Found via the guys with the funny accents at Taunted by Waters, we present a trailer for yet another fly fishing movie.
There’s been an avalanche of fly fishing movies the past couple years, and while it’s generally a good thing for the industry, I have some questions about the financial model supporting fly fishing’s movie producers. This one, however, looks pretty damned interesting: A Year in the Life of a Trout
A Question for the Undergrounders: Have the fly fishing movies of the past 4-5 years changed the way you view/practice the sport?
See you underwater, Tom Chandler.
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I’ve never seen any of them (including “The Movie”), so no.
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They couldn’t get James Earl Jones or the guy from Dirty Jobs to Narrate?
I wouldn’t say the full length fly fishing movies such as the stuff from AEG, etc., has influenced the way I view fly fishing- at least not directly. I will say that the 5 minute point and shoot amateur stuff has though; and you could probably say most of them have been influenced by the big fly fishing movies. Those grainy little videos usually make me want to get out more often. Not to mention, my camera is in video mode just as much as picture mode these days.
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I ran into the Felt Soul guys in Alaska a couple of years back when I was on the Nushagak, and was impressed by their talent and commitment. On that account I saw a couple of their DVDs, and enjoyed them. Most fish-porn is hardly any better than the usual Joe-Bob-in-his-bass-boat stuff you see on cable.
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My consumption of fermented yak milk has more than doubled.
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Fly fishing movies are akin to WWII movies.
You watch the actor’s backcast, nudge your girlfriend in the seat next to you and say, “That German tank? That’s really a M48A3 Patton spraypainted gray, they didn’t have those in WWII.”
Same goes for their forward cast, “they don’t have those in fishing.”
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I like most of the non-instructional stuff. The how-to videos, from my limited experience are a snoozer, but the stuff that is done well, done beautifully… I love it… makes me think I’m on the water, even if just for a second… I’ve been known to raise my hand as if to set the hook while watching. In a way it makes it all feel a bit more mainstream, even if there are fewer of us now than there used to be.
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Hell no.
You on the other hand have set (us) on fire …we now look at our sport thru the bottom of a beer bottle for more often, just kidding., but I believe the written word as opposed to the video still motivates us more.
just my uninformed opinion.
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I am helping with this documentary. Coulter is the brains. I help with site procurement and other grunt work. Coulter has won awards for his documentaries recently.
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I have to agree with 40. I found my point and shoot digital on video mode quite a bit last year, especially when I was in Yellow Stone. Those five minute youtube videos always make me want to get out.
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@40: Like you, I’m already a little dicey on the narrator. Better than Alvin & the Chipmunks I spose.
@Sully: Another carton’s on the way.
@Kbarton: I call bullshit. When’s the last time any guy got their girlfriend to watch WWII movie?
@Len: Suddenly, I’m hoping you’re not the narrator.
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I try to stay away from all the films – esp. the ‘I’m-a-trout-bum-with-really-nice-gear-and-I’m-super-extreme-and-I-live-in-my-van-200-days-a-year-and-I-catch-huge-fish-that change-my-life-everyday’ variety. This one, however, looks a bit more educational. The knowledge you glean from observing fish in their natural setting is worth a lifetime of fishing. The narration sound a little too dramatic in the trailer though. Maybe I’ll watch it with the sound turned off.
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https://audience.withoutabox.com/festivals/event_item.php?id=21724
Coulter narrates all his own stuff. If I recall correctly there will be NO fishing in this
documentary. It is journey through life for a trout.
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The Cost of Oil: Voices from the Arctic (47 min)
Coulter Mitchell
Interviews with the native peoples living on the North Slope of Alaska and experts from Shell Oil, biologists from the Audubon Society and The Smithsonian Institute, and environmentalists are set against a backdrop of the artic tundra. This powerful piece examines the imminent danger that the world may face in drilling for oil in the dangerous Arctic Ocean
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@Len: We’ll give the narration another chance when the final version comes out. And I’m glad to hear the film will be fish oriented instead of trout-bum oriented. Looking forward to the final version.
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I just checked out the “Fly Fishing Film Tour” and wrote a little review on our forum. Thought I’d share:
Event: The Drake’s “Fly Fishing Film Tour”
Rating: Not worth the money.
