Looking For Advice On Filming Hunts

[Kwfranklin88]

I have never filmed anything ever in my life. Other than quick videos on my phone. I don’t know anything about cameras or filming.
I have never had an interest in filming because I know it’s hard to do.
My son is getting into hunting and I would like to be able to film our hunts together.

What all do I need?

What is the cheapest setup that still works decent? I don’t want terrible quality.

I want something easy to setup, easy to operate and as tough as possible.

I have a laptop but not very good at using it. I am a quick learner though.

What would you buy for this situation? Cheap as possible but still good. Please include everything I would need so I have an idea.

Thanks for the help! I’m lost when it comes to this stuff!

 

[Patriot]

I’m in the same boat - my only experience is doing skits in iMovie thru my phone that suck slightly less than SNLs skits do this year. And that’s a super low bar, breaks my heart but SNL, you guys suck.

I have a Sony camera but I’ve also been wondering if there are folks out there that do it with just an iPhone. For the OPs question what is the most affordable I would assume that’s it right?

there are award winning films that have been recorded and edited on an iPhone! Yet I don’t hear of any hunters whose set up consists of just a phone. Why? I’m sure there are good reasons?

I’m following - whether it’s an iPhone or some other entry level set up please let us know the best way to start.

 

[BuckTown]

Following

 

[kyler1945]

What’s your budget? Do you hunt in trees or on the ground?

 

[Kwfranklin88]

What’s your budget? Do you hunt in trees or on the ground?

I don’t have a set budget. I would just like to go as cheap as possible while still getting something decent. I mostly hunt in trees. Very occasionally in a ground blind.

 

[stevethebreeze]

I work in technology and live in your same county. PM me and we can get together if you want. I've dealt with everything you've listed except actually filming myself. I have filmed friends in the past using their equipment. Just like everything, you only get out of your equipment what you are willing to spend on it. I work in Education so I am used to stretching every dollar to get as good a product as you can with what you can afford.

 

[kyler1945]

Cheapest - use your phone.

next cheapest get an action cam, and zoom on the editing software.

buy a used handheld. Can be had for a couple hundred bucks, build or buy used camera arm, can probably be all in for 3-500.

buy a dslr, which will allow you to get great quality video and photos. To get good zoom capabilities you’ll need expensive zoom lenses. And prime glass for these cameras islike all other prime glass - it’s expensive.

filming hunts sucks. Editing film sucks worse. But the end result is nice, and I find myself watching footage often.

be prepared to devote a significant amount of time and energy to the process of acquiring gear, toting gear in and out of the field, and editing footage. 75% of what you shoot will be boring and useless. But you have to watch 100% of it, multiple times, to pare it down. And if you don’t, you and everyone else won’t really enjoy watching the boring bits.

I am sure that having two people cuts the annoyance factor down significantly

 

[stevethebreeze]

 

[VASteve]

If you are filming just to re-live the experience with yourself, family, or hunting buddies, you could do it pretty cheaply. For a lot of years, I have been using a $100 Cannon Sure Shot pocket camera mounted on my bow. It takes good video, has good sound and I don't do much editing. It is somewhat shakey because of the mount, but I can hit pause and see where my arrow hits. This year I will be using a TactaCam 5.0 mounted on my hat.

Here is a video that I shot a couple years ago of a good buck.

 

[Sequoia]

I've been filming hunts and gear reviews etc for the past few years. I'm no expert. Like you, I just started dabbling and have picked up a few things along the way.

Camera - I have a Canon rebel DSLR which i would not recommend for what you described. it allows me to transition focus and take some really quality pictures but its a little unwieldy when you're trying to self film a hunt. There are a lot of Sony point and shoot type cameras out there that would fit the bill perfectly. Just make sure it has at least 1080p for a quality standpoint. They also have much better zoom than the DSLR. if i could go back I'd get one of those.

GoPro - Would recommend having a go pro for things like following blood trails and scouting, giving a second angle while self filming etc... They have a built in stabilizer that makes walking around and filming much more palatable to watch.

Camera Arm - You'll need this if you're self filming, if filming for your son you can just run it hand held. I have the muddy pro "outfitter" camera arm. It's big and unwieldy but super stable. There are better options. Fourth arrow just came out with some awesome camera arms that I'm looking to upgrade to. Their new bases can fit in a water bottle pocket! That's amazing. They even have a specialized arm for self filming out of a saddle. That is the setup I'd recommend. They go for 180-200. I think I'm going to pick one up this season. Go to the fourth arrow website.

Editing software - I have Filmora 9. It's super intuitive and way cheaper than final cut pro or any of the other really professional editing softwares that are also harder for guys like you and me to to just jump into and figure out. There are also youtube videos on how to do everything in the filmora software. I think it costs about 70-80$ for Filmora 9. Well worth it.

Music - There is tons of free music on the Youtube "Sound Library". You can download songs for free and use them for home videos or if you upload to youtube you just need to add who the artist is and the song title in your video description.

If you want to see some examples of what I've done (super basic) with filmora and my setup, the link to my YT channel is in my signature. Feel free to hit me up with any other questions. Once again I'm no pro, just a guy like you that has stumbled through the process and come up with a lot of "I should have done it this way" lessons learned.

 

[kyler1945]

Since it was brought up above. I almost always turn off videos with music now. Unless you have a live orchestra playing the score, I have no interest in your taste in music.

I watch hunting videos to feel like I’m there with the folks doing the hunting. Music is a huge turnoff, and makes it all feel fake.

maybe it helps with gathering advertisers and thus viewers, and if that’s why you’re doing this - Great! But if you’re just doing it for yourself, and for the common man to enjoy, leave the hype music out.

 

[Gator]

I think optical zoom is very important (not digital) for good footage. I used to film with nothing more than a Sony Handycam (believe it had 20x optical zoom), turn off digital zoom. Prepare to miss animals. At some point you have to decide to hunt or film. I was chasing a double drop tine buck years ago and when I saw him coming down the trail, I attempted once to turn the cam on. When it didn't come on, the decision was over to film that hunt and I was able to harvest the buck but you will miss opportunities when filming. If I was filming for TV or something where I had to have footage, that buck would have lived another day.

If you want a story versus just the harvest, prepare to spend a lot of time doing cutaways and editing. I just have the shot most of the time. Like someone else mentioned above, I watch them quite often. Fun to reminisce...