Pretty much every time we announce an event here at the storefront, people request that we stream it live on the web or create a video we can post on the blog or YouTube.
We don’t do this for a variety of reasons.
- The storefront is a nightmare for audio recording. We have high ceilings and tons of hard surfaces. Even with good audio equipment (a TV station was here) and ideal conditions, the audio sucks.
- We don’t have the equipment or people to do a good job. I am so picky about video. If we’re going to do video, it’s going to be a high-quality production. That means at least two cameras. So there will be some editing, which takes up time we don’t have.
- I don’t want the videotaping to interfere with the actual live experience. People travel here from all over the world. Their visit here is tacked onto their vacations. Or they travel here specifically to come take a class or visit our open day. Real life is real important to me. I’d rather reach just a handful of people and do it well than reach a thousand people in a halfhearted way.
- We have about 10 other projects that are a higher priority than streaming video from the shop. I know this means we are out of step with the rest of the world and all the videos on YouTube. But I’m OK with that.
So until I find a way that we can produce high-quality video (and audio) in a way that doesn’t gobble our time and doesn’t interfere with the people who traveled hundreds of miles to be here, I’m afraid the best way to visit here is to come here.
I know that not everyone can manage a trip – financially or time-wise. Sadly, we also can’t manage filming events – financially or time-wise.
— Christopher Schwarz
Good for y’all. Right on! Have another Great wood weekend.
Videos of LAP events might be interesting, but I for one am growing hostile to a culture that seems to want to video and stream every damn thing out into the world. If the LAP shop is a safe space where I am not going to be subject to video scrutiny, I am, henceforth, redoubling my efforts to take a class there as soon as possible.
After someone broke into my school shop a few years ago, video cameras were installed, and now the shop, and me, if I am at work, are under video surveillance 24/7. I can’t pick my nose, scratch my ass, adjust my shorts, or sip my coffee without the awareness that someone may be watching over my shoulder. My shop comes up on the school district security monitor on a regular rotation, and there are a number of school officials who can call up the cameras in my shop and watch me on their phones. I don’t think any of them actually DO this, but they can.
So, yeah, keep the cameras out of the LAP shop as long as you possibly can.
I like “out of step”.
Fair enough. I’d actually prefer to visit anyway, and hopefully one day I will make the trek from down under! Cheers.
Yes. That is fair. And, again the Chris Schwarz videos that I do have, I value greatly, along with the Youtube “articles”. Someday, I also hope to make the trip up to LAP.
I find the short Instagram videos of a busy shop you all post occasionally. I find them very motivating to get out into my shop after work or on weekends. They’re just the right push to spend extra time Woodworking.
Out of step with the world sounds like a song lyric.
That’s because it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNcDC8wJiRE
It is what it is.
I’d rather you be honest then to produce a bunch of crap.
Thanks.
The lack of any video experience from Covington keeps the experience as one that has to be done in person. That’s special, even more so when you live far away. My wife and I are from Virginia and we went to see our daughter row in a college regatta in Indianapolis a few years back. My wife said, “What would you like to do while we’re here?” I used to rebuilt British sports cars (that is a kind expression for MGBs, Midgets and Spitfires) so she assumed I would want to go to the Indy track. I noticed that LAP was having an open shop… and thus began the two hour journey to woodworking Mecca. I will give you no teasers or hints. Just go. I still haven’t been to the Speedway and I don’t regret it. Go.
Nobody want to see video of you picking your nose. Training videos for people who can’t afford the time or money to attend in person would be helpful to many. Wireless mics, zoom lenses, cameras on tripods in the back of the room – video production doesn’t have to be intrusive. Hire a professional producer not some high school Iphone freak. You can move to a different drummer without being in step with the hours of crap that pretends to be worthwhile video.
Or if you absolutely insist on no video, why not publish flip books of your lectures? No audio issues, no postproduction, and aside from the poor cartoonist sketching furiously in the corner, no disruption to the class! Better yet, it’s an untapped market–I’m not aware of a single flip-book based woodworking teaching system. Wave of the future!
I want it to be a pop up book. Especially for dovetails.
And that’s the way it is at Lost Art Press in Covington, Kentucky on August 7th, two thousand nineteen….
This is not the CBS evening News and this is not Walter Cronkite reporting.
Audio is the stuff that makes or breaks videos. Strange but true. People tend to under-estimate the work surrounding video shoots, both in setup and in the editing room. The popular major streamers out there invest a lot of time for that casual-looking weekly update or so, it is a serious undertaking.
I could not agree more. I’m a podcast listener like many people, and I can’t stand the lackadaisical nature that audio is handled in many of the podcasts where the subject is keen to my interests, the content is something I want to hear, but the production is terrible. I feel in the minority here because so many people seem to think their laptop or phone mic is good enough. the ones that do it well, are head and shoulders above those that don’t.
Doing a session well for a few is much better than doing a session poorly for many. Itr also reduces the grey hair stress.
Something to consider is to invite students from your local community college who are taking a video production class (everyone offers them) to use your shop as a challenging video environment. I’ve now had three videos of my carving shop produced by students with about a total of 2 hours of my time and no editing or additional financial cost to myself. The quality has been surprisingly good! I don’t let them be published into the wwworld until I approve them.
I’m glad you’re not streaming your stuff. I like books, vinyl, and talking face to face. YouTube and Spotify is good, but it doesn’t beat the real thing. Some things are better off in a physical format and to me you’re kind of representing that truth.
Rig question: Why the clap at the plane stop instead of a hold fast?
No clue why I did that.