I am writing a part 2 to the review because the DVD includes a real caver documentary called:
"Caverns of the Mojave" ( Desert ) It features cavers named Allan Rice, James, Rice, and John Woods. They visit a lava-tube cave, and Allan describes the speleogenesis of lava-tube caves. There are 2 new non-caver named Craig Huddleston and Amy Black. They are given Justrite Electric headlamps. All the other cavers are using a common variety of xenon headlamps ( maybe Petzl). However, I think the trip leader is using a Pelican LED like the one Bill Steele uses. Allan recommends 5 light sources, but says 3 is the minimum rule. John is wearing a California NSS Convention t-shirt. Danny Roew was the cameraman. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Roew The video ends with a conservation message by the Southern California Grotto of the National Speleological Society. I presume this video was entered in the professional category of the NSS Video Salon. But I don't recall having ever seen it. It is definitely worth watching at a grotto meeting, so I guess you will have to buy the crappy DVD in order to get the video. Maybe one of the vendors at ICS will have just the caving documentary for sale ? Or you can probably check it out from one of the grotto libraries ? Also, The DVD features behind the scenes look at how "The Cavern" was filmed, including how they built the cave out of chicken-wire, plywood, paper mache and foam. And how they filmed it in Hi-Def ( like we really need to see this movie in more detail ? ) It took the film crew 23 days to make the cave scenes shown in the movie. You could see the frustration of miscommunication between the cameraman and the director. I think the real cave entrance was in California. The stupid campfire scene was shot at Corrigainville Park, California. The wet passage in the cave was actually an above ground portable swimming pool. Here is an interesting note: The body of the roasted caver and the 1/2 body of the surface crew were the real actors in make-up. I did not watch the rest of the DVD extras, so somebody else can talk about that. David Locklear caver in Fort Bend County Ref: Here is John's bio: http://www.johncharleswoods.com/pages/bio.html --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
