Video

How Do Fly Fishing Videos Fit Into The Fly Fishing Media Landscape?

Once again, the Fly Fishing Film Tour (F3T) runs a master class in generating a little blogger PR:

 
After acknowledging that I’ve been bought and paid for (and cheaply too), I’d urge you to watch the F3T show in Larkspur (Marin) on March 20, but apparently it’s already sold out.

Turns out I can’t even do the blogger sellout thing all that well.

I can, however, still write.

The Video Phenomenon

Today’s filmmakers can shoot, edit and distribute a video with relative ease, and since I’m all for a more democratic media landscape, I’ll label that as “awesome.”

Some of the videos are even pretty damned good.

And then some of them aren’t, and I can’t help but compare the burgeoning fly fishing video landscape to the burgeoning fly fishing blog landscape.

You’ll find some good stuff and not so good stuff, and at some point, you recognize who has insight and who has… well, access to a blog or video camera.

An informal survey suggests fish porn has so far dominated the fly fishing video category, and that has yet to hold my interest for more than a few minutes (the same is true of exotic destination stories in magazines).

Sometimes the imagery makes up for the lack of story or insight, but mostly not.

It’s one reason I’ve given up reviewing videos; the vast majority are disqualified right out of the box, which isn’t the best starting point for a reviewer — especially one prone to turning off the soundtrack so I know what the video looks like sans the rock & roll crutch.

I frequently discover some videos are more impressive for pirating the Rolling Stones than they are for their imagery.

Wanted: A Story

I’m a writer and a reader, so it’s no surprise I’m attracted to videos that trace an arc: an escalating insight, an interesting character, or even a conflict.

Watching a steady stream of guys yanking an indicator upward doesn’t provide that.

Unsurprisingly, the same is true for a lot of written fishing reports, how-to articles and destination pieces (I predict the fish porn video will ultimately replace the written destination article).

I think it’s why I’ve become an unrepentant Steve Apple groupie; his Hustle & Fish movie was ultimately schizophrenic, but the first half was brilliant satire, and it contained a story that kept me riveted instead of wondering what else I should be doing.

Twice I’ve told fly fishing manufacturers to seek Apple out and pay him to produce something witty and brilliant (instead of throwing money at pretty pictures in return for a logo flash in the credits), but no dice.

Meanwhile, the Fly Fishing Film Tour is selling out and fly fishermen love the videos and the music and the beer, and like Gierach, I understand what’s happening and even approve, but it’s not exactly my scene.

It’s clearly a phenomenon, demonstrated in part by the torrent of requests to “promote” videos on the Trout Underground.

Which highlights one of the differences between blogs and videos; good videomakers create fans, while good bloggers create audiences, and for that reason I keep forecasting the collision of videos, ezines and blogs.

Which hasn’t really happened. It wouldn’t be the first time I was wrong.

Naturally, the Undergrounders are encouraged to weigh in with fly fishing video-related insights which the rest of us will judge and even openly ridicule.

See you in the Underground’s 25-seat home theater (right next to the bowling alley), Tom Chandler.