Wow Mike:

This is really coming together. Out of all the films, this is the most true to form nature film. I am impressed with the hunting owl footage, what a catch! And the hummingbird close ups in the wild is exceptional. Nicely done. I look forward to the next submission to find out just what that Turkey Vulture is up to.

All the best! You live in spectacular and rugged wild country where I know you must have lots of patience to uncover its secrets on film.

Cat

Mike,


You have some nice footage of the spotted owl and its chicks. Was the wing noise what actually was recorded?? I loved the humingbird and the audio of its wings!!!

You have some neat footage. Have you tried shooting the scenery shots shortly after dawn? Would be great if you could elevate the colors a tad!

A short piece of the footage was probably a little to shakey.


you win, I now want to see the other side of the mountain!

Hi Mike
You have some amazing shots of so many species in your three submissions and I really like the way you have edited them together. There is a real sense of these animals interacting with each other.
Your narration is easy to listen to and your sound effects are effective. While Steve appreciates the it, I still find the single bird call repeated endlessly rather distracting. Geir has already mentioned the wing beats you added for the owl.
Have you filmed your Turkey Vulture POV’s yet?
I am interested to find out how you are going to construct all of this together into a story - looks very promising - I can see you are well on your way to making a fantastic film here and I am really looking forward to seeing the next installment!

Cat- Thanks for the encouragement. I guess I’m old fashioned, that’s the kind of program I most like to watch.

Dale- All of the audio was added in post. It’s really difficult to catch the “golden hour” out there. The land is all mountains with desert basins in between. There’s hardly any flat horizon. By the time the sun rises over the intervening mountains it’s already too high in the sky.

Marj- Thanks for your comments. I value them. I spent a good amount of time on this past trip recording ambient sound so I hope to do better on that next time. I’ve also been working on the TV POV. I have experimented with balloon aerial video (referred to elsewhere in these fora as “the purest form of insanity”). It actually works- with some limitations. It takes four hands to launch and requires dead calm. The only time I’ve been able to get to the desert with a helper the wind blew constantly. I don’t yet have any BAV from the area and don’t know if I’ll have a chance before deadline. One of the other techniques I mentioned (polecam) is showing promise though and I hope to have a clip up for comment soon. I’ll also put up a web page about the BAV with photos of the picavey rig when I get the time.

Round 4
 

Get out your best roadrunner-coyote jokes, here comes Round 4. Beep Beep.

First, apologies to those expecting a resolution of the Round 3 cliffhanger. Next time! I had planned to show you another sequence this time, but changed at the last minute. I now have a rough edit of all but the last two segments (very rough in places). I don’t have them blocked out yet because I’m missing two crucial shots. One is a “money shot” that I envisioned from day one of this project. So far, between scheduling and just lack of good luck in the field, I’ve not managed them. I am still trying. I’ve decided to start working on an alternative ending in the event I can’t get the shots. The segment I was going to show will need to be re-edited to accommodate this new ending.

This segment gives a better idea of what I’m trying to do than what I’ve shown so far. It still needs much work. For example, the ambient track is way too loud in places- especially where the curve-billed thrasher is imitating the flycatcher and suddenly throws it’s voice right at the microphone. If you turn up the volume in the beginning to hear the foley sounds be careful in the last half! Instead of working on this now, I’ve decided to send it up, as is, in hopes of coming up with a short form 15 entry. Some shots are pretty poor. In order to tell the story I’m having to use material I normally wouldn’t. I view many shots as placeholders for better material that I have, but which is outside of the purview of the challenge. They’ll be replaced later.

Take a look at the vulture POV clip. It’s not exactly what I envisioned, but it’s the best I’ve come up with so far. I know some will be disappointed. What I’d really like to know is whether you think it works, as intended, to convey the idea that the turkey vulture is flying over, and possibly observing, the events which follow.

I just got some new compression software. Here is a full size file for the supermen, and a contest size file for us mere mortals. All my attempts, so far, to produce an intermediate size have been miserable failures!

