Small Town Climate Change

A much better effort, a few rough edits need smoothing, not crazy about the tracking shots on the roadway, the riverside shots are excellent. Plus, I'm not sure if you can use the televised news clips from "another website" as fair use, but i see why you used them to make your point. Have you thought of going to get interviews from Canadian climatologists on your own about the ancient ice shelf breaking free in the Canadian Arctic? I GL, but think this could be made better with your own interviews, not clips from FOX, ABC and CNN. -zen-

I don't think the problem is so much what you've put together at this point. I think this pod would work perfectly under say...RANT. Granted it is an "Issue", but it seems like you're making a point more than anything, especially not having a third party point-of-view. It's our expectation of what a Current "Issue" is. Nothing wrong with that. Move it, make your points with titles (not so much web footage)...and I think the response will be very different.

Excellent improvements in this version. I still don't like the shots of you talking on the side of the road. Your waiting for cars to pass to speak really detracts from the piece as a whole.

I agree with zenbeer in that I like the riverside shots, and I think you should ditch the cable news clips (although it was good to support your point with clips from the media, I don't know if it's really "fair use").

I disagree with Neghie. I think your Pod is great for "Issue." I don't think Current is looking for pieces with no opinion at all from the filmmaker. You were not intrusive on people's opinions of Global Warming, you simply presented what you saw going on around you. You told people how you felt and allowed them to draw their own conclusions. You didn't present your opinions as fact like some cable news stations might.

Good job, overall. At least get rid of the roadway footage. But still a GL from me.

Indianapolis is the same. We are a temperate climate that always recieves its dose of the seasons. Not this year. No Snow in New York, No Snow in Ontarrio. Snow in New Mexico, frost in California??????? Gee I wonder what the culprit is. There may be acusations of neoptism on a channel started by Al Gore but I love this topic and this POD for the same reason I loved an Inconvenient Truth.

If you insist on those opening shots, I'd apply a few jump cuts to work the cars going by out.

zen

Hey guys, thanks for the input... yeah I see your point about the roadside, may take it out when I get a few minutes.

I think I'm okay with fair use. It's short enough, (but I'm not a lawyer) that being said it isn't crucial to the story of Fergus, so I'm on the fence about taking it out. If I do I will switch it to rant.

It's January 14th in Fergus and we had snow, it's the first time this year that it's stayed for more than 24 hours. Although I have yet to shovel my driveway.

There's talk of a storm coming... we'll see.

later,

asm

Right. I read the other comments.

Climate change is a vastly important issue. I'm glad you picked it as a topic and I'm glad you made it local. I agree that getting your own interviews is the legally proper thing to do, but I recognize the difficulties involved.

I think the trick to making this kind of local advocacy reporting WORK is to be able to link observable local phenomina, like the lack of ice and snow, and the failure of the Canadian Geese to migrate with an authoritative, on camera analysis. And there's the rub. Who do you turn to? A local meteorologist? A local university researcher? It might work, but ultimately it forces you, the producer to think bigger.

By the way, I like the shots of you by the street in the beginning. Your interest in the topic seems genuine and your tone sets the overall tone of the piece. It's contemplative, patient. I also liked the way you mounted the camera to your body, but I agree. You should cut out the dead air. And maybe this will sound obvious, but if there should be snow on the ground, why not show the snow, when there was snow, and show the same place now, without it.

Good luck!

clearly there's a problem with this, I've obviously uploadad the wrong version, will get the correct one on asap.

Yes, scary.

I agree that it would be great if you could somehow score your own interviews. If not, then I don't so much mind the news clips as long as you can use them legally. Maybe just shorten it a tad overall? Green light from me.

ps thanks for your comments and support on my pod that got picked up. I appreciate it.

Great idea to take a global problem and make it local. It is getting a little warmer isn't it.

great subject. GL!

I realize the intention, and that makes this piece responsible journalism. I think you need some interviews with the folks of Fergus. Show more of the community, show more effects from global warming around THEM. Great idea...please keep working on this . This is a TV worthy issue.

It's a subject that should be covered by more people. Great examples of what things look like vs. how they should look at that time of year. Greenlight!

it was 70 degrees in NYC one day in january. the winters from my childhood are gone. a good idea for a longer film is to get a bunch of small towns together and tell of their personal experience with the weather changing. get that to the public and people will relate to it, see that they are not alone, and maybe be less apathetic about what the powers that be are doing to ruin our lives, our planet, our future.

This is a great topic and should be discussed, so a GL from me. Its scarey to think that the Northeast and southern Canada could in our life time become the new Gulf Coast (weather wise).

Keep working on this, this has a ton of potential, but you may want to think about using other pictures of Earth- to make it more interesting. Also, Look at how a text overlay effects how the image renders out, its a bit jumpy. You may also want to add some motion on the pictures. But keep up the great work.

-LTM

Nice ...
Do you have any old footagte of what a Canadien winter should look like...I know what it should look like being from Niagara Falls....but many may not....see what you can find....

