HOW TO KEEP THE HUNT OF A LIFETIME

TOP 15 SECRETS OF VIDEOGRAPHERS TO GET GREAT HUNTING

EDITOR'S NOTE: We don't have to depend on our memories to relive the best hunts of our lifetimes. Modern technology enables us to capture the essence of great hunts, good hunts and even enjoyable, non-productive hunts through video. But how do you film your hunt and try to take game at the same time? Which cameras will serve you best? What's the best technique for getting top-notch footage? Where and how can you get a hunting buddy to shoot footage for you instead of trying to take a deer or a turkey for himself? Can you make a living shooting hunting videos? To learn the answers to these questions and more, we've interviewed some of the best videographers in the outdoor industry. These people use video cameras to tape television shows and to create the best-selling videos in the nation. Follow their advice to make the kind of videos your friends will lean out of their chairs to watch instead of nodding off to sleep when you turn on the VCR.

1) "Keep your camera with you," Ronnie Strickland of Mossy Oak advises. "You can't get good hunting video if you leave your camera at home or in your vehicle. How many times have you heard, 'Man, if I'd only had my camera, I could have gotten some really good video.'"
2) Get a hunting buddy, and determine who will commit to filming. One or both of you must agree to learn to operate a video camera and dedicate yourselves to shooting the best footage you can shoot.
3) Know your camera. When you video a deer hunt, don't take a brand-new camera right out of the box. Purchase your new camera as soon as deer season ends. Spend the rest of the year practicing shooting videos. Then you'll know without looking the location of every button on your camera and what it does. Michael Waddell emphasizes that your camera needs to become an extension of your hand. "Then when you pick it up, you don't have to mentally tell every finger what its responsibility is. Your fingers and your hand will react automatically to the message you send." Become so familiar with your camera that when a deer moves into view, you automatically do the right things to get great video. A longtime bowhunter doesn't have to think about how he's going to draw the bow, aim the shot and release the string. All these steps happen automatically, and that's the level of proficiency you need with your video camera.
4) Eliminate camera shake by using a tripod or a treepod to steady your camera. Then, your audience won't get seasick when they watch your videos.
5) Purchase a remote microphone for better audio. The remote microphone will pick up more wildlife sounds while preventing the viewer from hearing annoying camera noise like your hand, clothing or a tree making a "swish" sound when you brush against them.
6) Know the location of the sun in relationship to the camera before you climb into your tree stand. If you shoot directly into the sun, your video will contain bright spots from glare on the lens, making the action difficult to see. Watch the amount of light in an area carefully, because often you won't have enough light to film when the deer move the most.
7) Wear total camouflage from head to toe yourself, and put it on your camera. If you don't want to put camouflage tape like the Duck tape made by Manco on your camera, then purchase a camouflage t-shirt. Either put the lens of the camera through the neck hole, or cut a hole in the t-shirt for the camera lens.
8) Have a game plan. Before you enter the woods, decide what kind of video you want to shoot. Set a goal for the video. Do you want a video of any buck, a monster buck or a particular buck or a doe? Try to produce what you've planned. If you prefer to get video footage of a monster buck, then you and your hunting partner need to agree not to take the shot or do the video if you don't get the buck you want. If you hope to video long-bearded turkeys, then let the jakes walk past you unmolested, and wait for a longbeard.
9) Keep the camera in sharp focus while videoing. Don't use the auto-focus feature on your camera. Instead, learn to focus manually because your focus point will change as the deer comes toward you or moves away from you. The focus point also will change as you zoom in and out. To obtain that sharp image, you'll need to continually sharpen your focus point manually.
10) Understand the game and the hunter you'll video. Know where the deer most likely will appear, where he'll probably walk, where to take the shot and what he'll do after he's hit. The more you know about the game you hunt, the better the video you'll produce. Also anticipate what the hunter will do. The more you hunt with somebody, the more you can anticipate the hunter's actions. Then you can focus on either the hunter of the deer and make preparations for the action when it takes place.
11) Know when you can and can't move. To get a good video, you may have to switch your camera position and make some movements in the tree. To move without spooking the game, you must know what the deer will do, when he'll do it, how he'll do it and how to keep him from seeing you. You only can learn this information by spending hundreds of hours in the tree stand and studying the body language of the deer.
12) Shoot more footage than you think you'll need. Don't just show the deer, the shot and the hunter with the deer. Bring more elements into the story. A good video should tell a story as effectively as a good book. The videographer needs the ability to see the same sight picture and down the same shooting lanes that the hunter can see. Connect the hunter to the game he's about to take. Then, zoom in on the animal. Once the hunter makes the shot and the animal goes down, pull back so that you can see the hunter in the stand immediately after the deer has gone down. This adds credibility to your video and makes it much more pleasing to watch.
13) Consider the viewer. Don't show a bad shot of bloody deer or any footage that gives hunting a bad image. After you show the hunter coming down the tree and walking toward the game, before you show a really close-up shot of the deer, wipe the blood off the animal, and clean it up as much as possible. Put the buck's tongue back in his mouth or remove it, and make the deer look presentable before you video him.
14) Get the word out that you want to shoot videos for fun and/or profit. Let people know that you're videoing hunts- even if just on a very amateur level; some hunters may pay you to go and video their hunts. Other hunters may invite you to go hunting with them if you'll spend part of your hunting time videoing them. Anytime you shoot good video footage-even if it doesn't include a kill-show that footage to the landowner. He'll enjoy seeing the game on his property.
15) Have fun. Don't pressure yourself to become the world's greatest hunting videographer. If you want to go hunting, then go hunting, and forget about the video. If you want to carry the camera with you, then do. Try not to come across on the hunting video as a know-it-all. People like to see hunters get excited and enthusiastic.

Contact these folks for top hunting videos,

Archer's Choice Video Productions
31570 Willow Road
Lanark, Illinois 60146
(815) 493-8998
www.archerchoice.com

Drury Outdoors Productions
P.O. Box 71
Bloomsdale, Missouri, 63627
(800) 990-9351
www.druryoutdoors.com

Manco
32150 Just Imagine Drive
Avon, Ohio 44011
(440) 937-7000
www.manco.com

Mossy Oak
200 East Main Street
West Point, Mississippi 30773
9662) 494-8859
www.mossyoak.com

Primos Game Calls
4436 North State Street
Jackson, Mississippi 39206
(601) 366-1288
www.primos@primos.com

Realtree
P.O. Box 9638
Columbus, Georgia 31908
(800)992-9968
www.realtree.com