Dave Brown was the only official videographer the festival has ever had. I didn't hear anyone else being asked to take it on as it would require sitting and taping all the programming (panels, etc.) and not just what interested the videographer. Dave made his living as a videographer and so was professional enough to entrust with that role. I don't think anyone has the equipment available to them Dave did though I could be wrong.
If MPI is indeed videotaping the events for bonus material, it will be a better quality for everyone to have. That would be a good thing, woudln't it?
Here are several corrections/clarifications to this post:
Dave Brown and Guy Haines were the only (please forgive the overly authoritative word) "official" videographers of the Dark Shadows Festivals. Guy taped the Festivals from the very first one in 1983 and Dave began the year after that. The three founders of the Festivals, Kathy Resch, Marcy Robin and Maria Barbosa named Dave and Guy in the 1984 Festival program book as being in charge of "Video Operations". Their duties mostly included taping the Festival events, but soon after evolved into preparing video footage that was to be presented at the Festivals and videotaping limited attendance events requested by the DS guests, such as Jonathan Frid's show rehearsals. Initially, both Guy and Dave made their videos available for fans to purchase. In the late 80s however, Guy asked that the DS fanzines not publicize him as selling the tapes because it was interfering with his work and (then) school activities. He would continue to fill an occasional request for his Festival footage if fans sought him out.
Perhaps the writer of the post above "didn't hear anyone else being asked to take" on the taping of the Fests because Guy was already doing it. In fact, Nancy hit the nail on the head when she described the work of the Fest videographer as requiring "sitting and taping all the programming (panels, etc.) and not just what interested the videographer". That is exactly what Guy does and always has done at the Festivals. Many frequent Fest attendees have been aware for years that if there is an event happening in the main room, they know that Guy is there behind his camera in his usual spot in the front of the room.
Despite never claiming to be a professional, through the years Guy has been requested to videotape many special Festival functions. He accompanied Jonathan Frid and Ann Wilson to Newport in 1985 and videotaped Jonathan giving a tour of "Collinwood" and the "Blue Whale". Guy's video footage has also been used on past MPI DS tape releases, such as Louis Edmonds' Cabaret performance on the 25th Anniversary tape. On two occasions he videotaped Joan Bennett in her home for Festival presentation. And in 1998 he was asked to videotape Jonathan Frid's show at Hofstra University.
Through the years, both Dave and Guy utilized the most professional ¢â‚¬Ëœhome video' equipment available. This included VHS, Super-VHS and later digital quality cameras. They did not use professional studio quality video cameras, such as the ¾ inch tape cameras. However, the most expensive video camera equipment (personally seen by this writer) that was used to tape the Festivals belonged to Rich Blanco. He utilized two camcorders, both very expensive 3 chip state-of-the-art cameras. He used only the highest grade tapes for a crystal sharp picture. The only other cameras that surpassed Rich's quality were the professional cameras that taped part of the 25th DS Anniversary Festival in LA for segments to be used on the MPI tape.
By the way, as far as this writer knows, MPI has no plans to include Festival bonus footage on future DVD releases.
SDP
