Thanks Damon.
So, in 2019 my brother proposed that I start a Texas Fishing channel. I am a lifelong fisherman and have fished from the Arctic to the Amazon for over 50 years. I have done a few fishing videos for my Jungle Explorer channel but always felt that they turned out very poorly. The main reason was, I had no film crew to film me, so I had to be a cameraman and the star at the same time.
I have tried using GoPro style action cameras, but they have often failed me, causing me to miss critical footage. So I went on a search to find a way to solve my problems. In this search, I watched many fishing shows. Having been in the filming side of fishing videos, I can generally tell what is staged, what is real, and what is enhanced. Fishing shows start losing a lot of their appeal, once you realize that most of it is faked, staged, or enhanced to make it seem more than it really is. The one show that I found that was an exception was Wicked Tuna. There certainly is some staged footage in that show, they use over and over again, but a lot of the footage is raw footage shot on less than Hollywood quality equipment. It is lower quality, many times not stable, and sometimes not clear. Because of the nature of the show, of fishing for monster fish in storm-like conditions, studio-like filming conditions cannot always be achieved. And yet, it is an extremely successful fishing show.
What I learned from watching all seasons of this show is, the footage does not need to be best, as long as you Get The Shot. Another thing learned was that there was only one cameraman on the boat to get special shots. The rest of the footage is captured by stationary cameras around the boat. So, in my planning to figure out the best way to achieve something similar on a tight budget, I have the idea to use a high-quality security camera system that would allow me to capture many different angles around my boat all at the same time, assuring that I will get the shot of live raw action, without having to be behind the camera to get it. Here is a diagram of camera positions on my boat, which will be essentially a floating studio. At least once I get everything in order. 2020 and Covid put a lot of my plans on hold and 2021 has been my worst year ever on YouTube with me losing over half my viewership. I am still working on this project, it is just gonna take more time to get there.
Besides these cameras, I will have other cameras, like fish cameras, GoPros, and a drone to get off boat shots. Of course I will have at least one high quality manned camera for those cinematic shots.
