Hunting & Fishing Videographer: Dale Mord

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From aspiring golf pro to seasoned filmmaker, Dale Mord takes us on his journey of unexpected career shifts and creative triumphs. Picture this: a chance encounter at a Montana golf course that led Dale from the green fairways to filming a hunting show. 

Join us as Dale shares the highs and lows of his experiences behind the camera, including a failed TV show venture in Kenya, and a documentary film that was 3 years in the making that had unexpected setbacks. Dale opens up about the intricate challenges of filming in diverse environments and the often-overlooked lessons in data management and client expectations. His journey is a testament to the power of perseverance and the importance of staying true to one's creative vision, even when faced with setbacks.

Whether you're an aspiring videographer eager to learn the ropes or just someone who appreciates a remarkable story, Dale's advice on equipment and storytelling will inspire and educate. From mastering the art of self-filming during hunting trips to leveraging the capabilities of modern smartphones, this episode is packed with practical tips. 

0:00 From Golf Pro to Videographer
6:24 Journey to Becoming a Videographer
10:46 Failed TV Show Venture in Kenya
15:26 Navigating Challenges in American Media
24:58 Mastering Self-Filming Hunts and Events
29:04 The Alaska Documentary Disaster
39:12 Epic Filmmaking Mishap
48:24 Lessons Learned in Filmmaking
54:09 Outdoor Videography Wisdom and Duck Hunting
1:01:08 Filming Tips and Camera Recommendations

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode
of the ONTAP podcast.
Today we have a fellowvideographer, a guy who's been
through it all, the ringerhimself, mr Dale Mord.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Love that.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Dale, we wanted to bring you on because obviously
you and I have a lot in common.
We do the exact same work, samecareer.
You do a lot of traveling forvideo shoots and whatnot.
You do a lot of hunting stuff,video shoots and whatnot.
You do a lot of hunting stuffyeah, so is that what you
primarily travel with?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
I tried yeah, I do.
A lot of the traveling ishunting related um hunting,
fishing.
But like I first started in thevideo business, um, I was in
college, I went to uw stout umand I was in the golf program.
So I went to school to be agolf pro.
Because I was a terriblestudent, you got a golfy look.
That's a good thing.

Speaker 3 (00:49):
Hey, that's a good thing.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Like golf management or what was the actual degree?
Yeah, golf management, okay.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Golf enterprise management, which is actually
hilarious because after collegeI actually ended up working at
Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
So it was destined right.
So so it was destined right.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
So yeah, basically, stout has a thing where, if
you're in the program, you haveto do internships, and I
couldn't stand being at home.
I wanted to get away.
I wanted to get as far away asI possibly could.
So where did I go my firstinternship?
As far west as I possibly could.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
I lived a mile off 101 in Oregon.
Really, yeah, were you workingat a golf course?

Speaker 2 (01:28):
yeah, the first golf course, yeah, waldport, oregon
um, south of portland, aboutthree hours right on 101 um.
And then my second internshipwas in, uh, deer lodge, montana,
which is south of missoulaabout an an hour, a place called
Rock Creek Cattle Company.
It was number one residentialprivate club in the US.
It was just a sick, sick course.

(01:51):
I mean are you guys golfers?

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yeah, yeah, okay.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Not serious enough to know about that course, though,
to be honest with you, so,you're drinkers.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
that like driving a car.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Sure sure hey you gotta have a designated car
driver.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Yeah, I'm still like an 18 handicap.

Speaker 2 (02:04):
Sure, hey, that just means you play bogey golf,
whatever.
That's what it is, that's right.
So just a badass place, right.
So we're in the middle of themountains.
There's a river that runsthrough it Montana inside joke,
because it's a fly fishing movieOn property.
You could go hunting, you gofishing, trap shooting, golfing.

(02:28):
Um and there on the propertythere was a guy named Zach
Sexton.
I didn't know who this guy was.
It was like a week one of beingthere and I'm sitting in the
pro shop and, uh or no, actuallythis time I was just driving
around getting a little lay ofthe land and on the radio guy
says hey, dale, come to the proshop.
I'm like sure.

(02:48):
Well, this zach sexton guy wasa guide, fly fishing guide on
property.
And he was running around likea madman saying does anyone on
property know how to run acamera?
And they're like, uh, dale does.
Okay, I'm 20 years old, no, 21,I don't.
I never really touched aprofessional camera at this
point.
I just knew that I liked tofilm, like gopro stuff, like

(03:12):
film, snowboarding stuff, ofcourse yeah right, I think
that's how the majority of videoguys get started in absolutely
just like extreme sports usuallylike but I did like this, like
in college I rode motorcyclequite a bit.
So I'd you know, I make allthese stupid little videos and
nothing professional.
And so I show up at the proshop and this guy's like hey,
I'm Zach.
And I'm like hey, zach, I'mDale, nice to meet you.

(03:35):
He goes what are you doingtomorrow?
And I was like, uh, it's likemy first day off, it's like
nothing, that's my day off,first day off.
What do you do?
here he's like okay, you knowhow to run a camera I'm like,
yeah, he goes all right, you'rehired.
I'm like, hired for what?
And he's like I'm the host ofcomcast sports northwest fly uh,

(03:58):
fish whispering.
I'm like it's a cabletelevision show, the pacific
northwest fly fishing show andI'm like, okay, I was like you
know how to keep something inframe, press a button and
maintain audio.
And I'm like, yeah, he goes,perfect, that's all I need.
I was like why?
Because my camera guy quit andI need to film an episode
tomorrow.

(04:18):
And I was like, okay, I gotpaid $100 a day.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
That's at 21, though that's probably like hell.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
Yes, oh yeah, but I'm also at this place, where these
guys it's like the membersthere at Rock Creek are like the
1%.
These guys are flying in a G550, roll on out.
They'll give you $100 to pickthem up at an airport that's 15
minutes away.
You're like damn, basically theenemy of John Dutton is what
you're saying essentially.

(04:47):
Yeah, I mean it is.
It's like the, the as far aslike montana gatekeeping, rich
people from california nah this.
This shit was a hole in the boatalready.
I mean, this is, and this isback in 2013 or 2012, and so
that day we went and filmed, Ijust loved it.
I was in.
I mean, I've I've probablyfished, filmed, fished um on

(05:10):
almost every major river inidaho, wyoming and montana so
what from there?

Speaker 1 (05:16):
then did you lose your ears?
Like fuck this golf thing, likeI'm gonna, I'm gonna just do
this well I didn't really like.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
That's the thing is.
If you were to, like you knowyou think about like college
dating profiles, like you wouldnever say like dale, what do you
like to do?
Oh, I would do camera work, nothat was never on my resume.
It was always I hunt fish, golf,that's it.
And it wasn't until I went back.
Well, let's say this uh, this,the second year I went back to.
Well, let's say this uh, this,the second year.

(05:44):
I went back to Rock Creek thenext year, did the same thing
with him.
Um, we'll go back.
I went back to college and whenI got back I was just like you
know, I don't want to be in thegolf world.
I wanted to be the guys that Iwas working for, like the guys I
was, you know, giving lessonsto or caddying or whatever we

(06:05):
needed to do.
There.
Everyone wore like 10 hatsbecause, like there, if you had
a pulse, you you worked at thatgolf course, because nobody
wanted to work there well, Ithink that's also just what
happens in general, like if youhave so much money coming in and
there's no shortage of thatyeah I mean, I would imagine
just finding people is probablythe biggest struggle oh, oh yeah
.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
Especially in the middle of nowhere.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Middle of nowhere, and some people that lived in
the town that we were in didn'teven know that place existed.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
It's like cattle ranch.

Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, it's insane, like 36,000 acres I digress.
But so I went back to schooland I was like you know what?
I want?
To make real money, I want toget in the business world, blah,
blah, blah.
And so then, of course, Ifigured out that that was even
just as hard, because I ended upwith a job at enterprise, rent
a car, but like, but I, after Iwent, you know, finished college

(06:53):
and I never really picked up acamera again.
Um, never, it was never reallya thing until I started working
at enterprise and I was likethis sucks, I don't want to work
for somebody else.
Um, but I picked up my firstcamera in 2015.
I bought my first camera in2015, which and I already had my
name on a cable television showstupid, doesn't make sense.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yeah, like a smart guy would have capitalized on
that yes, and just kept itrolling, but of course not that
bright yeah, well, that's,that's the beginning, moves that
you don't pick up on untillater on yeah it's like why did
I not say god has to throw arock at your head like four
times sometimes, and then you'relike, oh, I should do this yeah

Speaker 3 (07:35):
serious, I can never learn anything the easy way like
it's.
Like I have to just get theshit kicked out of me to get the
message yeah, some people justain't blessed, and that's
probably the three of us.

Speaker 1 (07:44):
Yeah, it's funny because when you're looking at
it from an internal perspective,like you, have no idea what to
do, but if it was like anoutside, you're telling your
friend in the same scenario.
It's so easy to be like youidiot, this is exactly how you
do that.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
You've already made money doing this.
This is exactly what you needto do and get better and do you
know, and progress um, numberone biggest mistake in my life
was not continuing that, but Ididn't really know that until
you know, 10 years later really,um, but then I bought my first
camera.
it was a nikon d750, just theworkhorse in the nikon line, but

(08:19):
uh, started doing like somephoto stuff, a little bit of of
video.
Started a YouTube channel with,um, my old college professor
and a buddy of mine.
Um, and, as you know, likeeveryone, if you're a
videographer, you know everyonewants to start a YouTube channel
.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
A hundred percent.
Everybody wants to be PeterMcKinnon, basically.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
Well, and, or they want to ride the train when
somebody else is driving andbuilding it.
Yeah it, yeah.
Yeah.
Sorry, sam, I need to throw youunder the bus like that.
But so then this YouTubechannel.
I was working full-time, I hadleft enterprise, I started doing

(08:57):
, um, I was doing like fraud,security software to banks and
credit unions, making a bowl ofmoney.
It was fun, um, and like, everynight I would get home from work
and I would have to because ourthing was like on youtube, like
you got to post, especiallywhen you're starting off yeah
we're doing three videos a weekand they're like five minute
edits that's insane yeah, andlike I was going to bed, I was

(09:18):
awake or I was going home and Iwouldn't go to bed till like two
in two in the morning and thenget up for work and go to work
again and just do it all overagain for an entire year yeah I
made 125 videos and I juststarted getting burnout bad and
by the end of it I was like youknow what I could if I just like
made you know I'd make somemore content and start selling
this to companies or whatever.

(09:38):
I was like I can make a businessdoing this totally.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
I think that's every video guy's thing like, once you
get the camera yeah and you'relike oh, I can make stuff on my
own.
You kind of have like a processdown yeah that's everybody's
mind like what if I could justdo what I want to do and make
money doing it?
It's like it feels like a cheatcode unlocked, but I think
that's every single personthat's taken a camera in their

(10:02):
hand seriously, it's like Ireally like doing this.
Everyone thinks like how can Imake money off of this?

Speaker 2 (10:07):
yeah, it's, there's like a there's.
I'm sure there's a movie clipout there.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
It's like man, we gotta figure out how to make
money with this, I agree.
What movie is?

Speaker 2 (10:14):
someone needs to correct me on that.
But, um, so, while, but whilewe were doing the youtube
channel, um, we got approached.
So my business, uh, my businessprofessor had a connection with
uh kenya.
He had a consulting firm outthere so he had some connections
and one of his connections wasum the governor of kusumu county

(10:37):
kenya.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
Uh, which is where in kenya somewhere I've never even
heard of it.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
Yeah, I mean.
A lot of people don't even knowwhere Kenya is on a map.

Speaker 3 (10:48):
Yeah, I mean, if he would have told you the south
end of Kenya, would that havemeant anything different to you?
I don't even know how big Kenyais.
Yeah, I mean.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
I could give you a rough idea.
Do you even know what continentit?
Look at a map and roughly putmy finger where I think it would
be.
And I think I'd be within threecountries for sure.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
I mean on a map.
They usually have names.

Speaker 1 (11:08):
If it was blank, oh sure, if it was blank.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
Well, let me give you hints.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
East Africa Okay, I'm getting closer.
I could probably put my fingermaybe on an edge.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
That's right.
Well, so what the idea was?
We had this concept of havingthis TV show because the
governor of Kusuma County, peterNyong'o, his daughter is Lapita
Nyong'o.
She's a, I would consider likea B-list celebrity actress.
She played in Black Panther.

Speaker 1 (11:34):
Oh damn.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yeah, like Star Wars.
Yeah, she's a big name and sohe has this.
I think it's a radio station,but he wanted to make a TV
station, and so we thought it'dbe a really cool idea to make a
TV show by Americans aboutAmerica for Africans.

Speaker 1 (11:57):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (11:58):
Brilliant idea right.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
Was it.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
I don't know, I mean I thought it was great.

Speaker 1 (12:02):
It sounds like it could work.

Speaker 2 (12:03):
They loved it, they loved the idea, and so they're
in the middle of building thisum, this TV station, and so
they're trying to get content.
They're like, okay, so how dowe fill this thing?
Blah, blah, blah.
So then we go into thesecontracts, uh want, like we

(12:27):
priced everything out.
Here's the pilot.
We like filmed three pilots.
Uh, only one of them got edited.
Because when we were doingthese contracts we're talking
like we're gonna make like fiftythousand dollars an episode
because it's gonna cost money.
And well, I shouldn't say thatit was like fifty thousand.
I think we bid it out to like ahundred thousand an episode
because we're like, oh, kenyan'sgot money, you know so at this
time, is this like mind-blowingto you?

Speaker 3 (12:47):
oh yeah, oh, this is I was like this is jumping from
nothing to all in.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
Now, all of a sudden like we're doing the math on it.
We're like oh, we'll do.
You know 20 episodes a year.
We're getting paid.
Like as actors we're gettingpaid 35 000 a piece because
there's three of us and thenbecause I'm gonna be ended up
having to build the team toproduce it, I was like I'm going
to make 50 grand on that.
So I'm like I'm sitting herethinking I want to make 75 grand
or no.

(13:11):
That math is off.
But whatever, I was going tomake like 50 grand an episode.
Let's just say for easy numbersbecause this is like five years
ago, man, yeah way long ago.
I've tried to forget it.
Let's just put it that way thisis the most embarrassing thing
ever.
As I go on, because I'm walkingaround, I'm telling people like
, yeah, I'm going to be rich.

(13:32):
You know, I'm working on this.

Speaker 3 (13:33):
Oh dude, I feel for you already.
I don't even know where thisgoes.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
I got a six-figure sales job and I'm crushing it.
As far as Americans areconcerned, what hit me was I
didn't think that this could gosouth.
I was like we're in, they'rebuilding a TV station.

(13:58):
They need content.
We provide the content.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
Easy.

Speaker 2 (14:02):
Yeah, pilot.
And so this show is calledExploring America and the idea
is we just hit up every smalltown to big town, big cities,
small cities, coast to coast,border to border, and we had all
these ideas.
We were just ripping around andI'm sitting here doing math in

(14:22):
my head like I'm going to berich dude, and then, when things
just started, the can just keptgetting kicked down the road
and I'm still telling peopleabout how rich I'm going to be
and how awesome and my parentswere so proud of me and it ended
up falling through.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
Never you shot three pilots, edited one and never
actually did an episode of theshow.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
We did one episode of the show but it never aired.
They never picked it up.
Dang and we had contractssigned, so ultimately you never
got paid yeah, and we just, andwe knew we were never gonna get
paid.
Oh, most people they're like oh, don't trust the african
government con artists.
Well, I actually have a legitreason to say that.
Most people just say thatbecause of historical reasons so

(15:08):
why?

