ATTENTION ALL CENTAUR SOCIETY MEMBERS:
Donations Needed For The “CENTAUR BROTHERS DVD”
Click on the thumbnail photo below to see what the Centaur Brothers DVD looks like.
Dale Dow's comments.
Purpose and use of your donation.
I have volunteered to be the focus point for the distribution of the "CENTAUR BROTHERS DVD" that Bruce Powell (Scouts, Gunships, Cobras 1967-1968) has been working on since the Squadron Association in Tucson last year and, more intensely, all summer this year. I have also volunteered to manage the solicitation and collection of donations from fellow Centaurs to help offset the cost of the production and distribution of the DVD. I will be setting up something similar to what we did when I collected donations for the Memorial Bricks for the 25th Infantry Division Memorial in Hawaii.
The current plan is that Bruce will let me know what the total cost for the production of the DVD is. I will send him my check for that amount and start collecting donations from the Centaurs so that no one Centaur absorbs the full cost of this project. As with other similar projects the project cost does not include any compensation for anyone's time spent on any voluntary Centaurs project. The cost to which this refers is the actual costs of producing/duplicating and distributing/mailing the DVD, not the time and travel costs incurred by Bruce and other while gathering video interviews and other material, and getting those interviews, photographs, documents, etc. prepared for inclusion in this project. I will solicit and welcome the voluntary donations of those Centaurs who may already have received a copy of the work in progress version of the DVD during the testing and feedback process that led Bruce to the final version. I will also be soliciting voluntary donations from other Centaurs veterans to whom I will be sending the DVD in September 2011.
What if we receive more donations than the actual costs?
Any donated funds remaining above the costs of production & distribution will be sent to Bain Cowell to help reimburse Bain for the costs already incurred and future costs for gathering and publishing the unit history "Centaurs - The Second Year in Vietnam" that he and others are working on.
If any funds remain unspent above the costs of production & distribution of the Centaurs second year (more or less) in Vietnam history, the balance will be donated to the 3d Squadron, 4th Cavalry Association Chapter Scholarship Fund.
For more information on the DVD project see Bruce Powell's comments on this page below this segment.
If you have questions, contact me. The best way is by email. I can be reached at DaleDatkansas.net (replacing the 'at' with the ampersand @. You can also send me an email through the website by clicking on this shortcut HERE, or through one of the email hyperlinks for sending me an email that are scattered throughout the Centaurs website.
Dale Dow
Aero Rifle Platoon Leader (1968), unofficial D/F Troop Centaurs historian, and Troop Penguin (a flightless bird - a unique species of ground pounder among winged warriors)
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Bruce Powell's comments.
Gentlemen,
A copy of the final "CENTAUR BROTHERS DVD" was recently sent to several Centaurs veterans that are most active in the Centaur Brothers DVD project and Centaur Society for review and comment. The DVD is finally ready for production and distribution to Centaurs veterans and families. The "CENTAUR BROTHERS DVD" combines some video interviews (somewhat) along the lines of the I REMEMBER stories that have been posted on the Centaurs website but with the Centaur telling the story to a camera instead of via word processing software. It also includes many photographs and stories/commentary that have not been posted on the website. Some of those stories and photographs will likely make it into the Centaurs Second Year in Vietnam history project that Bain Cowell and others are working on. So: the DVD will provide some connections to both the Centaurs website and the Second Year in Vietnam history but the stories are told by men who, on the DVD, look more like the Grandpa's they are than the mad dog Cavalry Troopers we all were back then.
There are lot of things about the DVD that I'm not real happy with but I had to cut it off somewhere. Too many blurry pictures (can't do much about that), the first second or two of background music doesn't play on some DVD players (couldn't figure that one out), some of my animated text is very jaggy (no time to go back in and fix it), I didn't have all the names for the people in the Centaur slide shows that play on each of the five menu screens. I had several other grandiose ideas but was limited by my measly consumer software. Like having forward and back buttons during the videos. Many people don't know they can return to main menu anytime with most remote controls. The buttons would have been easier for them.
Some things went really well.
The Map: It seemed like a map was needed for several of the stories. Once I started making one and talking with you guys about it, it really became a project. I'm so glad that it happened because it not only helps give description to the stories it is a memory rejuvenator for a lot of old Centaurs. It was amazing how many things came back to me while building this map!
Subtitling (sort of): So I'm having my neighbor (non military) take a look at one of the draft DVDs. "What's a Slick?" what's PE, C&C, LZ, Jettison pods, and so on. I had other similar input from others, but this time it hit me that these people were really interested in hearing the stories but kept getting hung up on the terms. They were curious about Nam. But we military guys speak a different language, and on top of that, aviators and crewmen speak in another dialect. By taking the time to add pictures and descriptive text, the stories can come alive for them too. We are going to get a lot more mileage out of this DVD with "Subtitling." I bet that your family and friends will get a lot more out of it.
Slide Shows of Portrait pictures: One of the main missions of the DVD is to get the attention of the many Centaurs who are yet ready to join us, come to the reunions, contribute to the legacy. Each of the 5 menu screens of the DVD has a different slide show running on the left side while you are deciding which button you are going to click. These are the portrait pics I sent you all recently. Each show is about 2.5 minutes long. So now the Centaur viewing the DVD not only can watch the great stories being told, he may even see himself or his buddy in the show. It's a real mishmash of photos, but it is everything I had. I tried to eliminate duplicates and drop those already in the war stories area because I needed the space.
Single layer DVD: I spent over a year sorting, editing, repairing, over 20 gigabytes of stuff and got it to barely fit on a dual sided, 8 gig DVD. But there were many technical problems created by that 8 gig commercial format. About a week ago, out of desperation, I tried some trickery which took both my Mac and PC to do. End result, 8 gigs became 4.7 with little or no loss in resolution or sound quality. I was beyond ecstatic! It solved my major problems and allow me to end the project.
Well it is done now and my wife is a happy camper! I can only hope that the damn thing plays well on all the DVD players out there. You can only test so much. Let me know if you have any problems. You can reach me by email at sb.powell1atgmail.com (the numeral one after the second L in powell, and replace the 'at' with the ampersand sign @ as in usual email address. You can also reach me by email from this website by clicking HERE.
It is my hope that more Centaurs will see that we, "The Centaur Society", are not just a flash in the pan and that they will move to join up and participate in documenting the legacy of the Centaurs veterans service in Vietnam and, in that participation process, enjoy the camaraderie and friendship of the guys you remember serving with and establishing a connection to some of the Centaurs veterans who were in D Troop or F Troop before or after you.
Many thanks to Dale Dow, our unofficial Unit Historian, for volunteering to manage the distribution of the "CENTAUR BROTHERS DVD" and the gathering of donations to help offset the costs of production & distribution of the DVD.
I hope everyone gets as much enjoyment out of viewing the DVD as I had making it for fellow Centaurs.
I'll see you in Nashville.
Bruce Powell