Pebble Mine Video Wins Drake Award; Stands Out From Others
By Tom Chandler on Sep 26, 2007 in Environment, Video
It’s only a three minute trailer from Felt Soul Media, but it nicely sums up the looming battle over the huge Bristol Bay salmon fisheries — what could become one of the pivotal environmental battles of our times.
Felt Soul produced last year’s “Running Down the Man” video, which made obsession seem somehow reasonable. Will we see its like again?
Are We Already Self-Parodying Ourselves?
The lads at Felt Soul Media won the Drake’s Fly Fishing Video Contest at the Fly Fishing Retailer Show with this three minute trailer, and deservedly so.
As we all jammed ourselves into the ballroom of the Oxford Hotel, I was looking forward to some innovative stuff. What we saw — outside of Felt Soul’s three minute setup of their documentary effort — was pure fish porn, some of it of pretty good quality.
What we didn’t see was innovation, new directions, or even a different approach to fish porn. Compared to the videos of the previous year, I was disappointed.
The Daytripper blog cast a wider net of condemnation surrounding today’s “edgy” new fly fishing videos when he said “They all look the same.”
The good news is that new technologies have liberated video production from the hands of companies interested only in how much advertising they can move.
The bad news is the new wave of fish porn videos is already in danger of becoming a parody of itself — the same way the earlier “cue the elevator music, cue the wildflowers, cue the soaring eagle, cue the exotic big fish location, cue the celebrity fly fisher, cue the wader walk into the sunset…” videos became parodies of themselves.
Strip the classic rock soundtracks and video effects, and what you’re left with is a little cool footage of big fish from (surprise) exotic locations, a lot of standard dripping fish/hero shots, and damned little insight, perspective, or innovation.
Attitude I’d venture, is not enough.
Technorati Tags: fly fishing, fly fishing video, the drake, drake fly fishing video contest, felt soul media, pebble mine
KW Morrow | Sep 26, 2007 | Reply
I have to agree. What seems to be “fresh” is a new wrapper. The “indy” nature of these films is not particularly innovative. It’s just reality: few advertisers = more creative license.
I saw a clip with the founder of AEG Media introducing Trout Bum Diaries II to a large audience in Washington state and he basically said that what folks were about to see was an overdose of fish porn. Nothing new about fish porn. On the other hand, there was a very amusing little clip where an angler was slugging through a bog in the woods. As he walked past the camera and out of frame, the tip of his fly rod caught a twig on a tree, there was a brief tug-o-war (angler off camera), and the twig snapped and stuck in his line near the tip of his rod…exit stage right. THAT was humorously real and fresh. There were a couple more brief snippets of field expedient automotive repairs and sleeping under the stars on the side of a deserted highway. But I felt both of those clips were extremely shallow and could have been fleshed out more for greater benefit.
The piracy allegations are bothering me. These guys are SELLING their videos. If they do not have copyright permission and are not paying royalties to the owners, this is just blatantly illegal and immoral. Has anyone put these guys on record about these allegations? I don’t believe in unfounded character assassination. I’ve read the piracy allegation several times recently. But I’m uncomfortable with the off-handed way it is being bandied about. If there’s a problem, let’s address it soberly and honestly. Maybe I’m just uninformed on this issue and it has been thoroughly investigated and hashed out in the media. But, if so, I missed it. I correspond with these guys fairly regularly. So I think I’ll just email them and ask…straight up.
Moldychum | Sep 26, 2007 | Reply
The pros at Felt Soul, Howard Films, Rollcast, AEG all have rights to the music they use in their films.
P.S. Felt Soul has not finalized rights to the music for Red Gold. The embedded You Tube clip in this post is currently violating royalty rules.
Tom Chandler | Sep 26, 2007 | Reply
Let me clarify: The bigger companies clearly aren’t going to be selling DVDs without obtaining rights to the music, but there were a lot of questions asked some of the other entries in the Drake contest.
