One question I get asked fairly often is, “How do ya’ll film out of a tree?”
And the answer is, “By climbing up into the tree!” I couldn’t resist. Sorry.
Seriously, I assume when hearing this question that the person is really wanting to know how the footage is recorded so smoothly without a lot of shaking. Well, in the picture above you can see the serious apparatus that it takes to hold up a twenty pound camera. The system is comprised of a “base” that ratchets around the tree so tightly that it chokes the oxygen out of the squirrels higher up. Then, the “two-piece arm” is fitted into the base. Attached to the end of the arm is a five pound plus self-leveling tripod head and on the tripod head is the actual camera.
TOTAL WEIGHT – 40 POUNDS!
THAT must be why I get a funny look from the cameraman when I mention hiking two miles into hunt a certain stand in Montana!
As you can see, Realtree Outdoor Producer Dan Johnson has to learn just the right height to attach the base so the viewfinder fits his style of filming. Different cameramen have their own preference as to which side of the tree to set the base on to make it easier on them.
It takes teamwork between hunter and cameraman to get this deal set up in the predawn darkness. Typically, the cameraman climbs into his stand (above the hunter) with the base in his backpack, secures his safety harness, ratchets the base on the tree, lowers a rope where the hunter ties on the arm and tripod head. The cameraman pulls up the arm, attaches it to the base, lowers the rope again where the hunter now ties on the camera and it is attached to the tripod head.
All this takes roughly 5-10 minutes depending on the experience of the cameraman and the “straightness” of the tree.
It is always a good idea for the hunter to step out from underneath the camera stand while all this is going on. I don’t care to be hit top of the head with another flashlight, wrench, etc.!
What gets really interesting is when you’re hunting out of a thick barked tree and during the hunt, the base loses its grip and suddenly loosens! Then it’s a Chinese fire drill with “all hands on deck” trying to re-secure the whole rig! Life sure gets a lot easier when you can leave the base and the arm in the tree for the afternoon or next morning’s hunt!
We’ve even left the whole rig up in the tree when we knew without a doubt we were going to hunt that tree either that afternoon or the next morning . . . but don’t tell Bill!
We do pray it doesn’t rain.
Hey David,
That was a great blog b/c I was wandering that too. Thanks for the info. I hope one day I would be either the hunter or cameramen/camerawomen for Realtree (hopefully the hunter) :) Talk to ya later and keep up the great work.
God Bless & Good Huntin'
Kristle Oberlander
Dan is the MAN!!! I bet he could put the whole thing together with his eyes closed....
Sounds like a lot off work, but it also sounds like a labor of love. I bet those Bad Boy Buggies are a camera mans dream come true.
Are you guys thinking of any new ways of filming hunts? I always thought it would be awesome to have a fixed camera on the ground, maybe by a decoy or like a trail camera angle, to see the shot coming from the stand down to where the camera and deer are. It is kinda like those camera shots in NASCAR, where the camera is at ground level and the cars seem like they are running over you. I know that is more equipment, but think of all the cool stuff you could do in editing! I have not seen this in the hunting shows, but thought if anyone could pull it off it would be you guys.
Good Luck,
Todd - Indiana
That's great - we film a lot of hunts - and I always wonder how you guys do it out of a tree. We don't hunt out of a tree, but put the miles behind us instead - and I gotta say, being a cameraman isn't all that fun, sometimes - and so next time you think that wrench that fell on your head was an accident...that's exactly what we want the hunter that drug us around the mountains to think! :)