Theme Park Review's 4th Annual Coaster Video Contest!

[kris182_2000]

I downloaded and watched the first 5 videos and the one that really stood out to me was Kevin Aglione's Cedar Point video.

 

All I've seen over the years are on ride POV's and people. This one focused more on the coasters and scenery more than anything else.

 

I liked the b&w slow mo intro, that's something I've never seen before in a coaster video, and I've watch many a video in my lifetime.

 

While it only focused on one park, I didn't find it boring at all.

[Hand 0f Time]

Out of all 5, I was impressed with these 3.

 

Kevin

Pam

Dave.

 

Good video footaging. Well theme. Great music choice. Not mention some good laughs.

[kris182_2000]

Can anybody else not either stream or download the videos?? Have tried in both Firefox and Internet Explorer but to no joy.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

Paul

 

I couldn't stream, but I was able to download after some difficulty.

 

I had to download the zipped files then unzip them.

[robbalvey]

Can anybody else not either stream or download the videos?? Have tried in both Firefox and Internet Explorer but to no joy.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

Paul

 

I couldn't stream, but I was able to download after some difficulty.

 

I had to download the zipped files then unzip them.

Was the difficulty in the download having to unzip them or was there more difficulty? I wouldn't have thought that having to unzip a file would be difficult, but if it is, please let me know and I'll come up with another alternative.

 

Please let me know if people are having trouble watching or downloading them.

 

--Robb

[Carnage]

The page actually doesn't have a time-out limit as I believe that it's something that is set in your browser.

 

As for a little TPR posting tip I've gotten in the habit after posting a lot of text to hit -

 

CTRL-A (highlights everything)

CTRL-C (copies all to the clipboard)

 

So that way if the server does error out, you can just hit CTRL-V to paste it all back again.

 

Pasting into word/notepad,etc is an even better solution for when making a long post.

 

The problem about just copying is that the clipboard can be fairly volatile. If the browser crashes, you will lose what is in the clipboard. Or if you are multi-tasking, and copy something in a different application it can clear the clipboard.

 

I thought all the videos were well done. Though I can't think of any specific comments off hand.

[ernierocker]

Watched the first 5 videos yesterday. I felt all the videos had something good about them, but none of them really blew me away on the first watch. Once all the videos are posted again, I'll rewatch them all so I can compare the whole group. Some highlights for me are the Cedar Point intro, the Barry commercial, and just the general humor of Dave's video.

 

On a technical note, has anybody been having problems seeing the embedded WMP files on this site using Mozilla Firefox? I noticed about a month ago, I could no longer stream them through my browser. The viewer just doesn't show up at all for me to stream them. I have checked and have the most recent updates. I can view them with Internet Exporer just fine.

[Carnage]

On a technical note, has anybody been having problems seeing the embedded WMP files on this site using Mozilla Firefox? I noticed about a month ago, I could no longer stream them through my browser. The viewer just doesn't show up at all for me to stream them. I have checked and have the most recent updates. I can view them with Internet Exporer just fine.

 

I haven't been able to view streaming video in Firefox for months and months. Seems like a very common problem as of late.

[pod]

Can anybody else not either stream or download the videos?? Have tried in both Firefox and Internet Explorer but to no joy.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

Paul

 

I couldn't stream, but I was able to download after some difficulty.

 

I had to download the zipped files then unzip them.

Was the difficulty in the download having to unzip them or was there more difficulty? I wouldn't have thought that having to unzip a file would be difficult, but if it is, please let me know and I'll come up with another alternative.

 

Please let me know if people are having trouble watching or downloading them.

 

--Robb

 

YAY the vid has downloaded eventually. I clicked the link to download and it opened a new tag and just said Loading. So left it for about 10 mins and eventually it came up saying it had downloaded YAY. Still not able to stream in FireFox but it looks like i'm not the only one for that. Also still not able to stream using Internet Explorer but happy with the download so i can watch them a good few times

 

Sorry for my lack of patience with the download and for troubling you Robb.

 

Keep up the awesome job you do for Theme Park Review. Love it when the video contest comes around.

 

Paul

[DegoRed]

Just finished watching all 5 entries, a good first batch overall. Here's my take on each one

 

Barry - good coaster footage, and I agree with a few other people, the song choice is "interesting," but the whole stalking elissa and everything got old pretty quick

 

Darren - great vid to sum up the midwest trip, nothing really stood out about the vid, it just overall was good

 

 

Kevin - so far I have to say this is my favorite, mainly because his editing style resembles mine. I'm more coaster footage than people. The intro was cool but it was too long cause I remembered thinking to myself "Is the whole video gonna be like this?" I also agree that there was a bit of repetition in your shots, particualrly TTD

 

Dave - kind of along the same lines of Darren's. Good mix of people/footage and the commercial was pretty damn funny

 

Pam & Brian - couldn't get into the song, and I didn't feel there was enough ride footage, also I'm not a fan of videos that have no original sound in them (throughout) (muting the audio from the raw video, and just placing a soundtrack on top)...the same goes for Barry, Kevin, and Dave

[kris182_2000]

Robb, I have a crappy computer, so it doesn't help the situation.

