Five Minutes of Fly Fishing

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The 3rd Annual Drake Flyfishing Video Awards will be held Sunday Night, September 14th, at 8:00 at a new, sweet location--Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom, at 26th and Welton in Denver. (You can take the D Train from the convention center for $1.75. And it runs until 2:00 so you don't have to stumble home.)

This place is a REAL Bar, so we no longer will have to wait for the ample New Belgium beer to be served in Dixie cups by people who usually work weddings. There will be awards for Best Humor, Best Story, Best Conservation Piece, Best Fishing, and Best Overall Film. Best Film winner gets $1,000.

All entries are due by Friday, August 1st, and must be no more than 5 minutes in length. With new videomakers crawling out of the woodwork every week, all indications are that this year's contest will blow doors off the last two years. Jamie Howard (remember him?) has a movie on Bass coming out; Travis and Ben from Feltsoul are on their way to Kamchatka with Frank Smethhurst; the AEG boys spent a big chunk of winter in BC and have their regular feature coming out, as well as a conservation film on the fight to keep a Coalbed Methane project out of the Skeena Headwaters. And speaking of BC, have you heard about the Bozeman guys who scored footage of steelhead sucking dry flies up there? Didn't think so. Not a week goes by that I don't hear from a new filmmaker. ("No, but ours will be really different. Have you ever heard of Warren Miller?")

You can be sure RA will come up with something good again, so I can snub him and you all can make fun of me. As well as Will Benson and Dave Teper with World Angling, Mikey Weir, and the other usual suspects. Oh yeah, another thing. As I write this I'm taking a break from doing the voice-overs for the film I'M involved with: Drift. check it out: http://www.confluencefilms.tv It's sort of like the original Feeding Time from five years ago, only--unlike Feeding Time--the cameraman for Drift had actually turned a camera on before. (And used one for the past 16 years for--guess who?-- Warren Miller.) It's going to be so cool when I pick my film as the overall winner so I can go on stage and award myself my own money. That's gonna rule...

Couple other notes on the party in Denver--please don't e-mail or call me asking to get tickets. You're ALL invited. And it's free. Part of the problem the last couple years has been that the room at the Oxford has been so crowded that I never even felt like I could invite my other friends in Denver. Well we've fixed that. We've got Cervantes AND the bar next to it. Plenty of room, plenty of beer, and one huge addition that takes the stage at 9:30 or 10:00--www.whitewaterramble.com Check 'em out--they PARty.

One final note: Don't forget that The Drake DOES come out twice a year now, so all this info will appear in the fall edition, which will be out a month before the Video Awards.

See you all there.
Tom

Other Information

The Idea: Surfing, skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding, kayaking—for several years, all of these sports have had video elements—and video awards shows—that go far beyond the instructional elements to help showcase and celebrate the fun, creative side of sport. That’s what this event is about. Plus, it seemed like a good idea for a party.

The time limit: Your video MUST be no more than five minutes long (not counting credits). It can be as short as you like. Other than that, there are no rules to this contest other than you must own the footage if you plan to present it as yours. Ideally, this will all be original, recently gathered footage, but if you have some old Hi8 stuff from nine years ago that you can pull onto a mini dv, go for it.

Where to enter: Send all entries in mini DV format to:
The Drake Video Contest
1600 Maple Street
Ft. Collins, CO 80521.

All entries MUST be received by August 14, 2008. A small committee will select the TEN BEST ones, and those will be put together to make up the hour-long show. A committee of judges will then select awards for four categories: Best Humor, Best Fishing, Best Story, and Best Overall Film—the Best Overall Film will be awarded $1,000 the night of the event. A movie can win more than one award.

Can I make more than one entry? Yes, you may make up to three entries.

Who retains the rights to the footage? The filmmakers-always. I plan to run, with the filmmakers consent, a Web-based poll on drakemag.com after the event in order to chose an on-line winner separate from the evening event. But I will do that only with the filmmakers’ permission.

All filmmakers will be notified BEFORE the event, if their movie has made the Top Ten cut. But we hope everyone who participates will be able to come and celebrate flyfishing that evening.