by Connie Tabbert
Editor
COBDEN — Muskrat Lake is the setting for a boating documentary from a woman’s perspective.
Ashley Rae has been fishing for 24 years and has owned her own boat for the past two years.
Why does she like fishing?
“It’s hard to explain,” said the Ottawa woman. “I’ve always fished. I started fishing with a family friend because my parents don’t fish, so it’s kind of out of the norm.”
Ms. Rae is the star in an inspirational story about boating, said Mark Campbell, who is the producer of this show.
Society Inc., a Seattle and Los Angeles based production company, was hired to work for Olson Advertising out of Minneapolis to produce a series of documentaries called Stories of Discovery for Discover Boating.
“We go out and try to find interesting stories for people whose lives revolve around boating, where boating is a big part of their every day life,” he said.
The documentaries appear on the Discover Boating website as inspirational stories, he added. Three stories were shot earlier this year, one in Tennessee, another in Arizona and another in Washington State.
“For this round, Ashley submitted herself as a potential candidate out of Ottawa,” Mr. Campbell said. “She’s a female angler and blogger whose life revolves around fishing.
“We’re very excited to be here filming her story,” he said. “Ashley is young, personable and charming. She has an overwhelming passion for fishing that lured us in, you could say. It infects her every day life. She could have had a nine to five job, but she chose to try to spend her life fishing as much as possible.”
Ms. Rae agreed.
“I just love to get out on the water,” she said. “I fish year-round. I ice-fish, fly fish, fish from a boat. Any spare chance I get, I get onto the water.”
Ms. Rae was excited when she heard about the opportunity to audition for the documentary and was even more excited when she was chosen to be in the documentary.
It was her decision to have the main portion of the documentary on Muskrat Lake.
“I try to fish a different lake every weekend if possible and this is just a nice lake with beautiful scenery,” she said, while preparing her fishing poles for the event. “ I think that a lot of times, when people think about boating, from a woman’s perspective, it can be intimidating.
“I’m 29 years old and this is my own boat,” Ms. Rae said. “I’m going to be showing a look into the lifestyle of boating and hopefully more people will boat.”
Ms. Rae encourages people to check out her web site, shelovestofish.com to find out more about her fishing and boating lifestyle.
While filming on Muskrat Lake, there was hope, and it was fulfilled, that Ms. Rae would catch fish while filming, Mr. Campbell said. There will also be filming of her on the Ottawa River in Ottawa as well as various shots of Ashley in her every day life, he added.
When talking about the production of a documentary, Mr. Campbell said there is a lot of planning. They are working in conjunction with Montreal-based production company Copilot Productions, who hired a talented, Canadian film crew. He noted just a few people came up from the stateside-company for a week to work on the project, such as scouting and planning.
As well, local camera assistants were hired, as well as grips and electricians, make-up, production support and sound, he said. Local boat owners were hired to go onto the water to help with the filming, he said. Ted Barron’s pontoon boat was used with Andrew Laird at the helm, which was used as a camera platform to film boat to boat and Ray Leclair of Pembroke provided his boat with John Felix Cull as crew, as a place for the clients to sit and have a live feed. There was also one more boat, which was operated by a friend of Ms. Rae’s, which was used to go to shore and back if anything was required.
“Those guys are great,” he said. “Everybody’s been fantastic.”
When filming, there are two cameras on Ms. Rae at all times, Mr. Campbell said. One is operated by a director/photographer and the other operated by a director. Once filming is completed, the footage will be taken to Minneapolis for editing, he said.
They pre-scouted Muskrat Lake with Ms. Rae prior to getting onto the lake for filming, he noted.
“This area is beautiful,” Mr. Campbell said. “We’re excited about the fall colours. It’s just beautiful. We’ve already looked at some of the footage and it’s just spectacular.”
During filming, Mr. Campbell said weather can be friend and foe.
“There might be continuity errors, but if one shot is different, that’s OK,” he said.
This piece will go live on the Discover Boating website in the spring, Mr. Campbell said.
