Speaker 1: Welcome to This Country Life. I'm your host, Brent Reeves
Speaker 1: from coon hunting to trot lining and just general country living.
Speaker 1: I want you to stay a while as I share
Speaker 1: my experiences in life lessons. This Country Life is presented
Speaker 1: by Case Knives on Meat Eaters Podcast Network, bringing you
Speaker 1: the best outdoor podcast the airwaves have to offer. All right, friends,
Speaker 1: grab a chair or drop that tailgate. I've got some
Speaker 1: stories to share working at meat Eater. People often asking
Speaker 1: I love telling the story of how I wound up
Speaker 1: working at meat Eater and what it's like. It's been
Speaker 1: a long journey that started many moons ago, and I'm
Speaker 1: going to tell you all about it. But first I'm
Speaker 1: going to tell you a story. I was contacted by
Speaker 1: a regional hunting show from South Carolina back around the
Speaker 1: turn of the sentry, which used to mean a long
Speaker 1: time ago, and I guess it's starting to again. But anyway.
Speaker 1: The host of the show was originally from Arkansas. He
Speaker 1: had a cousin he grew up with that was still
Speaker 1: here and he contacted him about finding someone to guide
Speaker 1: him and a cameraman on a film duck hunt. The
Speaker 1: cousin worked with me at the Sheriff's office in the Eldorata, Arkansas,
Speaker 1: and made the introduction. He and his cameraman came out
Speaker 1: for three days of hunting in the flooded green timber.
Speaker 1: We had a great hunt. I made friends with both
Speaker 1: of them, but I was mostly interested in what was
Speaker 1: going on behind the camera and in front of it.
Speaker 1: I saved up and bought a Sony PD one seventy
Speaker 1: camquarder that recorded onto many DV tapes, and at the
Speaker 1: time it was the industry standard for outdoor video. I
Speaker 1: remember the day the ups man dropped it off at
Speaker 1: the house. It was like a new shotgun, but better.
Speaker 1: I would be able to shoot everything all the time,
Speaker 1: and good, honest to goodness quality green timber duck hunting
Speaker 1: footage was scarce in those days. Now, I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that there wasn't any. There just wasn't a lot that
Speaker 1: I thought was very good. There were shots I had
Speaker 1: in mind that I hadn't seen. Most of what I
Speaker 1: saw wasn't shot from a tripod, so the cameras were
Speaker 1: pretty unsteady. So I set out to fill my own
Speaker 1: and show the world what real duck hunting footage looked like.
Speaker 1: I bought a tripod and the fluid had to mount
Speaker 1: the camera. I spent half the season when we didn't
Speaker 1: have clients collecting footage of ducks coming into the timber.
Speaker 1: I had a Pelican case I custom fit for the
Speaker 1: camera and double bagged it with thick contractor trash bags
Speaker 1: to keep overspray, wet dogs and folks getting in and
Speaker 1: out of the boat from kicking water and mud on
Speaker 1: the camera. That costs twice as much as my first truck.
Speaker 1: It was my baby, and I treated it like one.
Speaker 1: Dust was one thing, but water was a whole other
Speaker 1: set of problems. Those cameras would shut down in heavy
Speaker 1: damp environments. The circuit boards just couldn't handle the exposure
Speaker 1: to moisture. I was like a man possessed any time
Speaker 1: I had it in the field, especially around water. I
Speaker 1: guarded it like my life depended on it, and kept
Speaker 1: people and dogs away from every conceivable situation or path
Speaker 1: of travel that would likely bring either in my proximity.
Speaker 1: I would make everyone get out of the boat and
Speaker 1: move over to where they were going to stand. Then
Speaker 1: I'd get out walk the boat to where I was
Speaker 1: going to be standing. Uncase the camera while it laid
Speaker 1: on the deck, attached it to the tripod and set
Speaker 1: it up, never taking my hand off the whole time
Speaker 1: we were there. I didn't walk anywhere with it after
Speaker 1: I took it out of the boat, or take any
Speaker 1: chances watsoever. When it came to keeping it above the water,
Speaker 1: it stressed me to no end. But just like a
Speaker 1: hammer in a toolbox, it won't do you any good
Speaker 1: unless you get it out and use it. When we
Speaker 1: were riding, I would hold that double wrap case to
Speaker 1: my chest and lie down in the bottom of the
Speaker 1: boat like I was guarding the nuclear codes. I had
Speaker 1: some great footage, but I was still missing one scene
Speaker 1: that I hadn't seen yet, the zig zag and ride
Speaker 1: through the timber that everyone loved that hunted with us.
