Cloudstreet - Soaring the American West
Both Blu-ray and DVD discs included, Format (DVD): NTSC, Duration: 56 minutes, Released in 2015
Overview
CloudStreet: Soaring The American West is a visually stunning high-definition documentary featuring the beauty and drama of a soaring adventure in the American West. As unbelievably serene as it is thrilling,
CloudStreet gives viewers the extraordinary experience of soaring along the Rocky Mountains of New Mexico, Colorado, Idaho and Wyoming.
Along the way, CloudStreet educates our audience not just about flying sailplanes cross-country, but also about the science of soaring, about the unique geography of the intermountain west, and about the workings of our atmosphere. It is easy learning as the audience is carried along by the excitement of this experience and drawn in by the natural curiosity evoked from this extraordinary mode of flight.
We hear from the pilots about how it feels to cross vast distances using only the energy of the atmosphere to stay aloft. Their love of soaring is inspirational as they balance managing the dangers of motorless flight, and the joys of true freedom.
Cloudstreet uses newly developed camera platforms and state-of-the-art high-definition camera technology for an unparalleled experience.
From the Producer
For the last four years we have been working with Mike Abernathy and Matthew Murray on Cloudstreet: Soaring The American West.
Our goal is to share the beauty, challenge and excitement of soaring with as broad an audience as possible. We plan to engage viewers with a dramatic story that places them in the cockpit of a glider via the exceptional quality of high definition television, and the spectacular scenery of the National Parks of the American West.
We have developed new camera mounts and filming techniques and believe this will be an extraordinary program.
Best, Michael Kamins Executive Producer
Director - Matthew Murray
CloudStreet: Soaring The American West marks Matthew Murray's directorial debut. He has written and produced several independent films, worked as director of production for Storyline Entertainment, most notably on Chicago, and has produced events at The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. He has also produced on-air promotional material for American Movie Classics and training material for the United States Army, NASA and the FAA.
Vision - Mike Abernathy
Mr. Abernathy is an experienced glider and motor glider pilot and has been flying for over 14 years. During the making of CloudStreet, he served as writer, producer, and camera-ship pilot. Through his understanding of flight, science and weather, he helped guide the filming of this vibrant, exciting movie. Mr. Abernathy is the founder of Rapid Imaging Software in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and has been developing powerful imaging software products since 1984.
Passion - Phyllis Murray & Dave Bixler
Dave Bixler and Phyllis Murray are accomplished still photographers. They were wedding photographers for 10 years before turning their interests to wildlife and nature photography in 2010. Their still photography can be seen at davebixler.com.
Dave and Phyllis brought various talents to the project. They provided support in a variety of ways including helping with lighting and scene design, maintaining equipment, fixing things that broke and making sure that whatever was needed showed up. They also provided the time lapse photography for CloudStreet and became known as the Time Bandits. Their directive was to find weather and photograph it. Dave and Phyllis traveled over 18,000 miles in the summer of 2013 and produced 139 time lapses. The goal was to capture original time lapses that enhanced the CloudStreet story. They traveled Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Montana in search of developing clouds, sunrises, sunsets and storms. Needless to say, they found them all. They also learned a lot about dust, rain, hail and dark of night. And the biggest lesson perhaps was that Mother Nature does what Mother Nature wants to do and no amount of pleading can cause her to change her mind.
Art - Music Composer Matt Pavolaitis
Matt Pavolaitis has written and produced music for numerous television series and documentary films, two of which, Desert Reef and Valles Caldera earned him EMMY Nominations. Many of the films he has scored are about science and environmental issues. Inclusive in his credits are: a ten part documentary series on geology entitled, Outcrops; The Sandias, a PBS documentary on the mountains; Painting Taos; and Glenna Goodacre. His television compositions can be heard on A&E, Discovery, SyFy, and NatGeo.
Recently, he has been writing and producing artists who are involved with AMERICAN IDOL, and THE VOICE, and has acquired major publishing deals with Hollywood Records and Opus One Music. To facilitate this growth, he created Matt Pav Music in both Los Angeles and Orange County California, where he offers composing, producing, and mixing for large format films, television, and music artists. Among his credits are: several TV series, including KNOWN UNIVERSE, CAJUN JUSTICE, SAINT HOODS, Paranormal: FACT OR FAKED, Return to Halletsville (Gary Busey) and Shelter (Regent Entertainment). He also worked for several years at the world renowned Technicolor Glendale.
Art - Colleen Grace
Colleen Grace Rourke is an American singer, songwriter, and composer whose music has been placed in several motion pictures including The Art of Getting By and The To-Do List. She’s composed music with her husband and producer Matt Pavolaitis on numerous television series including Cold Case Files, Army Wives, Paranormal: Fact or Faked, and My Strange Addiction as well as sang on multiple television commercials. Follow her on FaceBook colleengracemusic and Twitter @ColleenGrace00.
Craft - Dave Pettitt
Dave Pettitt has been a voice talent since 1992 and in that time has lent his voice to some well known clients like Discovery Channel, Disney, History Channel and National Geographic and now proudly to Cloudstreet. Today, he works half the year from his studio in British Columbia, Canada and the other half from Mazatlan, Mexico.
Today, Dave is probably best known for his documentary work, including Discovery Canada's two hit programs, Highway Thru Hell and Airshow. Highway has aired internationally in over 100 countries and in production stage for season 4. Dave is also quite proud of a recent campaign for Tourism Ecuador which aired a spot during the 2015 Superbowl.
Review by Paul Remde
This is a fantastic HD soaring film. The cinematography is excellent. It shows that soaring is an adventure and that we soaring pilots are fortunate to fly in some amazing environments.
However, the DVD/Blu-ray combo found here makes for a nice gift.