"Cloudstreet: Soaring the American West"

On Sunday, May 31, 2015 at 3:04:11 AM UTC-4, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
I wish all the soaring films were available for download on iTunes and Google Play.

There's a growing demographic that does not have the means or interest to play plastic discs.

As glider pilots we kinda become desensitised to DIY videos. Single point of view, dubious sound quality & quickly edited in the clubhouse or home study before uploading / sharing with friends and colleagues.

So, what a wonderful thing it was to watch Cloudstreet. Spectacular scenery, beautifully scored and filmed in such a way that it came as close as I've ever seen to actually conveying the joyful, the serene and the downright wonderous nature of soaring flight.

Bravo to all involved.

CJ

On Thursday, May 21, 2015 at 10:10:09 AM UTC-4, Mark628CA wrote:
I am very happy to report that the first public showing of "Cloudstreet: Soaring the American West" occurred last night at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science on the 50 foot Dyna Theater screen. Three hundred viewers got a chance to experience this truly unique showing of the project that exhibits so much of our passion for soaring. The audience response was quite overwhelming.

The original musical score by Matt Pavolaitis and Colleen Grace greatly enhanced the beautiful scenery in the video, Dave Pettit's narration showcased the story and helped educate the audience about the science and art of soaring and the excellent editing and direction by Matt Murray combined with the photographic art of Dave Bixler and Phyllis Murray produced a truly amazing documentary.

The soaring world owes a huge THANK YOU! to Mike Abernathy and Carolyn Galceran for their dream and commitment to this ten year project. Special thanks also to the major sponsors: The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the Soaring Society of America and Stemme A.G.

PBS will release this video to affiliate stations immediately, and it is scheduled for airtime on May 27 at 9:00 pm on KNME in Albuquerque. Availability on DVD, Blu-Ray and iTunes is scheduled for May 28. Go to www.cloudstreethd.org for more information.

While download from I-Tunes/Google Play was an option the Blu-Ray video and sound quality of Cloud Streets were worth the price of buying the hard copy from Amazon. I got my disc about 48 hours after ordering. The package also came with a standard DVD which I plan to share with friends and potential glider pilots.

Although the quality isn't comparable to Cloudstreet, we have made a documentary trying to explain the thrill of soaring and atracting new practioners:

https://vimeo.com/22944184

It was filmed during an expedition we did at Brazil's Northeast region

Hope you enjoy!

Sergio Andrade

I second the request to release on google play. I don't use i-anything ( not an apple fan ), and haven't used DVDs in years. Releasing on Play would open this up to a much larger audience.

Cloudstreet is a wonderful professionally made soaring video, but the only comment that my wife made after viewing Cloudstreet was "all the pilots are really old". And that's the problem with soaring, most of us ARE really old. A few millennials in the production would have helped the sport.

Bill, great point. I agree with you. In addition, the 30 second Opera performance (early in th movie) was quite odd. Nothing against Opera singers, but 30 seconds of Opera singing in a 40 min soaring movie? Painful and completely unnecessary.

My favorite soaring video continues to be BY FAR) Sailplane Grand Prix in the Andes. The scenery in that film is absolutely exceptional as is the exciting storyline. The Sunship Game is a close second. Cloudstreet I'll give 2.5 stars. Great footage but the storyline is pretty sleepy.

On Thursday, July 9, 2015 at 1:06:21 PM UTC-5, Sean Fidler wrote:
Bill, great point. I agree with you. In addition, the 30 second Opera performance (early in th movie) was quite odd. Nothing against Opera singers, but 30 seconds of Opera singing in a 40 min soaring movie? Painful and completely unnecessary.

My favorite soaring video continues to be BY FAR) Sailplane Grand Prix in the Andes. The scenery in that film is absolutely exceptional as is the exciting storyline. The Sunship Game is a close second. Cloudstreet I'll give 2.5 stars. Great footage but the storyline is pretty sleepy.

Sean, I think we all know what the great racing videos are, and I agree with you those are the best soaring competition videos. But this is not what CloudStreet was billed as, but rather as "four glider pilots on a Soaring adventure", intended for a mass audience, the vast majority of whom never knew that any of this was even possible, let alone what "Soaring" is or really means to those who practice it.

What we as practitioners of Soaring (or our spouses) think is important to a point, but what really matters is how people uninitiated to the Sport think about this after seeing the documentary. After pointing a childhood friend from Colorado at the movie, he watched it and here was his spontaneous reaction:

"Last night I recorded CloudStreet and then watched it this morning. It was awesome! If this is what your passion is then I'll ride with you. That was a fantastic show. I have one regret, a long time ago in Chicago, your father offered me ride in the glider and I was not ready for it. Wish I had taken that ride."

Now of course, notice here there is no desire shown to immediately race in the Andes (or even to become an Opera singer). One ride is a long way from instruction, which is a ways from certification, which is a ways from cross-country soaring, and then competing in the Andes. But I think the point is made. Here is someone who passed up the opportunity to experience something special many years ago and then changed his mind after watching CloudStreet. I think that any efforts to turn heads and eyeballs in our direction (in a positive way) is a great achievement. And yes, HD technology has a way of exposing every wrinkle. But with it, you also get to see every twinkle (of the eyes and of the spirit).

We need more of these positive stories pushed out for consumption by the mass media and these need to address all segments of the population and all walks of life, not just competitive soaring. We need more young people, people of color, and more women pursuing this sport. And although we all support our competitive soaring comrades, we (and the public) are not all destined to become competition pilots.

