Green Frog Productions has been producing video's and audio tapes for railfans and modelers since 1983. We have grown to a full production facility in our own suite of offices in Marietta, Georgia. There are full time employees and numerous part timers. We do our own field production editing, duplication, and shipping. A good number of our videos have been made from film that was shot by railfans beginning in the 1920's and continuing through the '70's. Contemporary action is shot on professional equipment and edited with computers using the latest technology in the industry.

Green Frog is rereleasing all of its video products over time onto DVD, look for new DVD's to come out on a regular basis. Green Frog DVD's will offer superior Video Quality and Audio Quality, our DVD's are encoded with very high Data Bit Rates for superior video quality - (Green Frog DVD's are encoded at 6 megabits per second, a standard Hollywood DVD is encoded at about 4 megabits per second and the Superbit DVD's are encoded at about 7 megabits per second!)

Green Frog DVD audio is encoded into the (Dolby Digital .ac3) format and in most cases will be in 5.1 Digital surround sound. Green Frog DVD Audio also offers the ability to turn the narration on and off with the click of a button on the menu, or from your DVD remote control! 

John M. Koch (pronounced cook), President and founder of Green Frog. John oversees new product development, marketing, and general leadership for the company. As a lifetime model railroader, he has a great interest and insight into railroad operations. When not busy running the company's day to day business, John still finds time to indulge in his favorite part of the business, video taping trains and video editing.

James T. Koch, Vice President. James is also responsible for video and audio editing, as well as keeping almost everything organized around here!

Robert J. Koch, Vice President, is responsible for audio mastering and duplication of all video and audio tapes.

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Julia D. Koch, Secretary-Treasurer is payables and receivables manager for Green Frog. In this position she is responsible for all inventory control, accounts payable and accounts payable processing.

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Frank Kyper. writes many of the scripts for Green Frog. He has been railfanning for many years and has even owned his own narrow gauge line... Frank is well recognized as an expert on American railroads having written numerous articles for magazines and books.

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Peter Youngblood, Bob Carrera & Rob Ellis . Narrators for Green Frog's videos.

Many of our customers have expressed an interest in the process of what goes into the production of a railfan video. Although situations do change from video to video, many of the steps remain the same and we would like to give you an inside look at what is involved. We spend anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks or more, traveling to locations around the country to video tape trains. Many locations are chosen because our customers have given us requests about what they would like to see. Others are chosen based on our own experience of what we feel would appeal to the customers. Research into the area to be videotaped provides historic and operational background information for providing as complete and accurate a video as possible.

Videography is done with Professional Format cameras, and sound recorded with the highest quality stereo microphones. This may sound obvious, but a tripod is a must for getting good steady shots.

Back in the studio, tapes are put onto computer hard drives on a computer editing system. This computerized "non-linear" editing system creates a perfect copy of the original material with no loss in video or audio quality. What this means is that the computer's hard drives are acting in the same manner as a tape machine, actually playing the video and audio at regular speed, fast, slow, reverse, whatever. The operator tells the computer where a scene begins and ends and then goes on to the next scene.

Being done on the computer makes it just like word processing, scenes can be cut, moved, shortened, and added to other video tracks, almost forever without losing any perceivable quality. Multiple channels of audio go right along with the video to be edited together or independently. The final version of the video can be played back on the computer just like tape.

The script is usually prepared from this version of what the final product will look like. The video quality of our non-linear system is among the best in the professional industry. Green Frog uses animations for the openings of our videos. These include an animation for the company logo, a reminder that the production was mastered digitally, and the title of the video. Other graphics are also created for subtitles, maps, drawings, etc. Animations are created on computers using 3D programs and various Adobe programs, such as Adobe After Effects and Photoshop. These are the same computer programs used on major TV shows and movies.

An object, e.g., a logo, is created using polygons. This object can then be moved in front of the computer's camera in almost any manner conceivable. Once the movement, lighting, colors, etc. are perfect, the computer goes through the process of drawing the final version of the animation in the form of frames, and stores them on a hard disk. This is then digitally moved to the hard drives of the editing system and smooth animation is played back.

The audio can be sweetened, narration added, music added, and sound effects created for old films, all with almost unlimited tracks available to work with, on our non-linear workstation.

