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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Four Months In The Wilderness with the RED.

KETCH ROSSI said:
Those images, Gibby, are what I showed when I presented you as one of the DP's that was coming to film Sirens of TI, they were off course blown away, love that site!!!

ciao
Click to expand...

Thank you for those kind words Ketch...we had a great experience working with you, Peter, and the rest of the crew in Las Vegas! We'll look forward to working many times with you and the KetchFrame crew!

Clark has done a very good job with the Mammoth HD web site and his PR about it.

--------------------------

Back to wildlife: of all the genres of production we do, wildlife, nature, and adventure travel are our favorites.

Like Kennan, we're out in the wilderness in various areas of the world with cameras regularly. This year that included several months in remote Alaska (different project than Kennan's). That's one of the reasons I appreciate Kennan's Alaska footage so much - its a challenging and dangerous environment to work in.

Knowing how to shoot a camera is just the starting point. Taking the time to really learn about the remote environments you trek into, and the behavior of the wildlife there, will not necessarily ensure your safety out there, but will usually help you stay out of trouble. Just grabbing a camera and heading out into the wilderness unprepared is asking for trouble. The Boy Scout motto is "Be Prepared", and IMO that's good advice for wilderness production.

Preparation areas include (but are not limited to): camera equipment, data back-up, clothing, bedding, food, water, emergency preparedness, survival techniques, study of the geography and climate, study of potentially dangerous wildlife, defensive equipment for the area you're going into (human predators are often your your biggest risk out there - thus you may want to carry bear spray, knives, and a firearm if appropriate and legal - I do), and on and on and on and on. IMO preparation and respect are absolutely essential. All this said, if you've prepared well you're much less at risk in the wilderness than you are just driving your car to get there!

Kennan's advice about black bears is absolutely right - they're much more apt to consider you food than a grizzly. In the western part of North America mountain lions can also be occasionally aggressive. Again, studying the behavior patterns of potentially dangerous animals in the areas you do production in can help keep you safe.

Back to Kennan: he is one of the best there is at wilderness production, as his footage demonstrates. I respect his technical ability in working with cameras, but beyond that I sincerely appreciate his artistry in capturing meaningful and beautiful images.
 
At the risk of seemingly being the first one to say something construed as negative about the footage, let me begin by saying that I was just as blown away by its raw beauty as anybody else. However, on the 1080p version I noticed certain takes much softer than others, was that due to slight out of focus issues or difference in processing?
 
Fantastic shots in the trailer indeed.

It looks like the jumping lynx (about 00:27), the bears and the eagle (1:05-1:10) or the flying owl (3:28-3:33) are shot at 24 fps and 1/48s (i.e., 180 degrees). Is this the case? Furthermore, are the slow motion clips shot at the slowest shutter speed 360 degrees, say 125 fps and 1/125s?

The reason to ask is that there is something that puzzles my eye if I shoot flying birds or animals in motion with 25 fps and 1/50s. This is why I tend to set 25 fps and 1/25s, 1/30s or 1/33s rather than 1/50s. It looks like I'm seeing the same effect in those Kennan's clips mentioned above. Or, is it just in my eyes?
 
If you guys don't mind -- and if I'm not derailing the thread too much -- I would like to hear more about black bears and why you consider them to be more dangerous than grizzlies. This is news to me! In the Sierras (Yosemite, Whitney Portal, Bridgeport area), I often have close encounters with them, which used to scare the daylights out of me. But after more and more encounters, I have become calm about them. I recently saw some pictures at Whitney Portal of some old lady actually feeding black bears some sandwiches! At Glacier Point at night, I literally had bears walking right past me, within feet!

Are you basically saying that some of the black bears sort of lose their minds and are acting crazy when they attack? Like, bad apples? Rabid? Deranged? Or that normal bears might do it, as well?

Also, I would like to second what Gibby said about human predators being a serious consideration. Just like bears, there are some crazy humans out there in remote places, more often than not fueled by drugs like crystal meth. You're not dealing with a normal human at that point, and they might see a $30,000 camera as a way to fuel their habit for a LONG time.

Kennan, I'm also curious what you did for shelter up in Alaska? Also, what about firearms & bearspray?
 
Great work- I loved those images. :)

If you don't mind sharing I have some questions:
1. How did you handle power for the camera?
2. How did you handle power for the hard drives / computer & backup?
3. How did you handle data management - shoot all day and unload and night or unload at various intervals?
 