FmD, H20Chrome and I met up for the long drive to Canadaigua this afternoon to check out the Fly Fishing Film Tour formerly hosted and run by AEG Media and now run by The Drake. The venue was a local school hall and all though the local TU chapter did a fine job organizing the event – the screen size, media content, and video problems combined for a disappointing show.
Sure, it was fun to see Steelhead taking Dry Flies or the wild Kamchatka wilderness, but don’t think you’re going to see full length videos. Each video is merely a longer “teaser” version of the 2 minute web trailers they offer online. Some were good like “Drift” and some were quite horrible like the Redfish piece. But overall, you begin asking yourself why did I pay 15$ to watch an extended collection of trailers. Lots of fluff… little meat. Top that off with the incessant use of Voice Over Monologues and you get the feeling you’ve just won a front row seat to a collection of low level teasers on fly fishing destinations produced by the children of PBS producers . And absolutely no whisper or presence of the original Trout Bum vibe that brought this thing into existence. Not only that, but the screen in our theater wasn’t much larger than some very large home theaters and there was a problem with either the DVD or the player as we missed the last 1/4 of each of the 2 sections.
Again, this is no reflection on this specific host. Canadagiua Trout Unlimited did a fine job with what they had.
Overall we were very disappointed, but felt that we just had to check it out once. Take the odd $80 for tickets and gas and we could have had stellar day of fishing ending in a good number of tasty micro brews:)
Unfortunately I believe the wake from recent shakeups at AEG may be starting to pass our way. Some of the videos were very well produced, but incredibly, I mean excruciatingly boring. Exotic backdrops and fancy fish do not entertainment make. I think this is the major element that so many of the “Trout Bum” influenced film makers are missing. WHERE’S THE PLOT? WHERE’S THE DRAMA? WHERE’S THE ENTERTAINMENT? Not at this film festival.
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Thanks for the review. If you’re seeing trailers, then it’s probably fair to ask exactly what it was you’re paying for. Perhaps the first set of fly fishing movies were exciting simply by dint of being new (or the bar is going up), but it seems as if there’s less satisfaction (interest?) from the viewing public. For that matter, I still wonder about the business models supporting fly fishing’s filmmakers, which seems to rely heavily on funding from equipment manufacturers.
During a recession, that money’s hard to come by, and at some point, some of those manufacturers – many of whom are doing a very poor job of marketing (online or otherwise) – will start doing ROI calculations. I don’t think the resulting numbers will look that good for fly fishing’s filmmakers.
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Indeed, but you don’t learn of the “a little longer trailer” feature of the event until you’re in the seat. No mention of it on the ticket sale site – not that I caught at least. And who wants complain when it seems like much of the money is going to conservation… at least it seemed that way… we should check.
Tom, I think the TroutBum boys did something revolutionary that inspired a generation of fly fishing film makers. They finally coupled decent “film level” fly fishing footage with progressive music (includes progressive editing styles). Those are the 2 key elements. Previously everything else had been your grandfather’s oldest friend standing in a spring creek, with a one view cam and bad audio, watching as he instructs the finer points of tying knots and setting the hook. The other 2 main elements were Exotic Locale/Fish and the “real life – 4 friends” dramatic understory. Unfortunately, this “inspired generation” seems to have been fooled by the fancy editing and flashy fish and missed the real key to this boom: developing rich characters and storylines with all the other elements in support of that cause. I think the filmmakers who start to pick up on this will certainly be heralded as the true genre breakers of this niche over time.
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My critique of the early “Trout Bum” movies was the focus on fish porn over insight; we’d get flashes of interesting stuff from the road, but never more than a few glimpses of the interesting parts of the trip narrative, or what it really meant to those taking part.
Still, those were compelling movies, and I’d love to see someone return the genre to AEG’s original starting point, moving it in a more narrative direction – and omitting the pointless posturing, needless special effects, etc.
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Great post. That video is amazing. Really fascinating stuff.
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Trailer updated
http://lenharris.blogspot.com/2009/10/one-year-in-life-of-trout.html
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