About a week ago before the mail server went down, David Busse posted a message asking for the best and worst railroad video. It took me a week to think of a response to this request. I think the answer is it depends what the individual is looking for. I would tend to believe that people on this group would buy a video looking for information that may help them in picking locations when they go out taking pictures and therefore would judge a video based on this criteria.
Even though I operate a full time railfan video production business I can say I'm not a fan of contemporary videos. They're boring to edit and they're boring to watch. Maybe I'm cynical because I spend so much time trackside that watching a video is trivial. Part of the reason railfan videos are so boring may be that this is what railfans want. If I put narration over a train going by, customers will call and even send letters telling me to shut up when a train goes by. So what do we end up with? Videos with trains passing and very little information (children love this by the way). I suppose this was established many years ago when train videos first came out and most everyone bought at least one tape. Those who didn't like this simple format decided never to buy another tape and those who liked it kept coming back. So if I if the format changed then those who like nothing but roll-bys would buy one tape, think it stunk and never buy another from that producer again. As for the majority who normally don't buy tapes they would not buy this radical program thinking it's like the rest. So here is my vote for the worst: 1) Any tape that runs over 60 minutes (zzzz) 2) Programs without narration 3) videos that "show the whole train" 4) shows with lots of wide angle views (especially those shot on consumer formats) I will admit some of my early tapes didn't follow these guidelines, but I learned quickly what works and what doesn't. My favorite: My all time favorite is not even a video but a 16mm motion picture that Virgil Staff produced in 1970. It is titled "California Zephyr and Other Stories" This program is by far the best I have ever seen. It has incredible views of the WP California Zephyr during its last three years. The camera angles are breathtaking. But what I really like about this film is Virgil recognized the medium was silent and spruced it up by taking models down to the tracks and having them pose as trains passed. He's got some kinky shots of girls in poka dot bikinis posing by trains (he even has model releases from them). Someday soon I'm going to release this but something inside keeps telling me to release it as a silent flick and don't edit anything. Now if I could only produce programs like Virgils... My first Virgil tape I edited out all the girls thinking it was too radical. My second one being released right now has one shot of girl in front of the SF Chief and a closeup of a leg (Virgil likes legs). If I don't get complaints you can bet that future programs will be loaded with the dolls. (I suppose I may lose my childrens audience though) ************************************************************************** Todd Clark Icon Video Productions Visit the amazing Tehachapi RailCam http://trainorders.com --> SPORRS: Serious Photographers of Railroad Related Subjects
