Hunting The Hard Way, Long Form
 

Good afternoon,

I have been working hard at getting good footage, have about 5 hours of tape and a tad of useful stuff for the third segment.

The document is a comment on base objectives and base outline. (some occurred quite awhile back in tales of wonder and woe.

the title is still up in the air.


I will place a link to some video clips called glimmers, rough takes of some footage.

Most of the shooting will take place may through October, so it has been important for me to get some winter footage for the last segment.

When I finish it is to be run as a short series on a canadian station.

This is a password protected video on Vimeo

password: uwoluser


The above is a link to three my three minutes. this is a 66 mgbyte file, the one I am trying to upload is 50.

I have four hours of footage to choose from so I submitted these.

they are only rough cuts and the music is just thrown on to make silent film more amusing for you.

these clips are for part three.

will not start filming part one until April at the soonest.

I hope these are found amusing if nothing else.

Dale, facinating to watch the hunting falcon. I believe that this is not a easy task in this tough and cold environment. Could almost feel the biting wind from just watching.

How is your equipment working in these conditions? I've provided you with some preset for the H1 in my feedback thread - http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/1015885-post12.html

Stay warm, Dale!

Hi Dale.
Great footage of the falcon.
Also like your plan as I read your script (manus).
Congratulation with the deal, showing the serie on a local TV station.
Looking forward to see more.

All the best.
Geir Inge

Hi Dale,
That footage looks great. As Per has noted, it looked very cold! This will certainly be a great insight into falconry for me as i don't know very much at all on the subject. Cogratulations on the tv deal, that must be very exciting for you! This is certainly a project i am looking forward to seeing in its final form.
Regards,
Bryce

Good afternoon,


Per Johan:
The H1 is another learning curve, not to bad coming from the xl2. I love some of the images I have got with it, unbelievable to be honest. I was having trouble trying to get a preset that was as solid as the one in my xl2 and just could not get it.

Today I put your preset in, went out for some test shots and I am totally pleased. It is much better than my other efforts and is a little richer than my xl2 which suits me just fine!!! thank you ever so much, once again.

I had not shot with my fu1000 on it as I had it blow the fuse on my xl2 (cord got pulled ever so slightly moving it). My winter shoots for the long form were all to be one shot affairs with no repeats, so I went with the standard evf until today, I just could not afford to not get the footage due to a mishap!! Today I put the fu 1000 on and boy what a difference!!! I am still not sure about the combination of both peaking aspects.

focus is ahuge issue I have to better master. Particularly on high flying falcons stooping at horendous speeds. My biggest issue is the pixelating of the sky when I compress it!!!

do you shoot 60I or 30 F?

Curiously: what frequency and brightness do you use on the peaking 1? I have not found 2 to be of use yet or i do not know what it is about. the magnify works just fine for close and static shots.

The idea of running the two mics and setting for different audio levels is a great idea!!! Select the one track and delete the other. I will try that one on when I go to the Leks in a month.

Yes it was brutally cold at time out filming, unrelenting wind has made it real difficult even when it was a balmy -10.

the Polar bear while expernsive new, I just happened to stumble into one for sale in our classifieds!! Score!! and it is heaven sent!!

thank you for sharing!!!

Geir: thanks for the comments. I only hope I can complete with enough good footage to do the job.
We are having fun!!! I think, at least when I get out of the cold and look at what we got.

I heared about your blown fuse. Luckily it have never happen to me, knock on wood!
What I do when using the FU-1000, is to turn peak OFF on your camcorder. Instead set your zebra levels to between 90-100. The zebra levels help you to expose your footage in a good way. If zebra levels is set to 100, all footage with zebras is burned out and you cant't resque it in post. Therefor I set zebra to 90, when zebra occure I know that those areas are about to burn out. Then on the FU-1000 you got a peak knob which you turn to adjust the peaking levels. This require some practice to get used to!
There can be a bit diffucult at once when you're looking into your evf, with zebras and peaking set both to ON. But after a while you'll not shoot without them!

I do mostly with autofocus set to OFF. I'm not happy with this future at all. If your target is a bit out of centre the autofocus start to hunt. I think I could see a short sequence in your footage in the flight scene of the falcon that focus was very soft!?
Well, I'm in PAL-land so I shoot mostly in 50i I dont't like 25p. Some complains about compression interlaced footage for the web, but I don't have much problem with it. Think my films are pretty well, without any interlace artifacts?

