UWOL Long Form - Glacier National Park - A 100 Year (and then some) Retrospective at DVinfo.net

Chris Swanberg · February 18th, 2009, 03:31 PM

I have an outline for my UWOL challenge film and am attaching it for review. The "working title" is somewhat misleading because I envision something more than a simple retrospective.

I am attaching my proposed film content outline for now, and later this evening will try and get some representative video up as well. Due to the fact that all my material is either under large amounts of snow at present (smile), or in archival vaults 1000 miles away in West Glacier Park headquarters or the Montana State Historical Museum in Helena, most of my compilation and shooting will occur later this year. The good news is that I will be "forced" to make a number of pilgrimages "home" to Montana to acquire what I will need!

Bryce Comer · February 18th, 2009, 10:12 PM

Hi Chris,
Wow this sounds really interesting! Great too that it will force you home to get things done! Can't wait to see some footage, maybe for the next update. There are so many beautiful parks around the world but to not only see what the park has to offer but to see how it was formed (geologically) & formed by man, & all the history etc will be really interesting.
Good luck with the project.
Bryce

Chris Swanberg · February 18th, 2009, 10:37 PM

Bryce... thanks I hope it will be worthy of interest. Stay tuned I will have some footage up by midnight if all goes well.

Chris Swanberg · February 19th, 2009, 10:34 AM

Well, it was 2 am when I finally got it uploaded ... I'll try and get a link on here today. It isn't what the final will be and there is no narration, and I just threw a soundtrack on it to keep you from falling asleep, but ...it gives you an idea in some measure of what my approach on subjects using stills will be.

Chris S.

A link is here:
http://www.uwolchallenge.com/longfor...OLLongForm.mp4

Chris Swanberg · February 19th, 2009, 10:31 PM

And a link to HD on Vimeo:

Glacier Park Film Project Early Trailer on Vimeo

Chris Swanberg · February 19th, 2009, 10:44 PM

Now before anyone says anything about the online text being up for too short a time....

Someone once told me, "Have the dumbest person in the house read the video text, and add 10 seconds to it, and you will have about the right time for the text to remain on screen." Well I live alone so I did that. I think since I wrote it I may have read a little fast <g>. Look past the glaring errors. I and the product will get better, and even in this short rough post I have expanded some on my knowledge bases, and that is what this is all about, no? I harbor no illusions ... seeing others ideas and knowing their talents... but for me, it will help me stay on target and up my game along the way.With kind offers from others, and extended, we can all benefit synergestically from this as well.

Looking forward...

Chris S.

Catherine Russell · February 20th, 2009, 10:51 AM

Wow Chris!

You have some great footage there! What a beautiful park, and I think the encounter on the trail with the mountain goat was fabulous! How lucky are you! We have similar film choices and my DREAM would be to capture on film a moose and Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep.

One very important comment on your film... can you narrate it instead of using text? I found myself working really hard to keep up with the reading and I either got through the text without seeing the footage, or vice-versa and sometimes neither. If you narrated the story it would free us up to simply marvel at your cinematography.

All the best!

Cat

Chris Swanberg · February 20th, 2009, 12:51 PM

Cat...

Thanks for your comments. Due to time constraints, I elected to use titles on this clip. I plan to use voice over narration in the final form - just probably not mine. I understand what you mean about trying to read those all too short titles and by the time you either finish or it disappears on you part way through, the image below was lost in that frustration. Sorry, a bad choice on my part.

Not far from where that goat encounter occurred, and a few years prior, I encountered a small herd of Big Horn sheep. For some reason, and unusual for Big Horn in my experience, these sheep seemed not to care about human presence at close range, and I was able to observe them from a distance of about 75-100 feet for an extended period as they grazed. Worse yet, they were in a large field of Beargrass and it was a good Beargrass year, so the scene would have been incredible on film. But it was Me, and no camera. Maybe lighting will strike twice and I'll have a camera next time.

Chris

Per Johan Naesje · February 20th, 2009, 04:54 PM

Hi Chris,
very interesting concept you're showing us here. It will be very nice to watch more live footage when you got it.
For now I will comment on what I saw in this film. Your opening scene was very well done. It's not easy to do a pan of almost 360 degrees in such a fluid and steady way. I'm impressed Chris!
The text appearance and lenght has been mention, and I agree that narrating will be better.
The stills was nicely made in the Ken Burns way.
There was some compression flaws in your uploaded version to the uwolchallenge.com site, but I think you'll manage to work that out in time for the final entry.