Speaker 1: Some even said it was their favorite part of the trip,
Speaker 1: and the anticipation leading up to it was one of
Speaker 1: the main reasons they came back year after year. Well,
Speaker 1: that and they wanted to be there When Tim and
Speaker 1: I eventually started duking it out because the longer the
Speaker 1: season went, the dumber he got. He would say the
Speaker 1: same thing, but he'd be wrong. Remember he's dumb. But
Speaker 1: them wasn't the one taking the equivalent of a Craigslist truck.
Speaker 1: As my friend Nick Gilliland rates everything above a certain
Speaker 1: dollar amount. He wasn't taking it out in a boat
Speaker 1: with a clumsy bunch of bottled up waiter wearing clowns
Speaker 1: whose first concern was not whether or not my camera
Speaker 1: got with So the best thing to do was to
Speaker 1: go after the season was out, when those buffoons weren't
Speaker 1: in the boat. I'd go by myself. There'd be no
Speaker 1: one else in the woods, and I could film to
Speaker 1: my heart's content. It was six thirty in the morning
Speaker 1: when I unloaded the boat, and there wasn't a cloud
Speaker 1: in the sky. I set the trip out up in
Speaker 1: the boat and spread the legs out with the camera
Speaker 1: at eye level. It was rock solid. I fired the
Speaker 1: boat motor up, pointed it up to by old press record,
Speaker 1: and showered down on the throttle and shot away from
Speaker 1: that boat round like I was late for work. I
Speaker 1: could have pulled a fat dog on behind that boat.
Speaker 1: I hit the trail that led away from the levee
Speaker 1: and never let off the gas, zigzagging like I'd done
Speaker 1: a million times, around stumps and under low hanging limbs,
Speaker 1: cutting hard and left, staying on plane and that full
Speaker 1: throttle from nearly a mile. Leonard Skinnrich called me. The
Speaker 1: breeze was playing in my head, and I wondered how
Speaker 1: big the lawsuit was gonna be when I put their
Speaker 1: music to my video. During that portion of the production,
Speaker 1: as I approached the whole ducks were getting up in
Speaker 1: front of me by the hundreds. I was in a
Speaker 1: hurry now to get out and set up the camera
Speaker 1: and catch them all when they started coming back to
Speaker 1: the calls of all the ducks in the woods that
Speaker 1: had never left. This was gonna be epic, like National Geographic.
Speaker 1: I cut the power to the motor, and as the
Speaker 1: kinetic energy drained away from my vessel, I shoved my
Speaker 1: life jacket, hung my right leg over the side of
Speaker 1: the boat, and followed it with my left, rolling out
Speaker 1: onto my feet like a Navy seal, and kicked my
Speaker 1: camera out into the knee deep muddy water the Biometa.
Speaker 1: It would cost me another fifteen hundred dollars to get
Speaker 1: that camera dried out and clean, and after all that
Speaker 1: costly calamity, I never made that film. And that's just
Speaker 1: how that happened. I get asked all the time on
Speaker 1: what it's like to work at meat either. How in
Speaker 1: the world I managed to pull it off. It's still
Speaker 1: kind of a blur to me, But not one day
Speaker 1: that goes by do I take it for granted or
Speaker 1: fail to give thanks for the blessings of what this
Speaker 1: job entails and the opportunity it has afforded me and
Speaker 1: my family. Some of you, I'm sure it'd have heard
Speaker 1: me tell the story of how I got here, but
Speaker 1: for those that haven't, I'll do a quick recap so
Speaker 1: everyone's up to speed before I go any further. After
Speaker 1: dunking my camera in the Biometa, I obviously got to
Speaker 1: replace and upgraded cameras eventually, and eventually I started out
Speaker 1: filming my favorite hillbilly, lay Nukel, before he was everyone
Speaker 1: else's favorite hill building. He was using video content to
Speaker 1: support the promotion of his former publication, Bear Hunting Magazine.
