Filming Tips & Reminders
 
I recently did a camera gear video and the link is right here
 
Prepping for hunt - here you can film yourself getting gear ready, telling what weapon you're going to use etc. and intro where you're going, who hunting with etc.
 
Travel - anything interesting that happens, like crossing the snowy dip in the lion video. If you're flying to mexico and you want to include that in the footage you can, up to you, but anything interesting that happens is worth filming.
 
Arrival- great time to film some b-roll of the area. Film some wide shots of the lodge/ranch area and pick out some interesting features to get some on tripod still video. I only need 10-15 second clips of each item you film.
 
Talking about hunt area before the hunt - great time to get an update with you and the guide/ranch owner talking about the ranch/lodge/hunt area and great time for the guide to explain on camera about the animal and the game plan to hunt it, where you'll be hunting etc.
 
Filming the hunt – try to capture 10-20 second max shots of the stalks, hikes, atv rides, and the hunt as it progress through the day. Remember the most engaging hunt films are ones that the audience feels like they are right their with you. During down time, or your sitting glassing you can put a camera on a tripod and film some scenic stuff. Wide shots of the mountains, tight shots of interesting features like trees, bushes, cactus, rock formations, any animals you come across, time-lapse of clouds going by etc. and your helicopter shots really make those wide scenic shots awesome so if you're going to take that to mexico it's an awesome place to get some of that. Shots of glassing, in field updates, action shots of hiking, driving, crossing rivers/cliffs etc. I would avoid hand-held shots as much as possible. It's amazing how the production quality goes up when you film mostly from the tripod.
 
Kill shot - I like to film the kill shot from 2 angles. The go pro works awesome as a 2nd angle filming the hunter on his gun and it's easy to set up on a small tripod. That way you can get real time reactions from the hunter and it makes great cut-ins for when you need to cut away from the animal. You can set the go pro up pretty close to the hunter and it's wide angle lens will capture all the action.  I like to set the camera that records the animal kill directly behind the hunter if possible on a tripod set high enough that the hunter isn't in frame but when you zoom back to the hunter he is in frame, then I pick the camera with the tripod still attached up and film the celebration that way.
 
Retrieval/recovery - I like to film hiking to the animal, hunters hiking toward and past the camera if possible, capture any challenges in recovery, excellent example was in the lion video, how it fell off the cliff and you guys hiked down to it. I like to film the hunters first reaction when finding his trophy, you did a great job on that in your henry mountains mule deer video.
 
Pack out - I like to film some challenges of getting the game back to the truck especially if it's a long brutal hike, or if anything interesting happens or has to happen to get the animal taken care of.
 
 
Interviews - at the end of the hunt when you're filming the wrap up, you can film interview with the guide, hunter, spotter etc. Like we talked about you can do this at the end of each day or you can wait until the last day and recap each day then. Interviews are not necessary, it's a film style that a lot of people use. It's up to you how you want to tell the story, but if you don't get enough in field updates interviews are a great way to fill gaps in the story.
 
Editing: This is usually where the wheels fall off the whole “I want to film my hunts” idea.
Unless you are extremely fast or you just through in raw footage I would plan to spend 4-5/Hrs for a 10 minute edited film
I use a Mac Pro Notebook and Final Cut Pro. I dump all raw footage on an external hard drive, then when I am ready to edit the footage, I download it to the hard drive of the Mac.
Take your time, take out all shaky video clips or trim them down.
Remove unwanted video pieces, as I am editing a hunt I am constantly reminding myself that I am trying to entertain an audience that is not as partial to your hunt as myself or my family.
 
Make a rough draft, walk away for a day, come back and re-edit.
 
I usually go through 2-3 drafts before I am finalizing the video.
 
Questions? Please ask below
Thanks for watching!