Stories from Joe’s Journeys
My name is Joe Weaver, Department of Awesomeness and Video Production Supervisor. I am also the producer, director, videographer, and editor of BrushPile Fishing, and Catfish Crazy. Both shows are produced by NKT Productions in New Knoxville, OH.
In this adventure, I was shooting a show with the Catfish Crazy host, Chris Souders. Chris decided to do a solo show (meaning no guest) on Sandusky Bay, Ohio. The area we set up on is a great channel catfish spot. Last year we shot a show there and it was crazy!! Between the guest and Chris they had four poles in the water and at one time they had four big fish flopping on the deck of the boat. It was one of my favorite shows we shot last year. Anyways, this year it was just Chris and while the fishing was not as fast and furious, we were still able to get the show shot in about 3 hours, which is pretty fast. Huzzah!!
So part of my process for shooting a show is to shoot the whole show from inside the boat. After we have everything we need, I usually try to get off on the shore somewhere so I can fly the drone to get those shots. Now, normally I’m getting dropped off somewhere pretty remote, so when I hop off the boat, I’m always on the lookout for dead bodies or dead animals or anything else that I don’t want to step in. From now on I will include live things as well. As I jumped out the boat onto a rocky pier, I landed about one foot from a 10ft long snake that I did not see until I landed. I don’t mind snakes and spiders and such, but only when we all have our space to escape. I was lucky that we were in Northern Ohio, so the 15ft long snake was not poisonous, plus he quickly retreated into the big rocks that lined the pier. I’m not going to lie…I yelled and jumped back when I first saw it. Chris asked what was wrong. My reply included a lot of expletives and laughter. Since I did not have a ton of room on the pier to move away from where the 20ft long snake had retreated, I had to constantly look over my shoulder while flying, just to make sure the 25ft long snake did not come out of hiding. The rest of that shoot was uneventful.
Next we decided to shoot a show from the bank for the rest of the day, since we finished the first show so early. The area we were shooting the first show was right off the rocky pier where I was nearly eaten by the 30ft anaconda. We knew there were fish off the end of the pier, so we thought, why not? So after grabbing some lunch we ventured to the end of the rocky pier. August on Lake Erie, there are apparently one kajillion bugs per square foot. As we trekked down the path, the bugs (not sure what flavor of bugs) swarmed us. They didn’t bite, but were annoying and everywhere. After the bugs settled down, I set up a GoPro on a Manfrotto clamp, tightened onto a tree branch, which pointed back at Chris who was sitting on the shore. I used the Sony FS7 on a monopod to shoot out into the water. Sometimes I set things up, but have to change them once I see how the action is happening, so in this case I did have to rotate the GoPro to point out into the water and I shot Chris sitting on the bank. What I am looking for is the action of Chris jumping up to go after his pole when he gets a bite. Then I cut to the GoPro pointing out into the water, then I cut to the FS7 with a tight shot of the line in the water and the fish when it surfaces. When we are on the boat, that is a different setup and edit. Unfortunately, Chris had trouble getting his bait far enough out and the fish slowed down so we were not able to get the bank show we were looking for. We will release the show straight to YouTube, because it still contained tons of good information, though the show would not be quite up to par to air on television.
On a side note, I personally feel that television still holds a certain amount of credibility over something put on the internet. Anybody can post something to the internet, but television is expensive so there is a lower chance of subpar content aired on television. That is just my opinion, but I am old school in that way.
Overall, it was a good day and a good shoot. The show will be very informative and hopefully it will help our viewers put more fish in the live well. I love sharing the little behind the scenes aspects of shooting a television show with you. If you have questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to holler. Thanks for reading.
