RandomMaccess Review: TackyShirt Presents Mac OS X -- Disc 1: The Basics
Sunday, October 12, 2003

Calling TackyShirt's Mac OS X DVD a training video just doesn't seem fair; it's about as far beyond conventional training videos as a Segway is from a pogo stick.

TackyShirt's DVD is a remarkable production -- cinematic in scope, with a relaxed, breezy feel that's as engaging as it is informative. Think "late night talk show meets..." well, nothing you've ever seen before, frankly. TackyShirt's "Media Kingpin" Sam Crutsinger turned the traditional technical video on its ear and made the computer not the star of his production, but bit player. It's one of those concepts that seems incredibly obvious -- after someone else has actually thought of it. Because while there may nothing more exciting than what you're doing on your Mac, there's not much that's duller than watching other people doing things on theirs.

So instead, Crutsinger gathered together a Mac geek's dream team of personalities: Bob "Dr. Mac" LeVitus, Macworld Columnist Andy Ihnatko, Your Mac Life Host Shawn King, and networking guru John Welch. Rather than hear them explain what their doing as we watch static shots of the their computer screens, Crutsinger sits them down on a couch and lets them talk to each other. It's like being in on a conversation between some of the best minds in the Mac community -- even when they talk about something you already know, it's great entertainment.

If TackyShirt had stopped here, it would have had a darned good DVD on its hands. Luckily, this is only where they started.

Crutsinger, an Emmy-winning videographer, pays meticulous attention to detail in this production. The video's set is a rich tapestry of tchotkes, knick-knacks and inspired touches like a full astronaut suit and not-so-subtle product placements. The lighting on the set (an incredibly important aspect of shooting that's all too often overlooked) is superb and the video has a richness to it that led me to at first mistake it for film. Using a multi-camera setup lets him capture all the spontaneity of his talent while keeping the feel intimate and personal. (A word of advice to Sam: get this aired in whatever markets it takes to make it eligible for the Emmys -- there's another one waiting to be placed on your mantel.)

Finally, TackyShirt came up with what I'm willing to bet is the first successful way to make computer screen elements fun to watch; essentially, he treats them like cartoons. When Andy Ihnatko talks about how many applications he's got stored on his Dock, the Dock itself comes barreling across the screen like a freight train, complete with sound effects. When Shawn King describes the difficulty in finding a file, the file playfully pops up from paying hide-and-seek behind the couch -- slide whistle and all.

It's a treatment nothing short of brilliant; by putting the technical elements -- and not the whole computer desktop -- on screen, TackyShirt avoids the pitfall that turns most technical videos into insomnia remedies. TackyShirt's video is a talk show, not a slide show. It's four hours of bite-sized sessions that can almost be looked at as skits.

What really brought home the magnitude of TackyShirt's success in making a technical video entertaining was Segment Two: The Mouse. Before I knew what was happening, I had watched a 15-minute segment on different kinds of mice, the difference between a click, a double-click, and a click-and-a-half. But it wasn't just that I had watched it; it was that I had watched it in rapt attention -- I was downright enthralled by a discussion of a computer mouse. Frankly, that's a little scary. Pray that if Crutsinger ever starts making political commercials, they're for good candidates.

The flaws I found in Mac OS X Disk 1: The Basics are so few and so minor, they're hardly worth mentioning. The four-hour disc is broken up into 15-minute segments; you can choose to watch the whole disc straight through or each segment separately. If you watch the segments individually, the segments credits roll at the end. That's fine, but if you watch the disc straight through, you still have to sit through the credits after each segment. It's repetitive and quickly becomes annoying. Each segment is also "sponsored" by a software title or publisher -- their titles are placed on the set, but they also get a promotional mention at the end of each segment. People shelling out $40 for the DVD shouldn't have to sit through commercials every 15 minutes. Finally, I'm not a huge fan of the graphic design of the packaging and icons -- Crutsinger has set the bar so high in his set design, videography and visual effects that the Photoshop-airbrushed graphics didn't quite match, in my view.

The big question is this: with Panther coming out in less than a month, does it make sense to buy a training video that covers Apple's older cat, Jaguar? Happily, the answer is yes -- at least for the most part. Much of what TackyShirt covers transcends operating system versions -- the Dock, Mouse, Classic, connecting to the Internet, books and magazines, web resources and more; still more will be just as relevant in Mac OS 10.3 as it is in 10.2.

With its inaugural offering, TackyShirt has redefined an entire industry -- "it's just a training video" can never be used as an excuse for a dull program again. Sam Crutsinger has shown that -- true to his company's motto -- training and fun are not mutually exclusive, and we can't wait to see what he and his crew have in store for Disc Two.

TackyShirt Presents Mac OS X Disc 1: The Basics
List Price: $39.99
Available Through: TackyShirt Online Store