Casting At Shadows

This video has a nicely paced intro with great ambiance shots of the Christmas Island. Miles upon miles of pristine flats. Indeed! It may seem a bit slow in the start, loyally portraying the island, the people, the wading, stalking and casting, but it does get into fishing with some fast paced catching and some beautiful fish once it get going.

It's very well filmed with a nice feeling of "being there" combined with some "large screen style" shots of both landscapes, ocean and people.
The target here is the fast tropical fish like Bonefish, Trevalys (Blue fin and GT), sharks and not least tuna, of which we get to witness a new world record for a fly caught yellowfin!

There are four distinct parts, of which three are about fishing: the portrait of the island, bonefishing, fishing for GT and bluewater fishing for shark and tuna.
The video is filmed in exquisite quality and with all the hallmarks of good photography and filming: great composition, great angles, nice cutting rhythm and of course the kind of stunning images you get when filming large and beautiful fish in perfect, tropical conditions. The music selection is a suitable but not exactly radical mix of locally sounding tunes and dramatic orchestral music. But it works well, and altogether we get a very exhilarating view on the perspective of the fishing here and not least a look at the potentially very large fish that can be caught.

But we just get 35 minutes of it all and very little extra material, so as always with these short videos I'm left with a longing for more. There must have been raw material for at least twice as much as we get, and personally I find 50-60 minutes much more suitable for any fishing video. I know many producers trim away any slow scenes or repeated material, but I would really have loved to see more here, and maybe hear some chatting with the angler and the guides. The way I consume DVDs these days, I really feel that half an hour feels more like a warmup than an actual production, which is a pity, especially when the footage you see promises so much.

We do get a bit of extra material: a 4 minute interview with some of the people who tested an H-bomb for the British in 1958. Not really fishing related, but actually pretty interesting. We also get a 4 minute slideshow with some beautiful stills from the island and the fishing around it.

But still I'd have liked to see more, and maybe have some extra material with some practical information on gear, flies, strategy and the Christmas Island as a fishing destination, maybe just as extra material, but still.