DR Videos

travel videos bore me to death. The ones that I have seen about the DR are no better.

The la vega video is very good. I haven't downloaded the other one yet.

Damn.

Spent all that time dowloading the Boca Chica Vid and all I got was some really bad music!

Depends

I voted yes but it would be good to have more info.

Chiri

He he he. . . .we'd love to have more info as well;-) Those two clips were done mostly for the fun of it. Since I live here now, I often need toe explain to friends and family what life is like down here.

I also figured, many people that visit here, don;t leave the comforts of their AI.
I thought Carnaval was cool, and figured people that have never been would enjoy it.

If we did VHS or DVDs they would obviously be much different than these short little fun clips.

I have no interest in doing a broad scope "traveler's guide to the DR" type of tape.

I'd rather do more "niche" type stuff that would be more interesting albeit to less people.

I worked on a video that was showing off the beaten path type stuff. Things like the Baseball Culture in San pedro, Cock Fights, the haitian market in Dajabon, a "bruja" in santo domingo etc. Having traveled here many, many times I was really interested in some of the stuff.

So, one of my possible ideas would be a tape with stuff to do for the more adventourous traveler, or the traveler that has been here several times and is ready to leave the AI for atleast a day or two of their trip.

Other possibilities include a guided tour to the Golf courses and clubs of the DR.

A video class on how to dance Merengue, Bachata and maybe a bit of basic Salsa.

Heck, maybe even a Cooking video, showing how to make San Cocho, Mofongo, Mangu, Habichuela and of course Chimi Churri.

None of these tapes would make anybody rich of course, but hey I like doing video, and I like the DR!

I'd be curious to hear if any of you guys have ideas or want to see something in particular.

As far as the two clips Robert posted, I'll continue to do more short little "tastes of the DR" type clips to post here and elsewhere.

Heck, there was a thread on the Cabanas the other week. I live around the block and at some point will throw together a clip showing this purely Dominican Phenomena.

I'll also most likely head to the Malecon thsi Sunday to video tape the "grand opening" of the "closing" of the Malecon. They will be closing the malecon to traffic on Sundays and leaving it for pedestrians only. They want to give Dominicans a nice place to head with their families on Sundays.

I'm heading to NY in a week or so, but when I return I want to go tape the KiteSurfers of Kite Beach, maybe the Cable car in puerto Plata, Maybe the Cafe Cito Pub crawl etc.
Heck next time we do a DR1 reunion, maybe I'll tape that and throw a short clip online for all that couldn't attend to see what they did or didn't miss!

The clips are pretty good! They're making me want to get on the plane right now! Luckily I'll be there anyway next week!

Great idea. Just bear in mind that the more information you can pack into the clips the better since it's hard to get good information on the REAL life in DR! This is the type of thing I need to show my relatives that I'm not crazy for thinking about relocating there!

Going There, thanks for the feedback. I have a buddy whose wife is sort of "sheltered". he has yet to visit me here as she is used to wine lists, 4 or 5 star hotels, and he is pretty sure she can't handle seeing "poverty". Nice lady, just very emotional. She would find it hard to enjoy herself in a nice resort knowing there were people close by that were very poor.

She watched the beach video and wants to come down. She said they look like they were all enjoying themselves. In years of trying, I could never get that across to her! Watching a little video gave her more insight into how happy many dominicans are even when they have very little.

BTW, I am trying to encode it to a few different formats to make viewing easier. I used Windows Media for the first examples and if you don't have the latest codec, you might have problems or as Tony says wait forever for crappy music;-)

BTW, just so ya know, I can't just pick the latest merengue hit and put it behind the video. Copyright laws and such. I have a ton of buyout production music that I can use, but strangely enough not a lot of merengue or bachata;-)

I couldn't get them to open for me :disappoin

Any clues as to why? Do a need a special software or something?

Got the audio, but no vid. What am I doing wrong? Just got a brand new Dell dude, trying to figure it out.

I think the videos are great, but i cant see myself paying for them

Rafael,

Try the Mpeg format. Most PCs have no problem running that.
What program are you doing your editing on? I use Adobe premier for my show.

Garbage

What a waste of download time. I feel like I've just been cheated out of 5:00 of my life. I vote no. Stick to being a website and stay away from forays into video production/delivery.

Ok first, for the people having problems seeing the Video. They were encoded with Windows media 9.0, which requires the 9.0 codec. The easiest way to make sure you have it is to DL windows media 9.0. http://windowsmedia.com/9series/download/download.asp

That is the link to DL the latest version.

Also realize these are broadband sized files. If you are diealing up with a modem, your net connect is not fast enough to view the stream. An alternative would be to right click on the link and do a save file as.

I spent some time trying to encode in both Quick Time and real formats. Unfortunately the results were far from great. I'll keep trying.


Tony C, I can encode an MPEG as well, but the file size will be larger than the Windows Media and would be for DL only as MPEG1 does not stream.

As for editing software, I have a bunch of stuff. I have Premiere on my laptop as well as Vegas Video. I use them when I really want to edit at the beach;-)

My main edit system is a Video Toaster. Not the original one from a hundred years ago, but the latest and greatest. One of my systems is capable of 4-5 layers of uncompressed D1 in realtime. Not DV, but uncompressed. Overkill for these little streaming clips, but I prefer the edit software in the Toaster over Premiere etc.

What type of show do you do tony and where does it air?

BTW, sjh. . . . .I wouldn't pay for em either;-). These clips are just little "fun clips". Tapes or DVDs for sale would be much different.

read some of mine and Roberts previous posts. Tape subjects could be anything from Scuba Diving, to Golf In the Dr, to Dominican Cooking etc etc etc.

Xena. . . . .can ya tell us how ya really feel;-) seriously, can ya be more specific?

What was garbage? the quality? the content? Both?

You'll be happy to know the clips are not going to be entered into Cannes this year;-)

Tell Hercules I say hello;-)

I alos apologize for wasting 5 minutes of your life;-)

OK

The quality was OK.

The content was like seeing a slide show in the new millennium.

I dont want to dog your videographic skills, but these two videos were like a gringo-travelver digest...glad you had a good time.

Insofar as general distribution via this site, I'd say it doesn't fit...unless this were RobbiesDominicanTravels.com

PS, Donatello says order some pizza.