Iron Horses

[coopernatural]

All,

Have uploaded an AV, ‘Iron Horses’ to Mediafire. http://www.mediafire.com/?nzrjkzqconn

A step back in time, focusing mainly on trains from 1860 – 1940 in the US.

My daughter thought it boring, doomed, as it was black and white (even though I had put it

through a sepia wash) and a bit depressing.

To add to the confidence shattering thumbs down, I had to end up changing the soundtrack,

as the original music was a bit distorted.

With confidence in tatters, I am fully prepared for the worst, so don’t hold back and ‘Bash this AV’.

What would you change? What you did or didn’t like. That sort of thing.

I have added a 'Bash this AV' to the topic decripion.It might be a way for others posting AVs

to indicate that they welcome comments,positive/negative and constructive.

Davy

[Lakelandlass]

All,

Have uploaded an AV, ‘Iron Horses’ to Mediafire. http://www.mediafire.com/?nzrjkzqconn

A step back in time, focusing mainly on trains from 1860 – 1940 in the US.

My daughter thought it boring, doomed, as it was black and white (even though I had put it

through a sepia wash) and a bit depressing.

To add to the confidence shattering thumbs down, I had to end up changing the soundtrack,

as the original music was a bit distorted.

With confidence in tatters, I am fully prepared for the worst, so don’t hold back and ‘Bash this AV’.

What would you change? What you did or didn’t like. That sort of thing.

I have added a 'Bash this AV' to the topic decripion.It might be a way for others posting AVs

to indicate that they welcome comments,positive/negative and constructive.

Davy - you devil you! I was saving that Ennio Morricone piece for a future a/v. I thought it fitted nicely with the mood of the a/v. I liked the slight sepia toning and the subject was of particular interest as my husband and I are regularly out photographing steam trains as they come up the West Coast Main Line or the Settle-Carlisle. I'm charged with doing the stills whilst he does the video. You say you don't get out with your own camera much but my goodness, you are never short of ideas.

Maureen

Davy

[Barry Beckham]

Davy

Nice images, good music, but it seems to be in a documentary style, without the info. Would a little commentary set the scene here a bit.

[Ken Cox]

DAVY

to an old railroader, the music gave the show a very sad feeling

but a great collection

feels like a cinder in my eye

ken

[coopernatural]

Maureen,

Fear not as the music version I used was an inferior Mancini production.

I had you down as strictly a scenery type of photographer.

The stuff we learn here.

Barry,

I could say that I am not a train buff.That anything I could add would be

taken from Wikipedia.An expert would be on my case in an instant.

Truth is, that I avoid commentaries as I don't have the dulcet tones of a radio 2 presenter.

I tend to avoid much by way of text as well,at least during an AV,but I suppose it is necessary some times.

Ken,

I had you marked down as a Casey Jones type. The cap in your Pic is a giveaway.

I'm sure other music could have been used to give quite a different feel.

thanks for all the comments and views.Much appreciated.

Davy

[rick235]

Great show and great music, takes me back to when i was a lad in England, but of course we had better trains then Ha! Ha!

Rick

[coopernatural]

Thanks Rick,

Nothing wrong with your memory.

I not so sure about mine though.

Although I had different teachers at school,I seem to recall

that all of them were called Cando Better,or somwthing like that

Davy

[Almark]

good show Davy!

[coopernatural]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for watching and commenting.

Davy

[Barry Beckham]

Dave

I avoid commentaries as I don't have the dulcet tones of a radio 2 presenter.

I tend to avoid much by way of text as well,at least during an AV,but I suppose it is necessary some times.

I don't think your alone there, most people don't like the sound of their own recorded voice, but its a shame to abandon the idea. I did float some thoughts about getting a group of people together who would be happy to record a commentary for others, but it went down like a lead balloon. There are times when you need a different accent from your own. Images from the States would not work so well with an English accent for example. I have some ideas for a slide show, but it would need an Australian accent.

We can always ask someone else to record it for us and I did that with my "It Could be Yesterday" AV and that worked a treat. However, not many people seem to be able to make a recording of sufficient quality. I did think that the answer was in this forum, but perhaps not.

Having said all that, your own voice is probably more suitable than you think

[coopernatural]

Barry,

I do a fair bit of recording audio work and wanted to have a go at making the music as a soundtrack.

Got a guitar,and some decent quality audio interface/software,mics etc.Still struggling with 'Old Macdonals Farm'.

But one day....

Have heard a few AVs spoilt by overcooking sound levels/effects using cheapo mics/technique and crapola Soundblaster soundcards.

Not ruling out a voiceover,but the idea of recording somebody else is food for thought.

Tried to open your linked AV,but unable to open using Winrar.

Thanks for the feedback.

Davy

[Barry Beckham]

Davy

You don't need winrar to open that slide show, its just a standard windows zip file. Right click and select extract all

[coopernatural]

Barry,

That's more like it.

