UWOL #33 - Golden Hours by Vishal Jadhav

[Vishal Jadhav]

This is my second time on the UWOL challenge and it was a fun experience, with 2 plans when i started off i had to completely scrap plan B with no possibility of footage, hence i developed Plan A more .
I got 3 days of shooting in the arid region of India in state of Gujarat , a region which gets very hot and burning giving it a shimmer/haze in the shooting time. Normally a region where the rains don't hit even well into the monsoons and i had rains when i went at end of winters , well thats luck . Driving becomes nearly impossible with rains in here but that only took up a session or 2 of mine. Conditions were not very friendly but its what you get in wildlife when you film, one session i waited around 5 hours returning with not even a second of footage to show. However i still feel the 2000 kms Plus drive was completely worth the effort when i saw the foxes.
Here i have tried to depict a day in life of the fox pups, they are very much scared of any element around the den, the male never visits the den during the day time and the female visits one or 2 times a day.
As for the criticism i would like it at 1, thats what i am here for otherwise i will not learn.

Golden Hours on Vimeo

Do let me have your feedback.

cheers
vishal

[Mike Sims]

Hi, Vishal. Now that’s what I was talking about- telling a story without words. You did a good job in editing to make it look like the foxes were interacting with and reacting to the other wildlife. A few of the clips seemed a bit long and could use a trim. Do I remember that you use Premier for editing? If so, try using the Fast Color Corrector to increase the input black level and saturation a bit. Perhaps start with settings 6 and 120% and experiment. I think it will make some of those shots really pop. (Any editor can do the same thing if I misremembered.) You mentioned that you don’t feel confident doing voice-overs. Most of us felt that way at first. (I still do somewhat!) You won’t find a more forgiving environment to practice that skill than the UWOL Challenge. The trick is to experiment and find the proper EQ settings for your individual voice. You also mentioned using music to bridge the differences in location sound in the clips. Don’t forget that an ambient track can do the same thing. When I record at a new location I try to get a shot about five minutes long to harvest the audio from for an ambient track. I like the music you chose but the level is the same throughout. I think you might have been able to vary the level to support the story in places. Keep up the good work. I have been enjoying your great shots of wildlife from India.

[Trond Saetre]

Hi Vishal,

Nice to see a new good film from you.

I agree with Mike's comments. And the music was a bit monotone to me. A little variation both in intensity and levels to better match the visuals, would have improved your film.

[Martijn Damen]

What a majestic place you filmed there Vishal, I can imagine you drove 2000+ km to get there.
The animals are amazing and you have made excellent footage of them.
I agree that with a bit more contrast/definition it could be even more eye pleasing as it is now.
I like the atmosphere of the music very much also, although listening to the whole track gets a bit boring to me.
This owl, is that one of those who lives in old rabbit holes and such? What a beautiful creature.

Cheers

[Mick Jenner]

Hi Vishal, lovely entry , enjoyed it very much. You have here all the elements for a first class entry, just needs a little refining. First I will deal with Mikes comments re colour, having filmed myself in India I would say you have represented it fairly accurately. There is tendency these days to make colours more punchy but in my opinion in this case to do that would have taken away that magic Indian light. There is a saying less is more and that applies here. If you had reduced the time to between 2.30 - 3.00 mins that would have tightened up your edit and put more emphasis on the behaviour you were trying to illustrate. The most important improvement is to cut the clips in such a way as to tell the story. I can see you have worked hard at this but, there were areas this could be improved. For example around 1.09 mins you have the bird of praying coming down towards the den. The last four clips show the bird descending, fox disappearing, more descending then just the den entrance all fairly slow and slightly long. This could have been tighten to just the bird descending, fox disappearing (possibly speeded up slightly), bird on the ground looking around and then maybe empty den entrance. Much more dramatic story, showing jeopardy with no need for words! hope this makes sense.
Well done Vishal.

[Vishal Jadhav]

Thanks for your feedback,

As i figured out earlier music is always my weak side and that showed here too, will try and improve it in my future videos for sure its one thing i got to work on.

Editing is another thing i am working on, i really appreciate your to the point comments as they surely help me improve, last time it was a music video and this time i tried to put a story of a day, guess in 6 months of my time in this field i am trying to get a hang of it.

Timing of the shots is surely i agree should be more crisp when we want to show a fall of event and i have surely lacked in it, leaving some shots a bit to long, guess if i pull out around 30 to 40 seconds of footage from the film it may get a bit compact and better to watch, will work on it.

Guess i am going right in getting the footage however when it comes to the editing table i am lacking the experience and the time on the job ( i suppose that's what its called)

However i think i am going in the right direction from the time i started here, now able to shoot and edit in time, working to a time frame. Other parts need to be bettered and need to do it faster.

thanks
vishal

[Andrew Hood]

You definitely get points for dedication Vishal. And hence also got great footage of the animals included in this entry. I'm envious of the fox footage, and the soaring eagle - really great shots you've captured.

Watching it, there has obviously been work on creating a story from the clips. I think Mick's suggestion to trim it would really help. Mainly to strengthen the story you have, so it doesn't get lost between additional cuts and footage. Like cutting a diamond, you take parts away to reveal something more striking from within.

And going forward definitely try doing a voice over. If you really don't like it - then replace it with titles/text to convey the story. Practice is key, and you'll probably hate how you sound at first. As you do it more, you not only get better, but you stop caring about how you sound so much. The key is to tell the story, the rest will hopefully fall into place with practice.

[Vishal Jadhav]

Thanks Andrew,

Will surely work on the timing of my shots.

