A new year means a new selection of films for The F3T, and we could not be more stoked about this year’s lineup. Once again, we will be sitting down with the filmmakers selected in this year’s Fly Fishing Film Tour – to go behind the scenes on how these films were made. Up first is BOUNCE, coming from the talented folks at Rockhouse Motion. We sat down with our good friend Aaron Hitchins to talk about this badass short Tarpon flick featuring legendary guide David Mangum.
Flylords: So why the name bounce?
Aaron: This is a good question. The main reason we chose that name is that I’m very confident the word, or anything similar, hasn’t already been used. We’ve made lots of films with great meaningful storytelling names and they end up being shortened to acronyms or mixed up and forgotten. This time, we wanted something that was easy to say, remember, and that stood alone. The idea came from hearing “bouncing fish” used as a verb similar to “jumping fish” and so it just kinda stuck.
Flylords: Why did you choose Mangum for the project?
Aaron: Obviously David can fish, but a lot of people don’t know that he’s a really gifted cinematographer as well, and has a passion for the craft. This film was the realization of a vision we’d talked about for quite a while, and so it was a natural fit to be on the water with him since he is as keen on the filmmaking as he is the fishing.
Flylords: What kind of camera did you shoot this thing on! How many fps is that?
Aaron: We shot some of this on RED, some on 1DX Mark 2, and the juicy stuff on the Phantom Flex 4K. Some of those jumps are shot at 2000fps.
Flylords: What were some of the biggest challenges shooting this project?
Aaron: Getting fish in focus. To shoot at those insane frame rates you have to be lensing WFO (wide f***ing open) and so the margin for error is nonexistent. We only had a handful of fish, and a handful of jumps per fish, so keeping them pinned long enough to get in position and then to guess where they’d come up, and hit it dead on was almost impossible. Matt is the best I’ve ever seen at it, and we still got lucky.
Flylords: We noticed a coffee company in the titles, what is Early Riser Coffee?
Aaron: Early Riser is a startup we have been helping launch. They are a conservation centric coffee brand, with some of the best joe we’ve ever sampled. It’s a good opportunity for fly anglers to contribute to support a fellow angler, and fund recruitment and conservation efforts through purchasing a product they probably buy anyways.
As for our role with the company, we’re really just keen on growing to the point where we can make, and fund, more projects like this one. As the brand takes off, our goal is to be a part of all of the best stories in fishing.
Flylords: Does Rockhouse have any fun fishing projects coming up we can get a sneak peek of?
Aaron: Some fun stuff with Orvis, but that’s about it for now. We put a lot into work on this one so we’ll see how it is received and go from there!
Find out when F3T is in your town, and buy tickets before they sell out!
Shoutout to Aaron and the Rockhouse crew for taking the time to meet with us! And for continuing to inspire the fly fishing community!
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