Speaker 1 (15:08):
why was that?
Why did why did all this all ofa sudden fall through then?

Speaker 2 (15:14):
Honestly, I couldn't even tell you, and that's what
probably kills me the most is Idon't even know why.
I don't even know why.
I don't know if it's likethey're just lying to us the
whole time or they just couldn't.
But here's what I do know aboutAfrica through this whole thing
is to get something done, youhave to pay gatekeepers.
You're just bribing everyone.

(15:35):
Yes, bribes are real.
They're 100 real.
To make money, you have tospend money, like to get your
own paycheck.
Like, let's say, you worked forthe african 3m.
Imagine that you would have topay hr to cut you a check like.
That's how wonky it is.
That's why africa will foreverbe a third world country that is
insane to me, the generalpublic in america who are like

(15:59):
oh, save africa, you know, likethe free water, like the free
water, the water wells and stuff.
They can't even drill thembecause they have to.
The people who are drillinghave to pay somebody to do
something just to be there, youknow that's funny that you say
that, because I can't rememberexactly where it was.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
But, mr beast, I think it was jamaica.
He built like 20 houses for forthese people that really needed
it.
I think there was some floodingthat came through and ruined
their houses and like a weeklater, the whatever the
terrorist group is that was inthe area just took all the
fucking houses from them, kicked, kicked them out and it's like
what the fuck yeah, you're nevergoing to get anything done

(16:35):
there until you clean up the top.

Speaker 2 (16:38):
You got to go top down and clean it up and it's so
sad.

Speaker 3 (16:42):
Well, and that's one of the problems.
I mean, I don't mean to makethis a war podcast, but one of
the problems that they found too, is you take an African country
, that's fucked and you kill theleader, and now it's even more
fucked because then there's thispower vacuum and it's every all
these different organizationstrying to take control, and it's
fucking nuts man, yeah, fivemillion people, but five of them

(17:05):
get all the money.
Dude, I can you imagine if thisshow would have been picked up
for a hundred episodes.
You would probably be like themost famous american in 100
that's again.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
All that stuff's running through our heads and
we're like dude, we're gonna be,we're gonna visit kenya and
we're gonna be like the mr beastof kenya.
Can you imagine that?

Speaker 1 (17:25):
yeah, good point.
Yeah, like you're the guyespecially on your who every
show wants to be involved withyeah you're.
Anyone thinks what you think.
Youtube I mean mr beast is inthe conversation.
I don't care what genre it is.
Yeah, exactly someone that'sgetting 200 million views per
whatever they're putting out,they're gonna get brought up,
yeah yeah, the problem is noteverybody there has tvs oh, okay

(17:48):
but doesn't matter, you knowwe're getting paid.
As long as someone's paying toadvertise, they're making money.

Speaker 2 (17:57):
If they pay.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
So you were saying you had a problem with the
Kenyan government.
Where does this fit into the?

Speaker 2 (18:03):
whole show thing, the whole guy, the main guy was the
governor.
He was supposed to be puttingthis thing on.
And our liaison.
I don't want to say thispublicly, but he was a fucking
weasel.
I mean, it's just how thecookie crumbles sometimes.
And yeah, that was my first andas far as my and I wasn't even

(18:25):
like full-time video I was stillworking at FIS at the time or
my sales job and I was just likelike I'm telling everybody at
work, I'm like yeah, I'm notgonna work in here very long oh
no, talk about your all-timebackfires.

Speaker 3 (18:40):
Oh, dude, I've on a very low level.
We've thought we were gonnaland specific guests and I'll
like tell my friends, like, dude, we're having them on and when
it drops it's like one of themost embarrassing things.

Speaker 2 (18:52):
Oh yeah it is, and you know, like I feel like as
time goes on in my life, likelike there's video shoots that
I've gotten hired for or gottenhired for, I'm like, oh, I'm
gonna go do this, and then lastminute they split and it's like
I just told everybody I wasgonna be doing this yeah so I I
made a point to one not getexcited.
Two don't tell anybody untilthe check is in hand.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
Seriously man.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
And those are things you learn, I'm sure.
Actually, one of my employees Iwas texting him about something
earlier today One of my oldemployees they work for Rogue
and he's like, hey, man, we'regoing to be telling our kids old
war stories like this is ourvietnam.
And I'm like dude.
I always say live in the dream,one nightmare at a time yeah,

(19:41):
right, you know so it's uh, youlearn those things and you know
it's.
Any small business owner oranyone that has a dream, prepare
for it, it to be crushed, dude.

Speaker 1 (19:51):
Oh yeah, multiple times.

Speaker 2 (19:53):
definitely Because either someone's going to screw
you over at some point down theline.
Yeah, 100%, it's not just oneperson, it could be multiple, it
could be an entire government.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
So you say when you're in Kenya, everyone's
having to pay off everyone.
When you guys are shootingstuff, are you having to pay
people just to use the locationand things like that well, so
the idea of the show.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
So we didn't have to go there, because the show is
about america oh okay, yeah, soyou're filming, here yeah, about
america and the idea of thewhole thing stemmed from because
, like scott was telling meabout how kenyans all thought
america border, border, coast tocoast was seinfeld sure, like
you know that, yeah, that wastheir perception, right so we

(20:34):
want to change the perception ofwhat america really was and,
granted, you know, thinking backof like the whole, like youtube
thing, we could have made thata youtube channel.

Speaker 1 (20:44):
Yeah, but at that time that wasn't a thing.
I was so pissed off.
You weren't doing tv on youtube, right?
That was not the format now youcould totally do something like
that?

Speaker 2 (20:53):
yeah, for sure.
Um, and I just I find ithilarious because I'm like, why
didn't we run with that?
I mean because youtube is likeand I was telling my buddy, jake
polk, this um, he owns a uh, awhitetail management company and
he's like, dude, he goes, it'sso disappointing seeing the
views on youtube compared totiktok.
I'm like, yeah, it's completelydifferent algorithm.
He goes it's so disappointingseeing the views on youtube
compared to tiktok.

(21:13):
I'm like, yeah, it's completelydifferent algorithm totally
like it's different format.
I mean like the way people areengaging with each platform is
completely different youtube isa lot like watering a plant it
is a seed at first, but everyvideo you're adding water right
over time it grows and grows andgrows.
It's a slow process.
It or tiktok.
Like you can be tiktok famousovernight.

(21:34):
It just takes one stupid videototally hawk to a girl yeah,
hawk to a girl.

Speaker 1 (21:38):
Yeah, honestly, um, I mean, um, I'm looking back to
this podcast I listened to withmarquez brownlee like really big
tech youtuber I don't know ifyou guys know who no, fuck no
anyways, he just, he reviewslike new phones, new cameras,
new, new cars, whatever.

Speaker 2 (21:53):
So is the guy with the Tesla.

Speaker 1 (21:55):
Yeah, his big thing is.
He said he's glad that he neverhad one video blow up right
away, because that would changehis whole perception on how
everything works.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
Yeah, because now you're on a down.
Yeah, and you're on a downslope too.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (22:07):
Now you got to come back up from expectation.

Speaker 1 (22:09):
Yeah, exactly, you're never competing with yourself,
you're just always making newstuff right versus having to
think back.
And we've definitely fallen inthis trap before too, because
we'll get uh, you know, aninstagram video that'll get 30
million views, instagram realyeah and then right away we're
thinking like, oh, we made itlike this.
Is it now, all of a sudden, allthese people are going to flood
to the long form podcast?

(22:30):
Nope, not even close.
No, the conversion.
It like the.
The way people interact withshort form stuff.
They see it, they laugh, theylike, they comment and then it's
gone.

