Welcome behind the scenes again. As I’ve noted before, making a television show is not all beer and skittles. You don’t simply show up, go hunting, then send the tape to a network. There are a lot of steps between booking a hunting trip and lounging on the couch in your skivvies watching the show on TV.
One of the most onerous tasks we face is reviewing all the raw footage, culling the bad from the good and ultimately interpreting it for you. While I love every part of a hunt and so do you when you’re in the field, viewers would reach for the remote after more than a few seconds of us walking through a field watching dogs on a fruitless search for absent birds.
So it’s about striking a balance between scenic shots, personal interaction, what magazine editors call “think pieces,” and the adrenaline rush-inducing flushes and dog work that crystallize our hunting experience to its most pungent essence. Some will simply slap their few good clips together and insult your intelligence. Telling a story requires a more deliberate process. It also means shooting longer every day, spending more time afield and working hard for good shots that will capture and hold your attention.
To paraphrase the old saw, bird hunting footage is hours of mind-numbing boredom punctuated by moments of almost-wet-your-pants pandemonium. Our job is to make the call on what’s what.
Most times, it means taking a really cool long-ish sequence and distilling it to the good stuff tucked amongst the slower, less-relevant material. Once editor Tad Newberry and I have identified those portions of the raw footage, Tad goes to work making it watchable. He cuts, pastes, cuts again, puts in material from the other camera, and repeats (over and over again).
Want to try it? Here’s the raw material. How would you cut it together?
Scott Linden Outdoors 
Hi Scott
Good scene. Light is good, dog is good, good shot of bird flying and yes the sun or a tree or a bush usually gets in the way!
I suggest showing the scene through to when the dog starts moving after that false(?) point after the missed shot. Then move on. I also have a problem with seeing the camera man’s shadow even though I know good and well he or she is there! Cut out the “Jesus” and all looks good. Also with respect to the time element I think it would be good to have a time line or a clock shown some where during the scenes to show how long it does take to generate this much film. I think people will then appreciate that you just don’t go out and film for 20 minutes and then throw it up on the screen!
Looking forward t the show. Some more teasers would be great!
Good Luck
Jesse
Great. Tad reads this. Now he’ll be asking for a raise!
Wow….that sure was a good point………but what a sorry shot!!!! LOL Tad is REALLY going to have to go above and beyond the call of duty to make that raw clip look “good”.
Whatever you are paying him….increase it! By the looks of things….he’s gonna earn every penny!
I KNOW I have it! That’s why I pay Tad the big bucks to do the final cut. There is some fun in watching and re-living some of the hunts, though.
I think I have adult ADD. I don’t have the patience to cut and paste the footage, but I love to either be out there hunting or watching the end footage. I’ll leave the editing to you and Tad. Keep up the good work and I’ll see you on the airwaves.