Rack Focus Post

..rack focus post-the company.. [what we do at the post]

Over the last few years, Jack Pine Productions 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 Post. Although the name is new, our focus on Outdoor Television and Media is not. Jack Pine is now in the eighth year of business and the parent company of Rack Focus Post was originally founded on the belief that our niche, passion and specialty is Outdoor Television.

With three Outdoor Television Series' currently airing nationally, three more set to air in the third quarter of '08 and six DVD Projects in production and out for release this year, Rack Focus Post is looking at '08 as just the beginning. We are also in production for our own RFP Television Series to be aired in '09...details yet to be released, but stay tuned. In the Summer of this year, our new 3,000 sq. ft. Post Production Facility will be finished, just in time for the third quarter crunch and the addition of a new editor.

This is an extremely exciting time for us at Jack Pine Productions and Rack Focus Post. We are truly looking at this as a challenge to rise up and deliver on our ongoing goal of becoming the best Outdoor Production Company a reality.

-Jason Brown, Owner-Jack Pine Productions 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.

Rolling HD In the Mountains of New Mexico

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 its 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 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 our 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 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 Productions 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 grow in other areas.

In 2004 I started Jack Pine 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 Post as the Outdoor Production Division of Jack Pine Productions. 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.

A true passion since I've been a teenager has been telling stories through the lens of a video camera

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 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 Preston and I did. It wasn’t long before Jason told us about Jack Pine School of Outdoor Productions, an outdoor videography class that he was going to teach, we immediately signed up. The class forever change the way Preston and I hunted. We bought a professional camera and started filming everything. Several years of intense hunting and filming went by and I was learning a lot but I still needed a way to make this my life.

My job as a chemical operator was paying the bills but was in no way my passion. Preston bought himself and editing system and started learning the ropes. After spending some time watching him do some basic editing and seeing how creative you could be, I knew I would love it. It wasn’t long until I too purchased my own system and took an editing class at Specs Howard School of Broadcast Arts.

Recently, I’ve been doing a lot of filming for “Own The Zone TV” and enjoying every minute of it. Preston and I are still filming everything we do and we continue to drive each other to become better in all aspects of this industry. I’ve now found a home here at “The Post” doing what I love to do and I can’t help but wonder if those cold days filming out on the ice are finally paying off!

-Al Pope, Editor-Field Producer