Speaker 2 (22:39):
Yeah, they forget about it it's completely their
mindset completely different,like and I and I would.
I told my buddy, jake, this.
I said that's why, if you wantto grow your business on youtube
it's funny, I say all thisbecause I don't do this, because
I have imposter syndrome iseducation.
Why do we go on YouTube?
Youtube University?

(23:01):
We're trying to learn something.

Speaker 1 (23:03):
Totally Well.
They say everything that youwatch falls into three buckets
entertainment, information andeducation.
And if it doesn't hit one ofthose three things education and
if it doesn't hit one of thosethree things you're not going to
watch it, nope.
Or if it bounces betweenwithout you, you know you
clicking on that video, assumingthat it's going to be one of
the three, and you get two ofthe three that could turn

(23:23):
someone off and make you clickaway and click on a different
video already.
So like if you're making avideo that's like how to change
oil on a 05 f-150 yeah, you know.
And then all of a sudden youstart talking about mountain
goat hunting or whatever it'slike.
Okay, I'm out of this yeah, oryou know, you're trying to watch
a two-minute video that getsthe point and he's trying to be
fucking funny yeah, right likedude, come on, don't just need

(23:46):
to know the worst is like the uh, like the blogging moms that do
like the recipes you know ifclick on something on like a
Facebook link or Reddit link andand it's like, okay, I just
want to know how to make thesejalapeno poppers.
But it's like this whole lifestory.
And then the jalapeno poppers.
It's like I'm either going tofast forward to that ingredient
list or, if I don't get it fastenough, I'm clicking out.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
Yeah, I don't care.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
It's like it's an expectation versus reality kind
of situation.
Correct, yeah, but again it'seasier to see from the outside.
Yeah, because I myself don'teven take that, don't even take
that advice.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
It's funny.
If we would take our advice, Ibet you we'd be loaded.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
Right, or at least have better videos.
100% 100%.

Speaker 3 (24:27):
Yeah.
So one thing I really want toget into is talk about you being
the videographer for huntingand fishing.
Have you been on like whitetailhunts where you're in the stand
with them?
Oh yeah, okay.
So base question about as dumbas it gets.
Sure, I have just alwayswondered what are you looking at
for a setup in the tree?

(24:48):
Because they always have theperfect angle, usually a little
bit above, right next to the guy.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
If you could explain that.
Just I'm so curious.
Yeah, I mean, if I was gonnastart a youtube channel, how to
film your own hunts.
That would be a great seriesand my first tip would be hire
me no, you don't have to.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
I'm gonna give you all the information, but this is
why you need to.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
That's right I mean, I always say it's, you would
think, a guy who hunts andfishes.
I would film my own stuff.
But it's just, it's impossiblesometimes.
Um, but what I do for, like, ifsomeone's hiring me to do that,
um, I'll run, like I have mysony fx3 body or my fx6 body
with like a 70 to 200 mil lens,uh, on that and then I would

(25:31):
clamp a gopro to like anotherlimb across the, across the
stand.
So let's say we're in like a v,somewhere you know, and or
there's a neighboring tree, Iwould clamp the gopro and then I
would hook the gopro up to a,um, to a, like a cord in a
battery pack.
So that thing lasts all day, orat least half a day, and I

(25:52):
would just gaff, tape it to thetree or clamp it to a tree and I
would run the gopro off myphone.
Um, otherwise you don't want torun through all that footage.
So, um, and then I have thesedji mics that I lab them up.
They're connected to my camera,so when, when a deer walks by,
I'm like I'm already hittingrecord.

(26:13):
I'm hitting record on my phoneto the GoPro and then I can put
all that footage together.
Yeah, that's kind of how I doit.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
Yeah, you couldn't do that by yourself.
No, there's no way.

Speaker 2 (26:23):
That's why guys who are self-filming hunts, I give
them all the props because I'vetried to do it.
I've filmed my own duck huntsand stuff.
Yeah, I suck at self-filmingbut I'm getting better at it.
But, like you know, what I'venoticed too is like I can't do
both.
So many times I go on thesefishing trips or hunting trips
with my buddies and they're likedude, pick one.
You can't do both, because I'mso into like the filming and I'm

(26:46):
trying to like fumble aroundwith cameras and trying to, you
know, or I bring too muchequipment.
Like we went on a steelhead uhfishing trip, me and my buddies,
and I brought a bunch of cameragear and half the time I didn't
even like fish, half the time.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
So I'm just too busy taking photos yeah, filming them
, yeah, I mean, that's how itworks.
We, we do a couple eventsthroughout the year golf
tournaments, you know uh,parties, whatever and that's
honestly my biggest problem.
It's like I know exactly what Iwant this to look like and I
can't just tell someone this iswhat I want you to film.
So I'm filming, but thatcompletely takes me out of

(27:19):
whatever we're doing yeah, it'slike not fun anymore.
You're like a.
You all of a sudden are a thirdperson view of whatever you're
doing.
Yeah, I couldn't imagine whatthat's like hunting.
You're not the one shooting ifyou're the one recording.

Speaker 3 (27:31):
Yeah, absolutely.
And from Cody's perspective, heallows me to live in la-la land
because we'll be doing the golftournament and then I get to be
the guy prancing in front ofthe camera.
He's worried about the mics.
I don't even know how to turnit on or adjust the volume.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
Bless your heart.
I wish I was you.

Speaker 3 (27:48):
It's something like I didn't understand it for so
long how much goes intoeverything we do, and I've just
picked it up over time and it'slike, holy fuck man, we'd be
fucked if I was, if I was incharge of this right.
We wouldn't even have.
We wouldn't have made itthrough episode one it truly is.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
Uh, ignorance is bliss kind of thing A hundred
percent.
Because had a little canon,rebel t3i and no microphone, no
flash, I didn't even know thatthere was different lenses, like
I just would only use the kitlens.
I'm just like in a still figuredout ways to make it work, yeah,
you know.
But then now, like, having moreequipment, it almost makes it,

(28:27):
and it doesn't almost make, itdoes make it more difficult,
because now I'm thinking likenot only the camera settings,
right right lens, right audio,right lighting, and it's like
all these things you're thinkingabout at the same time, and if
one gets fucked up, the wholething is fucked up all of a
sudden you have a banger clipbut no audio yeah, well, you
can't hear anything.

Speaker 2 (28:45):
That sucks, true, and that's why they have on body
audio.
Like you can have a terriblevideo, but if you have good
audio it's still salvageableyeah, totally but if you have
bad audio and good video, see yayeah, people are out.

Speaker 1 (29:00):
Yeah, they're not.
They're not.
It gets worse, though it getsworse.

Speaker 2 (29:04):
Uh, biggest project of my life okay, I got hired to
do well, it's kind of a longstory, but uh, my stepdad's a
police officer, or was.
He's a retired police officer,and so I got hired by one of my
clients is hometown hereoutdoors.
They're based out of Stillwater, they're a nonprofit for

(29:26):
veterans and law enforcement andso they do hunting fishing
trips.
That's who sends me all overthe country.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
Yeah, they come hunt at my dad's place.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
Yes, yeah, and that's where I filmed.

Speaker 1 (29:34):
That's how we met.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
That's right, not until a year later.
But the and this is funnybecause, like I met him, I met
Chris he's the president of HHOJune of 2020.
And it wasn't until I think Idid a bunch of free videos for
him just because, like, hey, ifyou like my stuff, you know we

(29:55):
can continue.
You know whatever?
The first paid conversation weever had was a video.
He said, hey, do you want tofilm a duck hunt in Alaska?
And I'm like duh sure.
I want to travel.
I haven't really traveled much.
Yet again, this is almost.

