Sean Casey - VORTEX2

[RogerPemberton]

This is the part that I don't understand. The two entities are entirely separate.

Since V2 wasn't responsible or otherwise accountable for the actions of the TIV, those associated with V2-NSSL shouldn't have to be worried about having to take heat from people that are woefully misinformed in assuming that the two entities are somehow intertwined.

Public opinion and perspective are a powerful thing. They wouldn't be scrambling to do damage control if it wasn't a big deal. They know how public opinion can impact things.

 

[Jesse Risley]

Public opinion and perspective are a powerful thing. They wouldn't be scrambling to do damage control if it wasn't a big deal. They know how public opinion can impact things.

Perhaps I look at things from too much of a black-and-white perspective, but if that's the case, then the "powers that be" need to simply inform the hypercritics that it wasn't V2 and let that be the end of the story. It's kind of hard in my book to let inaccurate public opinion be responsible for disciplinary actions or a withdraw of funding, if that's what some are trying to stave off. Then again, I've never embraced the "squeaky wheel gets the grease" mentality.

 

[Sean Casey]

Hey everyone,

I wanted to answer some of your questions. After episode 7 aired last week, several of my friends involved with Vortex2 told me that they were getting hate mail, even on their own sites. I wanted to help, so I wrote the above letter. I posted it on Discovery's site on the Storm Chasers message board because I had heard that board had a lot of the hate-filled posts.

I posted on here because I know most of you don't go to that site (with good reason) and you wouldn't see it there. I wasn't trying to lump you in with the general public and I know that there wasn't bashing going on here, I thought that because a lot of you actually know the people involved, it would give you the whole story, and let you disseminate the information to other sites if you want to. Thanks to those of you who did, and thanks for the suggestion to post on facebook, I did. In short, I guess my reason for posting this on Stormtrack is I'm just trying to clarify the situation about people I care about to people that I respect.

I'm not trying to make this the most talked about or thanked thing on here, I am fine to move on after this, but if anyone wants to ask me anything more, that's fine. You can also pm me on facebook. I'm not much of an internet person, those of you who know me already know that. I don't go online every day, but I will get back to you.

 

[Rob H]

Thanks for the update Sean... I feel a little sheepish about my assumptions and my snark now. I think a lot of us were just confused because we weren't aware of any threats or other foolishness that V2 members were being subjected to, and it's been awhile since you've been on the forums. As for the 'thanking', take that as tongue-in-cheek ribbing and proudly know that you have the most thanked post here by a long shot now, toppling even Willoughby's post with his amazing shots of the Campo tornado this year

 

[Brandon Jenkins]

I am glad to see it wasn't a one and done response to the situation as a lot of people expected that it would be. I truly hope that the dissemination of the messages that you and Dr. Wurman have posted (well I guess someone posted for him) will help to clear the air of the confusion that caused all of this to begin with. But sadly I don't think that it will satisfy the narrow minded souls who believe that the TV tells no lies.

 

[Jason Foster]

....but if anyone wants to ask me anything more, that's fine. You can also pm me on facebook. I'm not much of an internet person, those of you who know me already know that. I don't go online every day, but I will get back to you.

Bottomline for many here is this: Are you and will you do it better in the future? We here, as chasers, just want to chase. As long a person or team recognizes their mistakes AND COMMITS to NOT do it again (and doesn't) is what gets our respect. Engaging with the chase community, whether here or elsewhere is also good. The one thing I ask is for you to push Original Media and Discovery to be more honest and true to the events they portray. Not that they have to, but I believe there is plenty of natural drama and great storylines that can be pursued and still get high (or higher) ratings.

Josh Wurman's statement (the PDF) was equally good to read to get more perspective as to that person's true feelings and position on certain subject matter.

Aside from the YT and public commentary, I think the chase community as a whole is one that is strong, ready to vocalize about situations and circumstances that need discussing. The community at-large is generally open to hearing from everyone and DISCUSSING the matter rather than just make a hit-and-run comments and abuses.

I still would like to see either or both Discovery Communications or Original Media comment about the actions documented by many on May 19 (and some other dates). I would like to see a commitment by these companies to do it better for the sake of safety and respect for the community at-large.

 

[Melissa Jablonski]

i think the show is edited brilliantly, everything made sense to me through how the show was edited and I realized the position everyone was placed in. Definitely a shame that a vocal minority have reacted the way they have. Im sticking up for the editors of SC !! they do a great job at conveying what it's like to stormchase. ... I can relate to picking a target and missing the mark, getting frantic and excited, dissapointed, elated. I've only had a few chases and i can already relate. I like how the shows becoming more cinematic.

Really, my chase partners and I have never acted that way on a chase. None of our chase video has ever needed to be bleeped. No I'm not attacking you. Just stating a fact.

 

[Joerg Kudella]

Really, my chase partners and I have never acted that way on a chase. None of our chase video has ever needed to be bleeped. No I'm not attacking you. Just stating a fact.

Well, that depends on how impulsive and passionate one is while chasing storms. In some situations, whether they are just stunning or frustrating, beeing a little bit over the top is a quiet normal reaction that many people would show in an unnormal situation. Because that is what stormchasing is like to me, something out of the ordinary.
I can´t blame them for showing emotions, kind of reminds me of myself.

 

[Mike Moore]

Ah yes... my least favorite part of the Storm Chasing community.