I don't understand your question her Dale? Also see my answer above about peaking and zebras

Your project looks very interesting. I am looking forward to your lessons for learning.
Your three minutes foretaste is fascinating. The shot where you follow the diving falcon down to the man and the road is fabulous.

Finn-Erik

i love the falcon concept, i'd probably shorten up the long shots, we want to see their faces! good start...

Good evening,


Meryem, I promise to have lots of close ups and some unique shots of cute to deadly behavior.

Fin, I am glad you enjoyed it, when I am finished it will have all the fundementals in it and I hope people will better understand the links between man and beast, so to speak.

Per Johan,

On the camera peaking you can go into display set up and set the brightness of the peaking and also set the frequency to make the peaking far more obvious. I am not sure what Frequency does however. I tried what you mentioned and i do not get as visible a peaking as the camera peak. I may not have it adjusted properly yet, still tinkering at it.

Falcon filming is over for the winter here. I will be practicing a lot to make sure I get far better footage this summer and fall!!!
I was trying to film a white falcon a week ago and focus was nearly impossible in the sky!!! Darker birds are much easier.

I have worked with falconers from time to time, especially for stills photography. It's quite a challenge to film such fast-moving birds - I have only tried it at a falconry display when the birds were flying to a lure and so not going great distances.

I also watched your video on Vimeo showing the different time stretches. If only there was a guaranteed way of losing that wing-flicker!! I think the speed of wing-beat has much to do with it, and with falcons changing their wing-beat rate according to what they are doing, there will be no easy answer - unless your camera will do a faster frame-rate than 60i or 25p.

I like you idea Dale and look forward to seeing more footage.
For me some of the wide shots are a bit to wide especially when there is only blue sky behind.

Dale,
I admire you for this one! I think you must be braver than me for taking on a project of this scope with a new camera and a deadline. More power to you! Actually, I’m watching with great interest on the new camera front because I hope to be in the same boat soon. I really like your falconry topic. Besides being interesting and just plain fun to watch, people tend to forget how important falconry has been to science. So many problems could never have been looked into without the help of a trained and patient bird. If you can, tell us more about the broadcast deal. I think we’d all like to hear the “inside” story. I wish you could broadcast it down here. Falconers have taken a bad rap around here because of the antics of a couple of “bad eggs”. (Sorry about the pun.)

Mike,

I met the producer two years ago when he saw some footage of mine at a wildlife expo. We talked about making a 15 minute spot which I more or less let go. when the long form got started I contacted him (he was still keen) and he put me in touch with the guy in charge of programming and I laid out my concept for him. Pretty straight forward.

Yes, every endeavor has its unethical individuals that mess it up for others!!

Without falconry and Falconers the recovery of the anatum Peregrine would have never happened. That is an entire story worth producing at some time!!


Mihali: I will definitely be reducing the amount of shear climbing in the sky. I will also be working at closer shots while in action but this is extreme shooting!!! a blink and you miss it all, no shot!

Annie,

Filming falcons in pursuit is the hardest thing I do!!!

The speed of wing beats makes proper wing movement more difficult to get right.

new camera thoughts:


I thought about the ex 3 as it can be over cranked to 60fps (only in 720 p) but after much research I decided the cmos ccd's would not be optimal for much of my filming. In the end I went for the xlh1 and I do not regret it for my wildlife filming. I do not like it for filming in underlight sport arena's!!! I still use the xl2 for that!!

Per Johan has been helpful in my getting things right !!! as well as an inspiration.



thank you all for taking the time and sharing ideas

My god it looks cold there! It cannot be easy filming in the cold like that.

How is it following the falcon with your camera? It seemed like you were able to keep up with the flying bird no problem. Are you using a big monitor? You must have a nice tripod and head as well because it seemed really smooth.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with for the final piece.

Jeff,

All of the flying footage is shot off of the shoulder with an xlh1. I do have a very good tripod but when Falcons are flying it is always unexpected as to direction and the speed of the stoop is almost impossible to follow with the tripod. You anticipate what is going to happen and do your best. The ends are always hardest to get. It can be done with a tripod but requires a lot more shooting, more Luck and they are usually only flown once or twice a day so you can't aford to miss any opportunities. Most of my footage in the field is Run and Gun. This spring through summer will be more static shots of the pod.

We have started working on the script for the voice overs of part one.

