GREX hits the video shelf! Coming November 1997.

Sep 28 05:27 UTC 1997

Grex has been approached by a professional videographer with a
very interesting proposal.  He's willing to make 2 or 3 20-minute
training tapes for us for free ( a $3,000 value) in exchange for
being allowed to use our training tapes as samples as he moves into a new
niche in the market.  (This isn't a student, he has 25 years experience.)

The time frame he looking at: over October we work up a script.  In
November we cast the production and shoot the first tape.  He'll
do all the production work free and will only charghe us costs if what we want
is outrageously expensive.  By the end of November we'll have a first
training video to air on public access television (about a month after our
appearance on Access Ann Arbor -- good timing, eh?) and/or reproduce
(at our own expense, but he'll make the tapes if we like) and send to
new members who join for whatever minimum period we decide.  (The tapes
will cost about $5 apeice, I think, but I'm not sure.)

Questions:

    1) Are we interested?

    2) What topics would *you* have liked to see covered in a "Welcome
to GREX" tape if one had been available when you discovered us?

response 2 of 4:

Sep 28 15:05 UTC 1997

It's possible (very possible) to ens up costing us $0 (nothing).  If we want
to do things that are very expensive, like use stuff he doesn't already have
and hadn't planned to get, we'd have to reimburse him.  If we wanted him to
travel to our headquarters in India for interviews, we'd have to pay his
way.  If we provide a local shoot site or use his, no cost.

The one thing that looks like a possible expense is that if we wanted to do
a training video about backtalk, we'd have to buy him a web browser
for the amiga.  (The Amiga has the correct scan rate for direct transfer 
to video, the PC would have a horrible flicker and interference bars
running through it, making it almost impossible to read.  A web browser for
the amiga runs about $80.

Then again, if we chose to do it on the cheap, we could try to grab
static stills of a Netscape session and not show Backtalk in action.

Also, he'll produce the video, but we have to pay costs for any copies he
makes.  (Ie, the content is free, but we have to pay him for the physical
tape.)  (I suspect the first copy, to go to CTN, would be free.  It's if we
want additional tapes.)

response 4 of 4:

Sep 29 19:36 UTC 1997

Nope, he'd like to keep this really inexpensive, but he also wants to 
give us what we want.  I think it's safe to say that he'll check any 
expense he can't cover *before* he considers incurring it.