Speaker 1: Now that content, along with his freelance writing, the magazine's
Speaker 1: podcast he produced, and his singular focus in years of
Speaker 1: hard work to make a living in the outdoor space,
Speaker 1: did just that for him, and Meat Eater offered him
Speaker 1: a job. Well. When that happened, he had professional cinematographers
Speaker 1: and photographers and producers and editors and sound engineers and
Speaker 1: others who were doing all the individual duties that he
Speaker 1: and I used to share in mostly him, and they
Speaker 1: were way better at it. Understandably, I was out of
Speaker 1: a job. I mean, it wasn't like I got fired
Speaker 1: because I'd been volunteering my time all those years. He
Speaker 1: covered my expenses, and I worked hard to help my
Speaker 1: friends succeed just because he was my friend and I
Speaker 1: believed in what he was doing, the content he was creating,
Speaker 1: and the message he was sharing. But my talents paled
Speaker 1: in comparison to those folks. Fast forward a year or
Speaker 1: so after he went to work and Meeta or gave
Speaker 1: anyone who worked for the company the opportunity to submit
Speaker 1: ideas for a podcast through a form. Now you had
Speaker 1: to list the name of the show, who would host it,
Speaker 1: the theme of the content, the link to the episodes,
Speaker 1: and the general idea of the format. Well, Clay convinced
Speaker 1: me to submit an idea, even though my only connection
Speaker 1: to working there at the time was being a guest
Speaker 1: on a couple of his first podcasts and a regular
Speaker 1: on The Bear gree shur Render every other week, which
Speaker 1: was another voluntary effort that in included a five hour
Speaker 1: round trip drive to help my friend. He told me
Speaker 1: over and over that he'd repay me one day, but
Speaker 1: I was already being paid. I was an adopted member
Speaker 1: of the entire newcom clan, and I felt as though
Speaker 1: they belonged to me just as much as I did
Speaker 1: to them. So one time, my wife Alexis and I
Speaker 1: were in Northwest Arkansas and stayed in Clay and missed
Speaker 1: his guest room after I recorded a podcast with him,
Speaker 1: and we all wound up going out to eat supper
Speaker 1: that night. I asked him again about that application process
Speaker 1: for the podcast ideas, and in about forty five minutes,
Speaker 1: the four of us had hashed out ideas in a
Speaker 1: format for what the show is today. What we came
Speaker 1: up with that night is about eighty percent of what
Speaker 1: you're here now, So if you hate it, it's not
Speaker 1: all my fault. Now, fast forward through a couple of
Speaker 1: mock episodes I recorded and submitted for me to listen to,
Speaker 1: and here we are now. Most don't know that the
Speaker 1: monologue format of what I'm doing wasn't the original idea.
Speaker 1: The first one I submitted was me talking to my
Speaker 1: good friend David McDaniels from East Texas. Much like I
Speaker 1: talked to all of you now, Steve Vanella took one
Speaker 1: listen and said, you know there's something there, but that
Speaker 1: ain't it. You need to redo that episode. Instead of
Speaker 1: talking to someone one on one, just talk to the mic.
Speaker 1: I changed it, and here we are. Now that you
Speaker 1: know how I got here, let me tell you about
Speaker 1: what it's like working here. Now. What I didn't mention
Speaker 1: in the opening is my favorite part about working here
Speaker 1: and what I'm most thankful for, and that's the people
Speaker 1: that I get to work with. The on camera folks
Speaker 1: are just as you said here. They're authentic and unapologetic
Speaker 1: in their opinions, open to hear opposing views, and respectful
Speaker 1: even if they disagree, you know, like grown folks should be.
Speaker 1: But it's not the ones you regularly see and here
Speaker 1: that are involved in producing content that I'm talking about,
Speaker 1: even though they are as big a blessing to me
Speaker 1: as well. It's the whole, dynamic world of people that
Speaker 1: make this company what it is. We come up with
Speaker 1: ideas for our content all on our own and occasionally
Speaker 1: through suggestions from our colleagues and sometimes even the listeners
Speaker 1: my weekly podcast content is recorded here in my home
Speaker 1: and edited in Bozeman by Riva Hanson. Then she sends
Speaker 1: it back to me for approval once she's done. And
Speaker 1: they say you can't make chicken salad out of chicken, Well,
Speaker 1: you know. But each week Riva takes the ramblems of
Speaker 1: a mental equivalent toddler and turns it into something a
Speaker 1: lot of you find mildly entertaining. Now. I can't tell
Speaker 1: you how many times I've sent in and recording and
Speaker 1: thought that would be the one that gets me fired,
Speaker 1: only to receive and return a polished piece of media
Speaker 1: that I'm proud to attach my name to. You never
Speaker 1: see or hear Riva on here, but I do. Every week.
