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Saturday, December 8, 2007 - 4:03PM

Coming in Spring 2008: New extreme weather DVD

By DAN ROBINSON

Editor/Photographer

Despite having several good storm seasons in recent years, I have put off assembling a highlights DVD due to the high cost/benefit ratio involved. The last DVD I produced was back in 2003 - and that gave me a taste of the tremendous amount of effort, time and stress that goes into putting together just one hour of a finished video. At best, a chase video will get 20-30 sales per year, many of those to other storm chasers and most of them being non-revenue generating DVD trades. My main obstacle is that I have the attitude that if I'm going to undertake such a intensive project, that it has to be the absolute best that it can be. The problem with that being that my production values often exceed my talents, abilities and available tools (such as software, music and scripting), meaning that I just haven't had the motivation to get started with a new DVD project that will meet my standards.

That will change this year, if the Lord is willing. I've had a concept for a new DVD in the works for some time now that is ready to come to fruition. Instead of being a typical storm chase highlight video (since most storm chasers have seen my footage anyway), this one will be targeted at the non-observer, the casual weather enthusiast and educational institutions - a much broader audience than the small community of storm chasers. The goal for the DVD is to be a learning tool while at the same time 'wowing' the audience with "nature's fury". I've chosen what I feel are the top 5 weather-related hazards to people today, and this video will go into the hows and whys of each threat and how people can protect themselves from each. The final production of "Surviving the Top 5 Weather Hazards" will be short (no longer than 50-55 minutes) but fast-paced at the same time.