SCdigger or South Carolina Digger was one of the early adopters on Dumpdiggers.com my antiques and collectibles social network (now just a discussion forum) (which nobody can join). SCdigger was one of the premier experimenters; he had his own table and uploaded relics to the photo galleries and even some curious classified ads. I came to really like his energy.
Of course anyone interested in metal detecting and hunting military relics tends to keep an eye on a guy like that, and I watch his videos when they pop up in my YouTube feed (those videos on your homepage when you first log into the site). becuase I subscribe, so that's when I think to watch him, and over time I've noticed something. These videos are getting really good.
Saving History Episode 56 PART ONE Published on 15 Nov 2012 is an excellent relic hunting adventure story with colourful characters and great historically relevant discoveries. In the description SCdigger writes,
Colonial "coppa's", silver and relics!!! Join us as we continue our "Coppa's & Lobsta's" Tour with an amazing hunt in a colonial field in Western Mass. This is PART ONE of a two part series. Amazing finds are made throughout part one, but part two ends with the rarest of rare! Join us as we Save History, now in HD!
I'm telling you this video is as good an adventure as I've ever seen, and I think SCdigger did a great job capturing it all, and from a participant's perspective. It is both authentic and action packed media - it really is. I predict Saving History will soon be recognized and celebrated as the truly ground breaking metal detector adventure show that it is, and SCdigger will rise from relative obscurity to internet fame as the most prolific relic hunter in America. He doesnt need a TV show - his web show is pioneering a new form of storytelling.
However, if I were directing this for television and had a production budget, I would get wide shots of the group in the field, which SCdigger never gets, (because he's one of the guys in the field) and which the show desperately needs. I would attempt more sophisticated storytelling by finding some pictures of Redcoats in American Colonies ie their buttons and coins. I'd take a break from the constant discoveries and describe the role of the metal items as I panned the camera slowly over stock pictures of British Army captains and colonels in red and white coats with shiny brass buttons, their Brown Bess muskets, musket balls, playing cards and coins and other minutia (a frizen pin?) that is worth so much money today as it appears dirty and muddy under the squawking metal detector's coils. I would do dissolves from the group in the field to Civil War battles from the same perspective and in this case (Episode 56) Revolutionary War battles and tell two or three stories at once.
I predict here on the Dumpdiggers blog that SCdigger will have his own cable TV show by this time next year, if he doesn't already have a deal in the works now. Check the comments.