(30:15):
This is almost five years ago,and I was okay, why are we going
to alaska?
He's like do you know who ericmattson is?
I was like his name sounds sofamiliar.
It was the officer from wasika,minnesota, that was shot in the
head.
He survived oh, that's right,oh jesus, yeah, and because he's
a police officer, um backstory,my stepdad's best friend, you

(30:38):
ever go up, uh, through forestlake.
The officers silvera memorialhighway yeah yeah.
So that was my stepdad's bestfriend and I remember because I
was in eighth grade.
He was hit on the side of theroad, died on impact.
He was doing a spike strip andum guy swerved and hit him on
purpose, flew like 100 feet, ohmy god done, and that wrecked

(31:01):
our family, I and my stepdad'smarine cop.
You never really see emotionout of this guy, but I you know
he was balling because he washis best friend.

Speaker 1 (31:09):
I mean, you just imagine your best friend dying
In that way, that's insane too,just brutal.
Wow, I'll never forget it.

Speaker 2 (31:15):
And so when Chris from HHO called me about this, I
was like, yeah, sure, count mein, blah, blah, blah.
I went home and I was like mom,I'm going to be filming Eric
Mattson, officer Mattson, up inAlaska.
She's like the cop from wasika.
And I was like, yeah, she'slike, oh, you know she goes.

(31:35):
But do you know what, though?
At least he's alive to tell hisstory I was like that's what a
light bulb clicked on.
I called chris back.
I said hey, I'm 100 in on this,but under one condition.
He says what's?
I said this needs to be adocumentary.
He's like what is a documentary?

Speaker 1 (31:56):
You know what's the difference?

Speaker 2 (31:57):
Yeah, and I'm like it's a really long video, but
it'd be a lot of view, a lot ofa lot of interviews, a lot of
following them around, and it'slike it's a long project because
we weren't going to go toAlaska for like another year.
So I was like, yeah, this isprobably like a two-year project
really.
And so he's like so, yeah, Igave him a bid on it, totally

(32:19):
underbid it, as you know howthat goes 100%.

Speaker 1 (32:23):
Also, it's tough with a passion project where it's
like it's also, you're equippedto do it and you really want to
do it.
It fully aligns with your life.

Speaker 2 (32:34):
I'm fully guilty of doing that.
Oh yeah, wait, undervaluing,you just want to do it.
Yeah, totally, it's more forthe experience rather than
anything.
But documentaries now that Iknow are a ton of work and I
will never do one again for lessthan six figures no way, not
one that's feature length I canonly imagine dude, because it's
the editing process alone.
It's fucking insane, don't evenget me started there, um, but so

(32:54):
what happened?
You know, fast forward, uh, ayear.
We're like getting ready to goto alaska.
I've got, I've been followinghis family every month, um,
spent a lot of time with them,getting to know them, and then
this is like covid, like this iskind of like the end of COVID,
right.
Well, we're going to thisisland in Alaska, st Paul Island

(33:16):
.
It's like one of the lastislands on the Aleutian chain
and it's a reservation, and sothey run by their own laws,
their own rules.
And they said they shut downthe King Iter season or they
shut down people coming to theisland because of COVID and I'm
sitting here going.
Nah, they just don't wantpeople on their island shooting

(33:38):
their birds.
And so it got kicked a year.
I'm like, oh my God, we have towait a whole, nother year to go
on this trip.
So of course, I'm like tryingto fill.
You know, I'm trying to filmsome more, some more doctor
visits and all this stuff.
And so then, fast forwarding,we finally get to go.
I had bought my FX6.

(33:59):
I bought two FX3s.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
And for people that don't know, these are nice
cinema cameras.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Yeah, it's a Netflix grade cinema camera Like the.
Fx6 body is six grand brand new.
Fx3 is four grand brand new.
Fx6 body is six grand brand new.
Fx3 is four grand brand new.
I mean I dumped probably like30 grand in equipment in between
saying yes to this project andfinally going.
I mean I'm in deep and we geton the.
You know I'm fast forwardingthis whole thing.

(34:27):
People can watch thedocumentary if they want.
It's a touching thing, but weget there and it's just
beautiful and we're filming ourfreaking asses off.
We're abc-ing what abc-ing isno in the camera world no
always be cameraing and we thatthose buttons were never turned
off, we just rolled and rolledand rolled.

(34:48):
I mean we got like terabytes offootage, tons and tons and tons
of footage, like enough to killa horse.
We.
So we hunted day one, or thefirst day we were there, we went
on a grand tour of the island,super sick I mean, I was filming
seal or uh yeah, like sea lionsand seals, um, ducks on the

(35:09):
water, just the sweetest stuff.
And then, um we, day one, wewent out hunting.
It was brutal.
I mean I'm got a I got fifteenthousand dollars on my shoulder
and it's the bering sea crashingto the side of the.
You know, the boat there's likeuh, salt water will destroy a

(35:29):
camera in seconds, like becauseit rusts out yeah and they
destroy like saltwater, andcameras do not mix and so I got
like a bag over my camera andit's gnarly.

Speaker 1 (35:41):
I'm like oh, my god that was a freaking.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
So then day two happens, um, which was I'm not
gonna spoil for anybody, butwhich was the best day, right.
And then the third day, I gotto hunt.
It was my first time duckhunting and I shot like the
number one duck in the northamerica.
It was my first ducks I evershot in my life.
It's coolest, coolest thingever.
And, uh, we jump on the puddle.

(36:03):
So we're about to leave.
Jump on the, the jumper planeor whatever.
It's like a three-hour flightto anchorage and we get to the
hotel.
We're partying, having a greatold time.
We're like, so excited we gethome, back to Minnesota.
All right, see you later.
The next morning, my secondshooter, jeff, one of my best

(36:24):
friends.
He calls me.
He says Dale, I've been tryingto build up the courage to call
you with this, with this news,I'm like what?
Like we just had the best timeof our life.
What he was, the hard drivecrashed with everything on it

(36:47):
everything on it like terabytesand terabytes of footage.

Speaker 1 (36:51):
Yeah, from the entire trip, correct?
Was this only the the actualtrip itself?

Speaker 2 (36:57):
or was this like everything, just the trip?
Yeah, so I had backed up.
I had like two 16 terabyte raiddrives that I back like all my
client work.
It's like that stuff like thethree years prior or two years
prior I had everything backed up, uh.
But yeah, all the alaskafootage was gone and uh, you
know, and you sit there and youthink you're like you have one

(37:20):
job, I and I was like okay.
I was like okay because I just,I mean I hadn't been home for
24 hours yet.
So I he's like you need to go toyour cameras because I have
this like ocd thing, like Idon't get really anxiety, but
formatting memory cards is ahuge anxiety, which is erasing

(37:41):
the footage off your heart oroff your camera memory cards.
I go to my cameras.
I have two slots in each.
I have footage the last half ofthe trip still on my cameras.
Oh, my god, I have day two, andthat was the thing that jeff

(38:01):
was calling me about.
He's like you need to see ifyou have what we actually went
there for on your cameras,because if we don't, we are
royally, screwed royally, and II'm just like all right, all
right, all right, I'm looking,I'm like I'm on my FX six.
I don't even pull it out of thething to look at it on the
computer.
I don't even care, I'm justlike rolling through.
Like what do I have?
If you were to put a gun to myhead and say delete all the

(38:23):
footage except for one shot,what?

Speaker 1 (38:30):
what was that, what was that feeling like when you
got that phone call.
Did you just did?

Speaker 2 (38:36):
your heart just sink yeah, I mean, I thought my heart
went through my asshole nowthere's multiple things.

Speaker 1 (38:41):
Obviously this is a big, big project, so this is
like a big fumble biggestproject of my life but on top of
that, it's like if I don'tcomplete this, I also don't get
paid.
Well, and I'm deep into this.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
Yeah, I mean I got paid, but honestly, getting the
paid part wasn't even my thing.
I was in my head instantly.
I was relaying like howdisappointed would everybody be.

Speaker 1 (39:05):
Because we were on the news.

