"This DVD does all the right things and does them well...
This is like nothing you've seen before about Turkey.
It is honest, true to life, and oh so real!"
MerhabaTurkey.com

From the creator of the 2002 Izmir DVD, a new film celebrating Western Turkey. This 2-DVD music video portrays the people, culture, sites and sounds of Western Turkey. Historical sites, natural wonders, bazaars, food, markets, people . . . this is a unique video designed to bring the experience of Turkey to the viewer. Over 100 minutes long, it is a very fast paced and engaging film. See the chapter list below of the many locations covered. The video also includes new footage of Izmir.

This project comes with two printed DVDs, and is enclosed in a shrink-wrapped DVD case with a color sleeve. I have posted video samples of the DVD at: www.myspace.com/dlbvideos.

This 2-DVD set is $22.00 plus $3.00 shipping and handling (USA). Please contact me for international shipping arrangements. I can accept payment by check, or money order. Send your order to:
David Blose
804 Highland Drive
Leavenworth, Kansas 66048

OR USE PAYPAL.COM: (davidblose@mac.com) If you wish to purchase the original Izmir DVD, I have a limited number of them remaining. For information on this earlier project see inset, below right.

The original Izmir DVDs are $20.00 (includes shipping and handling).

While supplies last: Purchase a Turkiye and Izmir DVD set for $40.00 which includes S&H (a savings of $5.00). Please contact me to verify availability of the Izmir DVD prior to ordering.

Article about our original Izmir video,
as published in "Stars & Stripes"

Photo: Terry Boyd / S&S
Lt. Col. David Blose ponders a shot amid the splendor of the ancient city of Ephesus on the evening of the final Izmir American School graduation.

Army lieutenant colonel captures Izmir on video

By Terry Boyd, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Saturday, July 13, 2002

IZMIR, Turkey — In the opening scene, the pitch of New Age music blends perfectly with the 1,200-year-old Muslim call to prayer.
    Then, the camera flies with flamingoes gliding in a V-formation over a glassy bay, a long shot of a line of yellow taxis, then — as a primary color counterpoint — a red bicycle with a green tool carrier glides by.
    Even its low-key creator, Dave Blose, admits that his “Izmir” video has moments of serendipity.
    “Sometimes,” he said, “you’ll come back from shooting and look at video and say, ‘How did this happen?’ All you can say is, ‘God’s at work.’”
    Blose’s hourlong video is proving to be a hit with other members of Izmir’s American community. It often plays on televisions at the 425th Air Base Squadron Clinic and in other offices around Izmir’s base buildings. Copies of it are traded from person to person, with many going to folks in the States so they can understand the city that so many of their friends and relatives fell in love with.
    Blose has sold more than 200 copies at $20 each in six weeks. And that’s in a military community downsized to about 600 people. It sells partly because people want to hold on to the old Izmir of military families as tours change to unaccompanied this summer.
    Blose spent thousands of dollars — $4,000 just on duplicating DVD and videotapes — and thousands of hours to make “Izmir,” which he describes as “basically a music video.”
    His wife, Kathleen, says it will be a long time before he gets his money back, but Blose just shrugs.
    “I’m not a businessman. I’m an artist, really,” he said.
    That’s when he’s not a lieutenant colonel in the Army, working as chief of the intelligence production branch of J-2 at Izmir’s North Atlantic Treaty Organization subregional command from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. The rest of the time, he’s Dave the video guy — a local celebrity in Izmir’s military community.
    What military people here seem to appreciate most in his video — which can be ordered at dblose@writeme.com — is his eye for defining detail.
    Everything that Americans based here know about Izmir “you can see it on that tape,” says Staff Sgt. Kevin Goodwin, who works at U.S. Army NATO.
    Sgt. Amber Couch agreed. “If you’ve been here, you appreciate that he did a really good job of capturing the little things that you see walking down the street and think to yourself, ‘I should get a shot of that!’”
    Blose calls cinematography his “hobby,” but others might detect a whiff of obsession. Wearing a blue polo-style shirt with “Videomaker” on the left breast, Blose cheerfully admits that he spends nearly every free hour working on or thinking about video.
    “Every weekend has a purpose,” he said.
    It’s a family affair. Son Chris, 15, helped him with “Izmir,” and son David, 11, won a Department of Defense Dependents Schools award this year for a video he did on Izmir.
    The 45-year-old intelligence officer describes himself as an introvert, but has gotten bolder about filming people. And he also has a reasonable portion of chutzpah. He called musician Jeff Jordan in the States to contribute music to the video. Jordan agreed to write a six-minute song — at $100 per minute.
    “There was no way I could pay that,” Blose said. But he was so persistent, the composer finally agreed to a $100 flat fee.
    And he got a better deal from a group of classical Turkish musicians, who contributed 70 minutes of music for $100.
    It took him three months to edit 41 hours of footage into “Izmir,” not to mention the 500-plus hours that he spent shooting.
    Blose says he has no long-term artistic ambitions other than to create videos of interest to whichever military community he happens to be serving.
    “I can’t see myself going back to the States and doing weddings,” he said.
    Fortunately, he doesn’t have to. On Wednesday, Blose was packing out for his next assignment to NATO’s Joint Subregional Command Centre in Heidelberg, one of Germany’s most photogenic cities. But his last few days here, he’s still thinking about Turkey. He went all the way to Cappadocia to film Whirling Dervishes, Sufi mystics who dance in long flowing robes and conical hats. Had he not, he would have left here obsessing, he says.
    “You know the real benefit of this is?” Blose says suddenly. “I get to do everything!"

Chapters:

Istanbul
Anthem-Ankara
National Anthem
Ankara
Gordian
Kastamonu/Black Sea
Safranbolu
Kutahya
Aizanoi (Cavdarhisar)
Troy-Bergama
Troy
Assos
Ayvalik
Bergama
Carpets & Kilims
Foca
Kyme
Izmir
Menemen/Izmir Bay
Izmir
Izmir Evening
Fanatik
Beads & Markets
Bead Making
Sardis
Afyon
Markets (Izmir)
Cesme-Kusadasi
Leaving Izmir
Cesme/Alacata/Myonnessos
Claros/Selcuk
Meryemana (Mary’s House)
Efes (Ephesus)/Sirince
Kusadasi
Magnesia-Alinda
Magnesia/Priene/Milet (Miletus)
Didim/Bafa Golu/Euromos
Iasos/Labranda/Alinda
Bodrum - Demre
Bodrum/Datca
Dalyan/Milas
Marmaris/Fethiye
Oludeniz/Saklikent Gorge
Kadyanda/Kyaneai
Patara/Demre (Myra)
Blue Cruise
Aegean Coast/Kemer/Kale/Kekova/Kas/Aperlae
Antalya-Alanya
Termessos
Antalya/Perge/Aspendos/Side
Alanya/Uzuncaburc/Kiz Kalesi
Konya & Culture
Konya/Assorted Cultural Shots/Camel Wrestling
Tralles-Cappadocia
Tralles/Aphrodesias
Pamukkale & Hierapolis
Caravanserai/Cappadocia

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