutes.

So, I'm happy and then again I'm not. Just not sure where to go from here.

Oh fer the love 'o....

Can't you just flat-out enjoy the sweet smell of success for a change??????

If I wasn't so happy for you, I'd be smackin you upside the head!

That's awesome, my friend. And well-deserved. I am so very happy for you.

Nope. You're a glass is half full kind of gal and I'm a glass is half empty kind of guy. :)

*smack smack*

Congratulations on the award. Meryem's right, and so are you. Being a half full kind of person, who hasn't yet made much headway in this discipline, I see it both ways. Enjoy the accolade. Being at the top does have that disadvantage of where do you go next. So now you need to look at it from a different point of view. Strive for perfection on a different aspect - the longer form, a different type of subject, etc.

kevin,


Congratulations of winning the gold, only one preson gets to do that. Your skills are at a pretty high level, but there is always room for improvement even if others do not see it. I am sure there are some things you'd change. I think it is awesome that you use uwol to spring off from!!!

You are an inspiration!!

You always seem fit to be tied in what to do then pull the cat out of the hat!!!

I pul out jekels that hekel.

I truly look forward to what you put up for the long form!!!!

Congratulations Kevin!! - Well done and most certainly well deserved. You are an inspiration to all of us. Congrats to you Bob as well for your excellent narration.

Just got word that "The River" has moved into the final round of judging for the Iowa Motion PIcture Association 2010 Awards in the category of Directory of Photography - Electronic.
I'm up against an almost ten million dollar film shot on two Red One's and a crew of over 130 people. So, not really expecting to beat that one but nice to know I made it to the final round with them.

Very good, Kevin!
A proof that a great film doesn't need a multi million dollar budget.
Hope you win!

Congratulation to you Kevin!

Yeti's have mystical powers with the 60fps :-) - Onward and upward fella and well done!

Kevin,


that is awesome, congratulations; Maybe the prior judges were right and you could still do beater than you think against the pinko Reds. LOL


Dale

Kevin, this is great news. Congradulations. I thought the River was one of the best short videos I hsve seen. I am still amazed by your color in the opening shots. I was up in your neck of the woods last week, I was in Dechora shooting a lead awairness video with the Winneshiek County Health Department. Beautiful rolling farmland. So anain, congradulations and pleae keep us all posted. Bob