Yet again it has been ages since I've found a moment to waffle on about what I've been up to with the video camera. Sorry about that.
In the run up to Xmas I finally cracked and worked out how to make our first Bluray. So we now have the year in the life 2013 available on Bluray... I hadn't been convinced that quality difference was significant but having seen the same footage side by side on DVD and Bluray I have seen the light. Although a Bluray disk is 50Gb I couldn't quite get all 4 hours and 40 minutes of the DVD programme onto it but with a few judicial omissions it times out at about 4:30, still enough for even the most hardened F&WHR fan I should have thought. The DVD has sold getting on for 300 copies already, the Bluray is way behind that but nonetheless is selling better than I anticipated; which is nice.
The plan is that from now on we will release all new stuff on both formats so when Fred 2 is finished we'll do that too. I guess that I'll have to redo Fred 1 in case people want to get both. What I have started to prepare is a combined FR and WHR traveler's view. I've gone through and replaced a large number of shots taken with the old A1E camera because the lower quality of the lens and sensor becomes much more obvious. It's also good to keep the journey sections up to date. The WHR one is pretty good now but the FR one has a big hole where Harbour Station used to be. Once the work is finished this winter I'll be able to get some nice new shots and finish it off properly. I've used the WHR one to update the DVD version anyway so it hasn't been a waste of time.
On the subject of winter works I've been out and about keeping up to date with progress on the new layout. With all that's going on the latest package timed out at about quarter of an hour.
It includes Xmas trains using the new pointwork at the water-tower end and the last passenger trains on the old layout, the end of an era and the start of a new one. Also featured is the dreadful weather which has caused such damage elsewhere, it was close but we got away with it.
An interesting development is that we have been in contact with Visit Wales and have found that they have a large supply of top quality footage of various notable bits of Wales including the FR. I haven't seen it all yet as there is about a Tb of footage but the bits of footage taken from a helicopter look great.
One very useful function for this material will be to add in quite a few of the missing sections of a package I'm making to encourage visitors aboard a cruise-liner to come ashore and 'do' Snowdonia. They've given me a very vague brief which is really just a list of places and the instruction that it must have male voice choirs as the sound track. Basically it needs to be as cheesy as possible... right up my alley.
Meantime I've been plodding away on Fred 2. The footage is pretty good stuff but I'm struggling finding archive to illustrate some of the topics covered. I'm still aiming for an Easter release so I need to get my finger out and finish it.
In the run up to Xmas I finally cracked and worked out how to make our first Bluray. So we now have the year in the life 2013 available on Bluray... I hadn't been convinced that quality difference was significant but having seen the same footage side by side on DVD and Bluray I have seen the light. Although a Bluray disk is 50Gb I couldn't quite get all 4 hours and 40 minutes of the DVD programme onto it but with a few judicial omissions it times out at about 4:30, still enough for even the most hardened F&WHR fan I should have thought. The DVD has sold getting on for 300 copies already, the Bluray is way behind that but nonetheless is selling better than I anticipated; which is nice.
The plan is that from now on we will release all new stuff on both formats so when Fred 2 is finished we'll do that too. I guess that I'll have to redo Fred 1 in case people want to get both. What I have started to prepare is a combined FR and WHR traveler's view. I've gone through and replaced a large number of shots taken with the old A1E camera because the lower quality of the lens and sensor becomes much more obvious. It's also good to keep the journey sections up to date. The WHR one is pretty good now but the FR one has a big hole where Harbour Station used to be. Once the work is finished this winter I'll be able to get some nice new shots and finish it off properly. I've used the WHR one to update the DVD version anyway so it hasn't been a waste of time.
On the subject of winter works I've been out and about keeping up to date with progress on the new layout. With all that's going on the latest package timed out at about quarter of an hour.
It includes Xmas trains using the new pointwork at the water-tower end and the last passenger trains on the old layout, the end of an era and the start of a new one. Also featured is the dreadful weather which has caused such damage elsewhere, it was close but we got away with it.
An interesting development is that we have been in contact with Visit Wales and have found that they have a large supply of top quality footage of various notable bits of Wales including the FR. I haven't seen it all yet as there is about a Tb of footage but the bits of footage taken from a helicopter look great.
In action at South Stack trying to hold the camera down
One very useful function for this material will be to add in quite a few of the missing sections of a package I'm making to encourage visitors aboard a cruise-liner to come ashore and 'do' Snowdonia. They've given me a very vague brief which is really just a list of places and the instruction that it must have male voice choirs as the sound track. Basically it needs to be as cheesy as possible... right up my alley.
Meantime I've been plodding away on Fred 2. The footage is pretty good stuff but I'm struggling finding archive to illustrate some of the topics covered. I'm still aiming for an Easter release so I need to get my finger out and finish it.