Marj Atkins · February 23rd, 2009, 10:22 AM

What stunning scenery and what a fascinating place Chris! The music you have chosen complements the majesty of those peaks well - their beauty is certainly on a par with the landscapes of our Norwegian friends who always have the most unbelievably amazing scenery in their films.

You have certainly timed this one well with the centenary of the park being celebrated next year -hopefully you can have your film incorporated in some way into the parks centenary celebrations!

I have read your outline - you have an ambitious plan, but it sounds very interesting.

I like the way you have handled the photographs and illustrations. I am assuming that some of the stills - especially of the flora and fauna and tourists - will be replaced with your own live footage.

How did you do the single-celled bacteria clip? It is beautiful.

Geir Inge · February 23rd, 2009, 10:53 AM

Hi Chris.
Great scenery and some awesome bacteria clips.
It's a very ambitious project, and I like it.
Are you doing this on your own or together with someone?
I guess you will have to do some mountain hiking and carry all your gear on the back?
The project is a bit similar to Cat's or am I wrong?
If so it's not the first time. I'm not that strong in english reading :)

All the best
Geir Inge

Chris Swanberg · February 23rd, 2009, 04:43 PM

Per: Thank you for your comments. I undoubtedly will need to learn a little more about the best way to represent my clips in a highly compressed format, and by next time we'll see if I have mastered that aspect. I may try and redo this one with VO narration, but if not, from now on it will involve that. The comments and criticism of the choice to use titles in this round is well founded, and even that was a point of learning for me.

I have to admit I was very pleased with the opening pan. I have found that unless the pan involves some foreground object such as grasses or trees that will show motion (blowing in the wind for example) scenery pans can be well accomplished by stitching a panorama of still photographs and panning that in the NLE (in my case Sony VEGAS), which is what I have done in my intro here. It is 5 still photos stitched together in an editing program and then the resultant image was panned.

Marj: Thank you for your kind words. I have been in love with this scenery since my earliest childhood remembrances, and it yet never fails to take my breath away when I am there again. I hope to do an even better job of showing the beauty when I have more opportunity this summer and fall to capture footage for this project - and yes, including video clips of flowers and fauna. As for the bacteria clip - it is actually from Digital Juice "Jumpbacks". I was excited when I found it in HD, and I thought it was perfect for my needs in this. The music is from SonicFire pro - "Americana". Reminded some a little of music from "Dances with Wolves".

Geir: Thanks for commenting. Yes this is planned as a one person endeavor, but I may enlist some friends to help me carry stuff into the backcountry this summer in that otherwise singular pursuit. The whole U.S. National Park permitting thing will undoubtedly be an issue, especially if I want to also shoot interviews with park personnel. And yes, it does bear some strong similarities to Cat's entry, and in fact she has graciously offered to assist me with some of my needed animation work.

Meryem Ersoz · February 23rd, 2009, 04:53 PM

wow, that's a gorgeous opening shot...really captures some of the magnificence...

looks promising!

Jeff Hendricks · February 23rd, 2009, 05:06 PM

I am very excited to see how your film in it's final form...so far it is really nice to watch and very well done. The part I am looking forward to the most will be the effect the mountain men had on the area because I really love that chapter in American history...

Question;
How are you going to go about getting permission to use the images and music? I am asking because I need to figure out how to get copyright permissions with my film too.

Chris Swanberg · February 23rd, 2009, 05:30 PM

Jeff... all my music will be royalty free - at least that is the current plan. The music I used in this "toe hold piece" was from SonicFire Pro - royalty free. My images will either by my own hand and camera, or from USGS (copyright free) NPS (copyright free) or the State of Montana Archives (copyright free). I may have acess to others that would be so old they would also be copyright free - the issue there will be access more than copyright. Same is true of old paintings (such as from Charlie Russell etc). I will be exploring those issues and access this late spring.

I am curious what I might encounter in my desire to interview NPS folks (geologists, archivists, etc.) and what permissions that may entail beyond a release from them. I do expect I will be asked to pay their salary back to NPS for the period of time I need to utilize them - assuming they will even agree in the first instance and further assuming I do it during normal work hours. I think I am going to have to be at my most charming and disarming in this process. Any anecdotal experiences others have had in this regard would be helpful.

February 18th, 2009, 10:12 PM	#2
Bryce Comer Trustee Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Rossland, British Columbia Posts: 1,024	Hi Chris, Wow this sounds really interesting! Great too that it will force you home to get things done! Can't wait to see some footage, maybe for the next update. There are so many beautiful parks around the world but to not only see what the park has to offer but to see how it was formed (geologically) & formed by man, & all the history etc will be really interesting. Good luck with the project. Bryce __________________ There's never enough hours in the day!

