It was mixed. We had a lot of things go really well, and a couple of things that didn't. But we learned a lot, and came away with many new insights, and some pretty good ideas about what to do next time.
The shooting began mostly with the silver level demo clips. We were able to capture all of the Silver Int'l Standard with Mikail & Olga, the Silver Latin with Mark & Viola, and the Silver Rhythm with Jonathan & Alicia. The smooth had nearly twice as much Silver material as any of the other dances, and we didn't quite get all of it. But it's enough to last easily unti the next shoot.
After that we moved on to bronze basic instruction, including figures and technical lessons. Unfortunately the Rhythm did not go well in this department, and the small amount of material we did manage to get will probably be scrapped and re-shot with a different couple in a few months.
The Latin went really well. Mark & Viola covered a little more than half of bronze, but instead of filming figures in order, they skipped around a bit and selected what they felt were the most important from all 3 bronze levels. They also managed to get in a few basic technique lessons. Instruction was simple and concise, and they were well rehearsed, which enabled them to cover quite a bit of material in the time they had.
Melissa and I took the Bronze Smooth and Standard. I began slowly and a little too perfectionistic, and tried to cover too much teaching material per pattern. As it became apparent that this method was not going to render enough material, I modified my approach and picked up the pace. In the end we managed to tackle most of beginning and some intermediate bronze, in 7 out of 9 dances -- both American and Int'l Viennese didn't make it this time.
We did get to film West Coast Swing with Craig & Deborah, including about 4 levels of demo clips and 8 patterns of full instruction. We did have a couple of last-minute cancellations, including our Salsa and Lindy teachers. Luckily we already had at least 4 levels of demo clips for both dances filmed in previous sessions, but unfortunately no full instruction until next time.
The camera crane we had hoped to use did not pan out, but it's probably for the best -- It would have taken a lot of time away from the material we did manage to cover. We have an idea that we would like to schedule a 1 or 2-day film shoot dedicated exclusively to material best suited for a camera crane, such as overhead shots while explaining amounts of turn in Paso, Samba, and all of the Smooth & Standard dances, as well as extended amalgamations danced to music.
So after 5 exhausting days, I'm pleased to say that the film shoot was mostly a success. The only missing elements are Bronze full instruction for Rhythm, Salsa and Lindy. But I do have a lot of material to edit, and I'm confident that we'll be able to schedule a follow-up film shoot long before I've finished processing and uploading the material from this one. So it may not even be noticed.
At the moment I'm waiting on an ultra fast hard drive, which should arrive sometime next week (The hard drive is fast, not the shipping). When it arrives, I'll copy the footage and begin editing. In the meantime, once I finish writing this message, I will get to work on the programming of the premium membership for the website.
Premium membership will roll out first, hopefully within about a month, which will include all of the full bronze demo clips already in place. Immediately after that, you will start to see new videos added every week. I don't know how long it will all take to finish, but I'm hoping to take a huge chunk out of it before the end of the year.
Regards,
Jonathan Atkinson
www.ballroomdancers.com
