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Lievin, France
Description: The three DVD set is a record of the 2003 Agility World Championships in Lievin, France. There are three DVDs, each with a running time of 120 minutes and divided by the FCI dog sizes – Large, Medium, and Small. They focus on the team agility event primarily, but also include some individual agility rounds and some team jumping on the Small Dogs and Medium Dogs films. There are also a few brief interviews with some members of the GB team filmed prior to the competition.
Contents include:-
Best features: As a record of the team agility competitions alone the DVDs are good, with most of the runs being filmed. The small and medium dogs DVDs also show a number of the team jumping runs, and some of the better dogs from the Individual agility competitions are also featured – including the winning run of the Finnish Tervueren (Aqua) on the large dogs film. The commentary is knowledgeable from Tony Griffin, who has obviously met several of the dogs and handlers before at European judging appointments and training workshops in sharp contrast to some TV agility commentators who clearly don’t even know the rules of the sport! The live sound recording also captures the atmosphere of the event fairly effectively – especially when the camera pans to the crowd to film their reactions to some of the runs (e.g. the British team winning the Large dog event!) Some people will purchase the DVDs for training purposes, or maybe to prepare for competition abroad, but they should be aware of their limitations detailed below. Could be improved: I would have liked to see much greater coverage of the other competitions. The large dogs DVD shows no jumping at all - not even the GB team members are shown - and some key rounds from the individual competition are missing – especially Simon Peachey’s superb round in the large dogs agility. In my opinion, it could be improved by trying not to zoom in quite as much on the dogs, as in many shots the handler is not visible, limiting the use of the DVD for training purposes. Less zoom would probably also improve the quality of the finished product as the ‘digital’ zoom could be switched off on the camera – probably resulting in less distracting ‘flicker’ (see comments below). It would also have been useful to have a still of the course plan somewhere, and maybe a slow motion run (perhaps from the eventual winner) with more detailed commentary of the ‘ideal route’. Whilst most serious competitors would be able to work that out for themselves, the beginner, or interested non-competing viewer, may not appreciate the skill involved and consequently get a little bored watching different dogs complete the same course from mostly the same camera angle! Finally, the DVDs could have been edited to build the story better, by maybe starting with the interviews with the GB handlers about their preparations for the event, and then more interviews and reactions from competitors and spectators at the end. It was rather strange that the Large Dogs DVD in particular contained no comments from the World Champions after their success! Filming, format and quality of production: It was nice to see the DVD format being used for these films, as it makes it possible to quickly select particular runs (excellent if being used to illustrate a handler’s technique for training purposes): However, the index is poorly produced, inconsistent between the three DVDs, and does not include all the dogs/handler’s names: On the Medium dogs DVD it doesn’t even have the names of the British handlers or dogs – it just names the breed of dog! The quality of the DVDs is very poor for a commercially produced and sold product. If it weren’t for the live commentary, I would have thought it was someone’s ‘home video’ recorded on a fairly inexpensive camcorder, and hastily copied to DVD for a friend. The sound is intermittent, jumping from one speaker to the other on a stereo system, and the volume varies considerably, requiring you to keep a finger on the remote control to avoid being deafened occasionally! Zooming in and out is jerky, the sound is not very well synchronised with the image during the medium dog handler’s interviews, and there is a lot of ‘flicker’ whilst following the dogs on course – especially when zoomed in closely. Outer packing, introductory blurb and credits: The packaging was quite smart, but lacked any title on the spine or left hand side of the front cover, so you wouldn’t know what it was in a DVD rack or possibly on a shop shelf! Even if you can see the title, it is merely ‘WC2003’, which could mean something with considerably less entertainment appeal to the uninitiated! The introduction on the DVD itself is somewhat inappropriate as it explains very briefly the history of agility – yet I don’t think this DVD would have any appeal to someone who didn’t already know that! Overall Rating:
I would be disappointed with any of the three DVDs if I had paid for it without being aware of the limitations of the coverage and poor quality. I was left with the impression that the producers had been filming with a domestic camcorder, whilst watching the event, and decided later to try and sell copies. They also need to be more professionally produced and edited with more variety of camera positions, selecting highlights of each class (rather than the whole thing), dubbing in supporting information and explanations of events, slow motion replays, and more comments and reactions from competitors during the event. Tartan Tribe Films suggest that the films will appeal to trainers and people ‘in the sport’ that missed the event live (like us), but I think the DVDs would have much wider appeal, possibly even as entertainment, had they told the full story of the World Championships from the GB team’s point of view. However, if somebody wanted a DVD rather than a video to select particular runs to show friends or for training purposes they should probably buy it in the absence of a DVD alternative. Price:
Available as compilation edition or
individually at £19.99 each + £4.95 postage & packing. Value for money: Disappointing - unless you or one of your friends is featured - in which case I guess it’s cheap! I probably would not recommend it to anyone other than a trainer who wanted to quickly select individual runs to demonstrate particular techniques.
For more information or to
e-mail your order direct to the Tartan Tribe Films offices, About the producers...
Ian competed at the first Belgian Shepherd Dog World Agility Championships in Belgium in 2003 and has qualified Storm’s ‘puppy’ (Blitz) for the September 2004 event in France. Through his Vapresto website, Ian started a BSD Agility League in 2003 and will be continuing the league in 2004. Ian has been Managing Director of his own Business Training company since 1998, specialising in the prestige end of the automotive industry. Recent clients include Jaguar, Land-Rover, Lexus Europe, Porsche GB, and MG X-Power. In this vocation Ian has reviewed and used many training videos and he feels that he is, therefore, suitably qualified for this job! Other commentsFrom
Rainè Wellman... http://www.vapresto.com or http://www.achievers.co.uk (business) |
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