Speaker 2 (39:08):
We were hyping this thing up.
This was on news.
This was on national television.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
And then for it to potentially never come out,
that's probably.

Speaker 3 (39:16):
That's probably the worst thing that could have
happened to you, especially ifyou didn't have the footage in
your cameras.

Speaker 2 (39:22):
Oh, dude, if we didn't have the footage in the
cameras, the documentary wouldhave never been done.
It would have never finished.
Because what are you filming?

Speaker 1 (39:31):
Right.

Speaker 2 (39:33):
You can't fake that.
Yeah, in interview talkingabout what happened.

Speaker 1 (39:35):
Oh, because everyone's gonna want to watch
that, yeah, not only are you notusing stock footage, they just
don't have that stock footage.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
That's just not a thing benelli made a really cool
, and here's the thing thatpisses me off.
Well, there's a lot of thingsthat piss me off about this
whole scenario because it couldhave been avoided.
Obviously, we all know back upa with two hard drives I mean,
I've never had a hard drivecrash in my life.
Why did it have to happen onthe biggest project of my life?
Didn't have to happen, but itdid.
But the thing that bothered methe most was like yeah, what if

(40:07):
I didn't have that?
What would people say?
I for an entire week.
So I didn't call the presidentof the organization until like a
week later, Because you know,we're just decompressing yet,
right.
And so we were trying to figureout ways Like, okay, let's send
the hard drive to an IT placethat can maybe recover it.

(40:28):
We waited four days for thisplace to finally respond to us
and say we can't recover it.
So that's when the next day,the Saturday following, so a
week later, I was like cryingmyself to sleep every night I'm
not even kidding Because Ithought about quitting.
I thought about selling all mystuff.

Speaker 1 (40:47):
Why am I doing this, yeah?

Speaker 2 (40:48):
like you're, you're supposed to be some professional
yeah it's like rookie movesyeah, bro, stick to golf.
Yeah, this I couldn't do that,uh, the um, and I think when I
called him and chris chris is avery pretty, even keeled person,
like he doesn't really get awhole, I mean, unless you really
piss him off, which is likeanybody.

(41:09):
But I called him, I said Chris,I don't know how to say this,
so I'm just going to say it.
I said we lost all the footagefrom Alaska except for day two
and day three, and he's likesilence for like 30 seconds and
I was like just doing it.

Speaker 1 (41:31):
Yeah, and.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
I'm just because he's processing this, because he
just spent a ton of money.
I mean, this is a hundredthousand dollar ordeal, like
this whole thing, cause thattrip is not expensive or not
cheap.
It's $10,000 a gun.
It's $10,000 a guy, oh my a gun.
Like it's ten thousand dollarsa guy, oh my god.

(41:51):
And we've been prepping for thisfor three years and, um, I the
last person I want to let downis eric.
He's now like a really goodfriend of mine.
Like you know, I invited mywedding, like we.
I hunt with him still, I stilltake him out hunting and and the
.
It's just like you have one job, man, why couldn't you do it?
But yeah, we used what we hadand you know people still give

(42:16):
us props.
But I think what pisses me offthe most is Benelli has a
documentary doing that samething, but not with a vet or not
with a cop.
You know the backstory.
But it's like about Stul islandand hunting king eiders.
Um, they were like promotingthe, the black, uh, super black,
eagle three, and I know what wehad.

(42:36):
We could have had a way betterdocumentary on the island, like
the beauty shots we had justdude that's.

Speaker 1 (42:44):
That makes me sick to my stomach just thinking about
that.

Speaker 2 (42:50):
What haunts me today is what could have been, Because
every videographer they gothrough their whole career and
it's like baseball you hit acouple singles.
Every couple weeks you get acouple singles, you might hit a
double.
A big project comes alongMoney-wise, you hit a triple,
but I haven't had that home runand I was like this is my home

(43:14):
run totally and I robbed myselfby not double backing up or
having a good hard drive orwhatever.

Speaker 1 (43:16):
You know well.
What a lot of people don'trealize too is that, like, for
every three seconds of footage,there's a hundred ways that you
can edit it, and so when you addit up and have that much, let's
say hours and hours, days worthof stuff, we're talking
millions of differentpossibilities that you can
portray this story yeah, and Ithink that's almost the hardest

(43:38):
part of the whole thing ismaking the finished product
after going through it,especially if it's different
than the plan was originally.
And then on top of that,throwing a variable like losing
half of the assets that you needto use.
That would be insane, brutal.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
I mean, I could not imagine, and just like the whole
directing this thing, the storycould have been filmed or said
in so many different ways.
In so many different ways.
How do you put?
We planned it, but thingschange and people don't come
through, or whatever.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
It's real life or you get the big moment.
There's no reaction, right,that's almost worse.

Speaker 2 (44:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:18):
Than not going according to plan.
Right, you know.

Speaker 2 (44:23):
But one thing I'll hang my hat on is I don't pat
myself.
I'll tell people I'm probablythe worst videographer out there
.
I'm like I'm the worstphotographer videographer out
there.
But the one thing I'll hang myhat on is that 99.9% of people
who are in the profession thatwe're in can't say for one they
can't say they have a featurelength documentary.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
No, and that's becoming less and less.

Speaker 2 (44:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
It was already a small pool, but people just
don't do that anymore.

Speaker 2 (44:47):
Right, it's an hour and six minutes.
You know how hard it is to keepsomeone's attention for an hour
and six minutes Like it's afull-blown movie.
But the second thing I'll hangmy hat on is when we came to
releasing the project this was alittle over a year ago they
were like hey, we want to rentout the owatonna movie theater

(45:11):
and play it for the whole citylike a bosica.
We want to invite all thesepeople and like play it.
And I had to re-edit the entirething to fit the screen.
So I had to go to owatonna likethree times to test it in the
movie theater.

Speaker 3 (45:25):
Oh, dude and but like .

Speaker 2 (45:27):
But what was so cool was I had a film in a movie
theater that people paid to see.

Speaker 1 (45:33):
That's pretty crazy.

Speaker 3 (45:34):
That's awesome, dude, that's pretty cool, honestly.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:38):
One thing that I've learned doing freelance work
recently it's like I've done acouple of TV commercial spots,
sure.
It's like I've done a couple ofTV commercial spots, sure.
And the way, even just the waythat you would export a video
like that versus a YouTube videois so drastically different
that that was a massive learningcurve for me.
So people don't understand,like, where you're viewing this

(45:59):
video, whether it be on TV, on astreaming platform, in a movie
theater or on YouTube.
It's all different versions ofthat same video.
Whether or not the edit changesis whatever, up to whoever's
making it, but it's totallydifferent versions of the movie.
I didn't even know what a DCPwas.

Speaker 2 (46:18):
It's a digital cinema package.
I didn't even know what thatwas and you would go on YouTube
as videographers.
These guys that we follow on,like Dunna, these guys aren't
teaching people how to make DCPs.

Speaker 1 (46:32):
Because they're not.

Speaker 2 (46:32):
Because they're not?
Because they're not doing it?
No, they're not making those.
But what I didn't realize waswhen the movie plays in a movie
theater and it says this filmwas modified to fit this screen,
yeah, they ain't shitting you.
I mean, I re-edited an entirehour and look we just we're done
with this edit.
We're like oh, thank god, we'redone with this nightmare
project, because there's morethings that happen on this

(46:55):
island that were basicallysigned ndas that we cannot
repeat.
Um like for legal reasons andso like it was a nightmare being
on that island, we could notwait to get off that thing.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
Oh dude, I feel for you.
This sounds like a friggingnightmare.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
No, the whole thing, the whole thing Start to finish
nightmare.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
I have a similar story.
It's not even close inmagnitude, but I did a friend's
wedding.

Speaker 2 (47:22):
Oh yeah, Love those.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
And this is the only time that I've ever had a hard
drive crash.
It was I was halfway throughediting video and photos.
Halfway through editing my harddrive crashes.

