Spring Break

Spring Break is almost here, which means I will be hard at work filming several videos. First of all, I'm going to go up on Monte Sano to try to film the goats again. I was disappointed in the fact that I wasn't able to get closer to them, but hopefully this time will be different. Secondly, I have at least one sketch idea that I want to get filmed. My friend Michael, who will play the lead in this sketch, will finally be available for filming. If any of you have been keeping up with my previous posts, this will be the sketch involving the suit that Michael had left at his dorm. Finally, I will be teaming up with my friend Daniel to shoot a music video for a band. One of my favorite bands, The Mars Volta, is having a video contest for a song off their upcoming album, Nocturniquet. The winner gets a gift card to Best Buy, merchandise from the band, and most importantly, recognition from the band. I have a good feeling about the idea we have for the video, I'm just worried that we won't be able to find a suitable location in time. I'm linking the song down below for anyone who wants to check it out.

Goats!

This past weekend I went hiking up on Monte Sano, like I had mentioned in my previous post. The trip was an overall success. I ended up finding the goats that I had wanted to film, and even managed to get a few good shots of them. But more on that later.

Before setting out for the mountain, I took a few practice shots in my backyard to try to get used to the outdoor lightning on my camera. I found that late afternoon/early morning were the two best times for shooting outdoors, since the glares caused by the sun are a lot less harsh around those times.

The first video was an easy one. Just a clip of my dog laying down in the sun. Her complacency made it extremely easy to get a nice, stable shot of her:

The second series of clips were a little more difficult to film. I chose to film some birds in my backyard. All of these videos were zoomed in almost to max, because I could not get too close to the birds without them flying away. As a result, I shake the video camera a little too much than I would have liked. Still, I believe that I was still able to get some decent shots:

Finally, at around 3:00 p.m., my friend Cole and I headed up to the mountain in search of goats. After only about 30 minutes of hiking, we found them. This early success led me to believe that the hard part was over, and that the rest was going to be incredibly easy. I was very wrong. The goats, likely seeing us as predators, made sure to place a great distance between themselves and us at all times. Every time we took a few step forward, no matter how carefully placed those steps were, they quickly bounded off into the distance. Realizing that we had to change tactics, Cole and I separated so that we could corner them. Fortunately for us, it worked. Cole was able to scare the goats right to me. Unfortunately for us, I had forgotten to start recording when they bolted towards me. At this point, the goats decided to change tactics too. They hid directly underneath the rock face we were on top of. Seeing this opportunity present itself, I decided to climb down the mountain while Cole stayed up above the goats. After I made my way down to the goats, I found a decent hiding spot and began filming. In my mind, I was going to stealthily make my way towards the goats, so that I didn't have to rely solely on an extended zoom. Unbeknownst to me, however, Cole had grown impatient of waiting. He had also climbed down the rock face. Cole was able to bridge the distance between the goats and himself to a mere 10 feet, something that I was in the process of trying to do. If he had been the one with the camera, our footage would have been much more clearer than it is now. So what did Cole do with this extraordinary opportunity? He scared them. In an attempt to chase the goats towards me, Cole let out a series of yells, which caused the goats to go fleeing not towards me, but in a parallel line towards safety. It was then that I decided that the goats had had enough excitement for the day. We packed our things and headed home.

Although we didn't exactly get the shots that we wanted, we ultimately succeeded in getting what we came for. I was able to improve my grasp on outdoor lighting and even got a few semi-decent shots of three goats in the process. Plus, we now know what does and doesn't work when trying to film wildlife. Hopefully, this little excursion has made us much more prepared for round two.

Baby Steps

Since I have decided to wait until Spring break for most of my filming, I'm temporarily shifting my focus to filming techniques rather than actual material for sketches. This weekend, I will be hiking up on Monte Sano Mountain in Huntsville, AL. I will be bringing my camera along in hopes that I'll be able to shoot some visually appealing shots. I have hiked on this particular many times before, so I have some particular shots in mind that I want to capture.

A stream up on Monte Sano

For starters, I would like to be able to film some deer while I'm up there. There is a trail I take that usually has a good amount of them. Hopefully, the weather will be nice enough for them to come out. Secondly, even though I am deathly afraid of them, it would be cool to film some snakes. I have (fortunately) rarely ever seen a snake up on Monte Sano, so I doubt I'm going to be able to capture one on film. Finally, I 'd like to be able to film the goats that live on the mountain. Fortunately, I know a place a little ways off a main trail where the goats will gather from time to time. I've tried to get several videos/pictures of them before, but every time I have the opportunity I have only had my iPhone with me.

Extremely grainy photo of goats

It's kind of hard to tell that there are goats in the above picture. The first one's head and neck in poking out from behind the tree (it has a black head and a white body). The other goat is directly above it in the picture, standing on a rock face (it is mostly brown, with a dash of white).