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TrevH
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#21

Post by TrevH »

Any other pet hates about fly fishing movies?

What about the music?

What music is good for fly fishing movies and what is bad? :???:
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Paul Arden
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#22

Post by Paul Arden »

Poor handling of fish, either being out the water too long, or with dry hands or barbed hooks. Just plain lack of experience (and maybe respect/understanding).
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#23

Post by Paul Arden »

Incidentally we have Stu's reviews up on the main site and will be running them off the back of the next Snapcast! It's great to know that there are some excellent fly fishing films out there. Tapam is the one FFing movie that I've genuinely enjoyed (so far!).

Cheers Paul
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#24

Post by Stu Jamieson »

I think the thing we need to keep in mind about fly fishing films is that industry is in it's infancy - there ain't no Citizen Kanes out there. So this needs to be factored into the equation when evaluating them.

Having said that, some of these films are starting to get seriously good. I know I've banged on a fair bit about Gin Clear in this thread but they really are pushing the envelope in what a fly fishing film can be. Their production quality is amazing and this isn't by accident when you consider the gear they are using. They're not heading into the bush armed with a few Go-Pros, they're using RED digital cameras, cranes, dollies and flying foxes and spending a lot of time setting up and capturing the shots they want to get. That they're dragging all this gear into the wilderness speaks to their dedication and they're reaping the rewards.

There must be something in the NZ water because all the best looking video seems to be coming from there. Carl McNeil's Casts That Catch Fish and Once In A Blue Moon may not be the best movies out there but they sure are a couple of the prettiest. Stealth With A Fly also looks great. Admittedly when the backdrop at your disposal is the NZ wilderness you've got a lot to play with! But their gear and dedication is exploiting it to the full.

Even Only The River Knows is pushing boundaries. I know I was quite critical about parts of it but hats off to them for for attempting to create fictional stories about the sport. Through the efforts of these guys, the industry will mature and we'll get our "Spinal Tap". :yeahhh:

But I agree with you, Paul, about the bulk of the films out there and the gung-ho piss-it-up nature of some of them. I wouldn't be surprised if some of these guys are having drunken head butt contests off camera. :whistle: This is not what I call fly fishing.

I haven't seen Tapam. Will chase it up.
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#25

Post by Paul Arden »

This is always going to be a problem, because setting up to take a shot of a fish taking a fly takes a huge amount of time and dedication. I think you'd literally have to camp on the fish to get the shot you want. And then you end up having a possible one-fish day and not a spectacular 20 fish day. When Ronan and I did the Fish This episode we only got to fish less than a kilometre of river one day, where we would normally fish 10-15. I think the perfect movie would be a mix of going hard with GoPros and perfection filming.
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#26

Post by Stu Jamieson »

^ And for that reason I think you'd be amazed at the footage they've captured in Hatch. I guess it ultimately comes down to resources and sometimes you're just not going to get the shot you want.

I think this is what let down Carl McNeil's Once In A Blue Moon. Clearly he set out with the intention of capturing an NZ mouse run as everything in the film is building towards that. But obviously he didn't get it and in the end he settles on catching a trout with a mouse fly. That ain't the same thing! It's the risk taken by every documentary film maker, of course, looking at capturing a snapshot in time. Sometimes it pays off; sometimes it spectacularly doesn't. It pays to have some inbuilt flexibility in your narrative for that reason. There are some really great (non-fishing) docos out there where the finished product is not what was intended at the start. The King Of Kong and Metallica's Some Kind Of Monster are two which immediately come to mind.

I don't know what Gin Clear's hit/miss ratio is but they mostly get something worthwhile in the end. I get the impression that they're mostly a release-the-movie-when-it's-finished kind of crew rather than working to a hard deadline but obviously economics plays into it. I think they've been smart in running their own film festival as a means to maintain cash flow whilst advertising current and upcoming releases.
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#27

Post by Paul Arden »

Yep no question that the film festival is a smart idea. The mouse year properly happened two years after Carl's film, but further north. It's staggered across the country. I have a friend who caught three trophy fish in one night from one pool. Carl did pick up one super fish but from a boat so I guess that made editing the story really hard.
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#28

Post by Stu Jamieson »

What is "Fish This", mate? Is that a TV programme?

Speaking of TV programmes, my favourite is A River Somewhere made by a couple of Aussie comedians with a passion for fly fishing. It's not a comedy programme but it does have their comic wit in it. Not sure how well dry Aussie comedy translates to the rest of the world but I like it a lot and it was shot in the 90s so the video quality is really shit. Also all the episodes are up on Youtube! :D Here's the first one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIPi5qPeqH8
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#29

Post by Paul Arden »

Yes I know "A River Somewhere", really enjoyed it. Enjoyed watching The Panel too when I was living in Oz.

Fish This was a pilot show with Ronan and I, that was aired on Discovery Channel a few years back as a pilot show, but didn't go to series, which was unfortunate! :D But it was a bit directionless IMO and the result wasn't really where anyone wanted to go. It was interesting however because as a fisherman you have to pull it out the bag when you have limited time, are forced to go slow and have people around you trying to capture the scenic shots and not the fish.

In the UK we had A Passion for Angling which was a TV series, that was great apart from their not-so-hot flyfishing skills. Also we had years of John Wilson, who was very watchable but not a great fly angler. But I grew up on that stuff and loved it. I'd tape it while fishing the evening, and then go home and watch it! And then we'd talk about it while fishing the next day. That's just perfect for me :)
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#30

Post by Stu Jamieson »

I'm glad you liked A River Somewhere (check it out people! :D ), it's good to know we have some common ground considering, y'know, I'm writing reviews for your site. :)

And yes, that's the thing with show biz: the process is never as glamorous as the end result. Of course, no one would watch it otherwise. I done a couple of jobs as an extra on a TV pilot and a music video and it's seriously the most boring job I've EVER done. Yep, lots of sitting around waiting for the crew to get ready for the next shot (after you did the last shot 52 times). I can only imagine what a fishing show is like: "Sorry guys, the light faded midway through that shot, do you think you could catch that fish again? With more gusto this time, if you please. And try to smile."
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