Tap Dogs (Dein Perry's)

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General		Extras
Category	Dance	Theatrical Trailer(s)	None
Rating		Other Trailer(s)	None
Year Released	1996	Commentary Tracks	None
Running Time	72:57 minutes	Other Extras	Production Notes Cast & Crew Biographies Featurette (1.33)
RSDL/Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Selection then Menu
Region	2,3,4,5,6	Director	Aubrey Powell
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Dein Perry Darren Disney Drew Kaluski Ben Read Nathan Sheens Gerry Symonds Kevin Coyne Ben Mayne
Case	Super Jewel
RRP	$39.95	Music	Andrew Wilkie

    "Industrial Tap" is how Dein Perry describes Tap Dogs. A bunch of guys from Newcastle combining the art of tap with their industrial heritage. The stage setting begins simply enough, and is gradually built up by the guys themselves, in keeping with the industrial theme of the show - there are no top hats and tails here, only jeans, Miller shirts and Blundstone boots.

    It is amazing to consider that the show exclusively consists of tap without accompaniment for a full 15 minutes before the first music is heard, and yet is lacking in nothing. The sheer energy of this show is breathtaking, and clearly visible in the sweat raised by these six amazing tap dancers.

    In short, do yourself a favour and check these guys out, live if you still can, or on DVD if you can't.

Video

    The transfer is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1. It is not 16x9 enhanced, which is a bit of a disappointment and leads to some minor image problems.

    The transfer is quite sharp and quite clear, as such things go - occasionally there is some flare as the cameras look directly into the stage lights, and occasionally scan lines are visible because of the lack of 16x9 enhancement, but it is certainly an acceptable transfer. Shadow detail is good considering the source material, though a few of the shots were a little high in black level - this appeared to be isolated to one specific camera location to the left of the stage. This same camera angle also suffered a little with low level noise marring the blacks, but this is being very picky indeed - overall I was well pleased with the quality of the video.

    The colours were nicely rendered, generally being somewhat drab and muted, in keeping with the overall theme of the production.

    There were no MPEG artefacts noted in this transfer. Aliasing was a little problematic towards the end of the production, particularly with the scaffolding used as the stage from around the 55 minute mark onwards, but early on it was remarkably absent. It is a pity that this transfer was not 16x9 enhanced, as this would have minimized this particular artefact. This transfer was created directly from a video source and so there were no film artefacts seen.

Audio

    There was fundamentally no dialogue in this production, so I won't comment on it.

    Audio sync was not a problem at all with this DVD, particularly notable given the nature of the source material - if anything was going to show up audio sync as being problematic, then tap dancing is certainly the material to do so.

    The music is very...industrial, and suits the production aptly.

    The surround channels were aggressively used to envelop you in the production. You are placed in the front row of the production, with aggressive tapping echoing behind you and audience response all around you. This is slightly disconcerting at first, but works extremely well once you get used to it.

    The .1 channel was lightly used.

Menu

Production Notes

Cast & Crew Biographies

Featurette

    The video quality is quite good considering the source material.

    The audio quality is good.

    The extras are passable.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Michael Demtschyna
5th January 2000