 

I don't have much problem with zip files, tar files however, freeze me completely.

 

I'm not sure why streaming wouldn't work though.

[Edward]

Aw, I didn't get into the top 5...

These look good, but I'm not very good at making reviews. I think I'll wait until they are all out and make a list of the top 30.

 

Btw, Robb. When/if you post mine, could you leave out my sirname (so it's just edward_liseberg or somesuch)?

 

/Edward

PS. It seems like every time Robb posts, I'm no longer watching a topic. Especially the major topics like TRs or such.

[SharkTums]

^Read Robb's post...

 

These are NOT the top 5!

 

We're posting all of the top 30 in no particular order!

[DegoRed]

^ those aren't the top 5, they are just the first round of videos posted

 

Elissa beat me to it by 1 minute

[DenDen]

I haven't been able to view streaming video in Firefox for months and months. Seems like a very common problem as of late.

 

There is a fix to the problem at the Mozilla support site. (NOT the Firefox site! I use the same kind of video on my site, thats how I found the fix for testing on FF!) You literally have to manually install a separate plug-in released separately by Microsoft for the open source community. Good luck finding it, it took me weeks, nothing with Mozilla is ever easy.

[BarryH]

^Read Robb's post...

 

These are NOT the top 5!

 

We're posting all of the top 30 in no particular order!

 

For a millisecond, I got excited that I was #1.

[Carnage]

Good luck finding it, it took me weeks, nothing with Mozilla is ever easy.

 

Don't tell the anti-microsoft hippie open source crowd that.

[larrygator]

First off these are better than anything I could have down.

 

Just like coasters I have trouble described the nuisances of video so I put videos into the categories:

1 - Those I enjoyed and watched intently throughout

2 - Those that I would have had no trouble fast forwarding

 

Dave - I expected not to like this videa but I really did like it. Sometimes Dave's humor goes over me, but Derek acting foolish and any mockery of Barry is low brow enough for me. It was very entertaining with appropriate music, yet tame by Dave standards.

Barry - the video just sycns up well with the music, the only downer is having to hear Ryan annoying voice

Darren - captures the essence of the TPR trip

Kevin - I liked the beginning (slowing down the video) but I became bored before the video ended. The second half seemed liked the first half speeded up.

Pam/Brian - captures the essence of PPP which is an event not just about the coasters. Negatives for no Flyer or Scooter video. Also, Ticket to Ride has always been a more depressing Beatles tune so it just didn't put me in the mood.

[BarryH]

After reading the reviews, it's interesting to see that people view the videos differently. People liked the video that I didn't, for example.

 

Now I await Guy's insight into the videos. I'm making coffee for that read!

[65skylark]

I'm not going to go into any deep criticism of the videos as I entered the video contest this year, too. Like Barry said, it is always interesting to see what others think of the videos because every ones personal preferences are so different. Dave is the front-runner for me so far with Barry's video coming in a ways behind in second. Unlike others, I actually thought the ongoing Elissa bit in Barry's video was a nice touch. The other three videos really didn't do anything for me. That's not to say they were bad at all, just didn't deliver on a personal level.

[hipbrianhop]

Those vids were so good. I liked all of them, and I really enjoyed the Cedar Point vid. Only this vid was not really TPR style but okay.

My rank for the moment:

 

1.) Kevin Aglione's Cedar Point

2.) Pam & Brian Kanal's Knoebel's PPP

3.) Darren Bailey's TPR Midwest Trip

4.) Dave Thomas' UK Randomness

5.) barry_hom_altontowers

 

There are coming more vids right? Well can't wait. Next year I will join the contest to thats for sure. Good luck guys

[robbalvey]

There are coming more vids right?

There have been 30 videos selected to make the cut and over the next few weeks we will be posting 5 of them at a time.

[Zen Coaster]

Is there some rogue bit of scripting in this topic or something causing problems for other Firefox users? Whenever this thread loads, my FF very quickly crashes. Only managing to reply by hitting the Post Reply button very quickly.

 

Barry -- Alton Towers

 

-Quite a good video, the humour nice eg 'Barry, no!'