Tom said:
If you guys don't mind -- and if I'm not derailing the thread too much -- I would like to hear more about black bears and why you consider them to be more dangerous than grizzlies. This is news to me! In the Sierras (Yosemite, Whitney Portal, Bridgeport area), I often have close encounters with them, which used to scare the daylights out of me. But after more and more encounters, I have become calm about them. I recently saw some pictures at Whitney Portal of some old lady actually feeding black bears some sandwiches! At Glacier Point at night, I literally had bears walking right past me, within feet!

Are you basically saying that some of the black bears sort of lose their minds and are acting crazy when they attack? Like, bad apples? Rabid? Deranged? Or that normal bears might do it, as well?

Also, I would like to second what Gibby said about human predators being a serious consideration. Just like bears, there are some crazy humans out there in remote places, more often than not fueled by drugs like crystal meth. You're not dealing with a normal human at that point, and they might see a $30,000 camera as a way to fuel their habit for a LONG time.

Kennan, I'm also curious what you did for shelter up in Alaska? Also, what about firearms & bearspray?
Click to expand...

Tom,

Thanks for your interest. In a way it takes away from the art but I am used to it.

I did not imply Black Bears as you say, "more dangerous than grizzlies",I said,"...you should fear the Black Bears, Ursus americanus, in all their color phases. They are more likely to consider you food than a grizzly who more or less wants to defend it's personal dominance hierarchy and maybe its food!" I did not try to say Black Bears are more dangerous just not to take them for granted. No mistake a Coastal Brown Bear/Grizzly like the Bear catching the salmon can weigh up to 1000-1700 pounds. They could do a lot more damage than a 500 pound Black Bear!

Yes, you may get close to animals 9 times and on that odd 10th time, BIG MISTAKE. There is no panacea with wild animals.
I emphasize no panacea with animals! Maybe some people too???

I have had very close friends attacked by bears, Polar, Grizzly, and Black. Some friends are no longer with us.

In most of our Federally managed lands it is unethical and in some illegal to approach a wild animal. See the code of ethics by the North American Nature Photographers Association.
http://www.nanpa.org/docs/principles.pdfPHPSESSID=429d45bb5283f335d63f9ec2463624e2
and,
http://www.nanpa.org/docs/EnvironmentalStatement.pdf?PHPSESSID=429d45bb5283f335d63f9ec2463624e2

Each Park also has laws if you have not seen them you may be shocked by how close you are limited to approach!

"
Did You Know?
There are more people hurt by bison than by bears each year in Yellowstone. Park regulations state that visitors must stay at least 25 yards away from bison or elk and 100 yards away from bears.
Source: http://www.nps.gov/yell/faqs.htm


PLEASE, wait for me to edit the Alaska Fish and Game Wildlife biologists interview in bear country. I am having problems with the audio sync to the video. This way you can think about Bear behavior and the Biologist and hopefully return to the aesthetics of motion and enjoy some of the new work I have been editing from the summer! I am a filmmaker and it is a struggle to get all things right.
 
Ryan E. Walters said:
Great work- I loved those images. :)

If you don't mind sharing I have some questions:
1. How did you handle power for the camera?
2. How did you handle power for the hard drives / computer & backup?
3. How did you handle data management - shoot all day and unload and night or unload at various intervals?
Click to expand...

Quick thoughts,

Earlier laselvasurf and gibby responded when I was in the field shooting Migrations!

See teaser

I mentioned this earlier with isaacbabcock
http://205.234.135.241/forum/showthread.php?t=20012&highlight=solar

I used a 12 volt battery augmented with a 30 watt solar panel and a 750 watt inverter and it worked umbilical cord out from the charger fine. 114 days in bush Alaska.

Laselvasurf, One of our editors replied:

To answer the backup question, we had a pretty good system in place. Kennan had his mac laptop with about 5TB of mirrored drives. He would copy off the footage onto a mirrored 1TB drive, take out one of the drives, and the next time he came up to a ranger station or someone he knew, he would ship the drives down to us at his studio in Santa Cruz CA. The next time Kennan could, he would call down to us at the studio and verify we got the drives and were able to copy the data off. We would then ship the drives up again and he would delete the files he had on the mirror up there. When Kennan was out of communication for a longer period, he also used 320GB laptop drives enclosed in a fw800 case. These actually worked really well too and during one point he had filled 6 of them on top of the other mirrored drives.

