Orienteering/Videos/Map skills

The Presenter stands at the start triangle, staring at her map, while other orienteers (a variety of ages, from juniors to super veterans) run off purposefully toward their first controls [suggest this can be in 2X or 4X speed as the Presenter studies her map with a furrowed brow].

PRESENTER (V/O)

I’ve just started my first orienteering event. Everyone around me seems to know exactly where they’re going, but I haven’t really got a clue. All I know is that I am at this little triangle on the map.

CLOSE UP of map, thumb close to the start triangle. The presenter looks up.

PRESENTER (to camera)

I think I am going to need some help.

She clicks her fingers. The Novice Instructor appears magically in the frame (JUMPT CUT - a la ‘The Goodies’).

INSTRUCTOR

Need some help?

PRESENTER

Thought you’d never ask.

CLOSE UP of the map.

PRESENTER

So what am I actually looking for?

INSTRUCTOR

You’re looking for the feature in the centre of that circle. Which in this case is a track junction [or whatever].

PRESENTER

And that’s my first control?

INSTRUCTOR

Yes.

PRESENTER

And I have to do them in order?

INSTRUCTOR (ad lib, along the lines of…)

In this kind of event, yes. There are other events (eg. Street O, rogaines) where you don’t get the controls in any set order. But today, you need to.

PRESENTER

(CLOSE UP of map)

That’s a shame, because if I just got this one before this one and this one…

INSTRUCTOR

Then you’d be disqualified.

PRESENTER

Ah.

CUT TO footage of elite orienteers running through the forest INTERCUT with SCREEN SHOT of GPS tracking on a map.

PRESENTER (V/O)

An orienteering map is a highly specialized piece of cartography. Working from detailed aerial photographs, orienteering map makers spend hours doing fieldwork that involves marking on tiny details – such individual boulders and creek beds - that orienteers use to navigate through the terrain.

Back to Presenter and Instructor.

PRESENTER

So how do I know what these symbols on the map represent in the forest?

INSTRUCTOR (ad-lib…)

Each map has a legend [CLOSE UP] that shows you what each symbol on the map means. The more you orienteer, the more you learn to recognize what each symbol represents in the forest.

PRESENTER

And what about these brown squiggly lines?

INSTRUCTOR

Those are contours.

PRESENTER

Which means I’m going up or down, right?

INSTRUCTOR

Usually up.

INSTRUCTOR

(laughs)

Right.

Over ad-lib chit chat, where Instructor points at things on the map, then at features in the terrain (no sound) –

PRESENTER (V/O)

So now I know where I have to get to and what I’m looking for when I get there. The next question is – which direction do I go in?