Published Feb 2. 2016 - 8 years ago
Updated or edited Oct 8. 2020

My morning with videos

Every morning before I start working I go though a bunch of fishing and tying videos. Join me on such a video spree

Vimeo
Fishing videos
Martin Joergensen

One day I will make a video about my video watching. Really! That would give you a great impression of how I select the videos that go on GFF and what criteria I use to select – and not least deselect videos to add. But below you find a short written rundown of a video watching session, which can give you an impression of how I work.

So this is the drill

I open GFF and go to my control panel. A part of this panel is a list of unpublished stuff, which includes user submitted videos. These have high priority because whatever users contribute holds a high star here, and the bar for being published is lower when a user has suggested a video – simply because it's a great thing to have user submissions and because I want to give those who do some credit.
I click through the videos and watch them. Mostly it's just one or even none, so the job is quickly done. There are videos, which don't make it. Really poor quality, really short one (less than a minute), slideshows, videos with foreign descriptions and too blatant commercials. I usually write the submitters and tell them why they haven't made it, and maybe fix the problem – like translating the description.
After that I go into the large abyss that is the web and look for videos myself. I have several sources, searches and feeds that I check, and mostly manage to go through 10-20 videos. That might sound like a tough and time consuming job, but unfortunately it isn't, because a majority of the videos will be stopped within a few seconds and discarded.
I'm a very hard and uncompromising judge when it comes to that, and it doesn't take many seconds to rule out some videos. Below you find a few examples from this morning and a short description of why I left them out.


1. Tommy Lynch's Mini Drunk & Disorderly

Looks nice judging from the thumb, but music only with no narration, full tyer view (fly hard to see) AND fast forward tying!? I think not.


2. Alaska Mouse Fishing - Mighty Mouse II

Nice video, well edited, lots of fierce trout surface takes. Right on!


3. Drop off Panic

A beautiful video from Patagonia. The kind of stuff I like to publish. Made it.


4. Fly Fishing on the Upper Owens River

Starts out nicely in a parking lot, but I have a feeling of what's coming... yes, driving! And lots of it. Inside, outside, front and back. The video is three minutes long, and more than one whole minute is driving. Not on my watch.


5. Montana 2015

Head on start view out of a car windscreen – and fast forward mode. Out! Simple as that. No matter what delicious fishing might come, I'm not going to see it. This one was ruled out within 1-2 seconds.


Vimeo tying
Tying videos
Martin Joergensen

On to some tying videos

Three are pay-per-view. I don't even click them. Paying is fine, but I can only embed the often very short teaser. I wish the publishers all possible luck, but won't bring short teasers – paid or free. There's actually a blog entry on that subject. My usual limit is 2 minutes. Less than 2 minutes is not going to make it onto our channel unless it's exceptionally good.
Apart from that, I have to say that there's a lot of great tying videos out there, but also some really lousy ones.
I'm working on an article about how to make the best and most instructional tying video, and plan on shooting a series of tying tips myself just to prove - not least to myself - that I can actually do it.


6. D.R. Stinger Prawn

Nice looking video, but speeding up and down and having no narration but only music is a no-go for me. Out it is even though the video is basically nice and the fly fine.


7. Ghost Minnow

No talk, music, speed, out, next!


8. Allround Emerger & Dubbing Mix

No talk, music, speed... Another one? You gotta be kidding me! Doesn't anybody know how to make a tying video?


9. Drunk and Disorderly

Slightly messy start and then... No talk, music, speed... Whaaaat? I don't believe this! Next!


10. Sheep Herder

Same outfitter, again a little slow and messy start, but then an actual instruction at normal speed and with narration. Phew! Published.


11. Buggy Mayfly

Same producer as the Allround Emerger above - JMVOutdoor. I have a bad feeling... cue banjo music and speed... next!


12. Secret Squirrel

A little hefty music and long start, but a nice video with spoken instruction. Published.


13. Foam Paraloop Mayfly

JMVOutdoor again. Speed and banjo music ensues. I don't even begin to watch it.


14. Tommy Lynch's Mini Drunk & Disorderly

I watched and discarded that one already.



 
That was 14 videos, and four made the cut. That's actually a little better than average.
I usually go on to YouTube, where the quality is much worse, and often I only find a single useful video on a good day. YouTube is a mess, and most YouTube videos I publish are recommended on Facebook or are tipped by other sources.

So now it's on to paid work...

That's actually a little better than average

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