Customer Reviews

Being Out There

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

The movie reminded me of so many wonderful memories of our cruising years. We lived aboard for 7 years and cruised from Maine to Trinidad plus Mexico and Cuba. Back on land but still longing to be on the water. Some of the scenes and people brought tears to my eyes. Yes, it's impossible to capture on film what it's really like but the DVD does a great job of bringing the realities to life.

[...]

Being Out There is a cruising video. Made by a Tampa Bay company owned by a cruising couple, this video will tell you a little bit about what it's like "being out there" cruising around.

Mitch and Michelle Traphagen took several months and cruised the Bahamas and Caribbean aboard their sailboat. When they returned, they wanted to make a video about cruising. Since they had professional experience in a related media field, they produced Being Out There.

The filming is in the Bahamas and other points south (including Havana), but the real interesting part is the interviews with miscellaneous cruisers who give the viewer an idea of what the cruising life is like. Among those interviewed were a couple that took their baby along, telling you what they encountered, the joys and experiences they had, what their parents thought about them cruising with their grandchild, what their daily life was like. Another interview was with teenagers in the Bahamas who were cruising with their families - what they felt and missed and like about the lifestyle, what friends they made.

A fun and informative video, with beautiful scenes, leaving the viewer wanting to be out there now - or pretty soon anyway. Great music by Eileen Quinn, too.
[...]

if you're looking for a "sailing video" this is not it. It's a fun video without the "nuts & bolts" of sailing/cruising info--lots of clips of scenery and people, with some interviews from other cruisers. Good music, although at times it competed with and distracted from the actual video. The extras with Mitch commenting on the making of the video were fun to watch.

As a sailor and a confirmed lover of videos, I had high hopes for this. Unfortunately, the other one star reviews are spot on : this is not worth the time it takes to watch. Very little footage of actual sailing, and what there was seemed to me like motor sailing or just motoring. Almost all the footage is in or around Georgetown in the Bahamas. The people who made the video and the others interviewed look to me like the typical margarita-drinking sit-on-your-boat-in-the-harbor types. The music by Eileen is good, but you could just buy her CD and look at pictures in sailing or travel books and be happier.

I wish there was a good cruising / sailing video out there, but there really isn't (unless I've somehow missed it). Blue Water Odyssey is much better but still not great. Irving Johnson High Seas Adventurer and Around Cape Horn are awesome but not 'cruising' videos. And the others I've seen are really instructional in nature, and vary widely in quality.

"Being Out There" is one couple's attempt at presenting the cruising life style, and encouraging hopeful cruisers to just get out there and do it. Mitch and Michelle are fairly appealing as presenters, but the material is very thin, often with poor sound quality. Images and sequences are repeated in different places to pad out the content, and there is only a sketchy idea of a beginning, middle and end. The only bright spot in this video is the music and lyrics of Eileen Quinn, who really does capture the elusive essence of the cruising life. Don't waste a dime on this one.

[...] The basic message is "if you ever planned to sail, go for it," but no practical information is imparted and the musical background will not appeal to a wide audience.

All the negative reviews on this movie are correct. I wish I had read the reviews before purchasing the video. This video does not deserve ANY stars, the filmmakers falsely presented the idea of "being out there." Looks more like they went out for the day, and came back home. The music sucked and the movie consisted of people being interviewed on a crowded beach somewhere in the Bahamas--no open water video footage.

I sail and I wasted $17.99 for this horrible DVD. This is nothing but a home movie. Voices out of sync. Photography is terrible. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY!!! They should be ashamed for even thinking this is helpful about sailing. What a load of trash!!!

Although done with good humor and having made a good effort to include a good variety of different perspectives, this is still an amateur-produced film. I'm not aware of any competing film that is professionally-produced, though-- comparing to the Pardeys would probably be unfair, since they are much more about nuts and bolts. You never see the film-makers actually sailing-- they seem to use their motor a lot. Maybe they found that there is too much spray to film while actually sailing. The musical interludes, with photo album-type scenes to accompany, drag a bit, and the continuing choruses in the interviews of "freedom... freedom..." and "paradise... paradise..." both get a little old.

It's an honest effort, but it didn't really grip us the way we hoped.

(Please note: this DVD does not have closed captions or subtitles.)

It is an ego based film that is poorly edited and is not about sailing but rather what the makers deem to be the interesting people you meet while sailing (namely them).