I truly admire you for braving such cold conditions to get this footage. You have certainly given yourself quite a task here - hard enough trying to get footage of such a difficult subject in the first place, never mind doing it under such difficult conditions! How does anyone keep track of a bullet stooping at 250 Kph? Look forward to seeing more Dale.

Guthormsen:Hunting the Hard way: Long form pt 2
 

the site below will show a better version of my submission. I do not really care for the 320x240 version

Uwol LF Winter flight on Vimeo


The footage is probably going to be used in the third part of our project, "Winter".

The spring shooting for part one should start in the next two weeks.

Hey Dale:

Nice footage you have here! I can tell you are getting quite good at following birds in the air, and falcons are fast! This is a great start to the long form. I know it's just the first 3 minutes into your documentary but I would have loved to have heard what the falconer had to say, in the beginning and at the end!

I'd love to know more about the sport, and the relationship between a falconer and the falcon. You would think the bird would simply fly away and never come home!

Very interesting film, and am looking forward to your next entry.

All the best Dale!

Cat

Hi Dale,

Nice sequence. I liked the shots from the car and the animals seen en route. A good intro. I noticed that in some of your shots, the subject is quite central. I think they would look nicer if they were to one side. Also I found the shots between the falconer and the falcon in flight were quite similar. Any way of varying that at all? Would be great to see big close ups of the falcon when on the falconers arm too.

Nice work. Keep it up.

Mihali

Hi Dale: Your 2 separate long form threads are now merged into one...

You'll use this same thread throughout the year.

Good evening,

First, thankyou Meryem for putting them together!! did not know, now I do.


I have run into several problems fiming falconers and their falcons: I have learned I need to coach them in several ways. something as simple as turning toward the camera man!!! I have learned, take nothing for granted!!!!

Secondly, everything is so important to them and their process with the falcon in order to get things right, they will never think of you ounce they are in action, totally focused!!


In the cold weather filming they will not doddle and take the time they would at other times.

Trying to get footage of them on the kill is really difficult because they often kill a long ways off. the falconer must hustle through the snow ( and they can go a lot faster than you can with the camera) to get to them before they eat so much they wont be able to be flown the next day. By the time i get their they are already picked up and often times hooded.

I have a complete sequence like this but i thought we were limited to three minutes so I only put up this one flight. On this sequence I have the falconer actually talking about the flight. I will post it on vimeo for those who may want to watch it.

When the fall comes I should be able to get a lot of fine footage, getting close ups on kills and all that.

Of course, as part three is assembled it will have some voice over discribing the cold weather conditions.

The monkey wrench in the works: The gyr falcon that was supposed to come to me this week has failed to materialize!!!! If I can't find a source for another youngster to raise that will blow part one and two out of the water. I could still produce the tv program as I have SD footage from the last one in 2007, but that will not help here!!!

Anyway, things look kind of bleak at the moment.

no worries, it's my job to keep you people in line....

sorry to hear of your struggles. i love falcons and all of the hunting birds and have been really excited to watch more.

there's an american kestrel that likes to hang out on the electrical wires in my studio, and it's a sure bet that if i have a camera in my car as i drive by, he will not be there. but if there's no camera, there is the bird. he's a super psychic....

Hi Dale,
you got some good shoots in there. Even if it's hard, as you say, to get those money shoot. I think that it is about shooting as much footage as possible when your're at the location. I'm not familiar with it's methods. But if it's possible - what about laying out a bait and then put a camcorder on the ground near by in it's widest lens position. If the falcon will go for a bait you could get the footage of the hit you want!

What do you think about this Dale?

Hi Dale,
Well i really liked this one from you. I loved the cuttaways of the animals you saw on the drive in. Most of all, i really loved the ambient sounds you had. The guys talking on the radio really made it feel like i was more involved in what was going on & get some insight into what these guys were doing. I hope to hear more of that sort of thing in your final piece.
You really have your work cut out for you with these birds, they are so fast, i can't believe you can actually follow them at all in flight! I like Per's idea of setting up a bait, you could really get some nice close ups that way.
I guess the only thing i can think of that would have made this one better for me would have been just a tiny bit of narration, not too much, just enough to fill in the blanks.
I really look forward to seeing your final film. This is something i know virtually nothing about so look forward to every new part.
Regards,
Bryce

Per,

Your idea of setting out bait would work, absolutely. However, my personal goal is to film it actually as it happens and only with wild quarries like uplands and waterfowl. It would be real easy to set it all up with bait birds; and, if i were doing a wild falcon video i would do this as getting wild falcons on kills is more than difficult, though doable.

this July/August we will have training footage and that should be far more dynamic in all areas.
During September and October we will be having footage of the falcons hunting waterfowl and this will be far more camera friendly for a host of reasons. I will certainly get some clean footage and (as meryem and others suggests) close ups. Also, my falconer friend and cameraman comes down virtually every weekend for two months which is great because he understands how everything will have to go. This last few months he has been out of action due to surgery.

