When I first started out chasing, it was not about getting the best video or video sales but it was about getting amazing still images. The other day I was able to get back to playing with the still images and time lapse work which will be a main focus for 2020 for me.
Here is the time lapse stuff I shot on 9/30 that was featured on The Weather Channel.
Starting later this year, major upgrades are finally taking place with the camera equipment and working on more in house productions as the state of media chasing has drastically changed over time.
Back in June we started chatting with a company that wanted to work with us on various different productions and after about four months of back and fourth, last week we are going ahead with it. This comes just in time for us to bow out of another project that sounded interesting at first but after careful consideration and looking at the pros and cons, we decided against it. The main reason was, do we work for someone else or do we become the production company and chart our own path and own future?
We picked the path that allowed us to chart our own path. From what I have heard through the chasing channels, us or “SCV” as a whole declining this project, has killed off this project. Probably for the best as this was a show that morphed into following around chasers chasing and talking about their chasing and into a competition show of one chasing team against another chasing team like so many of the other “So Called” reality shows. The last thing chasing needs is a show that makes all the chasers look like a bunch of jerk offs looking for destruction.
It was pretty funny as I was trying to be polite (rare eh?) and say we are not interested last week but Monday I was bugged about “Why Can’t You Do Both?” and “Can’t You Double Dip?” and this one made me laugh “You Will Have Lots Of Eyes On You” by one of the producers. The worst part about this whole project is that they wanted me to sign off on being locked into their “potential show” for up to nine (9) months without any pay. Yes, you read that correctly, nine months, no pay, can’t work on any other projects but yet my company works on lots of different projects every week with production companies all around the world.
The conversation ended with me saying the following.
Here is the fundamental problem. We already work in TV and everyone you have talked to has been on numerous reality clip shows, commercials or their own not so reality shows.
So eyes on means absolutely zero and it’s more of a pain in the ass vs being able to be incognito to get in and get out to get our shots.
The whole being on TV thing, we could be on the weather channel tomorrow if we wanted to with the footage we shoot today…
Seriously the show I did for in 2008, that only paid me scrap money and is still on the air 11 years later did nothing but brought me hate mail.
We could double or even triple dip but the problem is their is absolutely nothing in it for us but having a camera crew in our way all the time vs us being our own camera crew. Good luck with the project, but as of now, we’re not interested.
The following morning I followed up with a final message that just said.
And like I said, screen time, I opened The Weather Channel morning show this morning with this video
When I talked to everyone on my crew after I decided to not work on this project last week after hearing from another company that is looking to work with us, everyone was in agreement that a competition show would not be the best for chasing and doing more documentary project is the way to bring chasing into a much more friendlier public exposure after all the negative press over the last year by other’s.