YOUR THOUGHTS PLEASE

[nemasis243]

Hi All, just a quick post to see what your thoughts are?

 

I have been,for some time, thinking of making a DVD regarding fox/deer/rabbit and also long distance vermin shooting.

At present I am trying to decide what Camera to invest in , but I would love to some feed back from you all as what you would like to see on a film .

Also topics that could be discused or anything you feel could be of interest.

This is something that is going to take a fair while to put together ,but I am going to try and do something a little different to the average Fox shooting dvd,which I think alot of us have seen?

Also when I get this up and running if anyone on here would like to be on it ,I am willing to travel and come out shooting with you to film the way you go about things,

I have spoke to a few guys on the site and they seem up for it, so hopefully things will come together.

Please ,any responce would be great,whether it be possitive or negative, I need to know what the real shooting person would like to see.

If anyone has good high seats where deer and wild boar are likely to be spotted would love to hear from you.

Thanks Andy

[6mmBR]

Good idea, as we chatted last night, I think you either need to have a smattering of everything or to speacialise and deal with each type of shooting seperately.

The poblem comes with finding the right twist.

Personally after watching a lot of prarie dog shooting DVD's seeing animal after animal getting blown up is a bit boring.

I personally would like to learn something as well. So showing and discussing the field craft side of things is important and will help other improve.

Cheers

Dave

[PeteL]

Andy,

I tend to agree with Dave (6MMBR), it might be better to cover each discipline seperately, there would be a hell of a lot to put in just one DVD. Even if it were possible to put it all on one DVD, then, I think it would be too much to take in at one time, JMHO. Perhaps the long range stuff could be with the rabbit sequence including fieldcraft then another DVD for Fox, particularly incorporating some of your vast store of knowledge on the matter esp WRT baiting and other attraction and/or detection methods(that tablelamp is such a clever concept). Perhaps you could consider having the Deer segment as another DVD. If you are considering all six Deer species, it's going to take a long, long time, much effort and cost to cover them all. I've got a few contacts in the Deer world who may be of help. As to pigs, a contact around the Forest of Dean might be handy.

To really make it worthwhile, there should be lots of instructions and learning segments, not animal after animal being potted, as you get on many videos, as Dave says.

I shall give this idea some thought and maybe come up with something more concrete in the way of suggestions.

Skype me sometime, Quentin Tarrantino.

Peter

[kip270]

Andy,

 

I have numerous DVD’s (as I’m sure others have) from standard shooting to long range stuff, some are full of good information, but others are just small varmints blowing up.

The one’s I tend to watch the most is Randy Anderson as he covers tips as well as some good shooting scenes.

The Warrener is OK but always has that horrible thing of telling you what is going to happen before it doe’s!!!!

 

As has already been said, a DVD for each section would be good, or putting general varminting and some Tec tips in say Volume one, then move on to Foxing, then Deer and then Long range.

 

Best to get things down on paper, from the basic stuff onwards, I think the list will be vast.

 

I'm sure there will a few here willing to help out.

[Toby]

Hi Andy, I think a lot of new shooters(and probably quite a few experienced ones as well)would appreciate a Fox-Deer-Long Range "Shooting for dummies" type DVD. Start with the basics and include some hints and tips and plenty of real life situations(the misses can go on the extras part of the disc!)I for one would be very interested in learning more about fox calling and lamping and also deerstalking. A great idea and hopefully something that will pan out,though I can see it being a bit of a labour of love.Looks like there's plenty of good guys that can give you a hand on this forum though.-regards Toby

[foxhunter]

I think its a brilliant idea . I would like to see the long range fox shooting along with baiting techniques. Also I think its good to take in as many different parts of the country from arable farms to hill farms and covering all countries in the UK as there seems to be a much bigger fox population in some parts of the country to others.

 

It would also be nice to see the 6 species of deer along with boar taken on camera but could prove expensive unless a lot of kind stalkers oblige.

 

Youre welcome to come to the Scotish Borders to film some long range daytime fox shooting along with roe.

 

Keep us posted on how its progressing ..........

[Cornishman]

I thought about doing this a couple of years ago after viewing a number of varmint-type vids and thinking "I could do better than that".

