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Michael Villanueva (Michael)
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2002 - 08:37 pm: | 
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I orginally posted this review on the EE board a while back, however, now that Discoweb is up, I felt that the comments herein needed to "come home", so to speak. Even after time and three watchings I feel no need to change a single word.
I have to sing praise of this video loud and clear: I have not had a video experience this effective in quite a while. These DiscoWeb people have filmed an illustrative learning experience in which the visually impossible occurs before your eyes and magically draws you into its world. Like performers in the Cirque Du Soleil, the defiantly impossible becomes real, and like true magic, you wonder: “How did they do that?” The miracle is by watching this film, you actually can learn how they did that.
I cannot speak to the seasoned pros on this list, but as a person new to four-wheeling, it is clear to me that this video should be any newcomer’s first off-road accessory. Before you trick-out your vehicle, before your buy your first sliders and before you buy an Old Man Emu lift, and yes, even before you get a High-Lift jack, get the Moab 2001 video. Watching this film will do more for your off-road driving than owning a complete set of Camel Trophy videos individually autographed and presented in an embossed expedition yellow leather slipcase. All the lifts and bumpers will not show you how to drive off-road.
Watch this video a couple of times and your mind will be in the Rover zone, pregnant with four-wheeling literacy.
Paradoxically, the DiscoWeb’s Moab 2001 is not an educational training video. Bill Burke’s Unstuck! is an example of an educational training video – you watch, listen, memorize, and learn recovery techniques. The DiscoWeb Moab video is clearly not of that educational training genre. Nor is this video of the fun and ego ilk – you go to a National Rally, spend 20 bucks for a vid, and hope there is a smiling shot of you and your rig, No, the Moab 2001 definitely is not of the ego and fun variety. Yet, you watch it, you will learn. How?
At first, it was hard for me to see. On the surface, the video is a quiet visual narrative of some men and a few women who went to Moab to run some trails. It is strikingly unassuming. There is no dialogue to speak of, except the occasional screeching of trail-based profanities; there is no narrator telling a story, and there is no musical background accompanying the images, and frankly, you see precious little human content. And nowhere are there egos visible.
What makes the film so learning effective? For me, the answer came about half way through the film. I realized that for nearly 40 minutes entire family had been very quiet – a remarkable contrast to how we watch a Camel trophy video. Looking at my wife and daughter’ eyes, then feeling my own silence, I realized that we were all absorbed in thought. We were thinking. We were watching the Discoveries take their individual lines, watching how each driver took his or her line a bit differently, and how each subtle difference in driver technique produced a different line with noticeably different outcomes.
We were watching the complex dance between geometry and gravity and geography and we were thinking. The film’s lack of narrative was a blessing. For in the silence, and against the soft sound of the wind on the mike, you could hear the groans of the vehicles, you could hear different squeals from the brakes. And with each groan, each squeal, with each signature sound a function of the terrain, you heard and felt the dance between geometry and gravity. You learn.
You watch a Camel Trophy video and you want to buy accessories and tear stuff up. You watch Unstuck! and you want to take notes. You watch the Discoweb Moab 2001 video and you think.
The contrast is astonishingly different. And extraordinarily effective.
The ability to think and watch the film at the same time is in no small part due to the excellent camera work. Who ever filmed and edited the footage was in sync with the needs of the vehicle and the needs of the land. There is a wonderful sense of timelessness, a sense of leisure, so necessary for safe and effective wheeling (not unlike the Southwestern desert itself) reflected in the camera work and editing.
Content? The video is filled with a variety of obstacles. Ledges, drop-offs, nasty biting rocks, steep, wincing slopes. Night driving. Obstacles at night. And through all this, day and night, is a measured, steady forward progress. You see careful spotting, careful placement, all wonderfully captured on camera.
I do not gush without critical thought; there are some flaws, to be sure. For us, the most jarring was the sprinkling of curses here and there. Less than I would have imagined, but still, every “fuck” and “shit” would fall on an embarrassed silence in our home. The language that seems so cool and right on the trail shrivels into impotent, shrill juvenile enthusiasm within a family’s living room.
Then, there were times the camera did not follow a particular vehicle through a difficult spot – and you were left hanging. I remember all of us spontaneously crying “HEY!!!” when the camera cut away from Kyle’s negotiating and climbing out of a creek (with water!) – we were mortified! What happened? How did he actually get out? Then there is the variation in the quality of the film: It changes in sections. A few sections were noticeably grainy, with that dreaded home video quality, however, the bulk of the film’s quality was very good.