Great AV which worked really well.The voiceover worked a treat and

effective as it allowed things to breathe.

A great old world honest to goodness Hovis Bread AV.

Great stuff.

davy

[jfa]

Davy

You continue to come up with the good ones.

As a railway buff my only comment on the AV is "I want to see more".

Seriously I would really like you to enable the keyboard control on this one as I would like time to examine the great amount of information and detail in the images, there is so much especially for someone from outside your country so much is a little different from what we know and I would love to have some time to look at it all.

Music is a good choice and I agree a little saddening but OK for the subject and the speed of the AV is about right.

Some titles would set the theme and tell a little of the story if you don't wish to add commentary, but don't put them over the wonderfully images. It would be an improvement to have some info in the AV as others have said.

A big thanks for this one.

[dpletts]

Hi Davy,

Although I am a pretty keen railway fan, I'm not much into steam trains. However, I really enjoyed your show and the way in which it highlightd the 'quaitness' of railways past, helped by the sepia effect. I thought that some of the more detailed pictures could perhaps be displayed for a little longer than the less detailed ones.

Sorry, but I didn't really like the soundtrack; it seemed out of keeping with the subject.

But you do make 'jolly good' shows!

David P

[coopernatural]

G'day John,

Seeing it's for you I will enable the keyboard control and add an intro slide.

I might have to do a hunt around for some notes on the slides,but if successsful will

either post a page with info on the slides, or stick it on to the end of the AV.

Will keep the original AV and just put up a link to the 'jfa extended director's cut'

Hi David,

Glad I asked for honest feedback as that is important.

I agree with you on the slide duration and the music as well.

I set the slides to correspond with the music as after a suck it and see trial it seemed to work best.

The music I had originally wanted had been a recording of a recording and although I preferred it

to the piece I ended up using it was slightly distorted.I don't have the original track or title

so I can't tell what it is.I will maybe post it to see if anybody recognises it.

I tried a few pieces of music to marry in with the slides,but getting them to work well would mean

changing the order and timings.It's not going to happen.

Might be worth revisiting when I get some new material.

John and David

Thanks for downloading and the comments .

Davy

[jfa]

Davy

.....and just put up a link to the 'jfa extended director's cut'

Much appreciated and a big thank-you in advance.

[coopernatural]

All,

I have included a title slide version of Iron Horses here. http://www.mediafire.com/?imjq2md0nof

It has some background information to the early days of the train in America.

Also enabled is keyboard control.

Not sure what was wrong, but after 2 days of being unable to upload to Mediafire, it’s back up again.

I will have a look for some notes on the individual slides, for an extended Director’s cut.

Davy

[David Porter]

I agree with John (JFA) but instead of (or in adition to) keyboard controls why not just increase the screen time of most of the clips. There is so much info in most of the clips and before it can be taken in the next clips intrudes. I love the music and did not find it at all morbid. A great show.

By the way, I had great difficulty getting this download passed my Norton Anti-virus. Normally it gives me an option of re-instating .exe files but this one it just threw out and I had to disable Norton to get it saved. Once saved, I run a scan without problem. Any ideas how I can make Norton more accepting of of Mediafire .exe files.

Mickp

[coopernatural]

Hi Mickp,

Thanks for downloading and your comments.

I have kept duration to flow with the music/timing.I did try different timings,but this seemed to work best.

A few antivirus softwares are 'playing up'with exe files (in line with new definitions)as it's a potential route for malicious damage.

I don't think I zipped this exe file ,so that may have been an issue here.

I am not a great fan of Norton as it is a bit of a resource hog (unless you have the corporate version).

It's not the program it once was.

Davy

[Ken Cox]

DAVY

AVG DAT's

271.1.1/2881

271.1.1/2882

TESTS CLEAR

picts look clearer/sharper

ken

[coopernatural]

Not quite a ‘Director’s Cut’, but have uploaded a new version,‘Iron Horses Redux’ here.

http://www.mediafire.com/?yewwdm0ymjn

Upped resolution from 1600x1200 to 1920x1200 and a new ‘Railroad theme’ soundtrack.

Have changed things around a bit, and by removing titles, have squeezed in a dozen new pics.

Lasts about 6 mins and around 34mb in size

Davy

[Ken Cox]

DAVY

beauty -- smooth running

great all around

lots of stories there:)

ken

[coopernatural]

Cheers Ken,

I think the full screen helps.

Soundtrack is by The Notting Hillbillies.

Davy

[Jean-Cyprien]

Thank you, DavyC, for this new AV

I like the trains, so I like very much what you've done.

The pictures are beautiful, and I imagine you've had a hard work to get such perfect pictures from old photos, and with this nice sepia color. Nice stations, nice horses, nice trains, nice bridges,... wonderful.

Thanks also to have enable the keyboard control !

Jean-Cyprien