[pineapple]

There was another thread on this subject. But the DVD is worthy of its own. I received a copy last week and played the two Mr Amano presentations: the talk on aquascaping, which is divided into two parts, various aquascapes and the design of his garden and giant aquarium at his house; and the demonstration in which he created an aquascape.

The video quality is good and it is edited neatly. Thank you to those that helped make this possible and put it together. The DVD is certainly good value.

http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/

What did I learn from it (Mr Amano's part that is)?

• 1. Substrate is not as easy as 1, 2, 3 X-rite covered with X-yx;
  2. Lighting is a subject which deserves thought and planning;
  3. Lighting can be split into different periods of different intensities;
  4. "Driving" a tank might not be the best approach;
  5. Hints, subtlety, simplicity in stroke and such are part of Eastern culture and that is a feature of Eastern aquariums as well as life and art in general;
  6. A love of nature is the seed from which this hobby grows;
  7. 35 years is a lot of experience.

There is a lot more on the DVD too, apart from Mr Amano. I think they also included the Oliver Knott presentation as well (at least it indicates it on the label). I am "sipping" this one in parts and can see myself watching it time and time again. If previous year's were as good, I would also order them. Does someone have a review?

.... You can be in the front row if you get the DVD. This is an excellent reference work.

Andrew Cribb

 

[Erik Olson]

AGA DVD Contents

Thanks for the positive review! As the videographer/editor, I'm curious how helpful people find these videos. Seems more and more people are buying them each convention, but never hear a lot about the viewing.

It was a real trick to cram so much onto a single disk this year. Most of the bandwidth is in the Amano material, especially the demo, so I had to really compress a couple of the talks (Jan's and Mike's in particular) to make up the needed space. Oliver and Paul's presentations use up almost no space because they are just the low-quality "outtake" AVI files I posted about a couple weeks back -- pop the DVD into your computer, and they're in the "Web_Extra" directory.

No easter eggs this year, sorry!

- Erik

 

[bharada]

Erik,
I hosted an open house for the SFBAAPS yesterday, and a group of us watched the Amano presentations on the DVD. Aside from the snide/smart-ass remarks such a group viewing always elicits (most notably comments on the atrocious job of lip-syncing Mr. Amano's translator was doing :lol: ), the only comment we had on the production was the need to show more of what Mr. Amano was pointing at or describing than of the man himself.

It's something you see a lot of in cooking shows where the camera focuses on the cooks face while all the time he is describing somthing he is doing with his hands.

But otherwise, great job! =D>

 

[bharada]

Oh, should have mentioned that the above comment was directed at the Q&A portion, not the presentation proper.

 

[pineapple]

I'm curious how helpful people find these videos

I would say they are unique and of great value to people who are not located near like-minded people. It's a work of reference which contains a lot. If more storage space was required, I would be happy to pay for two DVDs because I think the value is there. I have it on my bookshelf as a reference work.

Andrew Cribb

 

[Gomer]

Unfortunately, I missed Senske's presentation while trying to re-bend Amano's light poles. I'll hopefully see the DVD in a few days and will let you know

 

[Erik Olson]

Oh, should have mentioned that the above comment was directed at the Q&A portion, not the presentation proper.

So is this about the questions after (and in the middle of) Amano's talk (as opposed to the demo)? Is this when he occasionally points back to the screen & you can't see the screen he's pointing to? Just trying to figure out how I might better lay out some of the shots next time.

 

[bharada]

Oh, should have mentioned that the above comment was directed at the Q&A portion, not the presentation proper.

So is this about the questions after (and in the middle of) Amano's talk (as opposed to the demo)? Is this when he occasionally points back to the screen & you can't see the screen he's pointing to? Just trying to figure out how I might better lay out some of the shots next time.

Yes, that's the part I'm referring to. He kept pointing to the screen in reference to his answer but we never got to see what he was pointing at.