Cranes coming down in the Cotter Valley

This is the same doco maker who filmed what the Acrew people were having for lunch on an earlier piece about the booms for the dam being lifted in by helicopter. I’m all for things being documented for posterity but do it selectively and with quality. We pay the bills and I dont care to see money wasted on drivel.

chuckles said :

Cranes aside, the project itself is of huge importance in Canberra’s evolution.

We tend to forget that the Federal Capital Territory (now ACT) wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the Cotter River. The Corin, Bendora and Cotter reservoirs provide your water every time you turn on the tap (unless you have tanks of course).

It’s safe to say Canberra has the best water in Australia! Name a city that has a more pristine water supply.

That.

smee said :

Holy crap that was boring. If you haven’t seen it yet, don’t bother. Bad script, poor shots, annoying music and a rising inflection at the end of each sentence. FFS ACTEW, fire your media people and get CIT students to do your videos. They’d do a *much* better job.

I’ve been trying to put my finger on what narrative style the maker of these videos has been going for, as they certainly break the “show, don’t tell” rule of visual storytelling, and break pretty much every other rule of factual filmmaking that I know of.

My conclusion is that they’re actually “video diaries” meant to be more about the person being interviewed rather than the project itself. If you look at it this way, they actually almost make sense – that last video wasn’t about “bringing down the cranes”, rather it was about that guy with the annoying vocal inflection, talking about his “journey”. The crane footage isn’t really part of the narrative – if it was, the shots would be more structured and tell the story themselves, rather they’re just random cutaways and overlay to help cut together that guy’s pieces to camera.

smee said :

Holy crap that was boring. If you haven’t seen it yet, don’t bother. Bad script, poor shots, annoying music and a rising inflection at the end of each sentence. FFS ACTEW, fire your media people and get CIT students to do your videos. They’d do a *much* better job.

It’s not their people, it’s some wannabe doco maker named Richard Snashall.
ABC put on some 4min thing he did about Namadgi a couple of weeks back, I was actually embarrassed for him. You go onto Vimeo these days and there are so many wonderful quality videos, a lot by younger people just starting out, enjoying the benefits a dSLR offers for shooting on. His story on the other hand was obviously done on old, poor quality equipment. Heaps of shaky hand held shots, other shots done where he’d obviously put the camera on a rock and then walked past it to capture himself in shot (with half his head out of frame) and no colour grading or audio correction. Uses the same handful of free music loops as used in these ACTEW videos over and over. To top it off, cheesy titles straight out of Windows Movie Maker.

A total amateur with an iPhone could shoot better. This is such an important project, a shame it couldn’t be captured better.

Holy crap that was boring. If you haven’t seen it yet, don’t bother. Bad script, poor shots, annoying music and a rising inflection at the end of each sentence. FFS ACTEW, fire your media people and get CIT students to do your videos. They’d do a *much* better job.

The Actew “dam cam” is still operating http://www.actew.com.au/Our%20Projects/Enlarged%20Cotter%20Dam/DamCam.aspx
Appears that there is still some work to do on site.
Also, the new dam will have to be named.
It can’t be simply called the “New Cotter Dam” (that is too bland).
There must be a great temptation to call it the “John Mackay half-full Reservoir” (you will have to read the article in today’s CT to appreaciate that one).

Cranes aside, the project itself is of huge importance in Canberra’s evolution.

We tend to forget that the Federal Capital Territory (now ACT) wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the Cotter River. The Corin, Bendora and Cotter reservoirs provide your water every time you turn on the tap (unless you have tanks of course).

It’s safe to say Canberra has the best water in Australia! Name a city that has a more pristine water supply.

When I’m reduced to watching cranes being dismantled for laffs, then I’ll oblige.

Ben_Dover said :

Canberra, a city so boring that they’ll watch cranes being taken down there….

Kings, Federal, Barton and Monaro. Among the names you need to check out when life gets so “boring”

Canberra, a city so boring that they’ll watch cranes being taken down there….