Speaker 1: I hear her and how she sees the message I'm
Speaker 1: struggling to communicate and accentuates the mood by adding the
Speaker 1: layers of sounds and music that adds to the story
Speaker 1: and feeling that I failed to capture with my limited vocabulary.
Speaker 1: Fixing the ramblings of an adolescent is only a portion
Speaker 1: of her duties, and yet she remains calm and a
Speaker 1: sea of deadlines and commitments that have her work in
Speaker 1: far more hours than she's required because it matters to
Speaker 1: her how you hear the stories that I tell. Now,
Speaker 1: everyone I've had the pleasure to work with has been
Speaker 1: singularly focused on making the content we've put out to
Speaker 1: be the best that's available. And it takes a whole
Speaker 1: lot more folks than the ones you see and here
Speaker 1: to make this work. None of what we produced is
Speaker 1: left to chance or crafted with the attitude that that's
Speaker 1: good enough. It's never good enough, and there's always room
Speaker 1: for improving. A strapping young lad named Roman from Minnesota
Speaker 1: counts among his daily duties as reading and responding to
Speaker 1: every email and piece of correspondence that comes into meeting,
Speaker 1: and let me tell you, there's a lot of them.
Speaker 1: Then there's a lesson Christine and hr and Valerie and
Speaker 1: accounting Hannah, Matt Will, Maggie Trestaus, Samantha Hillary, along with
Speaker 1: a host of others who all play a pivotal role
Speaker 1: in keeping this ship running in the right direction. It's
Speaker 1: a complicated mass of moving parts that have to all
Speaker 1: be in sync to put out the outdoor related content
Speaker 1: that I feel is second to none. On top of
Speaker 1: all of that, we have to deal with the weather
Speaker 1: and the animals were chasing. Sometimes they don't always read
Speaker 1: the script. The films we produce are playing months even
Speaker 1: a year before the actual event takes place. It's like
Speaker 1: rolling the dice every time you plan something. Now, don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong, this is fun. It's a great way
Speaker 1: to make a living and one that I never thought
Speaker 1: that I'd be able to do. But the reality of
Speaker 1: it is we can only prepare and control so much.
Speaker 1: The most important parts are left up to mother nature,
Speaker 1: and sometimes that don't work out. But that's what makes
Speaker 1: it good when it all comes together, and more times
Speaker 1: than not it does. Here's a generic rundown of one
Speaker 1: project that I and a whole bunch of folks have
Speaker 1: been planning for over nine months now and how it
Speaker 1: goes from idea to finish product or how it's supposed to.
Speaker 1: My friend Connor Flanagan, the brand director over at First Light,
Speaker 1: walked up to me when I was at the office
Speaker 1: impostman and says, Brent, would you be interested in doing
Speaker 1: a duck hunting film in Arkansas for First Line? Why yes, Connor,
Speaker 1: I would be more than interested in doing a duck
Speaker 1: hunting film for First Life in Arkansas. From that conversation
Speaker 1: and approval from my boss, Montana's own Garrett Long. We
Speaker 1: schedule the first of what would be several meetings regarding
Speaker 1: where it would be, when it would be, who would
Speaker 1: be in the project, and the story we would try
Speaker 1: to tell. There's always an underlying story and message we're
Speaker 1: trying to tell amidst the framework of a hunting film.
