..rack focus post-the company.. [what we do at the post]
Over the last few years, Jack Pine Productions, Inc has seen a huge
growth in the Outdoor Media side of the company. From that growth, a
new division of JPP has emerged, Rack Focus Outdoor Multimedia. Although the name is
new, our focus on Outdoor Television and Media is not. Jack Pine is now
in the ninth year of business and the parent company of Rack Focus was originally founded on the belief that our niche, passion and
specialty is Outdoor Television.
With four Outdoor Television Series' currently airing nationally, two more set to air in the first quarter of '10, three new Series' set to air in July of 2010 and four DVD Projects in production and out for release next year, Rack Focus is looking at '09 as just the beginning. We are also in the final stages of a huge project with Twisted Frame Media that will transform the way we all view hunting in the outdoors. In the Summer of last year, our new 3,000 sq. ft. Post Production Facility was finished, just in time for the third quarter crunch and the addition of a new editor.
In
the last several months we have really been active developing websites
within the outdoor industry. We continued to see a need for high end
web design services with our clients and producers, so instead of
relying on outside developers and designers, we brought the service
in-house to satisfy the demand for the quality we try to set with our
Television and Video Productions. Web Design has been one of the
largest and most rapidly growing areas of Rack Focus and we are looking
forward to continued growth.
This is an extremely exciting time for us at Jack Pine Productions, Inc and Rack Focus. We are truly looking at this as a challenge to rise up and deliver on our ongoing goal of becoming the best Outdoor Production and Multimedia Company a reality.
-Jason Brown, Owner-Jack Pine Productions, Inc. and Rack Focus Post
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..the rack focus production team.. [the story about how they got here]
jason brown
[Owner]
It has been a
long and winding road for me, and I don't think there is enough room here for my entire story, but here is a quick version. Rule Number One: If
you want to be involved in this industry on the Production end, you
need to know that the way you hunt and the way you enjoy your hunt will
be changed forever.
I started in the industry as a Junior in College. As a broadcasting student, I always knew my goal was to Produce Television for the Outdoors, so the obvious step was to learn as much as possible about the process. As a Junior, I took an Outdoor Video Production Course from Whitetail University.
Wade Nolan and Dan Bertalin taught it, and even though it
lacked a ton of content I really needed to know, it was a start. I
then pitched an Outdoor Television Series to the Broadcasting Dept. at
Central Michigan University. Each year they allow a handful of shows produced by students to
air on MHTV, a local station that has coverage to three counties. They
accepted, so "Shallamie Outdoors" began airing in the winter of
1999. After our last episode in the Spring of 2000 aired, Shallamie
had raked in five pretty prestigious Student Broadcasting Awards, thus
my destiny in Outdoor Television was becoming more of a reality.
After I graduated with a Broadcast Journalism Degree, I started Jack Pine Productions, Inc and began Producing A-Way Outdoors as a 23 year old. Greg was getting most of the Sponsors lined up and I was responsible for everything from the production end to get that show launched. The Outdoor Channel accepted our pilot, and it was off to the races. I was literally producing this show from the spare bedroom of our Apartment at the time. Although our little production company has come a long way since then, I will never forget where I started and how different the industry was then. I was editing on a 16 gig hard drive...and it cost me $500 to get it! What a joke. The show was 29 minutes long and the drive would only hold 45 minutes of raw footage, how I even did it is a mystery... now we have about 16 Tera bytes, and that's a low end guess.
After some ups and a lot of downs...and a ton of positive reinforcement from my unbelievably supportive wife, Darci, I decided to grow Jack Pine in a few different directions than the Outdoors, so I started doing a lot of corporate stuff, commercials and more weddings. I was getting thrown around the Outdoor Industry and was tired of doing everything for nothing. I was determined to make it without the industry...even though it remained my passion. For two years I continued to push Jack Pine's growth in other areas.
In 2004 I started what is now known as Rack Focus Outdoor Video School, determined to
teach aspiring Outdoor Producers the ins and outs of the industry, so
they would have an easier path to their dream job than I was having.
As the course started to gather a little momentum, so did the Outdoor
Production side of Jack Pine, so much we have branded Rack Focus Outdoor Multimedia as the Outdoor Production Division of Jack Pine Productions, Inc. We now are producing six Television
Series' for Outdoor Industry and four DVD Series'. I am also seeing
a number of my students from the RF Video School starting to make their way through the industry, and that is
unbelievably rewarding.
If
you are serious about making
Outdoor Television a part of your life, you must also be willing to
sacrifice a lot as well. Traveling is a must as a videographer and
hunting will never be more of a challenge. It's been since 1997 that I
have hunted without a camera, over 10 years of a camera over my
shoulder or on it. My wall would be filled with dozens more trophies
if I'd never got into this....but you know what, I don't regret it for
a
second. To watch myself as a hunter, a person, a camera man and as
a professional grow over the course of a decade on video is more
important to me than successful harvests, that is success to me.
The
number
of people I've met in this industry in the past 10 years that share my
same passion is a blessing, and my goal is to help as many people as I
can find their way in this industry...it ain't easy, but there is a
way. Whether you're a Producer that needs a Production Company to
deliver the best show possible or a Student that needs direction to
achieve a dream in the Outdoor Production Field, we are determined to
be there to help. You need to meet the right people and have a game
plan. Rack
Focus Post is dedicated to doing that, that is why it was
created.
-Jason Brown, Producer- Cameraman- Owner of Rack Focus Post
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preston bovee
[Editor-Field Producer]
How
did I end up where I am today ? Sometimes I look back and wonder this.
I guess it was from being raised in a family that enjoys hunting and
fishing, so it was just natural that I took up the same hobbies.