I hope this helps!
whatnew_20080922132724.jpg
 
Gibby said:
Thank you for those kind words Ketch...we had a great experience working with you, Peter, and the rest of the crew in Las Vegas! We'll look forward to working many times with you and the KetchFrame crew!

Clark has done a very good job with the Mammoth HD web site and his PR about it.
Click to expand...

Most welcome my friend, credit is due when credit is due!!!

And the pleasure of having you was all mine. and truly look forward to more of you and Pamala.


BTW. even so I loved all the images my favorite landscape one would have been the Snow Mountain Range reflected on the Lake, both the color saturation and the ever so soft berly present haze created a almost surreal image of how truly beautiful and astonishing nature can be in her glory of calmness and colors, were once again it shows us all how much beauty surrounds us, "IF WE TAKE CARE OF IT"!!!

ciao
 
Kennan, thanks! You're a guy with a lot knowledge I would love to tap into.

What about shelter? What did you do for 4 months?
 
Rudi Herbert said:
At the risk of seemingly being the first one to say something construed as negative about the footage, let me begin by saying that I was just as blown away by its raw beauty as anybody else. However, on the 1080p version I noticed certain takes much softer than others, was that due to slight out of focus issues or difference in processing?
Click to expand...

Rudi,

I understand what you are saying and it is like many teasers side to side choice picks versus eye adjusting several clips from the same time( ins, outs and action). The bigger problem is ATMOSPHERE. My biggest problem with long lens work. The air mass between camera and subject can vary moment to moment. Say, heat waves, rain as in most of these situations, dust and angled light from less than 45 degrees into the sun. Also, the wildlife moves fast and maybe I am not as good as I should be!

None-the-less, atmosphere or out of focus, I am not in a studio or in a controlled lighting situation and often times slightly balancing several survival things. I left them in the yeaser and also left the up focusing to show the dynamics to a would be producer. I also kind of liked the clips so your input tells me they are distracting so that helps. I might leave them out on second editing even though they may have been rare. The Lynx was only the second time in my whole life I was able to film one and the first time was on SD and nobody gave the extreamly rare wild sighting a second look.

THANKS TO RED, now people look. Red has changed my media. I just can't wait till broadcasters learn how to use this incredible media!!!

Truely, I hope this helps!

Kennan

4752.jpg
 
Tom said:
Kennan, thanks! You're a guy with a lot knowledge I would love to tap into.

What about shelter? What did you do for 4 months?
Click to expand...

Tom,

I am an old die hard tent camper. Something about dreams. I don't dream when I am inside, but out in the fresh air and ground I am like tired from all the night adventures, seriously!

Remember, Alaska or my last 100 day trip to Antarctica, the sun never realy sets. So you take naps out on the tundra wherever you may be shooting as the action slows. Like the bear on it's back.

In my home of Alaska we have a 1987 VW Van camper we drive to some locations and also store gear and recharge/download or if the weather turns really bad! Especially in winter for northern lights!

But, my true self would rather be camping in fact I am out in the rain typing this right now under an umbrella! Weird ehh. I just get in trouble whenever I go inside, like a Bear in a china shop!!!

Thank you Tom, sounds like you have a true spirit to EXPLORE!!

Kennan
 
Jannard said:
Reels like this are what make our efforts completely worthwhile. While other companies may measure their success by how much profit they make, we measure ours by posts like these... thank you... so much.
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oh my, please run for president, then invade Italy.
 
Kennan,

Really great footage.

The most interesting for me are the shots of the foxes and caribou.

I was HD Supervisor for the DI of the feature film version of the BBC's Planet Earth called Earth which was released in Europe in 2007, a revised version is coming out in the US next year from Disney Nature.

On Earth the foxes and caribou shots where done on the Varicam, the RED footage is so very much better, really drives home the difference in image quality between RED and the broadcast HD cameras.

The Varicam footage on that show is burned into my brain as I had to eye match around 40mins of it for the conform from 60min tapes with no slates and with natural history it all looks the same.
 
Really nice footages, those bears are such great fish catcher, I wish I could do the same.
A really really good thread indeed. I like when the veteran filmaker are talking around.
Thank's for sharing.
Best regards
Brice
 
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