Camel is King - 21st Century Nomad

I commissioned Mateo to make this pod for Current because of the great access he had to the story. Mateo made a great pod for our launch competition in the UK called Dad, Snow Leopard and Me which is definitely in my top 5 favourite pods! You can watch it here http://current.com/items/76400502_dad_snow_leopard_and_me

Mateo can you keep us updated on how the shoot went with some more photos and then when you're editing we'd love to see some of the footage you're cutting.

Emily

Sounds like a great project, Mateo. Hope the editing is going well. I remember exactly the same thing happening in Oman- being woken up as a camel licked my face. Yuk.
The other weird thing about Jebel Samhan area is seeing the camels among fields of lush grass during and just after the southwest monsoon (Khareef) season.
Can't wait to see the finished product.

Looks good, interesting, and different. Voice over done well and Hadi comes across well.
Couple of small points, the shot at 2:55 (Hadi walking to camel) seems shaky and doesn't add much.
the end piece to camera you probably don't need to go back to you the 2nd time. How and why is their way of life under threat?
Was wondering if the end is a bit down for the tone of the piece. It's a good point you make but leaves it a bit low.
Enjoyed watching it

Hey, overall it was good. But since you're soliciting comments, here are mine. 1. I'm not a fan of the higher than normal shutter speed unless it's for something like action/sports or in a war movie or fight scene. I'll bet you used a Sony. Sony's tend to adjust exposure using shutter rather than aperature. 2. I thought overall it moved a bit slow. The pace seemed to be consistent throughout. Maybe you can add music throughout and the make the piece feel like it's changing pace. How about a few visual montages set to face or slow paced music. 3. This is a little out of the box, but: you could start the piece off at 5:30. Then after a bit, go back to the intro. Then go back to the next day. This makes it less predictable for the viewer and will help in pacing.

Ok, that's enough. Oh, I agree with the other person who said the end was a bit odd. It just sort of ended and didn't leave me with any sort of emotional closure. Maybe music again could help you. And don't be sold on using the heli footage. Just because you have it and it's pretty, doesn't mean you have to use it. :)

Thanks for your comments. You're right about it being a Sony. How does the higher shutter speed effect the picture and what would you recommend as the optimal setting to lock it to? Is 50 too slow?

I'm re-cutting it now, and certainly will adjust the ending. Thanks again!

Hi Mateo, overall I think it is a brilliant piece. Great narrative, an interesting story, humorous at times and a good approach on how new technology is combined with tradition. Others have already made some interesting points so the only two things that I would like to add is if the last shot could be extended a bit in order to fade out better and instead of elaborating on the part where he talks about the value of the camel, I think it would be more interesting if we could actually find out how do they make some money. For example I am curious how they would pay for their phone bill and so on. Do they sell camels or do they manufacture things as well. We have also only seen males in the film. Do they have a family life? This 2-3 points perhaps could even be touched upon in your VO just so that they can make the overall picture better. I hope these will help. I look forward to watching the final piece. Let me know when its out.

Nice job Mateo. I tend to agree with the comments that you've already gotten. The girls are right, the bit about the number of camels is a bit confusing and I had to watch it a couple of times to get it.

Your images are beautiful, but they were a bit dark, especially facial tones. It may be to late to do anything about that now, but something to keep in mind for next time. Does your camera have an aperture priority setting that you could adjust?

Where are the women when the men are with the camels? When you were coming out of the bush, where was Hadi going? Was he just escorting you out and then turning around and going back in?

The image of the camel meat hanging in the bush was cool and I might have wanted to see more of that. Was all that meat consumed right away? It looked like a lot, how did you keep it from spoiling if it wasn't all eaten?

For the end, what about the camels coming out of the bush to a road or town or some contrasting image that might help show how these nomads way of life is threatened? Or at least where old meets new. The cell phone almost felt like foreshadowing of a conflict of lifestyles, but it didn't seem to be showing that there were problems, as Hadi was comfortable juggling both texting and nomadic herding. Is he the exception? Are his peers opting for a different lifestyle? Where are the problems?

I agree with Trevor that this was a bit slow. It is very interesting, though, and I think varying the pacing a bit might help. For some reason, I wanted to see you try to ride or catch a camel and have trouble doing so. Maybe at a sped up speed. You know, something goofy that would have the locals (and us, the viewer) laughing at you. It might be a really silly idea, but I wanted to share it with you since it came to my mind.

I'm not sure if I'm being helpful or not, or if you're still working on it even, but thanks for asking for my input. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished POD, thank you.