 

Having bought a camcorder and tried making a few short DVDs I've spotted a few potential problems with my plan. For example, the need to bring in others to make this work as you need three well-developed skills. First, of course, you really need to know your stuff about shooting. No problem with any of us, natch. Next, you're going to need someone with the personality and fluency to go in front of a camera and be entertaining. This is not so easy. And last you need to be able to make movies.

 

If you want to sell your DVDs you're going to need some serious kit, probably two cameras, tripods, improved microphones, infra-red lights etc. And if you go high quality you're going to need a super-duper computer to process it and the willingness to spend many, many hours editing it all.

 

I started out buying a cheap Camcorder and making a few movies for my pals and I'm still not far up the learning curve. But I have learned how difficult it is to make a film that others will want to watch, let alone pay money for.

 

At the end of the day the thing that's kept me going, in a very small and amateur way, is that the DVDs will be there for me to watch in my old age ("Look there Boy, see what your old Grandpa used to get up to...."). I'd really like to hear how you get on and add your experience to mine. Best of luck.

 

 

Cornishman.

[Guest Tiff]

Andy it sounds like an excellent idea. I had been planning a very similar project a couple of years back, but unfortunately my shooting friend (a bbc cameraman) went over to wildlife filming and now spends 2/3 year in Africa! I'd speak to a few professional cameraman about what they would use for a portable, inexpensive, good DVD quality camera. Another thing to consider is how much editing/mixing ability you wish to have. Some systems/film media allow easier editing than others. It might be worth calling someone like Johnny Kingdom etc. and seeing what they use (obviously asking about filming wildlife - not filming it being killed ). Don't know if you've seen 'Best of the West - Beyond Belief' and their follow up 3 disks. It is very American, but I'm sure much of their filming techniques and presentation style could be used. Maybe a short section on the importance of practice could be included, like clips from sennybridge or somthing similar out in the fields.

 

I'd be more than happy to help out shooting wise if your looking for places to film longer range stuff. The closet daylight fox I'd shot in nearly a year last night was at 187 yards, with the furthest around the 800 yard mark. I'm still trying to get the illusive 1,760 yard rabbit! I've also got plenty of shooting on 'reliable' roe and red deer ground if that helps.

 

Good luck with the project and drop me a pm if your wanting to film the longer range side of things. Tiff

[Guest martin]

As has been said Andy,it will be a hell of a lot of work,but,when you have people like you do on here to tell you what they would pay to see,then you do have a bit of a head start on the others that go at it a bit half cocked.I also think that 'The Warrener'has been so successful mainly because he was the only one really doing it,and,it was well promoted,but,there are only so many DVD's that you can watch of fox after fox being shot.I feel the way to go would be to get a bit more personal,and,to give as much 'REAL' information as possible on techniques etc. Oh,and,no mug foxes that have just been released like some people do! I would also like to help in any way that I can mate,not sure if I would be of any use,but,it's there if needed..........Martin.

[eldon]

'Best of the West - Beyond Belief' and their follow up 3 disks. It is very American, but I'm sure much of their filming techniques and presentation style could be used.

 

Of all the DVD's I have these are probably the most watched. In my opinion they have good content and instruction but from a watching and entertainment perspective they could have been edited better. At times I felt they were watching the clock to ensure the script spanned out enough.

Certain sections seemed long winded.

 

You will have to consider who your audience will be and aim directly for that type of person. As others have said avoid straightforward "bang, its fallen over oh look theres another one" type vids which I have some and they soon become boring.

 

A friend tried similar with 4x4 events a few years ago and bought all sorts of fancy editing kit and when it worked well you could do all sorts with it. Adding 2 or 3 sound tracks/ voice overs, phasing the pics in, slow mo etc but the computers were a constant pain in the arse. In the end he gave up and went to work for ITV.

 

Good luck.

[nemasis243]

This is going to be one hell of a task and is gonna take a long time , thanks for all feedback , anymore is always welcome

cheers Andy

[PeteL]

Andy,

As has been said above, it's going to be a lot of work, so may I suggest you start off with one topic, or a part thereof, to build up experience and expertise and when complete to your satisfaction, put the resulting video out to selected "critics" for evaluation. I'm sure that there are many experienced and expert shooters on this Site who will provide valuable feedback. The resulting critique may well assist you with subsequent segments. I can see this as a most interesting project which will be a valuable resource for many shooters, both novice and expert. Excellent idea, mate. Count me in.

Peter