Possibly My Last Chase of 2011

I called today one of my final chases of the 2011 season mainly because I return to a normal working life starting this Friday after being off since the end of March. Since then, I have amassed over 33,000 miles in chasing which after today’s 400 miles sits at 95 shy of my single season mileage record. I plan to post a chase report from Monday in the coming days, but priority for me is to finish my DVDs before going to work on Friday, so all my computer efforts will be focused on that. I took a day from that to chase eastern Colorado and happily so as it turned out to be a very nice chase. Tomorrow and likely Wednesday will be spent wrapping up production and burning the first copies of all three projects which are soon to go on sale!

Meanwhile, here are a few photos from today’s chase… below those is an edited clip of the hailstorm I got caught under near Last Chance.

Posted by laubacht Aug 30, 2011

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The Good, Bad, and Ugly

I’m back safely at home after today’s lengthy venture into southwest Nebraska… been an active last few days across the region which is summed up pretty well in the title…

THE GOOD: A great chase on Tuesday resulting in a landspout, some terrific hail, and beautiful structure.

THE BAD: Missing out on Wednesday’s storm in Sterling due to tire replacement.

THE UGLY: Thursday’s chase… almost threw in the towel several times, exchanged the hail from the severe warned storm for some amazing lightning, but missing the day’s big tornado in Cherry County. Add to that the terribly unusual amount of suicidal animals REALLY made for an ugly chase.

I had intended to chase tomorrow, but the setup doesn’t look anywhere as good as it did a few days ago. Thus I returned home as opposed to staying out like I had initially planned. Overall, should be a fairly quiet weekend to recover from the nearly 1,500 miles driven over the last two chases. Worth mentioning is the just over 1,600 miles remaining til I hit a new single season mileage record. The year I am chasing for had the aid of several Arizona lightning chase trips, so I’ve already destroyed my usual chase mileage.

So with that, no chasing tomorrow and likely the same through the weekend. I’ll post the log from this chase tomorrow as I did get some good photos as well as the lightning video. With that said, I am off to bed!

Goodnight from Denver!

Posted by laubacht Aug 12, 2011

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Lubacca Blu-ray/DVD Projects

With a lull in the weather, I have had time to begin work on the several DVD projects I have slated for the coming fall. One of which, Lubacca 2010, should be released by August 30 assuming I manage a string of days like I’ve had where I can knock these things out. The tornado compilation and Lubacca 2011 will be released later in the fall as I have to wait for the finale of “Storm Chasers” before I make the official release. I will take pre-orders and will probably offer some special to be determined as my release gets closer.

First to be finished oddly enough will be the last to be released. Lubacca 2011, name still undecided, is rendering the last of the 14 current chapters I am including on this production. The main feature will of course be the Canton/Fairview, Oklahoma tornadoes from May 24. That 17-minute chapter takes the crown. The remaining 13 chapters cover various chases throughout the year, including April 8, April 24, April 26, April 27, May 11, May 17, May 21, May 22, May 23, June 13, June 17, June 20, and June 24.

As it stands right now, the full feature with all chapters lined up runs just about 85 minutes. With extras I am adding/planning to add, it’ll be right around two hours. I am undecided if the blu-ray will host any additional features, but think the main difference will be more interactivity on the blu-ray verses the DVD. I haven’t authored a blu-ray before, so I really don’t know off-hand how that will differ from a standard DVD.

The other two productions that are being worked on include the 2010 highlight DVD as well as a blu-ray only compilation of tornadoes from 2008 through 2011. I do not plan to release that one on DVD at this point, but if the downgrade is easy, I may opt for it. Lubacca 2010 will be released on both formats as well and be released along with the tornado compilation.

I figure to have Lubacca 2011 wrapped up by week’s end and will burn test copies on both formats to ensure its authored correctly and everything looks smooth and nice. I just found out today that some of my lower thirds were on different heights on the screen and had to go in and change the wonky ones. Those things, along with some small audio clean-ups, are the main issues I am seeing so far. But overall, I am liking how things are turning out. I can promise you, these will be some of the most well produced DVDs/blu-rays that are available from chasers. I spent a lot of money and time getting some high-quality graphics and music for these and they will not disappoint. Oh yeah, the weather footage is pretty good, too!

I’m still unsure on price for the blu-rays. The DVDs will remain at $20, no need to change those I don’t think. The blu-rays are obviously more costly to produce, so they will be $5-$10 more than the DVDs. I’ve seen other chasers as high as $30, so I’ll see where it all shakes out. I’ll offer bundle prices and discounts, so I’ll figure all that out as we get closer.

So stay tuned for more information. I am very excited to have these complete, even if it’s just so I can sit down and watch them as a viewer and not as the producer!