I look forward to watching all of your Round 4 entries. I will begin commenting on them as soon as I have either uploaded a UWOL 15 file or admitted defeat therewith. Thanks in advance for all your helpful comments.

Small 29MB:
http://www.hotspot-online.net/Video/...und4_small.mp4

Large 153MB:
http://www.hotspot-online.net/Video/...und4_large.mp4

Hey Mike:

What do you mean, some will be disappointed at your vulture POV... I thought it was fabulous! How creative is that? Can you get some parts of the wing in the picture too? That was a hoot. You have him flying pretty fast by the way the ground is moving. I think you are on track to a really fun and creative transition to hold your segments together. The effect is coming across very well. The eyes blinking as it surveys the ground below. How are you doing this? May I ask?

You are really accumulating quite a repertoire of creatures in the wild high desert, and you have a wealth of interesting information to go along with it. I had no idea the horny toad could shoot blood from its eye (?).

Some shots were shaky, but no worries you explained all that. This is really good stuff Mike. Looking forward to the final.

Best,

Cat

Mike... well done. You truly do have an extensive library of desert life and your editing and sound was terrific and tied the storyline togather very professionally. I too liked the idea of the vulture's eye view moving us from one part of the desert to another. Bravo.

Chris

Chris- Thanks for the kind words of encouragement. So far, since November, I’ve spent almost 200 nights in a tent putting this together. It’s nice to see light at the end of the tunnel. I’m already thinking about the next big project. I have an idea…

Catherine- Thank-you for the nice comment. I wish my image quality were as good as yours! Here is how I did the vulture clip:

The clip is an AfterEffects composition. The base layer is the polecam shot. I put the little AVCHD camera on a twenty foot pole (an extension handle for a paint roller used by house painters). The pole was tied to the center post (between the front and rear seat windows) on the passenger side of an SUV using ratcheting cargo straps. The camera faced the rear at about 60 degrees from midline. I then idled down the shoulder of the road. Speed was almost 20mph. Going slower with my foot on the brake produced results too jerky to use. In editing, the smoother bits were played backwards and slowed down. I tried time remapping in AE but a 15 sec clip took over 30 hours and I had a setting wrong. I don’t have that kind of time to invest right now, so I just slowed it down in PP2. I couldn’t get below 60% without tearing. For me, it’s too fast.
The top layer is a Lightwave9 animation. The wire frame model has a photo of a Turkey Vulture UV mapped to it’s surface. I just watched the base clip and tried to produce movement to suit. I have added wings, but I had problems getting the UV maps to mesh. I think I’ve figured out the problem and if I have time I’ll go back for another try.
The eye blinks were rotoscoped. I painted on the individual frames of the final composition using Photoshop.

I’m sure using an animation will offend the sensibilities of some purists. Like most of us, I come from the mentality of the Lone Wolf Cameraman. This is forcing me to transition to the mindset of the content producer. Instead of asking myself questions about camera settings and image quality I’m now asking questions like “Is the shot available” and “Does it work to convey what I need it to convey at this point in the story?”

Mike,

I grew up in the SW and really enjoyed you efforts so far. I think you have most of the more emminent species!! The editing is pretty well done to be certain. there was one road runer scene I thought was not up to the quality of the rest adn it exit seemed erratic, at least compared to the rest. I reckon you are going to do some final color correcting as well to get all the clips a little more uniform.

it is pretty awesome!!

Hi Mike:

I've posted on my thread some before and after pics of my attempt at some color correction. Would you mind having a look and seeing what you think? I so appreciate the advice!

Your explanation of how you are doing the flying vulture effect is mind boggling! It's really cool though.

Cat

Mike,
I have enjoyed your film. You have a variety of good scenes of different animals.
The opening scene is interesting. I am happy for the documentation of your technique (much work). It struck me that most of us have a job to do with the color correction (me included!).
I am looking forward to your final video.

Thanks Finn-Erik and Dale. For me, color grading is the next to last step in editing (right before final audio mix down). When I changed my entry at the last moment I had to send it up without those steps. It could really benefit from both. Best of luck, guys. I hope to see you both here next month.

