Brief:
Way Cool Productions is a relatively new producer of rocket (and other) videos. Ray Halm, who is well known here on the east coast, runs the operation. This review will evaluate his video of the DARE-1 East Coast Regional launch. This launch was a three-day event held at Rhodesdale, MD in October, 2001. Ray"s video covers only the two "standard" days as he was unable to attend the experimental day.

Construction:
I bought this video because Ray had interviewed me prior to a couple of my flights. Since I hadn't seen his work before, I was a little apprehensive about the quality of the video. However, my worries were totally unfounded. The quality of both the video and audio are excellent. His composition editing is also very good (i.e. he did not show the ground during interviews or lose the rockets after launch). The intro included some cool music, he threw in a few slo-mo's of CATOs/shreds, and included some interesting sound effects.

For a regional launch, there were plenty of great flights. The following is a summary from Ray's web site, with a few of my comments added in italics:

• Dennis Lappert's 80 lb, radically painted, Smokin Rockets "Saab RB05A" on an M2000 Redline. It was painted with silver/green 'chameleon' style paint and looked great!.
• Auggi Grey's level three cert flight on an M1419.
• Bill Rossi's "I think I can Honest John" on an L952.
• Roger Dwyer's King Cobra on 3 K1100's.
• John Ritz's 6 Pack launching on a central I motor, air-starting 2 H's then 2 G's.
• Joe Mahulasick's Rocket Dyne "Wild Cat" on an L-952.
• Mike Debey's wet floor cone rocket featured in issue 11 of Extreme Rocketry, on a J-350.
• Kathy Gilliand's 12 lb "Sun Seaker" on a K-550.
• Neil McGilvray's "Cowabunga" complete with sound effects :) MOOOO!
• Gene Costanza's awesome K-1100 flight.
• Alan Gorekki's 54 mm "Transonic 2" on an L-1400. Can you say Mach speed? Projected to break Mach 2!
• Justin Glider's 3-inch diameter, 10 lb rocket on a K-1100, Mach flight. Burned the paint off of the leading edge of the fins!
• Rob Super's "Navigator 6" belching flames out of both ends of the motor casing just second's into the flight. Cool slow motion replay!
• Wayne Anthony's K-185 flight that Ray nicknamed "Hard Right". When you see the flight you see why :o Complete with sound effects. Another slow motion replay.

As for my personal content, he included an interview about, and launch of, my Standard Cray-ARM, the launch only of my M^2 L^2, and shot on the pad of my Beer 'n Pretzels. He missed the launch of the latter, so my second interview remained on the "editing floor", so to speak.

Summary:
I had a hard time putting a rating on this video since there are not many points of comparison on this site. Instead, I'll offer some summary comments. First, although the quality of this video product is great, the overall quality is not as good as Point-39's products. Ray will have to add more effects, closer shots of the launches, and some more in-depth interviews/how-to's to compete head-to-head here. Still, I think he'd be my second choice. Second, Ray's product line seems to emphasize local/regional launches that Point-39 will never cover, hence he may not have to compete head-to-head. It is really great to see the site you fly at, rockets and people you know, and some of your own stuff on video. Having seen several LDRS videos, I think I now prefer the local coverage. In this niche, this video is a "5".

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5