This Page About Hunting on film: Johnston City man participates in the Campbell Outdoor Challenge

Hunting on film: Johnston City man participates in the Campbell Outdoor Challenge

A late-night channel surfing excursion changed Charlie Kemp's view of hunting and choice of weapons.

At least occasionally, Kemp is content to trade his bow for a video camera.

"Actually, I was flipping through the channels one night on our satellite and came across the Men's Channel," he said. "I clicked on it. They were showing the Campbell Outdoor Challenge, it was in Carmi, Ill.

"They gave the phone number and everything else, so I gave it a call."

The Campbell Outdoor Challenge is a nationally broadcast series of filmed hunts in which hunter and camera person compete against other teams. The hunter is scored on the size and maturity of the animal while the camera person is scored on quality of footage.

Although he had never taped hunts before, Kemp found the thought intriguing.

"I just started filming hunting this year, but I've been videotaping horse shows and stuff for my father the last couple years," Kemp said. "For at least the last five years, my grandfather was big into cutting horses. My whole family has been. They want all the shows videotaped."

And, hunting has long been a passion.

"My father started me hunting when I was six years old, and ever since I killed my first rabbit, I've kind of had a passion for the hunt and the outdoors," he said. "It gradually progressed from rabbit hunting to duck and goose when we lived in Arkansas.

"When we moved up here in 1990, my dad retired from the Air Force, we started deer hunting up here."

The thought of video taping the hunt was intriguing enough to lead Kemp to the Campbell Outdoor Challenge website.

"Actually, the way me and Robin (his hunting partner Robin Mysliwice) got hooked up, I got on the website at Campbell's Outdoor Challenge and they had a post that said 'cameraman wanted,'" Kemp said. "I clicked on it, jotted down the information and sent it back to them.

"A few weeks later, Robin called back looking for a cameraman. I guess they gave him my name and phone number."

Over the next few months, the duo spoke on the phone several times, finally agreeing to form a team.

They didn't meet until Oct. 20, the day before the hunt.

"They already had a stand site set up for us," Kemp said. "You draw an area you are going to hunt. The first three days, we sat in our stands all day long, packed our lunch and saw a lot of deer."

Hunters are only allowed to take does or bucks with racks in the 130-point class. However, Kemp had plenty of work to do while his partner waited for the right deer. In the competition, cameramen are graded on footage prior to the kill.

"I was trying to capture nature in its own beauty," Kemp said. "They have bobcats out there, but they're never had them on video. I was lucky enough, when we were hunting, I got two bobcats on film. I got some woodpeckers.

"I just tried to show the broader range of what the cameraman sees, because you don't see a bobcat every day."

The first site they hunted proved to be outstanding for a camera person.

"The first tree we were in was a three-trunk tree," Kemp said. "I had my hunting right below me on one of the trunks. I was right next to him in the other, a few feet above him. That way, I could get an over view if the deer came in in front of me.

"Most of the time, you're not fortunate enough to have a tree like that."

On the other hand, Kemp learned that there was more to this game than pointing the camera.

"It's actually a little tougher than some people think," he said. "We were dealing with some high winds and that tree was blowing back and forth. You're sitting there trying to get good footage. Sometimes you have to pick the right tree."

Eventually, the right deer came along.

Kemp had an obstructed view of the shot and captured it on tape. Then, it was a matter of conducting taped interviews and taping the recovery.

"The cameraman is scored on several different things," Kemp said. "One, he's scored on pre-harvest footage. You have a total of five points for every 15-second interval, so you have a maximum of 50 points for 2 minutes worth of footage.

"Then, you have a 0-50 point range for unobstructed harvest shot. Then, you want footage after you kill the deer basically, and basically an interview after you kill the deer."

In the meantime, the hunter is scored on rack size if they kill a buck and live weight if they kill a doe.

Kemp and Mysliwice finished seventh among 11 teams in the competition.

"There is a lot to learn," Kemp said. "You have to keep the camera steady. There is something you have to learn every day. I don't know everything about filming hunts, but I'm learning every day and having fun with it."

He is already planning to enter the competition next year.

"If I had to quit my job today and got hired with a pro staff hunting club or outfitter, I think I could live with going out and doing all the filming," Kemp said. "It was kind of weird sitting out there without my bow and having a camera in hand instead." Continue to learn more about hunting, please visit Southern Illinoisan.

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