February 19th, 2009, 10:34 AM	#4
Chris Swanberg Major Player Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Sacramento, CA Posts: 904	Well, it was 2 am when I finally got it uploaded ... I'll try and get a link on here today. It isn't what the final will be and there is no narration, and I just threw a soundtrack on it to keep you from falling asleep, but ...it gives you an idea in some measure of what my approach on subjects using stills will be. Chris S. A link is here: http://www.uwolchallenge.com/longfor...OLLongForm.mp4 Last edited by Chris Swanberg; February 19th, 2009 at 08:36 PM.

February 20th, 2009, 12:51 PM	#8
Chris Swanberg Major Player Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Sacramento, CA Posts: 904	Cat... Thanks for your comments. Due to time constraints, I elected to use titles on this clip. I plan to use voice over narration in the final form - just probably not mine. I understand what you mean about trying to read those all too short titles and by the time you either finish or it disappears on you part way through, the image below was lost in that frustration. Sorry, a bad choice on my part. Not far from where that goat encounter occurred, and a few years prior, I encountered a small herd of Big Horn sheep. For some reason, and unusual for Big Horn in my experience, these sheep seemed not to care about human presence at close range, and I was able to observe them from a distance of about 75-100 feet for an extended period as they grazed. Worse yet, they were in a large field of Beargrass and it was a good Beargrass year, so the scene would have been incredible on film. But it was Me, and no camera. Maybe lighting will strike twice and I'll have a camera next time. Chris Last edited by Chris Swanberg; February 20th, 2009 at 02:05 PM.

February 20th, 2009, 04:54 PM	#9
Per Johan Naesje Trustee Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Akershus, Norway Posts: 1,413	Hi Chris, very interesting concept you're showing us here. It will be very nice to watch more live footage when you got it. For now I will comment on what I saw in this film. Your opening scene was very well done. It's not easy to do a pan of almost 360 degrees in such a fluid and steady way. I'm impressed Chris! The text appearance and lenght has been mention, and I agree that narrating will be better. The stills was nicely made in the Ken Burns way. There was some compression flaws in your uploaded version to the uwolchallenge.com site, but I think you'll manage to work that out in time for the final entry. __________________ - Per Johan

February 23rd, 2009, 10:53 AM	#11
Geir Inge Trustee Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Larsnes, Norway Posts: 1,342	Hi Chris. Great scenery and some awesome bacteria clips. It's a very ambitious project, and I like it. Are you doing this on your own or together with someone? I guess you will have to do some mountain hiking and carry all your gear on the back? The project is a bit similar to Cat's or am I wrong? If so it's not the first time. I'm not that strong in english reading :) All the best Geir Inge __________________ Geir Inge B. Brekke Visit me at: https://vimeo.com/gibbfilm

February 18th, 2009, 10:37 PM	#3
Chris Swanberg Major Player Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Sacramento, CA Posts: 904	Bryce... thanks I hope it will be worthy of interest. Stay tuned I will have some footage up by midnight if all goes well.

February 19th, 2009, 10:31 PM	#5
Chris Swanberg Major Player Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Sacramento, CA Posts: 904	And a link to HD on Vimeo: Glacier Park Film Project Early Trailer on Vimeo

February 19th, 2009, 10:44 PM	#6
Chris Swanberg Major Player Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Sacramento, CA Posts: 904	Now before anyone says anything about the online text being up for too short a time.... Someone once told me, "Have the dumbest person in the house read the video text, and add 10 seconds to it, and you will have about the right time for the text to remain on screen." Well I live alone so I did that. I think since I wrote it I may have read a little fast <g>. Look past the glaring errors. I and the product will get better, and even in this short rough post I have expanded some on my knowledge bases, and that is what this is all about, no? I harbor no illusions ... seeing others ideas and knowing their talents... but for me, it will help me stay on target and up my game along the way.With kind offers from others, and extended, we can all benefit synergestically from this as well. Looking forward... Chris S.