Speaker 2 (47:33):
Sandisk yes, the orange one or no, it's a black
with the red it has two terabyteyeah, yeah, was that exactly,
yeah no, no, no, mine was a lacyrugged but these are known for
crashing all the time I got andI did not know that I had a
dozen after the fact I had foundout, um, because there's a
thousand youtube videos on howto try to recover what's on it.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
Yeah, and I'm like oh shit this is the one.
Don't get this specific harddrive um.
Anyways, crash is halfwaythrough and I granted I did it
for free yeah but they did tipme a couple hundred bucks you
know so I felt extremely guiltyalso, like this is one of the
biggest days of their life oh mygod, dude.
Yeah, you can't reproduce thatand it would almost have been

(48:15):
easier if I was friends with thegroom.
But I'm friends with the bridewho there's.
It means a lot more to her thanit does to him already, right
off the bat, and I'd make asimilar phone call yeah, dude,
that's how.

Speaker 3 (48:24):
That's what.
How did you put that call?
Did you dwell on it for a whileor did you oh?

Speaker 1 (48:28):
yeah, definitely.
I spent at least two to threeweeks trying to figure out a way
to recover.
I tried downloading programs onmy own computer, taking it to
camera people down in the citiescamera guy in Lindstrom trying
to figure out ways that I couldget this back, and I just wasn't
ever able to recover anythingoff of it.
Could get this back and I justwasn't ever able to recover

(48:51):
anything off of it.
So you know, meanwhile she'smessaging me every you know
couple days like, hey, anyupdate, any update.
Oh yeah, she's freaking out, ohyeah, oh, I'm like, hey, uh, at
this point I I was like there'snothing I can do about it.
I'm obviously not okay with it,but there's nothing that I can
do or say that will change this.
So there was a little bit ofpeace in that that.
I'm like you just have to tellit how it is.

Speaker 2 (49:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:13):
So that phone call was so hard to make, but it was
like hey, I have half ofeverything and it's not like the
first half, the last halfcompletely random, like it was
just random files that weredestroyed.
It wasn't there, was, I don'tas far as I know, no rhyme or
reason.
It wasn't in order, it wasnothing like that.
So I have some of the gettingready, I have some of the

(49:37):
ceremony, I have some of theafternoon shots.
I have some of this, but I lostall of the family photos you
know where, like the bride andgroom take photos, like with the
grandparents, with thebridesmaids, with the groomsmen,
all those Completely gone.
And luckily the majority of thephotos with the bride and groom

(49:57):
just together themselves andall the ceremony photos were for
the most part all there.
So that was kind of like mysaving grace.
At least you had a little bitof something.
But that, dude, that is my onlyexperience.
And now it's like any bigprojects.
It's on two, three, four harddrives.
Everything is constantly beingbacked up Auto saving, like all
these things that you justlearned.

Speaker 2 (50:17):
That just really you just have to kind of experience
some of these like fucked upmoments to understand the weight
of what's going on at any point, you could just lose it bet
your sweet little ass if I go onanother trip like that I'm
bringing like some, like a lotof my projects, like if it
happens it's like okay, whatever, just I'll refund, I'll refund

(50:39):
you the money or reshoot it yeahwhatever, or like, like in a
couple weeks I'm gonna be goingto um south dakota to film a
snow goose hunt.
Like if I go there and I loseall the footage, like and I'm
I'm saying this verylightheartedly like obviously it
would suck, but if it happenedI'd be like hey, dude, sorry,
like here's your refund, um,better luck next time you know,

(51:02):
but the uh.
But the reality of it is, youknow there's nothing you can do
right and uh, you just know now,like I know now that like, if
it's a big project that I know Ican't reshoot, or I know like
it's, it's gonna like cause amajor issue, then yeah, it needs
to be on two hard drives.
No ifs, ands or buts.

(51:22):
No ifs, ands or buts.
No ifs, ands or buts.

Speaker 1 (51:25):
Yeah, 100%.
Yeah, other than, obviously,the whole storage situation and
figuring out that some harddrives just aren't reliable.
Right, what are some of thethings throughout your time that
you've just learned throughexperiences like that?
Is there anything as far asequipment or the way that you do

(51:45):
things, the way that you shoota project?
Like what are some of thethings that are crossing your
mind?

Speaker 2 (51:49):
that's like this is a must um, like storytelling in
any project is always like youthink, like, okay, how, being
very intentional with your shots, uh, wides, mediums, tights,
you know, trying to get in close, I I mean, I don't know, I've
learned so much.
It's kind of a loaded question.
But, like you know, therealistic, like the real thing

(52:11):
is like how do I save my ass?
Like how do I save in the end?
Like how do I save my asswithout getting?
How do I not get fired?
Right, like you know, backingup hard drives.
But like I think, to answer thequestion, there really isn't,
really isn't one thing that Ican say that needs to happen
other than backing your stuff up.
I mean realistically.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off there
, but I was just curious.
Do you especially when it comesto the outdoor videos, where
you know the reshoots arebasically impossible?
Do you ever have problems withwith different clients where
they just like don't like thevideo and it's like dude, I
don't know what the fuck to tellyou, man.
I've re-edited it six timesyeah, cody's dad actually and he

(52:56):
knows he's got a little cameraboy.

Speaker 2 (52:58):
Yeah that's right.
Yeah, he's a blessed man, youknow.
No, um, yeah, I've had that.
Um, I'm trying to think of whenthat happened or when that
could have happened.
Actually, no, I did have apretty big client.
I did a bunch of constructionstuff for them and they paid a
boatload of money.

(53:18):
I was there for an entire weekand there's like six different
edits and they just kind of likenot impressed.
That's got to hurt.
Yeah, it does hurt.

Speaker 3 (53:28):
Especially because I see it with Cody sometimes,
where he's working on a projectthat he's really happy about
it's, it's cool, cool projectand they're like, ah, this just
isn't isn't working for us, andthen it kind of ruins the moment
.
Yeah, it's like I wish I didn'teven take the fucking job now
right?

Speaker 2 (53:42):
well, one of the big things is like expectations,
like sometimes, like some people, they don't know what they
really want, so they're hopingfor you to just nail it and read
their mind.

Speaker 3 (53:52):
But like the dreamers , you know, yeah, oh yeah.
I deal with this on the masonryside all the time, where
they're like I want this crazyconcrete patio, and then you
give them the bid and they'relike Jesus Christ man.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
What the fuck?
Don't want that anymore, christman, what the fuck?
Just kidding that's like my.

Speaker 3 (54:07):
Well, thanks for your time, but yeah, we're not doing
that.

Speaker 2 (54:09):
Right, like I have those ducks from Alaska.
I shot six of them and they'vebeen at the taxidermist for over
two years now.
But I know like what.
And this guy's like slow.
I mean he's supposedly the best, he won best in the world three
times and and I had this likeidea and I've told like a bunch

(54:30):
of like other duck hunters likewhat I want to do, and they're
like, dude, that's a tenthousand dollar amount and I'm
like, uh, okay, but like this iswhat I want.
Like I owe it to this trip.
I got paid to go on this trip.
These are the first ducks Iever shot.
Like this is what I want, but Iknow like when it comes time to
like the tax returns to give methat bid, oh boy, I'm not gonna
like it maybe you want somevideos, yeah, right, yeah, would

(54:51):
you want to trade off, likemaybe 100 videos for this thing?
but yeah, I'm, I'm, uh, I'mexcited for that, but yeah, I'm,
I'm gonna be reallydisappointed that I'm not gonna
get what I wanted, because myexpectation was set in my head.
I'm like this is what I want,but I know when it comes down to
paying the bill I'm like Ican't do it.

