The Personal Sacrifice of Making Videos (Hunting Series)

People often ask how I have time to make so many short videos. The truth is, it typically takes about 1-2 hours per edited minute of a video. This depends, of course, on how packaged a video is (and packaging doesn’t always equate with the “viralness” of the piece. This time includes conceiving, scripting, shooting, editing, scoring and uploading. I usually skip “story boarding” because I have a mental idea and kinda let the footage dictate where the video goes.

In the case of this 3-part “how to hunt” series, however, the sacrifice wasn’t just time. Here’s the set up (and the output CLEARLY wasn’t worth the turmoil):

1. We were on our last of a 4-day “vacation” in a hunting camp in Alabama. I was getting freaked out by the stuffed dead animals collected by my cousins who enjoy shooting things — especially if they’re alive and furry.
2. I had to beg my brother, a priest in the Vatican, to help me on the intros. He agreed on the condition that a) it took less than 5 minutes, b) he didn’t speak c) he wasn’t doing anything beyond the intros, and most importantly d) wasn’t identified by name. Thanks, Chris.
3. My wife very reluctantly agreed to stop her manic packing and cleaning, so she could shoot the cougar capture. She was pretty livid because she couldn’t find her shoes and she kept stepping on pine cones. Then I ripped my finger on the wire frame of the stuffed cougar.
4. The babysitter took our four kids for what was supposed to be a 15-minute golf-cart ride. She got lost in the woods, and we called 911 when they didn’t return an hour and a half later. I finally took our rental van into the woods with the GPS and found them. They didn’t seem bothered as my wife and I who were terrified.

So here are the clips. Way cornier than I hoped, but let’s hope they garner at least $25 each.

Part 1: How to Hunt Cougars. I don’t think I spelled couger right, but more importantly I don’t think it’s a cougor anyway.

Part 2: How to Hunt Turkey

Part 3: How to Hunt Deer

Final: The Outtakes