The Hunting Experience! (The making of)

Controversial? Yes.
Senseless killing? No.
Initial trigger? The Hunting Expo Belgium 2014, the fair for hunters with a passion for the wild, for the hunt and for nature.
Broader perspective? Hunting in general, outdoor life and the love for nature that feeds us with stunning impressions and enjoyable food and beverages.
Goal? A film showing all these aspects and to open up this world, not just for the 'happy few'.

Making a film on a short term notice is not an easy task. Shooting footage about hunting requires a lot of time. So, what are the possibilities? How is it possible to make such a film within only two weeks time?

The initiator for this film is TOPAZ, (Marketingwise Communications)-entrepreneur Cor Denneman Heilscher. Apart from entrepreneur and personal friend, Cor is also a passionate hunter. So, let's start with hunting (or at least pretend we are). While driving through the Dutch forest we can also do some filming of the vehicle best suited for these type of outdoor activities, the Land Rover.

Actual hunting is not possible on this day. We create a setting and are ready to fake the shooting. Not necessary. Cor fires his shotgun anyway...
To complete this part of the story we must have a slow motion of the removal of an empty shell.

With no time for all kind of real nature and hunting filming I have to have images of the wild. If not in video then I have to use photos. I come into contact with Ruud van den Heuvel who spent a lot of time in the Oostvaardersplassen, making wonderful pictures of the wild life in this area. Using some of these will save the day for me...

Shooting wild life does certainly not mean wasting it. Of course, you can prepare your own meals (as lots of hunters do and not without merit), I prefer a quality restaurant, specialised in wild and Restaurant De Pronckheer in Cothen (NL) seems to be the perfect place. It must be said, properly prepared wild accompanied by a great wine and good friends, in one word, it is a feast.

What precedes is the preparation of wild, making it ready for consumption, starting with the skinning. Arjan Smit from De Pronckheer shows us how he can undo a roe deer from its coat. The camera is still rolling and so we can add a few other topics to our film: the preparation of wild and the very enjoyable part of eating it and drinking.


Still, not enough material to fill at least three minutes with interesting stuff about hunting and the outdoor life...


Especially to promote the various hunting exhibitions and fairs I need more material. Again, Cor comes into action. This time hunting for footage to show what it is like on for instance the Belgium Hunting Expo.

Plattelands TV (Belgium) has done a wonderful job in creating attractive impressions of such events.

Everybody knows how hard it is to get permission for using other peoples copyrighted material. With special thanks to Patrick Vaernewijck of PlattelandsTV, Cor manages to make a deal and I can use some of their impressive 'shootings'.

What is left? What is a film about hunting without real hunting and without viewing real wild life? Although I can use the photos from Ruud van de Heuvel I of course prefer real action.
Talking about a real hunting film, I am jealous of the excellent quality and marvellous pictures in the 'Blaser R8 Professional Success'-film. After we have seen the Blaser film several times I challenge Cor by betting that he will not be able to aquire permission to use some of the material from this film. I lost. And I am very much impressed about the networking and partnering capabilities of Cor. We get permission to use the content of this film and (bad news for Ruud van den Heuvel) I no longer have to use the static photos.

I am not going to rewrite the Blaser film. We have our own goals and a lot of people will find the end of the Blaser film to shocking. I choose to let the viewer of my film know what will happen in the end to the deer without witnessing the inevitable...

'The Hunting Experience!' is a co-production of TOPAZ - Tolllogic Creative Productions. It shows various aspects of HUNTING-EXPO, the ultimate meeting place for true hunters. It is all about carefulness and responsibility for nature. With vibrant 'shots' of 4 x 4 driving through hunting fields, cosy hunting lodges, smart field constructions, clothing, optics, weapons, ammunition and accessories as to observing and shooting. Also extra facilities for optimising hunting results. Putting people first, you can see remarkable views at the exhibition area, indoor and outdoor, simulating and stimulating sustainable activities in the fields. Worldwide... Observing passionate hunters and other nature lovers, assisted by their close companions such as: fellow-hunters & beaters, dogs, horses, birds of prey and ferrets. Having in mind respect and sustainability, you can enjoy quality of life including healthy food and beverages.

