Journal of Mountain Hunting / Monashee Media
Released Spring 2020
The Journal of Mountain hunting is one of North America’s leading online journals in the hunting space. With backing from some major players in the industry like The Wild Sheep Foundation, we were honoured to work with the Journal to produce a 6 part series aptly named “Beyond the Kill”.
The core concept was to contrast two British Columbia elk hunts: a Rocky Mountain Elk in the Kootenays with Matt, a first-year hunter; and Roosevelt Elk on the coast with Nolan, an experienced mountain hunting guide. Originally we thought we’d make two separate films and release them back to back, but after some discussion it was decided we’d do an episodical-style release… 6 episodes released weekly, the first three covering Matt’s hunt, the second three covering Nolan’s.
We wanted to bring something a bit different than what we were seeing in the hunting space… can you guess what it was? STORY! Let’s focus in on the people, more than the hunt. Don’t get me wrong, these films are absolutely about the hunts: the crazy long days, the burning legs, the calorie-cramming, the sitting, the hiking… all that stuff. But, deciding to focus more on the people than on the event means doing things differently. The microphones are always on. The camera is always at the ready. You roll even when you don’t have a shot because what’s being said is more important than what’s in the viewfinder. This isn’t about a curated selection of all your best shots, set to a badass track and ending with high fives after the kill. This is about the entire experience, submersing the viewer, being in the moment, taking things “Beyond The Kill”.
Making a decision to film a 10 day backpacking hunt this way means one thing…. everyone carries batteries! Okay, not really, but it definitely complicates things a bit. Gear selection becomes a very important aspect of your pre-production phase. Can we take the RED? The editor says yes, the camera op says no. Okay, FS5 it is then. There are definitely a lot of things to consider but redundancy vs pack weight becomes the biggest battle.
At the end of the day, these are the stories we want to tell and the places we want to go to tell them. People out in the world; trying to make a new connection, or soaking in the environments they know and love.
Here are all 6 parts of the series in full, and some bonus content from the Journal. We’d love to hear what you think.
“Filter Studios has created the opportunity for us to showcase what we do, and where we go, to our viewers in a story focused package. Their creative direction and film execution has allowed us not only to produce better films, but also to secure greater funding due to to the quality of their work.”
Nolan Osborne, Journal of Mountain Hunting / Monashee Media