For us as newcomers, some of the winch activities seemed questionable – even unsafe. While I did get my concerns on this matter addressed, in hindsight, I think some type of occasional narration, or some type of accompanying booklet that explained why certain actions occurred would have provided a safety context.
However, I could choose to criticize the film, too this, too that, the fact remains is that this video is pure gold and smokes anything else on the market.
This film is what land Rovers and four wheeling could be all about: Thoughtful and careful placement of line. The video is relevant to us in the west (unlike the jungle tear ‘em up flicks) the land is what many of us are familiar with. While I do not live in Moab, here in New Mexico, much of the fossil hunting land I roam is similar to the Moab geography; so this is not a film just for Moab junkies
Finally, I want to close with this last observation. Four wheeling is often frowned upon as an activity that is inherently unsustainable; low brow, destructive, wheeling is seen to occur without thought or care, That is, with every Camel Trophy style crossing of the jungle, with every ATV passing over the desert, irreparable harm is done to the planet, to our land and our flora by uncaring people. This film visually, gently, firmly dispels that vision. By its images and camera pace, the video promotes thought and deep learning. It replaces the carefree four wheeling illiterate vision with a literate one. There is no wanton destruction of the land. Instead, there is slowness. There is efficiency. There is careful purpose. In my world, that translates into respect for the land. Indeed, the camera work often – not always – but often, shows a gentleness of mechanical effort that again, is striking in contrast to other films.
In the DiscoWeb Moab 2001 film, one gets the sense that four wheeling can be, and should be, a sustainable enterprise, one that can realistically be passed onto our children.
Buy the video. It is worth the experience. |
Anonymous
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2002 - 09:09 pm: |
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Heavy dude! Do you write for readers digest? |
Michael Villanueva (Michael)
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2002 - 10:34 pm: |
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Ouch. |
Axel Haakonsen (Axel)
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2002 - 10:45 pm: |
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Thanks Mike! I liked your writeup when it first appeared on EE, and I like it now, too. Of course I am partial, since I was heavily involved in making the video, but still....
The next video we will release, will focus on trails on the east coast. There is no release date set yet, but it there will be another one.. |
Leslie N. Bright (Leslie)
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2002 - 10:49 pm: |
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Axel,
Do you wanna head to Tellico with your camera and see a stock Disco get its butt handed to it?? 
-L |
Phillip Perkinson (R0ver4x4)
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 27, 2002 - 11:36 pm: |
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yeah yall need to head to tellico that place is crazy I have seen footage of it...seen a guy make it with locked front and a locked rear with a broken halfshaft super crazy place to wheel...I ant waitr to get my video I have put in my order hopeefully I will have it this weekend...the first post was very moving |
KJ
| | Posted on Thursday, February 28, 2002 - 01:39 am: |
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Michael,
You're right the second time around, too!
Anonymous, Reader's Digest should be capitalized, and you're missing a comma between "dude" (which arguably should be capitalized) and the word "heavy". FYI. Dork.
Karen |
Ron
| | Posted on Thursday, February 28, 2002 - 01:41 am: |
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Leslie,
Noah keeps wispering in the night:
tellico . . . tellico . . . take me to
tellico . . . tellico . . . lower two
i can make it . . . tellico . . . tellico
We can sell videos to offset the cost of the damage
Ron |
Axel Haakonsen (Axel)
| | Posted on Thursday, February 28, 2002 - 08:10 am: |
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Leslie:
Tellico is on my list. Don't know when at this point, but It's on my list. |
Leslie N. Bright (Leslie)
| | Posted on Thursday, February 28, 2002 - 08:40 am: |
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ROTFLMAO...
I've got to clean coffee off of my keyboard now.... thanks a lot, Ron...
Axel, I'm keeping my ears open as to when you're going.... I'll see if I can go then, at least, if I don't manage to go sooner.
I'm not 'wanting' body damage... I just want to push the envelope a bit that I've done so far... see what it can do stock, and then really decide at that point what needs adjustin'.... I'll pick-n-choose routes carefully, etc. And, see how many others I can collar into going.... more recovery vehicles the better, lol....
I'm not 'suicidal', am I, wanting to go to Tellico so bad, still essentially stock?? (I guess I should clarify, suicide by wife if I bring back a broken Disco, lol...)
heh heh....
-L |
M. K. Watson (Lrover94)
| | Posted on Thursday, February 28, 2002 - 10:45 am: |
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if you are going to write that much you should be required to post a picture! |
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