I wasn’t concerned about the economic loss suffered by some 40 year old superband, but I do wonder how a filmmaker might feel if he used less-interesting music because he could obtain the rights while a competitor won with a kickass piece of music from The Who.
I’d hate for this to become the focal point of the discussion about the new wave of videos, so I stripped out the reference.
The larger point still revolves around the idea that rebelling against the status quo is easy, but what happens when the rebellion becomes the status quo?
KW Morrow | Sep 26, 2007 | Reply
Tom, since the 1950s, Americans have become very adept at identifying a successful new model and reduplicating it under different brands ad nauseum until we are left with totally homogenous “choices” where we are truly only choosing between different wrappers.
McDonald’s begat Burger King, Wendy’s, Jack-in-the-Box, etc…etc…etc. Nowadays it is almost as sure as the sun rising in the East that if you see one of these brands built at an intersection, you will quickly see 1-4 more. Starbucks launched a huge movement that continues to this day of “trendy” and “new age” coffee shops popped into every strip mall, bookstore, public transportation station, ballpark, etc. you can find. Subway gave rebirth to the sub sandwich shop, but with a distinctly McDonald’s sort of blah to the whole thing. And you can’t tell a Mercedes from a Toyota from a Ford and many of the parts are even now interchangeable.
A wise man once said, “There were only six truly original ideas in the universe. And on the seventh day, God rested.”
The new style of fly fishing video is actually just the new style of video PERIOD. And it has finally made its way into one of the most tradition-loving sub-cultures in the country. They’re just rockumentaries…the modern union of music video and documentary film.
The first person to bring something into a new arena is legitimately a “pioneer.” And they are probably going to be branded a “rebel.” Those who follow are pretty much just cashing in on the counter-culture buzz.
But the bottom line of all this new rockumentary fishing video stuff for me is that I’m just REALLY glad that there are a bunch of young folks contributing to the sub-culture and making their marks. That can only bode well for the future. The competition between the half dozen or so of them will be good for them all. And the rest of us definitely benefit from the shake up! In the end, we could have the same old same old, or we could have the same old stuff plus a few guys doing one more thing that’s pretty much the same with different logos. I vote for this latter option.
On a similar note, I’m so freaking sick of New Zealand videos and Kiwi commercialism in the current media that I’m actually accent-averse now! I don’t know if this is going on all over the country, but I can’t walk into a fly shop in the Ozarks without hearing some Kiwi droning on and on about sight-fishing to Browns and didymo. Good grief! The world’s a big place, people!
Tom Chandler | Sep 26, 2007 | Reply
KW: I tend to disagree. The difference between Drake-style video and the old stuff is far more than simply style or “wrapper.”
Every generation has to drive a stake through what’s gone before, and in the case of the largely droning fly fishing videos of the past two decades, I’d say it was about time (there are exceptions, of course).
After all, every trip to the river isn’t like a Redford movie, and the new generation of videos make that very clear. They come at the experience from the wholly opposite direction — the fish is the goal and not the glossy, sanitized “experience” — but while that makes the current crop of videos different, it doesn’t automatically make them better.
The problem is that fish porn wears thin, and that attitude alone is a poor substitute for vision, perception and insight. And sadly, many of the newer, rock-soundtrack videos seem to be about little more than attitude, a percpetion that becomes crystal clear when you view them end to end.
It’s probably unfair to assert that the “new” fly fishing video movement is already mired in its own sticky cliches, but comparing last year’s Drake entries to this year’s offers a certain evidence that things haven’t progressed much.
Fly fishing a remote location for big fish — then setting the whole thing to a soundtrack — is a good start on a video, but sadly, it seems where many finish.
KW Morrow | Sep 26, 2007 | Reply
Well, I think we’re describing the same elephant from opposite ends.