I just don't understand why we need "more young people, people of color,
and more women" in the sport. I say we just need more people, period.
But we need more of the people with the passion and determination to
stick it out and become glider pilots. Most of the people I see at
Moriarty are "bucket list" people who have no idea of soaring, they just
want to fill a square. We had someone call to book rides for himself
and his wife. He specified that he wanted to fly around the mountains,
just like in that video on PBS. When he was told that couldn't be done
within his budget, he said he didn't want to go. But then I see a new
guy (very few women come out, but there *are* a few) who has the ear to
ear grin and sparkle in his eye and I know he'll be back. That's who we
need regardless of age, color, sex, language, religion, etc.


On 7/9/2015 5:28 PM, wrote:
On Thursday, July 9, 2015 at 1:06:21 PM UTC-5, Sean Fidler wrote:
Bill, great point. I agree with you. In addition, the 30 second Opera performance (early in th movie) was quite odd. Nothing against Opera singers, but 30 seconds of Opera singing in a 40 min soaring movie? Painful and completely unnecessary.

My favorite soaring video continues to be BY FAR) Sailplane Grand Prix in the Andes. The scenery in that film is absolutely exceptional as is the exciting storyline. The Sunship Game is a close second. Cloudstreet I'll give 2.5 stars. Great footage but the storyline is pretty sleepy.
Sean, I think we all know what the great racing videos are, and I agree with you those are the best soaring competition videos. But this is not what CloudStreet was billed as, but rather as "four glider pilots on a Soaring adventure", intended for a mass audience, the vast majority of whom never knew that any of this was even possible, let alone what "Soaring" is or really means to those who practice it.

What we as practitioners of Soaring (or our spouses) think is important to a point, but what really matters is how people uninitiated to the Sport think about this after seeing the documentary. After pointing a childhood friend from Colorado at the movie, he watched it and here was his spontaneous reaction:

"Last night I recorded CloudStreet and then watched it this morning. It was awesome! If this is what your passion is then I'll ride with you. That was a fantastic show. I have one regret, a long time ago in Chicago, your father offered me ride in the glider and I was not ready for it. Wish I had taken that ride."

Now of course, notice here there is no desire shown to immediately race in the Andes (or even to become an Opera singer). One ride is a long way from instruction, which is a ways from certification, which is a ways from cross-country soaring, and then competing in the Andes. But I think the point is made. Here is someone who passed up the opportunity to experience something special many years ago and then changed his mind after watching CloudStreet. I think that any efforts to turn heads and eyeballs in our direction (in a positive way) is a great achievement. And yes, HD technology has a way of exposing every wrinkle. But with it, you also get to see every twinkle (of the eyes and of the spirit).

We need more of these positive stories pushed out for consumption by the mass media and these need to address all segments of the population and all walks of life, not just competitive soaring. We need more young people, people of color, and more women pursuing this sport. And although we all support our competitive soaring comrades, we (and the public) are not all destined to become competition pilots.


--
Dan Marotta

On Thursday, July 9, 2015 at 5:28:35 PM UTC-6, wrote:
On Thursday, July 9, 2015 at 1:06:21 PM UTC-5, Sean Fidler wrote:
Bill, great point. I agree with you. In addition, the 30 second Opera performance (early in th movie) was quite odd. Nothing against Opera singers, but 30 seconds of Opera singing in a 40 min soaring movie? Painful and completely unnecessary.

My favorite soaring video continues to be BY FAR) Sailplane Grand Prix in the Andes. The scenery in that film is absolutely exceptional as is the exciting storyline. The Sunship Game is a close second. Cloudstreet I'll give 2.5 stars. Great footage but the storyline is pretty sleepy.

Sean, I think we all know what the great racing videos are, and I agree with you those are the best soaring competition videos. But this is not what CloudStreet was billed as, but rather as "four glider pilots on a Soaring adventure", intended for a mass audience, the vast majority of whom never knew that any of this was even possible, let alone what "Soaring" is or really means to those who practice it.

What we as practitioners of Soaring (or our spouses) think is important to a point, but what really matters is how people uninitiated to the Sport think about this after seeing the documentary. After pointing a childhood friend from Colorado at the movie, he watched it and here was his spontaneous reaction:

"Last night I recorded CloudStreet and then watched it this morning. It was awesome! If this is what your passion is then I'll ride with you. That was a fantastic show. I have one regret, a long time ago in Chicago, your father offered me ride in the glider and I was not ready for it. Wish I had taken that ride."

Now of course, notice here there is no desire shown to immediately race in the Andes (or even to become an Opera singer). One ride is a long way from instruction, which is a ways from certification, which is a ways from cross-country soaring, and then competing in the Andes. But I think the point is made. Here is someone who passed up the opportunity to experience something special many years ago and then changed his mind after watching CloudStreet. I think that any efforts to turn heads and eyeballs in our direction (in a positive way) is a great achievement. And yes, HD technology has a way of exposing every wrinkle. But with it, you also get to see every twinkle (of the eyes and of the spirit).

We need more of these positive stories pushed out for consumption by the mass media and these need to address all segments of the population and all walks of life, not just competitive soaring. We need more young people, people of color, and more women pursuing this sport. And although we all support our competitive soaring comrades, we (and the public) are not all destined to become competition pilots.

Agreed. I ordered my copies from the SSA. For the uninitiated, this is a wonderful introduction. The theme was narrow enough to leave the door open for two or three or more other ventures perhaps themed on ridge running, youth adventures, wave flights, or other imaginative approaches. There are soaring videos for those already invested in the sport, but precious few for Joe and Jane Public. My only quibbles with this production is that dates were used in the narrative, thus it's less timeless than it might have been, and the over use of air brakes to hold camera positions.

I hope PBS stations continue to pick this up and show it over the next few years and that it will appear on cable before long.

Frank Whiteley