Perhaps a Leafs fan could help out a Sabre by checking out my pod if you get the chance... LOL

Great job

GL from me as well. What are we doing to our world?

this was straight up proffesional news like. awesome and GL for sure. Thanks again for your input and GL on "The Son." keep doing short and to the point "rants," those are the most powerful.

great pod. entirely important topic that not nearly enough people are discussing.

good job taking the point of view of one town in particular. (what if EVERY town took notice??)

GL.

my GL for sure! i don't understand why more people do not discuss or seem concerned about global warming. it will supercede by far any problems we face in the world today, included AIDS, poverty and 'terrorism'.

Hot Topic Alert! Climate change is center stage this year and all this dialog is great! The Canadian minister of Environment ,John Biard, is a bit of a deutch; but at least things are moving forward.

Did you have some kind of camera rig mounted around your waist when you were walking through the field?

I'm from Montreal and the Habs just won 2-1 today against NY. Go Habs Go!

Check out my V-cam, when you get a chance.

Danny - Faktory Films

No doubt aboot it. :P

This pod needs to be seen. GL

I think i would be good to know how this climate change is effecting different parts of the world from this kind of perspective. I know that when I grew up in New England there was much more snow in the winter. We did all kind of winter sports and that has been getting more and more difficult as time goes on.

I also really want to know what that walking rig you have is. Did you make it yourself or is it an existing piece of gear? Is it a really small camera?

Just curious.

Hey man, great to see your face again. It's been a long time. I respect your feelings on this issue, but I am not buying it yet. Whats it like in Fergus now? The Jet Stream and the Pacific flow has ended. Now maybe those poor folks up in Alaska and North West Canada will get a break as the fridged cold air that had been trapped for weeks begins to flow southward. While it will never be warm some of the -20 and -30 degree temps will flow southward and the air behind the flow will warm up a bit to around -10, so that down right warm for them. I've been a weather channel geek since age six, so I blame the warm temps and lack of snow on warm pacfic flow and a large stubborn ridge in the Jetstream. Now that the Jet stream has dipped south we are seeing much colder air invade the North East and that will kick up the lake effect snow as the wind blows across the unfrozen lakes. Now that the weather pattern has changed Fergus is back to normal, so I hope you enjoyed the warm weather.

This one is way better than the last one, good effort in getting out there and redoing the whole thing. Good pace, good info, good visual "triggers" it is an issue and its and nice and simple way to wake people up to the issue. GL and good luck I hope to see this on TV.

Talbott

Hey Eric good to hear from you but...

No, see that's where you're off base. It's not just about Fergus and the warm temps in North America. Massive flooding, unusually strong hurricanes, malaria in places that mosquitoes can't usually live due to the COLD, drought in areas that were lush just a decade ago, ICE CAPS GOING AWAY and tha's not the whole list.

I''ll be putting a new version on to show what Fergus is like "30 days later. We''ve dropped into a deep freeze, but that's what it's supposed to be like in NOVEMBER and DECEMBER.

And no I didn't enjoy the warm weather, we had practically no precipitation, which means the local farmers are going to take ANOTHER hit this year to dry soil... but that's probably just a coincidence right?

And no I didn't like the nice dry weather, I was afraid for my children and their children, and the world we're going to leave them.

After the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report said that concentrations of heat trapping greenhouse gases in the planet's atmosphere have gone up as a result of us, human activities that include burning of fossil fuels like oil, gas, coal, and because of poor agriculture practices...

So much water is being diverted from California to the Midwest for farming crops that shouldn't be growing there that entire river systems are beginning shut down. Rivers worldwide are drying up and/or not reaching the oceans LIKE THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO.

We've done so much damage to the planet in the last 100 years, that it's going to take the next 1000 years for the planet to recover IF it can, (there are some that say that some of the damage is irreversible. But more importantly IF we can stop playing politics with this issue and get on with changing behaviors so it can be fixed.

The jet stream, the pacific flow and every other weather pattern is driven by water temperature, guess what happens when the ocean temperature changes, those weather patterns also change... they shift, are delayed, or disappear. I'm not trying to convince you, there's no further debate to be had.

I just can't get my head around people who can't admit this is real simply so they won't have to recant what they've said in the past. You're not alone. Hell just watch FOX; they're not buying it either (no money in clean air)

I wonder if the right wing in North America has any money tied up in burning or finding fossil fuels'No it couldn't be that simple, that would be like starting a war based on fictional accounts of...damn...

Plisko and FaKtoryFlims... regarding the camera.

Yes it's a small camera I DESPERATELY want a new camera, and no I don't have anything strapped on...ever

It'sjust a tripod (a lightweight tripod) that I've flipped the camera back to face me. With a little practice you can get pretty adept at holding it steady or even raising and lowering while staying in frame. (indie filmmaking is so much fun)

Thanks for the support... Zenhookah wrote that this issue will be bigger than terrorism, AIDS, and poverty. I agree with what he said and I hope we're both wrong... If he's right then our grandchildren will be buying water like we buy gas.... and I'm not going to be one of those who stood by and watched.

OKay now I have to get off my soapbox and sleep.