Soon we go on a Trek in search of falcon nest sites for him to legally take one from the wild. I will be all over that!!!


The most exciting filming is yet to come. What i have shot has been to keep me in the game and get some winter footage that will not be available before November deadline.



Bryce,

All of the clips I have shown so far are just rough clips and not until I have them on the time line will I lay down necessary voice overs. there is much to be done for this part three. Yes, natural dialog will be an asset and I will try to get more of it!! Good suggestion.

it is quite possible i will have to rework my plans a bit to be sure! Guess that is why it is a work in progress.

thanks for taking the time to see and comment!!

Dale,

Somehow I got confused...I think I watched your 2nd entry first and your 1st entry second. So I will comment on the second one I watched which looks like it was the first...wait...I’m getting confused :)

Anyway, your ability to follow those birds amazes me. I enjoyed watching them it was very soothing and relaxing to watch. I thought that the bird flying against the clouds was a nice touch and watching it stand still in the wind that I presume was pretty strong up there was fascinating.

Do you plan to do some explanations/voice overs/interviews for this piece to give the viewers some insight as to what these birds are capable of doing and what the people do to train them etc? I would be very interested to hear and learn more about falcons.

Nice job

Jeff,

First, yes there will be voice over.

I will make every effort to get good dialog between people as well.

The more i have worked on this the more i realize I need a second operator for a second camera or for audio collection.

My biggest problem is the wind and I can't get good audio with my wireless mic unless it is still!!!



PART1,

I started it a week ago and I will be working on some exploratory footage this week and i will post some of it on my vimeo site. We worked on getting audio, but the wind was brutal.

I need a blimp and big furry cover over it. I am going to have to make one, surprising how expensive they are!!!

I made an one hour video of a 4 days flying the falcons in HD for myself and a few friends, if you like i could send you one down.

Dale-
I know your thoughts right now are all with your son (as are all of ours). When you get the chance, have a look at this blimp/ dead cat. DX-4400 Wind Screening Microphone Blimp - AUD/5120, KIT/AUD-5130, KIT/AUD-5135, KIT/AUD-5140
It's much less expensive because it's made in China from high impact plastics instead of metal. I have one and readily recommend it. Just don't sit on it!

My best wishes for you and your family.

Mike,

I have the blimp is on order!!!

When I get it I will make another trek back to the falcon nest sites and just record audio!!

thanks!!!


My son is still hospitalized, they have not been able to figure out what is wrong, or why. He sounds a lot better, so I think he is getting better. Last I heard they did some camera work in the lunds and vacuumed him out, Will see him tomarrow morning.



Dale

Hi Dale.
As I have told you before, I love your falcon shots.
I can not agreed with you more that one of the major challenges in this ULF, is to make a whole film (no longer 3 min, but 20 or more) and just be one single man/woman behind one camera. It is a huge job, but I think your "Hunting the hard way" is on the right track.

All the best.
Geir Inge

third Submission
 

Here is a larger file of my third submission. This is the beggining of Part one of the three part series I am working on putting together. It looks more like it is going to be a two part at this point in time.
there is about 5 more minutes of developmental footage to go in then showing the training/cultivation aspects. We are working on that footage presently.

It is a farely large file so download it and then have a coffee or something.

I look forward to constructive ideas to make it better than it is, The audio is just put in place temporarily. Open to ideas for background music/audio.

Don't cut me any slack criticising, but be certain to give me options to improve areas.

As I assemble more of it I will post links for discussion.



Uwol Longform"The search" on Vimeo

Hi Dale,
Looks like your show is really taking shape now. You really give a good idea of the desolation of the area you chose to search. I would have liked to heard a little different music at about 4 and a half minutes, when the falconer is rapelling down the cliffside. It's a little too warm and fuzzy for such a dangerous activity. Can't wait to see some of the hunting shots later in the season.

