Sunday, July 19, 2009

Moving pictures

There are a number of forms of learning and with many people, reading and seeing photos is useful and often used in home study. The next step up is seeing a technique being completed and hearing spoken words, which would usually take place in a class setting or one on one.

Technology can cross barriers and provide access where geography wouldn't normally allow it and bring people and information into your living room or studio.

I bought a Flip video camcorder and this is the first test of a tutorial just to get a feel for it. Lighting and set up are crucial and neither are perfect in this, so bear with me. I do often get asked to create video clips of techniques and thought this may be a possibility. I have noticed more and more bloggers providing video information and it is very useful to see how others create their work or speak about it.

Now I just need to get the focus right so people can actually see more clearly what I'm doing. Also the talking and drawing at the same time are challenging. I can see the appeal of just drawing and having a music background instead of voice.


8 comments:

Rose Welty said...

Jeanette,

How fun to see your video! It's interesting to hear your voice - of course, I had imagined it in my mind all these years - rather different than I imagined it. :D

Pointillism is a wonderful form of work. I enjoy it immensely...although I think, for me, I have to be in a stage of life where I can enjoy the slow process of it. Recent attempts with it weren't successful because life is just too rush rush. This is a fabulous piece, well worth 30 or 40 hours!

Jennifer Rose said...

nice little video :) if you have a tripod setting it up so that the camera points down at the work will help with focus problems (if it hooks up to a tripod). Placing it against books might help too. going back and forth distance wise is the main problem with it focusing as it takes a few seconds for it to work. if the video is just going to be of the artwork and not other things having it set at certain point really does help and makes it easier to talk and draw at the same time as you are not messing around with the camera :)

Charlene Brown said...

The handheld camera technique works beautifully for the extreme close-ups of your pointillist technique, and the voice-over is perfect for this. I mean the concept of voice over is right -- I couldn't actually get it loud enough to understand some parts.

Jeanette Jobson said...

Thanks Rose. Funny how we have mental images (or voices) in our heads and reality never matches usually.

Yes, you need a quiet space to do this and with small children around its difficult to find that.

Jennifer, I need to do some more rehearsing to get this right on several levels. This was just a test to see if would work at all.

I have several tripods but a very tall one would be perfect to peek over my shoulder. I see some rigging of things in the future :)

Thanks for the input Charlene. I will be perfecting this concept over the next few days to tweak both visuals and sound for a good experience all round.

You're all my guinea pigs on this one! :)

"JeanneG" said...

It was nice to hear your voice. I too had some trouble understanding a few places. Be careful or you might have another "tripod" helping you out.

A Brush with Color said...

This is great! One of the reasons I do love the internet. I enjoyed seeing you do the pointillism work here. Amazing.

vivien said...

I've borrowed one of these from college over the summer and have played a little but not yet uploaded the clips - it looks a useful little tool :>)

I haven't got sound at the moment so couldn't hear you :>( I really should sort it out

Tracy Hall said...

Great video Jeanette! You are braver than me - trying to talk at the same time was beyond my capabilities! If you have windows movie maker (or similar?) you can add a commentary afterwards which might be easier if you want to speak, and also mesh clips together. Like Jennifer suggested, I stuck my camera on a tripod.

Love this drawing very much and look forward to seeing more videos.