February 20th, 2009, 10:51 AM	#7
Catherine Russell Trustee Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Lyons, Colorado Posts: 1,224	Wow Chris! You have some great footage there! What a beautiful park, and I think the encounter on the trail with the mountain goat was fabulous! How lucky are you! We have similar film choices and my DREAM would be to capture on film a moose and Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep. One very important comment on your film... can you narrate it instead of using text? I found myself working really hard to keep up with the reading and I either got through the text without seeing the footage, or vice-versa and sometimes neither. If you narrated the story it would free us up to simply marvel at your cinematography. All the best! Cat

February 23rd, 2009, 10:22 AM	#10
Marj Atkins Major Player Join Date: May 2007 Location: Johannesburg South Africa Posts: 768	What stunning scenery and what a fascinating place Chris! The music you have chosen complements the majesty of those peaks well - their beauty is certainly on a par with the landscapes of our Norwegian friends who always have the most unbelievably amazing scenery in their films. You have certainly timed this one well with the centenary of the park being celebrated next year -hopefully you can have your film incorporated in some way into the parks centenary celebrations! I have read your outline - you have an ambitious plan, but it sounds very interesting. I like the way you have handled the photographs and illustrations. I am assuming that some of the stills - especially of the flora and fauna and tourists - will be replaced with your own live footage. How did you do the single-celled bacteria clip? It is beautiful.

February 23rd, 2009, 04:43 PM	#12
Chris Swanberg Major Player Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Sacramento, CA Posts: 904	Per: Thank you for your comments. I undoubtedly will need to learn a little more about the best way to represent my clips in a highly compressed format, and by next time we'll see if I have mastered that aspect. I may try and redo this one with VO narration, but if not, from now on it will involve that. The comments and criticism of the choice to use titles in this round is well founded, and even that was a point of learning for me. I have to admit I was very pleased with the opening pan. I have found that unless the pan involves some foreground object such as grasses or trees that will show motion (blowing in the wind for example) scenery pans can be well accomplished by stitching a panorama of still photographs and panning that in the NLE (in my case Sony VEGAS), which is what I have done in my intro here. It is 5 still photos stitched together in an editing program and then the resultant image was panned. Marj: Thank you for your kind words. I have been in love with this scenery since my earliest childhood remembrances, and it yet never fails to take my breath away when I am there again. I hope to do an even better job of showing the beauty when I have more opportunity this summer and fall to capture footage for this project - and yes, including video clips of flowers and fauna. As for the bacteria clip - it is actually from Digital Juice "Jumpbacks". I was excited when I found it in HD, and I thought it was perfect for my needs in this. The music is from SonicFire pro - "Americana". Reminded some a little of music from "Dances with Wolves". Geir: Thanks for commenting. Yes this is planned as a one person endeavor, but I may enlist some friends to help me carry stuff into the backcountry this summer in that otherwise singular pursuit. The whole U.S. National Park permitting thing will undoubtedly be an issue, especially if I want to also shoot interviews with park personnel. And yes, it does bear some strong similarities to Cat's entry, and in fact she has graciously offered to assist me with some of my needed animation work. Last edited by Chris Swanberg; February 24th, 2009 at 12:18 AM.

February 23rd, 2009, 04:53 PM	#13
Meryem Ersoz Wrangler Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Boulder, CO Posts: 3,015	wow, that's a gorgeous opening shot...really captures some of the magnificence... looks promising!

February 23rd, 2009, 05:06 PM	#14
Jeff Hendricks Major Player Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: The Carson Valley, Nevada Posts: 248	I am very excited to see how your film in it's final form...so far it is really nice to watch and very well done. The part I am looking forward to the most will be the effect the mountain men had on the area because I really love that chapter in American history... Question; How are you going to go about getting permission to use the images and music? I am asking because I need to figure out how to get copyright permissions with my film too. __________________ www.tahoestarr.com

February 23rd, 2009, 05:30 PM	#15
Chris Swanberg Major Player Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Sacramento, CA Posts: 904	Jeff... all my music will be royalty free - at least that is the current plan. The music I used in this "toe hold piece" was from SonicFire Pro - royalty free. My images will either by my own hand and camera, or from USGS (copyright free) NPS (copyright free) or the State of Montana Archives (copyright free). I may have acess to others that would be so old they would also be copyright free - the issue there will be access more than copyright. Same is true of old paintings (such as from Charlie Russell etc). I will be exploring those issues and access this late spring. I am curious what I might encounter in my desire to interview NPS folks (geologists, archivists, etc.) and what permissions that may entail beyond a release from them. I do expect I will be asked to pay their salary back to NPS for the period of time I need to utilize them - assuming they will even agree in the first instance and further assuming I do it during normal work hours. I think I am going to have to be at my most charming and disarming in this process. Any anecdotal experiences others have had in this regard would be helpful.