My You Tube Channel
Workshop via Handwoven (Long Thread Media)
With the stay at home orders and businesses being closed, many people are experiencing hardship in terms of income. Events are being cancelled. People are disappointed that their long awaited chance to meet with others is being thwarted or that they can't afford to purchase things.
This tightening of belts also affects the teachers, the event planners, the businesses that supply craftspeople.
I am seeing more and more comments from people involved in the business of crafts that customers are asking for things that simply cannot be provided. Free patterns from people who make a significant portion of their income from designing and selling patterns, either one at a time or in books. Teachers being asked to suddenly tool up and start providing on line classes. For lower fees because of course they don't have to travel and the student doesn't have the interaction with the instructors for feed back. Ergo, the student shouldn't have to pay as much as for a live event.
The instructors are agonizing over these requests (in some cases, demands). They want to oblige but they, too, are suffering economically. With society in economic lock down, they don't have an income either.
There have been several people advocating for events to go on line without having any understanding of what it would take to get there. Most on line classes are months in the making, not days. Every successful (and by that I mean a good experience for the student) on line class has had a team of people making what you see on the screen happen.
I have uploaded a number of video clips to You Tube. A recent comment highlights that not all video experiences are 'good' for everyone. Under my winding a warp video, someone commented that I worked too fast, they couldn't see what I was doing, not useful for a beginner.
All valid points. But my video clip wasn't meant for a 'beginner' but someone who had an idea of what warp winding was all about, and showing how to wind a warp on a warping board more ergonomically.
While there may be dozens of videos on You Tube, few of them are very good. (Not even mine.) The quality of video camera available to most people is not great for clarity. The clip is a single point of view - and it may not be the point of view someone needs/wants to see.
Editing is a skill and most people don't have that.
Most people don't have space in which to set up filming. Space to set up cameras. Good lighting. Good acoustics!
When we filmed The Efficient Weaver, we did the sequences out of order and by the end of day three we thought we'd got everything and wrapped up filming. It was only after driving the crew to the airport and dropping them off that I suddenly remembered we had not filmed the rough sleying part.
What can I say? Three days of intensive filming from 9 am to 5 or 6 pm, setting up shots, filming, reviewing the results, re-doing, moving along to the next.
I felt a certain amount of satisfaction that the crew complimented me on how well prepared I was and that they had feared the filming schedule was too ambitious - two different topics, two different locations, all wrapped up in three days. But the thing is, I had done some camera work for the local volunteer tv station, plus I've been involved in theatre and dance as well as teaching for about 30 years at the time the taping was done.
Generally getting good video of things that are meant to convey information, especially that of physical skills, cannot be banged out in a matter of days. I spent months doing the preparation work that allowed the filming to be accomplished in three.
One event has cancelled this years in person event and immediately there were calls for it to go on line. They have called for volunteers to investigate doing on line events in the future. Two years is enough time to investigate the possibility of doing an on line event. But it would mean completely revamping what they offer and how.
This is not a bad thing. But it won't be the in person event people are used to and it won't necessarily be much cheaper as each presenter will have to have a crew to do the production work.
In the meantime, Rule#303. If you have the means, you have the obligation. Help organizations to stay alive. Throw some cash at independent instructors - many have Patreon accounts (I have ko-fi). Buy their books. For those who already have on line classes, maybe now is the time to sign up. If you have skills to put classes on line, you could maybe help with that, too. The only way we are all going to survive this is to help each other as much as we are able.
Three already existing on line classes: Janet Dawson's on bluprint, Jane Stafford's on-line guild and Tien Chiu's on colour.
Workshop via Handwoven (Long Thread Media)
With the stay at home orders and businesses being closed, many people are experiencing hardship in terms of income. Events are being cancelled. People are disappointed that their long awaited chance to meet with others is being thwarted or that they can't afford to purchase things.
This tightening of belts also affects the teachers, the event planners, the businesses that supply craftspeople.
I am seeing more and more comments from people involved in the business of crafts that customers are asking for things that simply cannot be provided. Free patterns from people who make a significant portion of their income from designing and selling patterns, either one at a time or in books. Teachers being asked to suddenly tool up and start providing on line classes. For lower fees because of course they don't have to travel and the student doesn't have the interaction with the instructors for feed back. Ergo, the student shouldn't have to pay as much as for a live event.
The instructors are agonizing over these requests (in some cases, demands). They want to oblige but they, too, are suffering economically. With society in economic lock down, they don't have an income either.
There have been several people advocating for events to go on line without having any understanding of what it would take to get there. Most on line classes are months in the making, not days. Every successful (and by that I mean a good experience for the student) on line class has had a team of people making what you see on the screen happen.
I have uploaded a number of video clips to You Tube. A recent comment highlights that not all video experiences are 'good' for everyone. Under my winding a warp video, someone commented that I worked too fast, they couldn't see what I was doing, not useful for a beginner.
All valid points. But my video clip wasn't meant for a 'beginner' but someone who had an idea of what warp winding was all about, and showing how to wind a warp on a warping board more ergonomically.
While there may be dozens of videos on You Tube, few of them are very good. (Not even mine.) The quality of video camera available to most people is not great for clarity. The clip is a single point of view - and it may not be the point of view someone needs/wants to see.
Editing is a skill and most people don't have that.
Most people don't have space in which to set up filming. Space to set up cameras. Good lighting. Good acoustics!
When we filmed The Efficient Weaver, we did the sequences out of order and by the end of day three we thought we'd got everything and wrapped up filming. It was only after driving the crew to the airport and dropping them off that I suddenly remembered we had not filmed the rough sleying part.
What can I say? Three days of intensive filming from 9 am to 5 or 6 pm, setting up shots, filming, reviewing the results, re-doing, moving along to the next.
I felt a certain amount of satisfaction that the crew complimented me on how well prepared I was and that they had feared the filming schedule was too ambitious - two different topics, two different locations, all wrapped up in three days. But the thing is, I had done some camera work for the local volunteer tv station, plus I've been involved in theatre and dance as well as teaching for about 30 years at the time the taping was done.
Generally getting good video of things that are meant to convey information, especially that of physical skills, cannot be banged out in a matter of days. I spent months doing the preparation work that allowed the filming to be accomplished in three.
One event has cancelled this years in person event and immediately there were calls for it to go on line. They have called for volunteers to investigate doing on line events in the future. Two years is enough time to investigate the possibility of doing an on line event. But it would mean completely revamping what they offer and how.
This is not a bad thing. But it won't be the in person event people are used to and it won't necessarily be much cheaper as each presenter will have to have a crew to do the production work.
In the meantime, Rule#303. If you have the means, you have the obligation. Help organizations to stay alive. Throw some cash at independent instructors - many have Patreon accounts (I have ko-fi). Buy their books. For those who already have on line classes, maybe now is the time to sign up. If you have skills to put classes on line, you could maybe help with that, too. The only way we are all going to survive this is to help each other as much as we are able.
Three already existing on line classes: Janet Dawson's on bluprint, Jane Stafford's on-line guild and Tien Chiu's on colour.
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