So we are into the start of the summer and still not allowed to go out and have birthday parties etc. The lockdown has relaxed slightly with allowing 6 people in the garden but that includes yourself. So still very difficult to have any form of celebrations at the moment. The other thing to worry about is the insurance as you do not want to be out and about entertaining and then find you are not insured, just in case something happens. Agree we can keep two metres away but what when the balloon is given to a child and pops later at the event, you should always be insured. The other thing with social distancing with balloon modelling is yes we can keep apart but then we hand over a balloon design that we have been touching for the past 3 or 4 minutes or even longer so there is really no social distancing with us doing this. Could you take an anti bacteria spray along once you have finished the design to spray it. There is so much to think and worry about, hopefully things will improve soon but I have to say I think it will be a very slow process for us entertainers waiting to entertain again. Anyway stay face and be careful.
Onto more cheerful things, its BalloonTube Sunday today and we have the Buzz lightyear wrist bracelet design being posted over onto BalloonTube. This is the 76th tutorial posted and I have another eight already filmed for the coming months. Buzz Lightyear.
I also filmed a more relaxed tutorial on Friday, we were trying to come up with a little catchy name, no idea why, probably just for the fun of it. I thought about Graham is Twisting (GIT) and because of my age Old Git, made me chuckle. Two other suggestions were made, Magic Lee and Learning with Lee. Then when I was filming I was sitting behind a table and I thought about Table Top Twisting. I don’t suppose we will use any of them but it was fun trying to think of a catchy little name. So if you have any ideas then please let me know….thanks.
So the idea of the tutorial was to be a little more laid back and explain things a little more with options why I do a certain way but you could also do a different way depending what is more pleasing to your eye. The plan is for no editing, I just push the record button and go and sit down and start talking, the same as when we end the tutorial I just walk over to the camera and switch off, no fancy graphics, no pop ups, no music, just me and the table 🙂
I filmed the new Teddy design yesterday and it took nearly 15 minutes, I enjoyed filming it but when I looked back it was a little on the dark side. I was hoping to just set the camera up and film, no lights etc and no worrying about shadows when lights were in place. So I did a quick test yesterday with lighting and it is better and I found two places to put the lights quickly and easily so the plan is to try and film two today. The Teddy and the Whale I posted onto model of the month over on Balloon Chat. And yes the plan is to charge for these tutorials, unfortunately the forum does cost a four figure sum each year to keep online plus all my time with running it as well. With no parties for the past 4 months and balloon sales at one point at non existent we do need to get a few pennies in to keep ticking over.
I was also trying to sort out YouTube Private setting so the paid tutorials could be shared that way but it seems for some reason not everyone is able to view the private videos even after I have added the email address giving them access. I need a YouTube expert to help, hopefully we will get this sorted sometime soon and can start advertising. And yes I’m a little concerned what people say as since we started Balloon Chat, BallooTube and running all the balloon days all my tutorials, over 200 have been free. There are some Facebook keyboard warriors out there but I will try and keep smiling other wise they bring you down to their level and we don’t want that………do we 🙂 🙂
That’s me for this week, if you would like to purchase some product that would be very much appreciated, Balloon Art Wholesale.
Off to find the random balloon picture of the week.
This was for the challenge thread over on Balloon Chat that we do every few weeks.
This is challenge number 6 for this year. Challenge 2020.
