![[EARLY ACCESS] The Story Of The Soviet TOPGUN Program](https://img5.saketami.com/storage/9/sy/pz/9a2cd0-019e841c-5550-7de9-8607-f1cf291a7d2a.jpg)
[EARLY ACCESS] The Story Of The Soviet TOPGUN Program
Added 2022-09-23 18:37:09 +0000 UTCThis video will be put in open access on the main channel tomorrow on Sep, 24.
The story of the Soviet Center for Combat Employment 1521 “Maryy” (Мары), which became the proving ground where Soviet fighter pilots would master and test their skills to become the best pilots in the world. Though different in some aspects, Soviet Air Base 1521 is often considered a Soviet analog to the US Navy TOPGUN School.
The "F-5 in the USSR" video mentioned in the end, will be posted here on Patreon and Nebula on Sep, 24.
Comments
I've had a keen interest in aviation and aerospace subjects since my early teens (I'm now 43) and I had never heard about this Мары, really fascinating stuff and gives an interesting insight into the "games" of brinkmanship and "anything you can do, we can do better" that were played between the US and the USSR during the cold war era. And now Putin seems determined to drag us all back into that worldstate... :( On a lighter note, the Russian-dubbed version of Top Gun with a single person reading every line strikes me as so very very Soviet. "We have already hired one person with functioning vocal cords who is capable of reading lines into a microphone, I see no reason to hire any more."
sixstringedthing
2022-09-26 08:30:11 +0000 UTCThank you guys! Really appreciate such a detailed feedback!
Dmytro Babenkov
2022-09-25 15:38:35 +0000 UTCFascinating account of a barely talked about part of Soviet aviation history. Had no idea they were conducting such similar processes to the US/NATO. Wonder if that's now lacking from modern VKS (I suspect so)
Sam Wise
2022-09-24 14:55:26 +0000 UTCCan't say I have any issues with the accent, and the occasional bit where I haven't heard something clearly, I just turn the subtitles. Nonsense criticism. I do agree about the other bits, I did at times find it hard to keep track of what time period was being talked about.
Sam Wise
2022-09-24 14:54:43 +0000 UTCFunny thing, now that I know English, I understand that ~50% of that one-voice dubbing was completely incorrect. :)
Dmytro Babenkov
2022-09-24 13:40:28 +0000 UTCI didn't mind the length of it at all. I mean, it really depends on the story you're telling, doesn't it? This is a complex one, spanning decades, so it needs more time, that seems perfectly ok ot me. If you get lower views because of its length, maybe splitting it into two parts might be a solution? But it would have been a pity to cut it further, I found all of it interesting, and for some parts I wouldn't have minded having more detail. You did do the chapterization in your voice over, what I meant was more of a visual break, with some text or a diagram maybe. A momentary change in pace. That will then stand out in short term memory more prominently, and then when you say something 3 minutes later, the context of it will be more immediately clear. To be clear, this is not a problem in your story telling. It's more that I found myself thinking a couple of times during the movie "oh, so at that time the americans would be doing... wait which year is the story at now?" and trying to remember the last year you mentioned. But hey, I also watched this late, after friday night beers with friends, so maybe this was entirely my own problem.
Benjamin
2022-09-24 10:04:47 +0000 UTCAs for the footage, my bad I forgot to show all the names of the movies. Most of the footage in the video is real/historical. As for movies: some b/w footage displaying Mig-21 and pilots is "Flying days", 1966 movie (I think I have this one indicated at the very beginning), the colored footage of pilots and Mig-21s is from the "Because I love you" 1977 movie, few b/w Mig-15 and pilots is an old movie "Stars on wings", 1955. Some of the footage is taken from movies but they are not about aviation, I just needed them to compliment my text. However, I try to choose such movies that represent the same time period, locations, etc or "adjust" them a bit :). Like the guy on 43:09 talking over the phone is technically an Air Defense officer with red shoulder straps. So I spent some time "coloring" his straps into blue color, so he looks more like Aviation officer. I know that 99,9% of viewers won't even notice that but I just can't help myself with this kind of details.
Dmytro Babenkov
2022-09-24 02:56:24 +0000 UTCThank you for the feedback. Very good points actually and, to be honest, I've been considering some of them. Normally, I break my videos in chapters of 3-5 mins long, so they are more "digestible" for viewers before they got bored. This time though, I wasn't sure if 10-15 chapters would be a good idea and I decided it would only confuse viewers. This is why I decided to break the video in 4 chapters, which are broken, technically, in "the 50s", "the 60s", "the 70s" and "the 80s". However, I thought, since the video is very long, I then should make the names of chapters more enticing so it will help to fight the boredom. I was indeed thinking of naming them simple 50s, 60s, 70s. It was hard for me to decide which way to go, considering this is the very first time I made video this long. And probably, the last time :). Originally, the script was ~40% longer. And partially, it took me so long to finish this video, because I tried so hard to "squeeze" everything in just 20 mins. But then I gave up and decided to make it as long as it is now. Anyways, I appreciate your feedback. I learn by doing and such information is very valuable to me.
Dmytro Babenkov
2022-09-24 02:39:22 +0000 UTCI like the video. The personal touches, the detail, poking fun at the system for being slow and half blind. The story of Maryy stretches over quite a long time though, and some clearer chapterization with visual indication would have helped me understand it more intuitively (e.g. a timeline plot, or "chapter 3 of 4: the 70s" or something like that). I don't know why people would give you negative feedback about the accent; your speech is perfectly understandable, and the accent gives a nice flair, and I'm not even a native english speaker myself. Don't listen to the haters. What I would also like to see is some note about where your footage is from, whether it's historic or maybe from a movie (i.e. reenactment) in some of it you point out with text boxes historical facts or persons which makes it both more interesting and clear it's historic material, that seems like a good method.
Benjamin
2022-09-24 00:05:27 +0000 UTCI really love the bits of personal touches with your childhood stories and the Russian dubbed Top Gun. Really puts the history in perspective
Fritz Krammer
2022-09-23 23:47:32 +0000 UTC