Panasonic DMC-TZ40 video capabilities review

I already have a Panasonic DMC-FZ200, so why bothering to buy another camera? Well, first of all, it is for my wife to take pictures when we are on holiday. And secondly, if we are not on holiday (which unfortunately is still most of the time), then I like to have a very small camera which I can easily take with me to my professional occupations (after all, I have to earn money to spend it on camera's). Then, why this Panasonic? Because I am quite happy with my FZ200. The 2.8 aperture over the whole range of the lens (25 - 600mm equivalent on a 35mm camera) is a very good start. The 24x optical zoom is not the best but really good. But what I am really fond off is the optical stabilization in this FZ200 camera.
So, what is in it for the TZ40? It is very small, so I can take it with me in my coat. Still a 20x optical zoom. Not bad for such a small camera. 1080P - 50fps. But what I really hoped for is an optical stabilization as good as in the FZ200. Well, I am certainly not disappointed. This good optical stabilization means that it gets a lot harder for my wife to take a worthless picture. And for me? I still like to record video. Everywhere.

Does it help? Sure it does. For taking video it works incredibly well. For instance, filming from inside a moving car will introduce a constant moving of the camera. Will it make the footage shaky? No. What you will see is that the foreground (you car's dashboard and window) is moving up and down, but the outside world is not. Amazing to see. Just take a look at the video I took during my flight from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport to London Heathrow, just going over the centre of The City. You will notice that the window and especially the dirt on the window will move constantly while the subject, the outside world, is reasonably shock free and far from shaky. However, be careful with a horizontal pan. Because of the optical stabilization the camera tries to prevent this, causing small jumps in the panning.

Buying a camera depends on what you like to spend on it, but equally important on what you like to achieve with it. I can now record quit good video. Always. Everywhere.

Flight KL1006 over The City (of London)

What to do with shaky, shitty video

Of course we all shoot perfect video. We use a tripod, check lighting and sound and not often we have to fix something in post. Now imagine a colleague or friend asking us for a favour. They know we can make good videos, not realising it all starts with quality shooting. But OK, we do them a favour, we say yes (but think no). And now the problems really start. Just a bunch of video files, at first glance resembling the latest shootings from a war zone. But no, they are shot while taking part in the new hobby, enthusiastically waving the camera to the other contenders. Really beyond "warp-stabilisation". You get the idea.

In my case it gets a serious undertone, because the boss has started sponsoring the hobby. Nothing wrong with that, but even while it is sponsoring a hobby, a boss does like to have some return on investment. So, I don't want to disappoint nobody and start right away. With questioning for more. No, not for more sponsoring, but for more footage. This is of course hard for the video takes, but since we are now talking about business, we may add business. So I ask for photos. Photos from the office building, a flag, sign, logo, whatever.

By the way, the sponsoring is about mountain biking. No, not the bikes. The shirts. So I ask for photos of the shirts.  I get an image of the design of the shirt and I get several photos of the guys (sorry, no ladies. I would have preferred ladies) wearing a shirt. And this brings me to the clue of how to make something of shaky, shitty video. Of course, it depends on the subject, but

• Keep it short.
• Use stills (The advantage of photos is not being shaky. But make them move by zooming in or out slowly).
• Find fast music to keep up with the pace.
• Use simple video adjustments to improve the quality. I very often use the "levels-adjustment" enabling the background of a darker picture be better visible. 
• Make a fast edit, quickly changing from one cut to the other. Of course, you choose the takes that are the least shaky, but by quickly changing between shots and keeping them short, you can hide a bit that they are shaky and shitty.

I am very sorry to have to say that YouTube did not like the audio of my sample video, so I apologize for the following link not working anymore.

So, look here for the result of my - KLS sponsors mountain bike team - video.

Wish you all success with "your" shaky and shitty video.
If you have similar challenges or solutions, let me know.