Back in 2004 we had a brilliant idea to publish a few completed film and video productions for internet viewing. Question was, how to go about it? We had a few bucks, creative wherewithal, but was a bit lacking technically with regard to the "cybernetics" involved for such an endeavor. At the time there was no existing on-line video streaming service providers available (the folks over at then unknown YouTube and Vimeo were concurrently hard at work with similar venture, albeit much larger scale, technologically and financially). Depending upon the success of our small start-up, we envisioned an even broader scope, providing outlet for like-minded photographers/filmmakers with a connection to the wild and conservation (other than just a cliff to jump off of or blowing the ass off the last remaining grizzly roaming the range).
We were eventually assisted by a brilliant guy named Jeff Walters who set us up a web site with video streaming capability (powered by Adobe Flash Player and third-party server capacity). The site went on-line in 2005, preceding aforementioned YouTube and Vimeo by a few months (at least that's the first time we were aware of them). Their emergence tossed our business plan out the window, so ever after we've been at it for the usual fun. We managed the site (producing our own content) since then. Nothing that we'd personally call brilliant, but we always received a favorable response. Out favorite comments were from folks who said that they liked to view our stuff while "f*k'n off at work".
Just recently we decided to disband the website. This was mainly in response to Adobe disabling Flash Player support at the end of 2020. We also had since moved on to other endeavors. We hadn't really added any new content since around 2012, and hadn't picked up a motion picture (aka: video) camera since around 2010, concentrating on still photography. The web site had been lingering. The old format video content, while still fun to view, had additionally become aged and definitely not up to current standards. Time to move on.
Since then we've had a few folks inquire as to the availability of MP4 or DVD-format copies of certain videos. That's not a problem as we have all the content stored (DVD-format) on a DVD disc printer hard drive. To simplify, we used some recent free time to convert the videos from DVD to MP4-format for upload to computer hard drive. We subsequently opened a YouTube account for uploading for private viewing access. We'll occasionally link to one herein.
In tribute to Strongman Matt, our inaugural upload is Solo (2004):
Solo (2004)
Run Time: 33min (approx.)
(Note: There's a bit long leader - video starts about 20 seconds in)
Sorry - no drops over 100ft waterfalls (although there is a drop over 2ft 'Killer Falls' therein). We remember when an "extreme" maneuver was to surf a Class III rapid while spinning your paddle over your head. Gotta' love progress. It's still some fun viewing the scenic lower Yough River and rapids below Ohiopyle SP.
We recall that filming occurred over three days spread over a week in July. We only had the single week available, so we had to take what we got. We had a few later short pick-up days for some needed B-Roll content. Water level ranged between 2.8ft to 3.2ft OPG* - Class III. We had hoped for water level between 4ft to 6ft - Class IV (best for open boating the lower Yough, our opinion), but that didn't happen. First day we had forgotten our primary light carbon-nylon paddles, having to resort to our plastic back up paddles we always carried. We had to keep using them the rest of the shoot for continuity sake.
The subject was never to highlight the prowess of the individual, rather, the solitary wilderness experience. Lots of fun as we were on the river no later than 5am each day to beat the eventual commercial rafting flotillas. That worked out well other than day two when the guided fleet caught up to us shortly past 'Swimmers Rapid'. It was a bit of a chore positioning framing to exclude six crew rafts and guide paddled kayaks that would pop out of nowhere. We did get some unexpected and interesting footage of river hero Jeff Snyder stand-up paddling his inflatable kayak through 'Bottle of Wine' rapid, years before inflatable SUP's were even considered.
A bit more information can be found in this previous post - Lower Yough River(click to view)