Somewhere along the way I became obsessed with bowhunting. Of course I
still enjoy other types of hunting and fishing as well, but by the time
I was in my mid teens, bowhunting was more than a hobby. Watching Dan
Fitzgerald videos is originally what inspired hunting buddy, Al Pope
and I to drag his parents' old VHS camcorder into the woods and on the
water to start filming our adventures. Icefishing, bowfishing, hunting,
trapping, anything Al and I did in the outdoors was destined for
videotape.
At age 15 I got my first Sony handy cam for
Christmas, and I thought I was on top of the world. Hours of shaky,
grainy footage was rolled over the next few years. A year or two after
high school, Al and I discovered this Jack Pine School of Outdoor
Production, this was the first year of what is now Rack
Focus Video School, taught by a real outdoor producer, Jason Brown.
This is when we decided to take our outdoor filming more seriously and
more professionally. Shortly after the class, Al and I made a joint
purchase of our first professional camera, a Canon XL-1, and we decided
to start filming each other's hunts all the time. No more hunting
without a camera. This drastically changed the way we hunted and our
view of outdoor production. 
Just acquiring the footage wasn't enough. Now I want to do something with it, and ultimately make a career out of doing what I love. So I decided to learn the post production side of things. I took a Final Cut Pro class, bought my own editing system, and started cutting up some footage. It wasn't long and I found myself in the studio of Jack Pine Productions showing Jason what this hobby that I came to his class with four years ago had turned into. Two weeks later I had a new job as an editor for Jack Pine. Business seemed to continue to flourish, provoking us to start a branch of Jack Pine that was dedicated exclusively to outdoor production, Rack Focus Post. Al and I are still filming each and every bowhunt, and are members of the Own the Zone TV prostaff. So in the last five years, I've turned a passion into a career, got married, had a little boy, and shot the biggest buck of my life on camera. What will the next five years bring?
-Preston Bovee, Editor-Field Producer
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al pope
[Editor-Field Producer]
I still remember
that first successful hunt. My dad drug me out to that old stand and I sat
quietly on the platform until he arrowed that Mid-Michigan giant. After that
evening, I don't think there was any turning back for me. The outdoors played a
huge part in my life as I grew up but once I hit my teens, things started to
get interesting.
I was lucky enough to meet someone close to my age who shared the same passions and it wasn't long before Preston Bovee and I started making big plans. It would be easy, we would just take my parents camcorder with us on a couple ice fishing trips, make a movie, and get rich selling them to everyone. Needless to say, I never got a penny for any of that footage, but what I did get I wouldn't trade for anything in the world. More and more footage was rolled and it seemed to just intensify my hunger to make this new passion my life.
I'm still not sure
why I called him, someone just gave me his phone number and said that maybe he
could help me out. Jason Brown answered the phone and I was finally in
conversation with someone who understood me and shared the same passions that
My job as a chemical operator was paying the bills but
was in no way my passion.
Recently, I've been
doing a lot of filming for Own The Zone TV and enjoying every minute of it.
-Al Pope, Editor-Field Producer
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joel hopkins
[Animator, Graphic & Web Designer]
I was 11 years old when my dad bought me a Hi-8 Sony Handycam (which I still have). If there was something happening in the family I had my camera there to record it. Soon my best friends bought cameras and before we knew it we were shooting some short films and editing them on Windows Movie Maker. These short films were great to watch but there was nothing that would set us apart from other teenage film-makers. From that time on I started learning about design and graphic animation so that I could incorporate these aspects into our short films. Soon I was working with Lightwave and Adobe After Effects and kicking out some great stuff.
I
soon started doing some freelance work which got me onboard with a band
called Driven. My uncle was the lead singer and invited me to be their
filmographer/graphic designer. I travled around with them for a while as I learned more about the industry everyday. I made a trip to the
National Association of Broadcasters Convention...that trip changed my
life. I saw where the industry was going and I wanted in!
Working with Driven was great but I needed something more, that's when my uncle mentioned Jason Brown. "Give him a call, maybe he can get you some work," he said. And thats exactly what I did. Jason told me that they were having a Final Cut training session at Jack Pine and that I could come on by. I went to the session and met Jason, now here I am.
-Joel Hopkins, Animator-Graphic and Web Designer
________________________________________
jeff schuster
[Production Coordinator]
Let’s see... Grew up with a camera in my hand? Nope. Come from a big family of sportsmen? Um…no. Mastered all the latest and greatest editing software? Not even close. Well what the heck am I doing at one of the premier production companies in the outdoor industry? I don’t think anybody could have seen this coming.I was on my own when it came to the outdoors. My parents, aunts and uncles just didn’t feel the desire to wake up early and sit in a frozen marsh staring at the sky, listening for wings. Neither of my brothers could feel it either. I felt it though. So I’d pick up bits and pieces from anybody I could. Even if it wasn’t their thing, my parents were 100% supportive. They taught me how to shoot my grandfather’s shotgun; they bought me my first .22; they let me spend my summers at the cabin honing my cast; they never questioned me when I took off from school to head west and guide for trout and elk.
I finished school and hired on with a Fortune 500 company and spent the next 7 years being transferred around the country. I got to see a lot of neat stuff, meet a ton of cool people, and along the way I got to hunt and fish in some great places. But enough was enough. I’d made up my mind to leave Corporate America. I’d been watching what Jason was doing with Rack Focus for the last few years and it was clear that this was something that I wanted to be involved with. Luckily for me, Jason thought so too. I’ve found that the production industry isn’t that far off from Corporate America after all. We all have budgets, goals, deadlines, meetings and metrics to deliver. It’s just more fun when you are having meetings in a treestand or a duck blind.
-Jeff Schuster, Production Coordinator
