A successful camera hunt

[Steven McBee]

I was wonderin if there was any pro or semi-pro camerman here. the reason i ask this is because i was wondering wat you do on a successful hunt. what i mean by this is do you interviews before or after the hunt and do you go back and edit in the hunter drawing his bow.Also does the hunter talk about the scene and wats been happenin during the hunt or do you edit that in too. And one last thing, whenever the camera shows the hunter rattlin and grunting, is that all during the hunt or in a posthunt scene? Sorry about all the questions, i'm just trying to learn all the ropes.

[Chasebaker]

Well this is how we do it

PRE interview- before we leave the truck incase we see somthing and have no time to do a stand Pre interview

B Roll on the way to the stand

Pre Interview in the stand

Post interview after the hunt

B-Roll again leaving the buck

We do not Pre-shoot anything loike rattling what happens during the hunt is all real
We like to get the hunter drawing the bow back..but it doesn't always happens because sometimes is fast paced!

[Steven McBee]

ok thanx for the advice

[Chasebaker]

no problem..what cam are u using?

[Steven McBee]

I'm usingThe Canon XHA1

[Chasebaker]

awesome came..wish Icould afford a good cam!

[Predator House]

What we do is figure out what kind of video we want before the hunt even begins. I personally don't care for the interview after the hunt - you just watched what happened, why do you need someone to tell you what you just saw? To hear the hunter's thoughts is always nice but there are more creative ways to present this than standing over a dead animal with a static camera angle. We try to watch the finished video of the hunt in our minds; everything down to the music. This gives us a game plan on what shots we need to get and when. After we have that, we film everything we can. We try to get all the real reactions and bow drawbacks and whatever, but if it just all happens too quickly, we may have to go back and fake it. Be careful if you ever have to fake anything though because the idea is to make it look like you didn't. Make sure you have all the details down so the audience can't tell. Hope this helps.

[lungbuster12point06]

If your going to do any reversals (footage of the hunter drawing etc. after the shot) get them done right after the hunter shoots the animal,this way the lighting conditions will be the same and it will look believeable..............Cutaways should never cross the 180 degree axis, in other words never get in front of the hunter (it's not believeable). I always try to get the hunter to set up the hunt in the tree just after we set up our equipment. Have him tell a story about the area and why we chose it on that day, if hunting over a food plot you can split screen footage of planting the plot (if you thought ahead and shot the planting process)........When i set up in the stand I like to get my stand platform about halfway between the platform/seat of the hunters stand, and if he/she is right handed i like to be over their right shoulder,this way i can hopefully get the actual draw in the same frame as the animal as it comes in........follow the animal as long as you can after the shot, then pan back to the hunter to get their reaction..........roll tape as you follow the blood trail (it may be shaky, but you might also be able to use some of it) try to get the hunters reaction when you finally find the animal.................do a short hero shot, because the audience wants to see how big the animal is or any unique features it may have, if you don't do this you really don't have a good ending to your story.