Talking With Confidence

Don Gabor, author of How to Start a Conversation and Make Friends offers help for the tongue-tied and shy in this video workshop on conversational skills. Separated into four lessons: "Prepare for Conversations," "Start Conversations," "Continue Conversations," and "End Conversations," Gabor introduces each section and then is taped conducting a seminar with a small group of students. While the content would be helpful for people who have difficulty either starting or maintaining conversations, the production values on this tape are the pits. Although the tape comes packaged with an attractive cover, the producers didn't spend a dime on actual production. Filmed with a home video camera, the person running the camera is constantly shifting the picture, and Gabor -who is miked-is often the only intelligible person talking. The seminar attendants all sound as if they're at a porpoise convention. Too, the edits are terrible. The makers of the video don't even use a home video editing suite or, for that matter, the fade in/fade out button on the camera. Result: choppy, tear-ridden edits. Finally, the special effects used too liberally look as if they were done on a Commodore 64. As far as I'm concerned, there's no excuse for this kind of amateur videomaking in the 1990s. Had the tape been produced by professionals, Gabor's suggestions for honing one's conversational skills would have been a nice addition to library collections. As it is, however, you're better off buying the book. Not recommended. (Available from: Conversation Arts Media, 336 Ninth St., Suite 106, Brooklyn, NY 11215; 1-800-423-4203.)