I had an idea for a mud clip. I would chain my ankles and try to escape the swamp, again. In order to give myself a competitive advantage, I decided to wear running shorts.
Of course, this would be a test of the follow-me camera rig. When using the follow-me rig, I need to record audio separately. It turned out that the wind was gusting terribly, and my external audio was adversely impacted by wind noise, in spite of my best efforts.
Getting on with the story … I started shooting in the sandy part of the creek, so I could run through the shallow water and fall down a couple of times to get good and wet. I then moved on to the salt marsh; ankles still chained, and resumed my “run”. Slogging through the mud and swamp grass with my ankles connected by a rather short chain was bad enough, but I also had to keep up with the audio recorder. I spent a lot of time, setting up one shot after another. I realized that this clip would be more out of the mud than in the mud, so I wanted to make the struggle as realistic as possible.
After much running and tripping, I finally took the plunge into the really deep mud hole. I sank up to my chest right away. After that, it only took a couple of minutes for me to disappear below the quaking surface. It’s always sad to see me go, but at least I went out, doing something I enjoyed.
Unfortunately, the cool mud, combined with a brisk wind, gave me a chill, so I moved quickly to get back to my kayak, rinsed off, and into some warm, dry clothes.
Since I arrived home, I reviewed the audio and the video. I think I can cut together a short clip from the hour of video I shot. I’m pretty sure I’ll be tossing most of it. The good news is that I may have another chance to shoot in the swamp tomorrow. I’ll probably try something less complicated, so I can set up a shotgun mic with a good windscreen.