"A Beginner’s Guide to American Amateur High Power Rocketry" is the latest video release by Brian FitzGerald of Wichita, Kansas. It is 2 hours and 29 minutes long and his first release to DVD.

Like his other productions, "ABGTAAHPR" consists of a series of "in depth" interviews with Rocketeers interspersed with music segments. Durning these interviews you will hear and see "first hand" what the sport is like from people with the Rocket Passion.

Although there are some "professionals" in the sport of amateur rocketry - mostly on the manufacturing and retail side - all the interviews in this movie are of 'regular folks'. But as you will find out - Rocket People are not your "Average Joes". You cannot fit them in one bag - except the one labeled "I Love Rockets!".

FitzGerald at a rocket shoot held in Amarillo, TX.

The Site Map

With onlookers in the foreground, we see a medium sized rocket blast up toward the cottony clouds over Kansas.

"A Beginner’s Guide to American Amateur High Power Rocketry" was shot over about a 6 month period. During this time two trips were made to cover two different Rocket events at the Argonia, Kansas site and one trip to Amarillo, Texas to cover an event there. The editing took "a long time" and was complicated by the fact that FitzGerald decided mid-way through the project to release "Rocketeers" on DVD. As this is his first full length DVD release he encountered a number of hurdles that conspired to push back the release of the project. Overall it was about a 3 year span from start to finish.

In past documentaries FitzGerald has used a fairly straightforward interview technique with a number of Music Video segments interspersed throughout to provide artistic release. FitzGerald thinks the music segments provide the "Romance of Flight" element that is hard to convey in an interview format and help ‘close the loop’. For "Rocketry", he employed a new technique, though, that seeks to meld Interview and Music Video together to create a "multi-level" experience that he believes to be more 'informationally dense' than a traditional straight up "talking head" interview.

Unlike his Ultralight features, this time FitzGerald did not compose the music used under the segments. With 18 different interviews and open and close music specials, he did not feel up to that task. Look for more Fitz-tunes in future productions, though...