Friday, August 19, 2016

New Throwing Videos

A month ago I looked at my throwing videos on my YouTube channel and realized the quality wasn't great. I decided it wouldn't be too much trouble to redo the videos with a better camera. There were only about 30 videos I wanted to redo.

my wheel and camera set up in the YVC studio

Obviously I didn't think this through, because this project was considerably more work than it seemed to be in my head. I thought I could probably make most of the videos in one or two days and spend one day uploading them. Instead, It took me three mornings to film most of the videos I planned to make and I found it far too tedious to continue working in the afternoon. I want to redo half of those I filmed and I couldn't bear to upload any of them yet. I also have a lot of clean-up left to do.

my efficient list of videos that fails to address any issues related to camera angle or length of video

I was actually gobsmacked by how an activity that I repeat every quarter, multiple times, class after class, could be so unbearably boring when done alone in front of a camera for the second time. It obviously didn't help that I couldn't listen to music or an audiobook while filming and that I was doing this during what should have been summer sculpture-making time for me.


I still plan to upload the replacement videos--at least some of them, but I'm going to wait until some other projects are finished. It's possible, too, that the first round of videos can be uploaded again at a higher quality. I'm not sure whether watching this round's videos or editing videos in iMovie sounds more painful. They both sound like torture. 

Given that the process is so painful and tedious and unpleasant and annoying and--did I mention I dislike making and editing and uploading videos?--I might try to enlist some help next time. I think the videos are valuable for students, but no fun to make. 

I'm considering whether I'd be better off writing a grant to have someone else film while I demonstrate. That way I'd have someone to talk to, but I'd also skip the agonizingly repetitive step of cleaning my hands thoroughly every time I want to start or stop the video. It would be immensely helpful to have someone else assist with getting the right camera angles, since I can only estimate what the camera will see when I'm sitting down or leaning over. An individual on the camera could also start and end a video while I'm still on the wheel with wet hands.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Tell me what you think about my work or this post