Ocean Sheep – The Mammals You Never Knew Existed

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Ocean Sheep is a creative work detailing the discovery, and then rediscovery, of legendary underwater sheep - mammals the world forgot. The original discovery - a pursuit once derided by Charles Darwin as a foolish pursuit of "an excited or rebellious imagination" - proved the sheep's existence, but also proved a costly career move for their discoverer, Dr. Arthur Li. Prepared to protect their reputations at all costs, Darwin's associates and the scientific community abandoned Dr. Li, and an early death consigned his research to history. Until now.

If you've not already seen "Ocean Sheep" (also known as Lambs of the Sea) on YouTube, then here's a link, and you can also view the video below. It's just about eighteen minutes long, so grab some popcorn and a mug of your favourite brew, and witness the amazing underwater sheep doing their thing!

 

 

Of course, you maintain the right to be just a little skeptical of ocean-dwelling sheep, but that's what it says on the tin, and once you've watched the video, you'll be equally convinced as well. Whatever doubts you may have, the amazing video footage absolutely proves their existence beyond any doubt, but the narrated historical backstory is equally as compelling.

Anyway, more to the point, the reason for creating the video was simply to learn about video editing, and I thought it was easier to actually create a real project and learn the tools, rather than simply playing around with things and not really accomplish much (and also soon forgetting it too). I've found that when jumping right in and getting your hands dirty, and on occasion getting just a little frustrated (which is okay), one tends to not only learn more but also to remember more.

Or, more poetically, as the philosopher Confucius is quoted, "I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand".

Bottom line: don't be afraid of getting your hands dirty and being a bit frustrated; it's a great way to learn. And that same philosophy applies to anything you're trying to learn or master.

So, the video editing software I wanted to learn (never having used any such video editing software before) was HitFilm Express. It's free software, with a pro edition also available for a fee. However, if you're just starting out, HitFilm Express (i.e. the free version) is a good place to start, and will almost certainly be more than adequate for your needs as you begin to learn. In fact there's lots of different software which can do similar things, but HitFilm is probably the most comprehensive free software, and rivals even some better-known software. FXhome (the creators of HitFilm) provide great support, and there is plenty of community support too, with all kinds of video tutorials available, so it's pretty easy to get started with.

Well, it took a little while to tweak things exactly the way I wanted with the Ocean Sheep video, but there are lots of great resources out there to help, including image libraries, and video and audio libraries, some of which are listed below.

However, all in all, it was a fun experience to go from knowing literally nothing about video editing to producing the script and video for Ocean Sheep, and then publishing it to YouTube, with the requisite "shock and awe" thumbnail to try and grab some attention.

There were many resources used in creating the video, almost all of which are actually credited at the end of the video itself, or in the video description which accompanies the video on YouTube.

Resources, Attributions and Credits: https://youtu.be/oE1yhc476Bo?t=1062

Nonetheless, there's definitely no harm in giving credit where it's due so, again, here are the resources I used in creating the video, and the relevant attributions to contributors of the various audio/video/image libraries.

Software:
  • HitFilm Express (video editing / video composition)
  • GIMP (image editor)
  • Audacity (audio editing)
Web Resources
  • Videvo.net (video footage)
  • Pexels.com (stock images)
  • Unsplash (community contributed image stock)
  • Pixabay (stock images)
  • Adobe Image stock
  • Chosic.com (music / sound)
  • Wikipedia.org (research and images)
Attributions and Credits

I have attempted to give credit to every resource and to the users who contributed media used in the creation of Ocean Sheep. These are all noted in the credits at the end of the short movie, and are noted again here. Some of the resources used require a Creative Commons attribution, and these are also provided below:

Wikipedia:

Image: Science Museum, London
This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Science_Museum,_Exhibition_Road_(cropped).jpg

Image: Origin of Species Title Page
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1927.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Origin_of_Species_title_page.jpg

Image: Clipper Ship Southern Cross Leaving Boston Harbor
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1927.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clipper_Ship_Southern_Cross_Leaving_Boston_Harbor_1851.jpeg

Image: Charles Darwin (Charles_Darwin_by_G._Richmond.png)
This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Darwin_by_G._Richmond.jpg

Image: On the origin of species by means of natural selection
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:On_the_origin_of_species_by_means_of_natural_selection_OR_the_preservation_of_favoured_races_in_the_struggle_for_life,_2nd_edition._By_Chalres_Darwin,_John_Murray,_London,_1860._National_Museum_of_Scotland.jpg
Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg), CC BY-SA 4.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

Music:

Heartbreaking by Kevin MacLeod | https://incompetech.com/
Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/
Creative Commons Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://www.chosic.com/download-audio/29437/

Beautiful Piano by LesFM | https://lesfm.net/piano-background-music/
Music promoted by https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/
Creative Commons CC BY 3.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
https://www.chosic.com/download-audio/29588/

Unsplash Users:

@aaronburden (Aaron Burden), @rashevsky (Anastasia Palagutina), @arstyy (Austin Neill), @austriannationallibrary (Austrian National Library), @birminghammuseumstrust (Birmingham Museums Trust), @onthesearchforpineapples (Colin Lloyd), @damiano_baschiera (Damiano Baschiera), @despinagalani (Despina Galani), @eduardmilitaru (Eduard Militaru), @fabbel78 (Fabien Bellanger), @francesco_ungaro (Francesco Ungaro), @itfeelslikefilm (Janko Ferlič), @jilldimond (Jill Dimond), @jjnuttall (Josh Nuttall), @marekokon (Marek Okon), @orlovamaria (Maria Orlova), @showingourplanet (Niels van Altena), @pawel_czerwinski (Pawel Czerwinski), @staszek998 (Stanislaw Gregor),  @seffen99 (Sven Brandsma)

Pexels Users:

@busra-yaman-54874398 (Büşra Yaman), @george-desipris (George Desipris), @i-am-sorin-2212253 (I Am Sorin), @jess-vide (Jess Loiterton), @taryn-elliott (Taryn Elliott), @kool-shooters (KoolShooters), @octoptimist (Octoptimist), @roman-odintsov (Roman Odintsov), @ryutaro (Ryutaro Tsukata), @nietjuh (Ylanite Koppens), @zlatin-georgiev-3778528 (Zlatin Georgiev), @eugeniusz ( Eugene Liashchevskyi)

Pixabay:

Eknbg (user_id:10500861 / Erika), oleg_mit (user_id:16959961 / Oleg Mityukhin), wikiimages-1897 (user_id:1897), caelan (user_id:12802865 / Caelan Kelley), RoyBuri (user_id:3128024 / Roy Buri), Piyapong89 (user_id:7158719 / Piyapong Saydaung), hhtruong97-20513474 (user_id:20513474 / Truong Huynh), brandldesign (user_id:1116088 / Michael Brandl), Darkmoon_Art (user_id:1664300 / Dorothe), josephphackney-15024843 (user_id:15024843 / Joe Hackney)

Videvo:

- U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, National Conservation Training Center, Creative Imagery.

 

 

 

 

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