When I said “wrapper” in my first post, I meant that in a generational context. The Xers and Nexters are YOUNG and they are still counting, measuring, and weighing fish. This is quite normal. Of course the fish is the goal. And, frankly, there is NOTHING wrong with that. But they are really enjoying a whole different flavor of “holistic experience.” It is just in the pseudo-Bohemian style of this generation a la the skiers, snowboarders, skaters, skateboarders, mountain bikers, etc…the ecotourism/adventure sports crowd. But…in the end analysis…they’re still making movies about chasing fish with a fly rod. And there’s not a lot “new” that can be done in that regard. There are new WAYS of telling the story. But the story is pretty familiar.
I also think that expecting to see a big change in the media from one year to the next without any amazing newcomers this year is probably unrealistic.
I’m making a movie all about a fictional struggle with customer service at a fictional wader company, rod company, and reel company as all 3 bungle warrantied repairs and almost ruin my tragic hero’s fishing trip. But his trip is saved at the last minute when his teenage daughter goes on-line and orders him a cheaper rod, reel, and waders all made overseas with express shipping that add up to about the same as the “processing fees” and shipping charges associated with the covered repairs on all his American-made high priced stuff. Of course, I’m tossing in a car chase and an illicit love affair to make it more “marketable.” And I’m gonna get a bangin’ soundtrack so that critics will say it’s “edgy.”
Moldychum | Sep 26, 2007 | Reply
How does a guy or gal with a hand-held and a pirated track from Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy compete against a 5 minute trailer cut from a full length high def production?
Maybe 5 minutes of fly fishing should have a true 5 minute film category? I’m all for checking out the trailer from the feature presentation in next year’s 70 city fly fishing film tour, but maybe we need to build another sandbox?
I love the, “A Warranty Runs Through It” concept.
KW Morrow | Sep 26, 2007 | Reply
Hook.tv had a camera phone video clip contest for folks who attended FFR. It didn’t draw much participation, but I thought it was a cool idea…sort of along the lines of what you are getting at. Maybe they could add a handheld amateur category, a raw footage category, and a video camera phone category. I’d also like to see these film tours more integrated into the schedule of FFF Regional Council conclaves and the like. FFR is just a bunch of industry folks patting each other on the back and making deals. These film festivals and contests need to be where the common folks are.
“A Warranty Runs Through It” …I like it! Wanna collaborate? LOL
Alex | Sep 27, 2007 | Reply
One of my most memorable fishing trips was an ice fishing trip. It was myself, my father-in-law, my brother-in-law, and about 6 other guys fishing the same area. It was -20*F. One of the guys grabbed a donut and about broke his teeth when he bit into it. They were frozen solid. He threw it and it landed in one of the holes we drilled in the ice. Next thing you know there were 9 guys having a contest to see who could do it on purpose. It went on for hours. No one caught anything but everyone had a blast.
TroutBum Diaries 1 had a lot of fish porn, but my favorite parts were the vehicle breakdowns and the other stuff that happened along the way that had nothing to do with fishing. The fish porn was cool too, but wasn’t what made the movie what it was.
It seems the wave of people emulating TB Diaries missed the point.
Moldychum | Sep 27, 2007 | Reply
Eventually, all things merge into one, and a warranty runs through it. The warranty was cut by the world’s great fly fishing brands and runs over rocks from the basement of a warehouse on Bainbridge Island. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are paragraphs of fine print, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by leaky waders.
KW Morrow | Sep 27, 2007 | Reply
ROFLMAO! Moldy! Stop it! You’re cracking me up!
Tom Chandler | Sep 27, 2007 | Reply
Holy crap. First, Moldy wins the “Satirical Comment of the Week” award (it’s a pair of my old wading socks, which were stuffed into my wet boots at the end of my trip to Tennessee and were only recently recovered).
And I agree about the Trout Bum stuff. In fact, one of my complaints about the Kiwi adventure DVD was the lack of some of the more interesting, non-trout-porn related stuff (though if I hear the phrase “sleep in the dirt” one more time…).