I am trying to figure out how those artistic sounding shots are in any way related to "recreation", this contest's theme.

well, i live in a running/hiking/biking/climbing/kayaking mecca, so, without giving away my choice of topic, recreation among coyotes and golden eagles at sunrise is fairly common....and the runners in these parts, ha, you don't even want to know. at 5 am, i ran into several packs of runners and dogs....

Sure. Recreational birding is a multi-million (if not billion) dollar industry. Actually, just getting out and taking video is prime recreation for some...me included!

Rick

i kinda figured we'd get a few "video as recreation" entries....mine is partly in that category....i like self-reflexivity in movies. cinema about cinema.

Good afternoon,

I am in the midst of rendering some video, so I thought I would say hello and talk a bit about the challange so far. I made my shot list, wote some dialog, was all jazzed up and went hunting for my establishing shot. where I thought I would shoot from turned out a flop. I kept hunting driving all the back roads and a couple hundrred miles later got my shot of what we call the barrenlands. the crash hit the next day and in the period of three days new rivers formed, ponds everywhere and lots of courting Partidge. One of our cooler shots was of a moose, yes here in the prairies. When we previewed the footage at home you can see coyotes out on the distant ice. they dig upfrozen ducks and geese that did not make it.
this also had me have to make a change to my overall theme. The great thing about this stuff is that it is all a work in progress and sometimes other things dictate changes to "the Plan". We saw the first returning geese too. I have spent a lot of time out working on this and it is really a pleasure to have an excuse to be oout there. I have to have it done by friday, hope I can do that!!
Can't wait to see the clips.

That's the problem I have in regards to contests. I am too literal. Not imaginative enough. Sigh! I am technically competent, but far from being a real artist.

Oh well, I will finish my functional video and let it be judged with the others.

Steve, my first thought upon seeing the theme was "sports"...like skiing, snowboarding, biking...etc. Then the more I thought about it...the more things popped into my head as being recreational. It's actually a very clever choice and it's sortof wide open. Good job guys.

Rick

You're near Orlando aren't you Steven? I could think of a 1000 things going on around you -lucky dog!
Murphy's law is dominating my opportunites. Luckily though we've made huge headway in another festival type project. The trouble with Phoenix this time of year is that everything tends to look one color, brownish-green (ok that's most of the year). I couldn't get away to the high country or snow and I couldn't get away to the ocean. I may be able to get away to the lake or river this coming weekend though -high hopes! Sure -I can find loads of recreation going on but the beautiful outdoor/nature portion of it is missing, lol. Anyone for basketball in the ghetto?

One foot in the Shark Tank of Shame...
 

Well,

I'm ashamed to admit that 4 hours ago I had nothing... Oh, sure I had ideas. All of which have gone awry; either by weather or time spent dealing with sick children.

And now I find myself having just completed a 3-minute piece which I actually quite like.

I'm not sure where the inspiration came from. But a note to anyone floundering like I was... Fear not failure, fear the shark tank of shame!

Yeah, I've got one shot so far.
I know what I want to do for a subject and I know what I want to do for the oprning but it goes downhill fast from there.

Trying to figure out how to transition from the opening to the guts of the flick.

I'll figure out something. :)

what's with all these sick kids sabotaging our UWOL Challenge?? my beloved daughter had strep throat for four days last week. i think jeff had sick kids, too. no consideration, the little monsters....

the big problem i'm having, now that i'm getting out there, is i want to get out there more. and more.

i don't want to prepare for the accountant, i don't want to work on the clients' script, i just want to run around with my camera shooting frozen worms....

New Toy
 

I just unpacked a nice new manfrotto 501HDV video head. It finally arrived (we only get post twice a week over here). Just out to see if I can get some footage for plan A, B, or C.

I agree with you Meryem, I would love to be out in the nature shooting something, instead of just being at work all day.

I'm done with about half of my original plan. The rest kinda require good weather (as in no rain), but that probably won't happen this week either.
So hopefully I can make something "good" out of what I have so far.

The UWOL Upload Challenge
 

Is it just me...

I've had both mpeg1 and mpeg4 versions rejected, with the message that the extensions aren't allowed. I've tried to squeeze the sorenson3 version, but hesitate to go below 1800 bps. At 1800, I end up somewhere in the 80mb range.

Any help out there. I'm using Vegas 6d and QT7.

Thanks.

Hmmmmm. Sitting here twirling my thumbs. I went out last two days in did some "recreational" shooting, but can't develop a theme... hmmmmm. What to do, what to do......blank stare.....beginning to get nervous....