Speaker 1: To go along with that, we make a list of
Speaker 1: what is needed equipment wise to use for the production,
Speaker 1: everything from firearms and clothing and cameras. That's gone over
Speaker 1: and decided upon weeks and usually months in advance. The
Speaker 1: public land is chosen to hunt, there are certain licenses
Speaker 1: and permits that have to be purchased. If it's private land,
Speaker 1: there are releases and fees to paying. Food and lodging
Speaker 1: is secured. Traveler has arranged. All the pertinent information is
Speaker 1: logged into what's called a production behind there. It's a
Speaker 1: big notebook with all the instruction, who's doing what, where
Speaker 1: they're doing it, when they're doing it, the shots that
Speaker 1: are required for the filming, Any and all emergency medical
Speaker 1: facilities in the area should the need a rise. Nothing
Speaker 1: controllable is left to chance. Multiple Zoom meetings countless emails,
Speaker 1: a dozen or more phone calls, and a novel of
Speaker 1: text messages goes into every production. For this Duck Hunt,
Speaker 1: there were to be about ten of us total on
Speaker 1: the production center, and that's everyone associated with the project
Speaker 1: on location, with only four of us actually being on camera,
Speaker 1: and once all the hours of unedited footage makes it
Speaker 1: back to the editors and imposeemen, there could be another
Speaker 1: handful of folks working on it there. And that's just
Speaker 1: one project. There are others creating content at the same
Speaker 1: time all over the country during this time of year especially,
Speaker 1: and they're all working in the same manner. That's why
Speaker 1: we have to schedule so far out in advance to
Speaker 1: accommodate all the projects and make sure everyone has what
Speaker 1: they need. And then something happens that'll throw it all
Speaker 1: out of whack. People get sick, the weather turns bad,
Speaker 1: the animals don't cooperate, and these folks just deal with it,
Speaker 1: usually with a smile. We affect change on what we
Speaker 1: can to alleviate any and all obstacles that would hinder production.
Speaker 1: And except that when we're dealing with nature, there's only
Speaker 1: so much that we can control. The project that I
Speaker 1: hinted to the Arkansas Duck Hunts with First Light. We
Speaker 1: had to postpone it in a meeting yesterday because of
Speaker 1: low water levels in the area that we're chosen to fild.
Speaker 1: We'll reschedule and maybe even change locations if necessary, and
Speaker 1: go through all the motions again that we did before,
Speaker 1: just to make sure we've got everything covered that we
Speaker 1: can cover. It's fun, it's not easy. It's frustrating at times,
Speaker 1: but it's so rewarding when it all comes together and
Speaker 1: the final product represents the people and their stories that
Speaker 1: deserve to be told. Then when the project comes to
Speaker 1: a close and the final draft is ready for release,
Speaker 1: months or even a year's gone by and we've already
Speaker 1: done the same thing all over again somewhere else, multiple times.
Speaker 1: I never thought I'd be making a living doing these
Speaker 1: things that I would pay to do, even though I
Speaker 1: dreamed of it as a kid and even a young man,
Speaker 1: making a living doing the things that my dad taught
Speaker 1: me to do for fun. It's different than what I thought,
Speaker 1: and I've been associated with the outdoor business for several
Speaker 1: years now. But to do it in a professional manner
Speaker 1: that is the standard here is beyond what I'd ever
Speaker 1: experienced when it was just me and whoever and talking
Speaker 1: to letting me tag along with the camera over twenty
Speaker 1: years ago. I've never seen a more dedicated group of
Speaker 1: people whose singular mission is to do their part in
Speaker 1: the machine that turns out relative, entertaining and conscientious content.
Speaker 1: And the majority of them you will never see, your hear.
Speaker 1: It's easy to overlook them unless you're privileged to see
Speaker 1: how it all works. From the insight, they're the real
Speaker 1: stars of the show, this one especially. So what's it
Speaker 1: like to work with me? Did for me It's like
Speaker 1: going to bed and dreaming about having the best job
Speaker 1: I could ever imagine for myself, with countless opportunities to
Speaker 1: travel and see and experience things that I could only
Speaker 1: dream of, and work with the most professional and supportive
Speaker 1: group of professionals in the outdoor business, and then wake
Speaker 1: up and find out it's all true, every bit of it.
Speaker 1: I think, all of you who listen every week, those
Speaker 1: are not just words. I truly mean it from the
Speaker 1: bottom of my heart. I also want to thank all
Speaker 1: the people I'm so blessed to work with, who each
Speaker 1: play more than a modicum role in the success of
Speaker 1: this weekly struggle. It's for them and you that I
Speaker 1: do my dead level best to provide entertaining content that
Speaker 1: at least is prayerfully entertaining and enlightening at best. Do
Speaker 1: you know that we have another channel on YouTube called
Speaker 1: meat Eater Clips. You can subscribe to it as well,
Speaker 1: and you'll see some short form videos on there that
Speaker 1: you won't see anyplace else. Check it out when you
Speaker 1: have the chance. I think you'll like it. Until next week,
Speaker 1: this is Brent Reeves signing off. Y'all be careful