Yes VO is the next step i will have to venture into and i surely will, from next time let me start putting down a VO script to go with the video, that way i will be starting to think in the right direction.

thanks again
vishal

[Vishal Jadhav]

Originally Posted by Martijn Damen

This owl, is that one of those who lives in old rabbit holes and such? What a beautiful creature.

Cheers

Martijn,
The owl here is the short eared owl which is a winter migrants to our area, doesn't breed in India, they tend to be above ground all the time when at our place, just they choose small bushes for cover from the hot sun at mid day.

vishal

[Geir Inge]

Hey Vishal.
You provide a nice film, with a fox I have not seen before.
Some of the benefits of this forum is just this, to experience animals and birds that otherwise foreign to one, or difficult to reach.
Your choice of music and background is well suited. Is it original recorded audio, or Foley, or a mix of both?
The music fits well to the images and you draw a picture of the surroundings, and the other animals that live in the area. Clever done!
Here comes something I would do with the film, and it is well intended.
I would vary the strength of the music a bit, to emphasize or reinforce the images.
One can use more than one piece of music to achieve this, as well as add on animal sounds to emphasize or enhance the mood. The speed of the music would also, in some situations, could contribute to this.
Music can notoriously express joy, sorrow, excitement, tranquility, danger to name a few.
I will shorten the length of the film. Personally, I believe you can advantageously shorten almost a minute or so.
Finally (I know you've mentioned you're not ready as a narrator, but still).
Your video is made for a story spun around the den, the puppies waiting for mother / father and food, as well as the dangers that may be lurking in the form of an eagle.
In addition, you can supplement with facts about the animals.
If you don't feel up to do a role as a narrator, ask a friend or someone you know to help you out.
I think your film will do a lot better with a narrator.

I wish you all well and many thanks for sharing.

[Vishal Jadhav]

Geir Inge

Thanks for the feedback

The music is recorded as a track by a friend of mine , other sounds are recorded on field and mixed in post.

Will give it a try to reedit the sequence to see if i can compact it where it needs to be.

vishal

[Marj Atkins]

Hi Vishal

(Sorry if I am repeating some things others have said - I prefer to write my comments before reading what others have written.)

The quality of your footage is beautiful - good enough to be broadcast footage any day. You managed to capture excellent shots of the behaviour of the fox family especially the young cubs. I marvel at your shots of the owl and the juvenile Steppe Eagle in flight.

I think you did a very good job of editing your footage to tie the shots of the desert foxes to the theme using your golden hour shots in between. This is clearly a well-planned and thoughtfully pieced together film. I did find it a bit drawn out however and my attention began to wane a bit after the shots where vixen first appeared. If you squeeze this film down to three minutes by making some shots a bit shorter especially the context shots and leaving out some of the shots that are similar it will tighten this film and improve its entertainment value enormously. I would get the vixen back to her cubs sooner. The cubs looked nervous a lot of the time and I like the way you used that in your story to relate it to the ‘presence’ of the eagle.

Just a suggestion the shot of the vixen moving away from the camera at a trot might be better placed nearer the beginning to show her leaving the den. It was somehow confusing to see her walking in the opposite direction so far down the story rather than towards the camera and the cubs at den.

The sound was well done. I love the music. I really appreciate the fact that you chose Indian style music – made your film for me. The calls of some of the birds were a bit too loud in the absence of a shot of the actual bird calling.

I must say I am getting a bit bored with watching fast-moving clouds (not just here on UWOL) so I tend to steer away from them but some themes like this one do legitimately lend themselves to their inclusion. They are useful for indicating time passing and I think you used them well in this film for this purpose.

Just a comment on your title: I feel the choice of font was problematical. Yes it was big and bold and allowed you to use a matte nicely but it really lacks sophistication when compared with your footage and seems so out of place in an Indian context. (Always best to keep fonts simple unless you have a specific purpose for using a fancy font. They should not be too large either.)

A minor thing, but I am also wondering if you shouldn't call your film ‘Desert Fox’ or something closer to the subject rather than using the name of the theme.

Well done Vishal on a wonderful entry.

[Vishal Jadhav]

Thanks Marj

For a detailed feedback, really appreciate it

Good you pointed out the title font, i started with simple Arial and then landed with this , guess wanted to do too much but lost the way.

Will do a 3 minute version by next 2 days.

About the vixen shots, i never showed the vixen near the den till the end , will try and reposition them to see how it looks.

vishal

[Steve Siegel]

Hi Vishal,

You have done an excellent job capturing some elusive and difficult creatures, and there is something very appealing about the soft light in your shots. I would make one suggestion, however. I It seems that you filmed the foxes early, and some of the other animals, like the gazelles. later when the sun was up.
Switching from fox to gazelle to fox to bird, etc, also is s switch from dark to light to dark, to light, etc, and is distracting. It is possible in Premiere (which you use, right) to adjust the exposure in different clips to fit each other. I think the effect is called "equalize". Studio guys use it when the guitar player was filmed more darkly in close up than he was wide, and they want to make the lighting look the same.

[Vishal Jadhav]

Steve,

Thanks for the feedback

The foxes , eagles and the gazelle were filmed nearly 800 kms apart, they are found in same area were the foxes are but very difficult to shoot, so i went to the haunts which i knew to shoot them instead , interestingly all of them are captured around 7 am to 8.30 am in early morning light, however as they have been in different places the light has a big variation .

I will try this equalize effect, looking currently at finding a tutorial to do it, as you know i am still getting the hang of this editing stuff , its kinda alien stuff for me . Tell me to get the wildlife stuff and i can find it, same thing with effects in Premiere and i get lost :)

Will surely implement it

vishal