Its about time someone put you guys on T.V. I've been following O'Neil Ops for a long time and can say that you footage is some of the best predator action filmed. My only question is: why not full time??
Congrats to you guys! keep it up!
That means a lot man, we work pretty hard to learn from our mistakes and get the best footage we can, even if that means letting a few go in hopes of getting them next year.
I can't even count the times we had a nice clear shot and passed because the camera didn't have a good angle.
As for getting our own show full time...it basically comes down to sponsorships.
We can't afford a full time TV slot without a big name sponsor to pay the bills and the equipment we run is far superior to any that we have been offered.
It's hard to justify using lesser equipment, just to get a show on TV or just because it's given to us. We run some pretty serious equipment and it just doesn't make sense to ditch what we've paid good money for...to run something that isn't as good, just because it's free.
Not only that, but if you've noticed the hunting shows lately...You get a 30 minute show, 10 minutes of commercials, 10 minutes of BS product pushing during the show, and about 7 minutes of set up and interviews...for a grand total of jack squat in the area of good hunting footage.
The Internet is the next evolution of hunting entertainment and we're trying really hard to step up our videography in hopes of putting the TV shows to shame. It gives creators the freedom to present the content however they/we want without being forced to cater to advertisers. Obviously, if we truly believe in a product, we're going to want to push it as well, but we can pick and choose when and how.
We're working pretty hard to get our own line of equipment (clothes, gear and packs) rolling which will at least help make it easier on our own pockets and put the supplemental income toward more film equipment.