-Some quick clips of people filling their faces with food

at the buffet meal would have been good and if done

in annoying way been an addition consistent with

rest of the video

 

-Some nice syncing of actions/cuts with music

 

-Editing could have been a bit more dynamic;

some shots trimmed slightly

-Camera work a tad shakey eg at beginning, mostly

good

- overall not bad but some more dynamic angles and

editing in places would lift the whole deal.

 

7/10

 

 

Darren Bailey - Midwest Trip

 

-good mix of POV/offride/humour

-camera work good in the main, a bit shakey in places

-well-chosen song

-captured the spirit of the trip

-some nice angles & editing

-hard to know what some of the rides were if not on trip

-overall, a bit more polished than barry's & enjoyable

 

8/10

 

Dave Thomas - UK randomness

 

- shakey camera work well made up for by some pretty

interesting angles in places

- certainly captured randomness of a TPR trip scenario

- great use of humourous clips including Barry jab which

was very amusing

- some clips could have started a bit earlier to capture

the action better

 

7.5/10

 

Kevin Aglione - Cedar Point

 

- very stylish opening

- park approach sequence a tad long and a bit mundane

without trains

- second half was pretty dynamic although some of the choices

for shot sequencing for particular rides a bit dodgy (eg TTD)

and some shots were redundant being almost the same as

previous ones.

- some clips felt a little bit short - could have been made

a little longer by taking out near-repeated shots

- not sure who he went with but having some close-up people

shots would have lifted the video's second half

 

4/5 for 1st half (-0.5 for slightly too long approach sequence)

4/5 for 2nd half

 

Pam - Knoebels/PPP

 

- best POV coverage - some minor focus issues in a couple

of spots but always hard to not have that when capturing

on-ride footage

- some clips a little long

- eating shots great! But be a devil... get right up close and

follow its progress into the mouth!!

- song worked okay in the beginning but could have been

cross-faded into something else part of the way through -

also drowned out some of the audio in places

- overall not a bad effort - nice footage mix, editing pretty

good for an amateur - camera steady most of the time too

 

7/10

[mcjaco]

I'm not going to go into any deep criticism of the videos as I entered the video contest this year, too. Like Barry said, it is always interesting to see what others think of the videos because every ones personal preferences are so different. Dave is the front-runner for me so far with Barry's video coming in a ways behind in second. Unlike others, I actually thought the ongoing Elissa bit in Barry's video was a nice touch. The other three videos really didn't do anything for me. That's not to say they were bad at all, just didn't deliver on a personal level.

 

Same here. And if you entered and then post "critiques" (^ahem), you better be ready to get some back on yours.

 

I like Barry's stalker clips, only because it tied the whole video together. We all know it's past being funny, but the way it themed the video worked.

[Tanks4me05]

Barry's AT:

 

It was kind of funny (the Elissa stuff) but the footage didn't seem as "active" or fast paced as I think it could have been, and IMO you could have chosen a different song.

 

Darren's Mid West:

 

IMO this is my favorite along with Dave's UK video: Both had nice coaster shots, and both were really funny.

 

Dave's UK:

 

In terms of humor, this one was the best. The Barry commercial was a nice touch. (Although that bare's some uncanny resemblance to what I have in mind for my Sylvan Beach video for next year's video, although I'm not revealing specifics.) And the Derek segment was funny as well. IMO Derek is probably the craziest member on TPR, which makes for some hilarious TPR vids. (I distinctly remember him sticking an ice cream cone up his nose during the 2006 TPR Sarkanniemi video.)

 

Kevin's CP:

 

This one had the best coaster footage, IMO, and I liked the beginning, but the beginning was still too long. It should have been cut down to about a minute, not two. An "no frills" coaster video - its nice to have a bit of variety.

 

Pam and Brian's Knoebels PPP:

 

What I really liked about this is that it captured the atmosphere of Knoebels quite well, I just wish more Twister, Phoenix and Flying Turns shots could have been taken, even though Flying Turns is still under ocnstruction.

[krouvi]

I decided to mention only my top 3 videos every week :

 

First Place : Kevin Aglione's Cedar Point : The first part of the video was so sexy, the slow motion came great with the great soundtrack. I could feel I wanna touch those curves of the coasters. The twist to the second part was nice but I didn;t like the rock music. Still I think out of the 5 this is the best video so far. Sexy, artistic and original.

 

Second : Darren Bailey's TPR : Good details of the rides combined with some good humor taken by TPR members. You made me laugh and this is a video I will see again in order to understand how good was it out there.

 

Third : Dave Thomas UK : It was funny and pretty original. I dodnt like the rock music. The touch the stars part is the really good one.