In the case of tapes made from film transfers, Green Frog has an extensive Digital library of sounds to work from. This really can be labor intensive, each scene of the video must be watched to see what sounds are called for. This might include the train, a crossing bell, a whistle, automobiles, wheel noise , and background sounds such a birds or machinery. We have a computerized library of sounds that is referred to for a possible list to choose from. This selection of sounds must be listened to and the one that best matches the video, selected and placed in the proper location. A typical video might have 200 to 300 scenes. That's a lot of audio work!

In the meantime, all of the more mundane tasks of marketing a video have been going on for quite a while before a video can be released. Any maps or other inserts have to be created. The Video covers and ads have to be designed as well as write ups for our newsletter and website.

 

Green Frog does its own duplication of DVD-R's on Professional Tower machines that are specially made for this purpose.

A master DVD is made from our editing system called a dubmaster, this is used to dub using our Tower DVD duplicators which have multiple "Burners" built in and can make several DVD copies at one time.

Green Frog also does our own DVD Authoring, (creating the look and flow of a DVD) and DVD printing using Ink Jet printing Robots which can print right on a DVD disc, this lets us control all aspects of the quality we release on our DVDs!

More on our DVD's

Green Frog Productions Supports its customers 100% and we want our customers to be completely satisfied with their purchases from us. 

Our policy is normally to replace or trade out any defective videos within a 30 day period from date of purchase.

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Here is a link to a searching web site for DVD players and their compatibility with various DVD media on the market!
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers

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There are basically two mainstream types of DVD media in the marketplace -
1. Stamped DVD's which are actually stamped or pressed "i.e." (hollywood DVDs) - (usually most compatible with players) -

2. and Burned DVD's which are the DVD-R's (DVD Minus R) we will be talking about here, which are burned by a laser just like recordable CD-R's for your music CD's.

3. there are also different DVD Authoring Programs on the market which affect how DVD's will play in different players...

There is currently much less than a 1% rejection rate of DVD-R's (recordable burned discs) in the marketplace which is due to incompatibility of certain DVD players on the market, and also the different DVD Authoring Programs used on the market - We are now using an authoring program by apple which should correct most of the incompatibilities with hardware issues, and we are re-authoring older DVD's with the new software.

Most DVD's from Green Frog Productions, Ltd. are recorded on the DVD-R (DVD Minus R) Media - (Recordable format) which we burn ourselves in studio, these are exactly the same data and quality as a Stamped DVD -i.e.- your typical hollywood DVD, just on a different format of Disc. (stamped discs have pits & bumps--Burned discs have a DYE which changes color when heated).
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Green Frogs Stamped DVD's are;

CN vol's 1&2
Colorado Steam Mecca
Ghost Train
BNSF Tracks of the old Santa Fe
Chicago Odyssey Vol 1

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There is just not 100% compatibility, (Mostly beyond 1 to 2 year old players, and a number of Toshiba players, some sonys and Philips - also Combo VHS and DVD players do not always work as advertised and have problems with recordable discs). 

Players can be inconsistent with how they will play, or they will not play certain DVD's at all, - this is due to the laser and tracking ability, and even the version of the software that the player is using - (these are basically computers!).

You can purchase DVD players starting at about $30.00 U.S. Retail-- from stores like Best Buys and Circuit City. 

AN excellent DVD player is a Toshiba model - HD-A2 which will up-convert normal DVDs to near High Definition quality when you have a High Def TV....this DVD player will play just about every Disc format there is, This is also an HD DVD player and will play High Definition HD DVD's as well!!

Here is a link to a searching web site for DVD players and their compatibility with various DVD media on the market!
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers

Check out your local Retailer with a DVD-R and see which players work best for you!

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If you purchase DVD's from Green Frog or from Dealers and can't play them in your player, You can purchase more of a "Full DVD Spec" player as suggested above, or you can call your DVD player manufacturer and see if they can update or change the "Firmware" in your current player, 

or we can give you a complete refund including shipping---(within 30 days of purchase with Proof of purchase)

If you would like to return any (Green Frog DVDs) that do not
play in your player or are bad-- send back Via "Priority Mail" to;
Green Frog Productions, Ltd.
Suite 165-419
4880 Lower Roswell Rd.
Marietta, GA. 30068