Sean is a successful film maker and tornado chaser. He has created the TIV and TIV2, he is in a weekly TV series on the discovery channel, he is working on finishing an IMAX film about tornados... I can admit I think that's pretty impressive. Oh and admittedly a minor detail, but if you ever met him in person he's a heck of a nice guy.

But... wait... he was filmed passing in a no passing zone.

Let's burn him at the stake.

Try not to forget the people on the moving picture box are still just that. People.

 

[Rob H]

But... wait... he was filmed passing in a no passing zone.

Let's burn him at the stake.

I'll bite - no one is burning him at the stake. If you look at Sean's post history, he hasn't been coming around much unless his production team needs pictures of the TIV, or something similar to that. He's arguably busy though, doesn't care for the Internet much, and has to deal with drama like this thread every time he posts - so I guess I wouldn't visit much either. Regardless, from reading some of the replies here, some people feel being part of a community is a two way street, and that includes posting about college football in Bar & Grill

Because of this, I'm *assuming* many peoples' thoughts were "this isn't about helping out some friends because they're getting hate mail", but more of a "Discovery, etc. made me issue a blanket statement everywhere I could put it". It probably seemed almost like a pot-stirring move initially, since no one here was mad at V2 in any way, and the post seemed to be coming out of nowhere.

I'd be mad at any chaser for passing a bunch of other chasers in a no-passing zone. Especially in a 16,000lb tank that would crush anything it came into contact with. Sean is arguably one of the faces of storm chasing and the show will inspire chasers for years to come. In this kind of 'role model' position, the passing move seemed like a poor choice, but I don't think anyone here is ready to egg his house or flip him off on a chase because of it.

 

[Mike Moore]

I'll bite

I wasn't fishing... I swear!

I was more referring to the controversy back in May... if you recall it was pretty toasty. I think it's pretty cool that Sean posted something here to clear things up about the relationship between all parties.

I have a few colleagues at work for example who aren't chasers, but watch the show each week. They're pretty convinced Josh is the Devil, and Sean is the victim which is how the show is edited. Sean said in both last weeks episode and again (in a flashback) in last night's episode that the 75 mile restriction WAS because of Josh... sooooo what are viewers supposed to think?

I think Sean realizes there is a difference between the general viewing public and the storm chaser community, which is why he gave us sort of the "behind the scenes" info to clear the air.

Maybe the topic of Sean Casey is the new lightbar thread.

 

[Mike Deep]

I'd just like to see a show that's more accurate. They must be getting plenty of good footage of good storms from multiple perspectives, but the presentation is unfocused and disorienting. 99% of the time I have no idea where anyone is or what's going on, other than Reed is shouting.

If I had to guess, I'd say the production team doesn't know what to do with the subject material and falls back on "make the team appear to hate each other" while weather takes a distant back seat. So you get generic reality show #4,376, featuring the occasional tornado. It all feels forced and unprofessional. I believe they could do some truly amazing things if they would just step out of the reality show mold.

I want to see more of the storm, I want a better sense of perspective, I want more information about what the storms are doing and what the teams are doing, and I think there's room for that if you take out the faked drama. If we have to have team interaction, I don't understand why we can't see the constructive or friendly interaction rather than the hand-picked occasional bickering everyone does after three days on the road (Or worse, painfully obvious producer-fed lines). I don't want chasers vs. chasers, I want chasers vs. storms! The "tornado as the villain" idea from a few pages back is a good one. It should be the destructive monster everyone is trying to hunt down, and not just that incidental thing happened upon while the exhausted crew was snipping at each other.

The maps could be so much better, too. I don't get the sliding radar image when they could just use the actual radar loop. This is indicative of how the production is out of touch with both the subject and the audience. It's a little thing, but come on. The public does know what looping weather radar looks like.

I realize this is a bit off-topic since it deals with the show in general, but this incident was a symptom of the show's production.

 

[ahaberlie]

Totally agree Mike.. make it about the science and less about the drama. Maybe instead of 5 minutes of Sean talking to the Josh on the phone.. have a meteorologist or tornado/severe weather expert talk about what made this situation unique and offer an interesting and scientifically sound perspective of the day.

I found yesterdays episode to be really interesting as I actually knew a person who was chasing this particular system and many of his friends in Minnesota were impacted. I know I was watching the "real show" from the sidelines and there were MANY notable things about the Minnesota outbreak that they could have talked about.

A feature that would be amazing and wouldn't lose viewers is if they took a minute and showed a still picture from the footage and showed what it looked like on radar (reflectivity, velocity) and on satellite imagery and then explained some of the surface data to give us some sort of orientation and then maybe described the storm structure.

 

[David Drobny]

A feature that would be amazing and wouldn't lose viewers is if they took a minute and showed a still picture from the footage and showed what it looked like on radar (reflectivity, velocity) and on satellite imagery and then explained some of the surface data to give us some sort of orientation and then maybe described the storm structure.

Great point.

Last night, watching Reed's encounter with the multi vortex tornado, then when they were "surrounded" by tornadoes, I turned to my wife said "I wonder what that looked like on radar."

 

[rdale]

Remember - most TV viewers don't understand radar. My news director brought that up EVERY TIME we reviewed tapes, that I didn't explain what the reds and yellows meant. There is NO way that Discovery channel is going to increase their viewership by taking out Reed's constant reflections (and corresponding video) of Yazoo City -- and replacing it with a synoptic analysis.