by Clara Lieu
Things here at Art Prof may have seemed fairly quiet on the blog recently, but on the contrary, our work flow is seriously heating up for our upcoming site launch. This past weekend we had a four day marathon of shooting video content with myself along with TAs Annie Irwin, Yves-Olivier Mandereau, Casey Roonan, and Lauryn Welch. We stocked up on what will be several months of video content, while I transition to video editing hibernation for the next several weeks.
The TAs and I created a wide range of video content for the new website this past weekend: bio videos for each staff member, intro videos for each section of the site, Q&Art videos which are spontaneous round table discussions on various art related topics, and Crit Trios where three of our staff critique a single artwork.
One aspect of the production process that we’ve realized is that despite the fact that being on set feels messy and disorganized at times, (let’s just say that we will have more than enough content for blooper reels) it’s truly incredible the way the content is dramatically transformed in the editing process. What can at times feel like a stream of mistakes can turn into a slick, polished video in the end.
What’s very exciting is how diverse the video content has become. Even just 6 months ago, we were relying heavily on stills to fill in the gaps in our videos. Now, we have left our “Ken Burns” stills behind and have gone all out to video. Of course, that’s about ten times more work, and much more complicated, but wow, the results are totally worth it. I’ve also been surprising myself by the sometimes ridiculous situations I have put myself into for the sake of getting the right footage. At one point, I found myself carrying all of the lighting equipment, cameras, my laptop and more on my back, as I walked up what must have been a 45 degree hill in the middle of a fierce winter blizzard. One thing I’ve learned about being an artist: when you’re truly passionate and believe in your project, you’ll do ANYTHING to make it happen.
Artprof.org is a free website for learning visual arts which features video tutorials, art critiques, and more.
Clara Lieu 
January 26, 2017 –Great advice. Wish I had heard this video when I was in my 20’s. I eventually figured out some of what Clara talks about and got a great art related job in New York in my twenties but I was so busy in the job that I rarely had time to make art work even though I was making good money and meeting lots of art world super stars. It toke a lot of years of working to finally get to a point where I had to re-evaluate my priorities. Hope you all listen to Clara. She’s got so much good stuff to offer.
Thanks for sharing your experience Lindsay! I really appreciate your support and feedback!
thank you
Great to see ArtProf taking off! I have shared this with our students and faculty and interest and excitement is building. Keep up the great work, Clara!
Thank you so much for your continued support, we greatly appreciate it!!