HOME ENTERTAINMENT : MacPherson ‘Workout’ Joins Fitness Videos
It’s January, which means following through on those New Year’s resolutions to shed the pounds put on since Thanksgiving--which triggers the post-holiday boom in fitness tape sales.
This is the month when women, who buy nearly all these videos, are faced with the same old question at retail outlets: Which one to buy?
Tough choice. The shelves are full, hosted by celebrities or fitness gurus, geared to women of varying ages and physical conditions.
Women often choose celebrity tapes so that can sweat along with their favorite star. These days celebrity programs are generally sound because, unlike many tapes in the ‘80s, they’re all designed by fitness experts.
You can go wrong, however, by trying to work out to a tape that’s wrong for you. If you’re 50 and out of shape, it’s not smart to try to keep up with Cindy Crawford on “The Next Challenge.”
The latest entry in the celebrity fitness sweepstakes is model Elle MacPherson with her tape, “Your Personal Best Workout,” from Buena Vista at $16. It opened at No. 15 on Billboard magazine’s health and fitness chart and is expected to become a Top 5 title.
In town recently, the Australian supermodel explained how she tried to make her tape, which is part aerobics and part body-sculpting, different from all the others.
“You look for a little edge,” she said at the opening of the Santa Monica studio of Karen Voight, who helped design the video’s workout program. “Most tapes are shot inside a studio. We make this one different by shooting on locations in Hawaii. It’s outdoors and has a feeling of freedom. If you’re working out at home, some scenic locations make it all more pleasant and inspiring. The scenic locations give us somewhat of an edge over the other tapes.”
MacPherson stressed that a good tape must have some entertainment value.
“It can’t be too dry and dull and business-like,” said MacPherson, who got into fitness while trying to lose weight that she had to gain for a role in the movie “Sirens.” “People buy a celebrity tape partly to see the celebrity. But you can’t overdo it. The trick is balancing the entertainment and the exercising, which is difficult. If there’s too much entertainment, the tape is worthless as an exercise tool.”
Is it better to make a tape for a certain age group in specific physical shape?
“That’s very limiting,” she replied. “It’s better to do one that has more general appeal and design the workout carefully so it can work for different people. Why close off part of your market before you get started?”
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Fitness Tape Bits: O.J. Simpson’s fitness tape hasn’t done badly. “Minimum Maintenance Fitness for Men” (Uni Dist. Corp, $15), which came out a few months ago, has been on the chart seven weeks, currently at No. 12. It never became a monster hit, though, because it had two strikes against it from the start. One is Simpson’s status as the defendant in a murder case--certainly a turnoff to some potential buyers. The other is that it’s geared to men, who hardly ever buy fitness tapes for their own use.
But the hoopla over Simpson’s trial, though, is bound to generate sales on novelty value alone. On its merits as a fitness tape, some experts have said that for out-of-shape men who don’t exercise, it’s an easy program that’s a good first step toward getting fit.
The latest craze in the video fitness business is yoga. Three of the Top 5 tapes on Billboard magazine’s health and fitness chart are yoga programs: “Kathy Smith’s New Yoga” (No. 1), “Ali MacGraw’s Yoga Mind and Body” (No. 2) and “Yoga Practice for Beginners” (No. 5). One of the biggest fitness video hits of the past year has been “Jane Fonda’s Yoga Exercise Workout,” which has been in the Top 20 for 45 weeks.
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Clarification: Here’s a question-and-answer clarification of the confusing digital video disc situation. Toshiba/Time Warner made a smashing entry into the DVD (digital video disc) wars this week, debuting its machine and disc a few weeks after Sony/Philips premiered a rival system.
Question: What is DVD?
Answer: A 5-inch digital disc, about the size of an audio CD.
Q: What’s the difference in the Toshiba/Time Warner and the Sony/Philips discs?
A: The Toshiba disc is two-sided and can hold 4 1/2 hours of information, while the Sony/Philips disc holds about half that.
Q: Are the DVD systems compatible?
A: No.
Q: What will DVD be used for?
A: Mostly movies. Supposedly the DVD system will threaten the VCR dominance in a few years.
Q: What is DVD audio-video quality?
A: The picture is better than laser disc and the sound is CD-quality.
Q: What about price?
A: The camps haven’t set a price but reportedly the players should be in the $500 area while the discs will sell for about $20 each.
Q: Are the discs recordable?
A: No.
Q: When will DVD debut?
A: Next year.
Q: What is the major determining factor in which system will dominate?
A: The one that gets the strongest support from the movie studios.
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Special-Interest Videos: Rookie users have all sorts of questions about Internet that can probably be answered in the informative “The Video Guide to the Internet.” The presentation is precise and not too technical, so beginners can easily follow. From Visual Edge, $20. Information: (800) 405-4638.
What goes on at a police academy is very different from what you saw in that ‘80s movie slapstick series. You get a good glimpse of the elaborate training program in the half-hour “L.A. Police Academy Video.” From Cleary Communications at $25. Information: (800) 777-8668.
The four-tape set, “The Windsors: A Royal Family,” which aired on PBS, partly deals with modern family members but is also a historical exploration of five generations of Windsors. Available Tuesday on MPI at $80. Information: (708) 460-0555.
