Basement Studio Progress

 

The studio space I’m developing in my “fishing basement” has taken significant strides since I posted about it a few days back. In fact, instead of just having opened a place where I could have a consistent set and controlled environment for filming occasional intros and off-water videos, I suddenly have a space where I’m excited to film something.

The space is in an unfinished basement beneath a room addition. It has block walls and a cement floor and a pull-string light but no outlets. It is essentially a closet for outdoors junk, which admittedly is kind of a mess.

A few weeks ago, it was a total mess, and I waded into a gradual reorganization project. Somewhere along the way I started wondering about carving out a corner for occasional off-the-water filming needs for my Fishing on Foot YouTube channel.

I indeed started with a corner and with a very nice green office chair a friend had wanted gone — which was perfect for what I had in mind. When I wrote the last post, a corner had been cleared and the chair moved to the basement, and I was considering using a big cooler as a table.

Since that time I’ve switched from the compressed corner to a longer wall space at my wife’s suggestion, painted that wall with some great “oops” paint she found at Lowe’s, added a bookshelf (for fishing gear — not books) that other friends were giving away, and moved a trunk from our porch as a table, which looks far better than the giant cooler.

I’ve also ordered a couple of battery-powered studio lights, added few framed pictures to the wall, and some put stuff on the shelves. I still need a mic for the best functionality, but I think I’m getting close to having a decent little studio space. Of course I’m sure it will continue to evolve, but the base is in place, and I’m eager to put it to use.

Basement Filming Studio?

My most recent post noted that I’ve been at work on my basement, gaining order in the area where I keep fishing gear. A part of that has been carving out a corner as a filming studio.

That sounds fancier than what I have in mind. I don’t even have electrical outlets and will need extension cords just for lights. However, I want a space with a standardized set, controls of lighting and minimized external sound for filming intros and other video elements and possibly some video shorts for my Fishing on Foot YouTube channel.

As you might guess, my videos are mostly filmed knee deep in a stream or the surf or from the bank of a pond or lake, and that should never change if I don’t want boring videos (which I don’t). That said, sometimes there’s need for some off-the-water filming, and on a few occasions, I’ve battled to find the best spot for such needs. And I do have a couple of ideas for shorts series that could be done in that sort of setting.

I’m not sure what the set will look like yet. I’ve figured out the best corner, opened some space and put a few possible elements in place. I have ideas about the rest and have even bought some paint. In truth, it’ll probably be an evolving space — changing as I look at it and work within it and identify possible improvements.

And who knows when I’ll first use it in a video. For now, it’s just one element of the bigger basement project.

Video-related, if you haven’t checked out Fishing on Foot and subscribed, I’d certainly appreciate you doing so!

First Tackle Box

 

While working on some way-past-due fishing basement sorting this evening, I came across an old brown tackle box that I hadn’t given thought to since one of my boys took on my basement mess more than a decade ago. It was my original tackle box, which I probably got when I was about 10 years old, meaning it has been around a half a century or so.

It’s empty now, and while both trays are still in it, the brackets that attached them are broken. I’ll clean it up soon, and when things are more how I want them in the basement, it’ll serve a decorative role.

I believe the old, brown tackle box held every hook, weight, bobber and lure I owned for three or four years before I got a fancier 6-tray green Plano box that had trays on both sides. Initially everything moved to the new box because I didn’t own enough stuff to fill it.

A few years later, the old brown box got a new life. The new box contained most of my lures and some hooks, weights and bobbers. The old brown one became my “saltwater box” and was filled with stuff like leaders, egg weights, nickel hooks, foam popping corks, pliers and a bait knife. Plus, a few MirrOlures and packets of Loves Lures, I’m sure.

I don’t recall when the box went out of service. I’ve used stowable trays in various tackle bags and backpacks for decades. I’m still glad I have both it and the green one, though, and glad the green one still contains some of the lures I enjoyed using in my teens.

I look forward to getting them both cleaned up and finding the best places for them.