Dale- This edited sequence is starting to look very like a finished piece I think. Here are some suggestions to think about. Some of the shots are kind of dark- probably the time of day. They are really obvious when you cut from a dark shot to a bird flying in a bright sky. You might try opening up the exposure a little. Try a notch filter on the wind in the scene around 2:20. I think the wind sound is important to that scene so don’t remove it all, but if you bring it down some your dialogue will be better. When the hammer strikes the metal post the spike really clips. Try bringing the sound level down briefly for each blow. Around 5:33 someone says “To your right…” They are standing much closer to the microphone than the other dialogue in that scene so you might bring the level down there also. In the voice over starting around 6:40 the level seems lower than the rest of the sequence- maybe bring it up a bit? All in all this is looking pretty polished. I can’t wait to see the next part about raising and training the chick.

Good afternoon Dale.

First I must say I think your video is great.
I think I can see the shape you're painting and how the final film might turn out in the end.
Ok, I have some, not criticism, but more like questions to your nr 3 video.

From 1:20 (on the way to the rock) is it an idea to make it more exiting by dwelling around the question; will we be so lucky to find a falcons nest in the rocks?

You mention just in the start of the walk, something like; "It's a long walk, you just have to do the job". Nothing wrong with this, but is there another way you can show it's been a hard walk? The walker seems more like a healthy young man who's jogging to the rock. This, I guess can be easily changed by the narrator?

The climbing scene down to the nest is awesome, I must say. I guess it's too late now, but still it would have been great with a close-up of the climber :) hands, feet, grabbing the rock, loosing grip, etc I guess this can be done without getting back to the original cliffs?

OK, that's all for now.

All the best my friend.
Geir Inge

Dale,

Interesting work you have for round #3. I am fascinated of the climbing sequence.
As Geir Inge suggests, it would be even better with a close-up. I think this can be done in posterity. Example: hands adjusting the rope with blue background.

Good afternoon,


thanks everyone for taking the time to give me such helpful suggestions.


Geir, I cropped in a little closer for part of the climbing sequence. do not know if I can get an aftertake of the hands to put in, see how things unfold the next two months. that was a good suggestion.
I am not really trying to make things more exciting, just recording things as they actually occur.

Mike, I addressed each of the aspects of the audio that you mentioned. the dark trees with the merlins then the sky shot I went back and did some work on that an it is better as well.
the suggestions definitely helped!!

I am in vegas and find no "Notch filter" I have not really found a good way in Vegas to cut wind rumble yet. Perhaps someone else has it nailed down.
I also now have a blimp for all the wind filming, kind of the norm here!!

Steve,

I am looking for actual copyright free music that might suit. I have sonic fire pro sand open to any suggestions from that arena!!



thanks again,

will be posting next three minutes or so in the next week.

Hi Dale,
Sorry, I don’t know any Vegas. Maybe it has a high pass filter that will help. Really though, I’d take the audio over into Audition and work on it there. Try the parametric EQ. Find the center frequency of the wind and adjust the bandwidth to get only the wind and then dial the amplitude down to remove most of it. It will take some experimenting to find the right set up. What blimp did you end up getting?

Dale

I enjoyed your submission. Much of what I comment on here has already been commented on. To start I would go through and try and avoid what is a disconcerting repetitive change between bright and overly dark scenes. I'd try lightening the darker scenes and maybe dim down some of the brighter ones - in effect "normalizing" the brightness throughout.

I agree with Geir about the music. I use Sonic Fire and will go try and go through and see if I might suggest something better for that section on climbing down to the nest.

Overall though it is anteresting story and I am looking forward to the end result.

Chris Swanberg

Hi Dale:

Wow! I'm so used to seeing cold and snow in your films! This is a nice switch. As far as technical suggestions for your piece, the guys have done a good job with their own suggestions so I get to list what I think is great about your film.

The topic is fascinating and something I know nothing about. I thought you pulled off filming the falconer when he was walking along with you very well. How did you do it? You give us a good sense of how hard it is to find the perfect age ~23 days old baby, and how difficult it is to get to it when you do find one. Pulling the young chick from the nest on the rappel was really exciting. I also think the falconer is quite good in front of a camera, which makes it easy to watch.

All in all, you have a good start to a good entry. It will really be fun to watch the relationship build between falcon and falconer in the next submission. Nice job Dale!

Cat