Later,

asm

Hey man, you never use your name on here, so I am not going to give it out. In your next video I think you should say who you are. I think one thing you need to point out is over population. When I go back to my home town it has changed so much that I have to take a double take. No patches of woods are left on main st. A store is being put up in every possible place. Trees recirculate oxgyen and clean up the air. China is no longer a third world country and they have a growing population of automobile drivers, but we can't stop that from happening. I just wonder how much smoking damages the ozone layer? I've seen pictures of people's lungs that have died from lung cancer. People think they are only hurting themselves when they smoke and thats not true at all. That smoke does not just go away once it fills the air. Even household chemicals can't be good because some of the gases can make you sick. One thing that people are in love with is horsepower and speed and I am not sure how much of that people are willing to give up? Even when we do find alternative fuels. China will be well behind us because they have no amissions standards at all. I own a business in the trucking industry so this issue is important to me. I use about 60 gallons Diesel daily between my three trucks and each year the price of a new truck goes up because of new government standards in emissions. This brings my fixed costs up almost every year. What makes me mad is that the Average American/Canadian has to have a large SUV like hummers and things of that nature and they are a waste if you ask me. Most of them don't do work or haul things in them. They suck up gas and that drives the price of fuel up and also does not help stop global warming. Heading to Maine today, so I won't be back until next week.

Eric if you're in the trucking industry there is something you can do.

Bio Diesel is cleaner burning and I believe it contributes less to global warming. Of course if you use 100% it turns to wax in the winter cold. . . so you may need to run a blend in the winter or get a coolant heater to keep it fluid when the cold comes. . . They make heaters that warm the lines and the tank and run off a small amount of the diesel when the truck is parked.

Or you can get a duel tank system that starts and stops on regular diesel and switches over to the bio diesel after it warms up.

It may involve a little expense to get it started, depending on where you are, but it makes a huge difference and companies all over are doing it. Depending on the price of gas and availability in your area, it may even be less expensive especially if you have a large tank and buy it in bulk. Some places even offer tax breaks and grants as incentives!

Great Perspective. Placed it in our simple acceptance. Thanks!

enter your post here An excellent production re climate changes.. I believe you may have something that more govts. should get more pro active in. Hopefully our future generations will not have to start solving this problem. Good Luck . Hope to see you on TV. dm

Excellent! A very deserving Greenlight.

Bravo!

In Windsor, Ontario (Southwestern Canada), a short while ago, we took some panoramic pictures of Canada Geese in our vast backyard. I will be including them in our baby girl's scrapbook...being it was her first winter...it makes me wonder what time and negligence will hold for the future...OUR future and THEIR future.

This is a serious issue, and I cannot believe that so many people are ignoring not only the facts of global warming, but also the effects that we can blatantly see every day. Upon viewing the movie/documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" by Al Gore, my interest and concern on this topic peaked even further...

I enjoyed the many creative elements you used to capture the audience and relay your message on climate change. I am new to this form of media, and am amazed at how a single person can operate/direct/commentate/etc. an entire production! For that, you are to be congratulated.

Although only slightly distracting, I did like the street-side effect. I wonder how this will affect agriculture and the farming community, just outside of Fergus' town limits. Being a farm girl at heart, if the mild and balmy weather continues and accelerates throughout the passing years, there has been talk about the possibility of planting an extra crop per season. That is huge in itself, a possibility that really scares me. Hopefully it won't come to that.

Great touch with wearing your jacket open /no jacket and shoes. In Windsor, I actually spotted people wearing flip flops during the holiday season! That is bizarre in itself.

The evidence that climate change has occurred, and continues to occur, is limitless. Our world may never be the same again. As each day, month, year and decade passes, there is much that will be forever lost. Never to be recovered.

You are a very talented individual. I hope your efforts are widely acknowledged and you receive the credit you deserve.

Best of luck!

Great video and great message. A simple yet chilling warning for us presented in a way we all can unsderstand and should be worried about. kDrew productions is ready for TV and more.

Hey did you fix the sound on this? I seem to remember an earlier version. Good one. You should most certainly get on TV with this IMPORTANT message, I Iive in New York, there has been no snow all year and today is the coldest day in 2 years! And thank you as always for your support of my pods. GL from Getreel

Dear Friend

Have a look at my documentary

link

I really appreciate your independent reporting style... keep it up!

This is just the style of story that a major network wouldn't do. I enjoyed the glimpse into your town and seeing the effects of a larger, and extremely important, international news stories on your local environment.

Climate Change - the frog goes into a pot of cool water and the heat is turned on. As the water slowly, imperceptibly heats up, the frog is unaware of the minute but accumulating increase in water temperature. Within a few minutes the water boils but the frog is incapacitated, it's too late for it to react and the frog boils to death.
War contributes massive amounts of carbon emissions in addition to its more well known effects of death, mutilation and destruction. The peace/antiwar movement and environmentalists share much common ground.
Very nice piece - GL

www.current.tv/watch/21604416

small technical notes: Your audio will be much improved by using a lapel or handheld mic.
I also think using a tripod wherever/whenever possible gives better results.