Speaker 3 (55:08):
He's gonna say it looks like that's not what
you're getting, because that'swhat, like a logical person
would say right dude I I'm gladyou brought up the taxidermist
taking a while, because that's agripe that I've had for a long
time and that I don't understandand a lot of it's ignorance.
But like, why the fuck doeseverybody have to wait a year
plus for anything?
Like how, how does what am Imissing on this process?

(55:30):
Like, is it a side gig for allthe taxidermists?

Speaker 2 (55:32):
like what is going on .
I mean you gotta think there'sthe two types.
I mean there's the types ofpeople that go in a taxidermy.
Are the same types of peoplewho work at, like, a morgue?

Speaker 1 (55:43):
that's a great point our funeral home well, that is
one thing that I've noticed.
I've met a lot of guys intaxidermy.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
They're wild.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
A lot of them.
I mean, I'm just gonna say itthey're, they're just weird.
Yeah, there's just somethingoff.
They deal with dead shit everyday or or often.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
I mean how often?

Speaker 1 (56:02):
oh, I didn't just numb to it.
What if they're pretty littlebird?
What if?

Speaker 2 (56:05):
they're kissing them oh, that's awesome yeah, there's
like I'm not gonna go.

Speaker 1 (56:10):
He keeps the taxidermist the people that he
taxidermied right in the backroom the only way that I could
ever get into taxidermy myselfis doing like the funny mounts
oh yeah squirrels ridingalligators and shit like that
dude.

Speaker 2 (56:22):
I got a picture of a guy who mounted a coot and he
had a bunch of bands on it, likegold chain.

Speaker 3 (56:27):
I'm like, yeah, baby I got it, I, when I was in high
school.
Me and my buddies were justtooling out and he had a a
little pond at his house.
We were tooling in the canoeand and we we saw a coot and we
fucking just blasted the fuckerrow up to it.
We didn't know what it was andwe see this weird looking bird
and if you've never shot a cootyou wouldn't understand.

(56:48):
But we were like oh my god, isthis a baby loon?

Speaker 1 (56:52):
and we were if you didn't know what they look like.
Also, they they fly weird, likethey don't really get out of
the water.

Speaker 3 (56:59):
Yeah, and we brought it we brought it back to his
stepdad and he's like you dumbmotherfuckers, that's a coot.

Speaker 1 (57:04):
And then he's like you're eating that thing gross
like they're gross poop greenlegs on them like they just look
gross.

Speaker 2 (57:12):
Yeah, they're nasty, they're mud ducks, boy yeah they
got like claws.
Yeah, never shot one again,that's for sure so one of the
first hunts I did with mattson.
So like, uh, before hisshooting, he I don't know what
called the shooting his incident, um, because it definitely
wasn't an accident that he Idon't know what to call the
shooting he is that his incidentUm, cause it definitely wasn't
an accident.
That's why you don't do drugs,kids.
Uh, the um, watch thedocumentary, you'll understand.

(57:34):
But, uh, he bought this boat,um, and it was just like a 14
foot 48 inch John boat and uh,I'm like trying to like figure
out how to get him hunting.
And he's like, oh, we couldjust use my boat.
And I'm like, you're what,you've had a boat this entire
time.
And I just I I had just gotteninto duck hunting because of the

(57:57):
documentary and knowing him, soI didn't know nothing, I never
even owned a boat before and soI like got it pimped out, like
God bless all the the companiesand sponsors we had to help him
pimp this boat out.
So this year was the main voyage.
Like, we finished this boatover the summer and he went, uh,
we went hunting an openingweekend and uh, well, he was

(58:20):
shot in the head, mind you Right.
So like you can't really seeout of his left eye and, uh, I
see all these birds come in andit's like opening morning first
light.
And I'm like, dude, what arethey?
He's like because I don't know,jack right.
He's like, oh, they're teal,100% teal, and they're coming in
by the hundreds and I'm like,oh, my God, this is going to be

(58:41):
insane.
I'm like, all right, boy, youcall it saying I'm like all
right, boy you call it.
He's like all right, let's killhim.
We just light them all up.
These things start scootingaway.
I was like eric, those arecoots he's like man he goes.
We got him though I was likedude.
They're coots.
He's like you.

Speaker 1 (59:00):
Had fun, though, right and I was like there's a
reason why there's no limit onthem.
In certain places it's like 20,yeah, there's 20.

Speaker 2 (59:05):
It's an insane amount , you know 20 what I don't even
want one yeah, no, yes, webusted them out, man, they make
some good dog treats.

Speaker 3 (59:12):
I'll tell you what dogs love them coots definitely
not worth breasting up andthrowing on the girl, that's,
they stink.

Speaker 1 (59:20):
They stink too, they smell weird yeah I'm an
outdoorsman through and through,boy.

Speaker 2 (59:23):
I, if I shoot it, I'm gonna eat it.
Well, at least somebody's gonnaeat it, and it's my dogs.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
So yeah, that's who's kind of like you're using it.

Speaker 3 (59:29):
You're using it right that's one thing I think about
getting older is I used to thinkI tried to convince myself like
I like goose, yeah, I like tojust grill it, pan fried, I like
it.
And I was like this shitfucking sucks.

Speaker 2 (59:43):
I'm not gonna pretend you gotta do it the right way.
That's the key.
You gotta smoke it.
I, I had some goose I smokedand it was.

Speaker 1 (59:49):
It was bomb you got some powerful lungs.
I ain't smoking nothing out ofthat thing I.
I saw this uh goose recipe onum, I think it was instagram.
It was like the best way tocook a goose is you wrap it in
bacon, smother it with barbecuesauce, throw it on the grill for
three hours and then you throwaway the goose and eat the bacon

(01:00:10):
.

Speaker 3 (01:00:10):
Yeah, that's right, throw it in the trash, that's
right, I mean, I'll never shiton goose jerky, though that's
something.

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
Yeah, my buddy Trav made some good goose jerky, but
it was, like you know, straightsalt.

Speaker 1 (01:00:27):
And that's what makes it good.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
Yeah, my lips are like the kardashian you need to
chase it with a gallon of water.
Yeah, that is the best goosethat I've ever had.
Is very salty yeah, and iv.

Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
You need iv after you're 100.
Yeah, you're getting dehydratedfor sure.
Well, dale dude, thank you forcoming on.
Is there any last words ofwisdom for kids that want to get
into specifically outdoorvideography stuff?
Any outdoor recreationvideography stuff, any outdoor
recreation videography,photography, anything like that?
Drop us a little knowledge bombhere before we end this thing.

Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
Sure, don't buy everything that everyone tells
you to buy, because you could goso overboard, and then you're
going to have a room full ofstuff that you're not going to
even use.

Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
That you don't know how to work also.
That too, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
Master the thing that's in your hand, and if it's
just your phone, you need tozoom in.
Go buy a mag view.
Go buy something that you canattach to a spotting scope.
Just use your phone.
The power of your phone thesedays is sometimes better than
some of the smaller DSLRs or themirrorless cameras, like it's

(01:01:30):
so much multifaceted.
Your phone can really save you.
So don't go buy all theequipment.
Get a decent microphone and ifyou are upgrading to an actual
camera, go Sony.
The low light Kings baby,absolutely.
And yeah, just have fun with it.
Don't, don't set yourselfexpectations.
Um, you're not going to shooteverything every time you have a

(01:01:52):
camera out.
It's, it's a grind, so preparefor it that's fucking good man,
it's really good.

Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
I wish I would have heard that before I bought
anything, me too but hey, likewe said, you gotta live through
it to learn gotta learn yeah,not to get kicked in the dick.

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
This is our version of the Vietnam stories, because
there's no Vietnam for us.

Speaker 1 (01:02:13):
A lot less hard-o.

Speaker 3 (01:02:14):
Mitch going to lineman school.
Man, All right, Well.

Speaker 1 (01:02:18):
Dale, thank you for coming on.

Speaker 3 (01:02:19):
Thanks guys, we appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
Thanks for the beers.