Studio Monthly article
Guys, I am a professional videographer by trade and get the magazine Studio Monthly. I was pleasantly surprised to see an article by Survivorman's Les Stroud in this month's magazine....the article is linked above.
If you don't have a few minutes to read the article, he pretty much lays out how he does all his shows....one of the biggest surprises for me was that the first show of the series, 'stranded', was completely shot, produced, edited, written, EVERYTHING by himself.
He recounts one shot where it shows him walking away from the camera and it's a half mile behind him....turn around, walk back to the camera, rewind the tape, notice that he's cut his head off on part of the shot, curse outloud, setup the shot again and then go walk that same half mile again...ouch...
He also mentions that in recent shows, he brings along someone else to cover the B-roll (scenes used to cover mistakes, bad edits, etc) but that he carries two Sony Z1u cameras (4.5lbs each) and a Sony HC3, 9 large batteries (13oz/ea) plus all the tripods and tapes....so on top of everything else he has to do, he essentially has to lug an additional ~30lbs in video gear to get his job done....and more times than not, he's so rough on the camera equipment that the cameras have to be replaced after each episode (to the tune of $5500ea)
He mentions that he 'scripts' most of the episodes otherwise it would be just him walking around in the wilderness. he mentions that his notes are usually just; day 1: show how to build a shelter, day 2: get food and water, day 3: show how to make fire...and he just fills in the blanks when he gets there.
And how did he get the show? He says that he came up with the idea some fifteen years ago as a 'I'll get around to it kind of idea' but cold called the Discovery Channel and pitched it to them and they loved the idea saying, 'bring us a pilot'.
Great article for those interested in the Survivorman 'behind the scenes' kind of stuff....
Guys, I am a professional videographer by trade and get the magazine Studio Monthly. I was pleasantly surprised to see an article by Survivorman's Les Stroud in this month's magazine....the article is linked above.
If you don't have a few minutes to read the article, he pretty much lays out how he does all his shows....one of the biggest surprises for me was that the first show of the series, 'stranded', was completely shot, produced, edited, written, EVERYTHING by himself.
He recounts one shot where it shows him walking away from the camera and it's a half mile behind him....turn around, walk back to the camera, rewind the tape, notice that he's cut his head off on part of the shot, curse outloud, setup the shot again and then go walk that same half mile again...ouch...
He also mentions that in recent shows, he brings along someone else to cover the B-roll (scenes used to cover mistakes, bad edits, etc) but that he carries two Sony Z1u cameras (4.5lbs each) and a Sony HC3, 9 large batteries (13oz/ea) plus all the tripods and tapes....so on top of everything else he has to do, he essentially has to lug an additional ~30lbs in video gear to get his job done....and more times than not, he's so rough on the camera equipment that the cameras have to be replaced after each episode (to the tune of $5500ea)
He mentions that he 'scripts' most of the episodes otherwise it would be just him walking around in the wilderness. he mentions that his notes are usually just; day 1: show how to build a shelter, day 2: get food and water, day 3: show how to make fire...and he just fills in the blanks when he gets there.
And how did he get the show? He says that he came up with the idea some fifteen years ago as a 'I'll get around to it kind of idea' but cold called the Discovery Channel and pitched it to them and they loved the idea saying, 'bring us a pilot'.
Great article for those interested in the Survivorman 'behind the scenes' kind of stuff....
To be fair, I think once he just had the wood smoking. The second was actually on fire. If he had stayed in a hotel room that never would have happened.