Hi Mike

For some reason I can't view your videos. The site comes up but it is a blank page that does nothing. (This happened to me with your first round as well if you remember.) I will have to wait for Mat to upload the films onto the uwol site and then view your film from there.

Marj

Marj- Sorry you weren’t able to download from my server again. Mat moved the files a couple of days ago. Let me know if you are unable to download off the UWOL server also.
Index of /longform

Hi Mike - didn't think to look here. The Uwol Challenge site itself does not have them up yet. Will try this. Thanks.

Hi Mike - managed to download your film via the link you provided - thanks again.

You are busy painting such an interesting and comprehensive picture of the dessert biome. What an amazing collection of plants, animals and birds you have - seems like you have been working very steadily this year!

Your turkey vulture POV was a bit short to appreciate fully - but looks like there is potential there. You could use a couple of aerial shots quite effectively without the tv in it as well I should think.
I can’t comment on the quality of the video itself as I have viewed a small file, but in general I would say this is shaping up to be a very good film.

Marj

Marj- Thanks for taking the time to make another attempt to watch! Suffice to say that the image quality is not as good as yours. I purposely kept the vulture animation brief to let viewers take it in but not have time to analyze it. I only use it three times in the whole story for the same reason.

I’m back from what was supposed to be my last shooting trip for this project. I had to revise the ending because I have failed to get two shots crucial to the story as originally conceived. The revision left me missing some shots that would be easier to get (I thought). Wrong! It didn’t help that I got out there to find my blind vandalized. I’m going to do what I can to “fake” the shots and go ahead and finish as soon as possible. If I can get through with a day or two to spare I might give it another go.

OTM- Final
 

Here are my final files:


For final thoughts, here is the back-story.
Late Indian Summer before last, I was camped alone in the habitat referred to in the video as the High Desert (there are other schemes for naming the Chihuahuan Desert habitats). It had been a very dark night until 3AM when a full moon rose that was so bright that the thin tent nylon did little to filter it. I was full awake when a male Great Horned Owl landed on the ridge pole of the tent. I watched him in perfect silhouette at arm’s reach. He began to call back and forth with a female Great Horned Owl which was perched in the nearest large tree (in this habitat it was a five foot tall Mesquite about 200 feet away). You can tell the sex of these owls from the pitch of their calls. Over the next couple of hours, as he carried on a conversation with his girlfriend that was quite over my head, I managed to drift off to sleep. I awoke with a start at sunrise, the half-remembered remains of a story about a Turkey Vulture evaporating from my dreams.

When Meryem announced the UWOL Long Form Challenge a few weeks later, I knew immediately what story I would attempt. Now, over a year later I’m struck by how eerily reminiscent the resulting video is to that gift dream from an owl…

Mike.... I have been enjoying your film... I was mildly amused at how we both had more or less the same idea for the initial opening of earth from space and them zooming in. I'll have more detailed questions for you privately, but I liked how you did that.

Your editing was nicely paced and tied things together - though I can only imagine how much work that must have been.

I'm not quite finished yet but have enjoyed your film immensely. I said this before,but your catalougue of animals, birds, reptiles and arachnids etc is fantastic.

I'll post more later after I finish my first and add a 2nd watch. Good job. Good luck !

Chris Swanberg

sorry Mike, pulling your link until we have sorted through the final entries...you can re-post it once we have these linked to our UWOL website...

Here is the link to a larger version:
http://www.hotspot-online.net/Video/...inal_large.mp4

Hi Mike:

You've been so quiet on the threads, I was beginning to worry about you!

Cat

Chris- The animation you asked about is easy to do with NASA World Wind using the blue marble data set and Movie Recorder plug-in. It’s all free and public domain. I think it’s the best software to use for animating satellite imagery. Contact me if you need help getting started.
NASA World Wind

Thanks Cat. I have a long list of tasks that somehow got postponed until November that I’ve been working my way through. Then on Thanksgiving I took time off to excavate a crater in the lawn so I could have a go at some faulty plumbing. You know, the usual…