A Comment on Videos

[cawhouston]

I really appreciate those who take time to post knitting videos on the internet. Much of my learning comes from videos and trial and error. I literally watch hours of videos and that is what prompts this note.

Many videos are of poor quality because of lighting, movement, point of view, etc. That’s OK with me because the posters do what they can with the equipment they have. I don’t expect commercial grade cinematography and I appreciate the effort.

My time and frustration stems from the poster knitting at full speed. For me it’s like a magician doing sleight of hand. The movement starts and ends and I’m left scratching my head as to what just happened and then watching the video over and over and over to grasp the technique. Seems to me it someone wants to teach they ought to consider that speed, while great for sports, may not enhance a demonstration.

Just a thought.

[GrumpyGramma]

Have you checked out the videos here? I think Amy does a great job of showing what you need to do, a lot of what I've learned was through the videos here.

[Jan in CA]

Yeah, the videos here are high quality and being improved regularly.

[sheldon]

I believe Amy can be given credit for the inventing the online knitting video. KH was launched in Nov 2004 (even earlier if you consider KH original was part of Amy's personal website), and youtube didn't come around until Feb 2005. It wasn't until just a few years ago that the masses started producing knitting videos using the same knitter's eye view which is familiar to Amy's videos.

I agree that the pool of talent producing videos vary widely. Amy has always strived for accuracy and thoroughness in her videos. I remember her researching various techniques, calling LYS to see if they had heard of such and such method, etc.

A significant number of our videos were recorded in the early 2000's with low resolution digital camera capable of filming 30 seconds at a time. We are now working on re-filming many of these older versions with our HD camera.

[Paulaque]

how in the world do you get the bird's eye view like that? I have tried and tried, and the closest I can come is the camera pointed at my lap in front of me, which is NOT where I want it.

[ArtLady1981]

Maybe by using a tripod & camera staked out behind the knitter at an elevated height, pointed down on the knitter's work?

Maybe by having a husband standing behind the knitter, up on a stool, with the camera looking down onto his wife's work?

My guess...the tripod...

[sheldon]

We used to shoot the videos with the camera on a tripod and Amy's hands on each side, basically hugging the tripod and holding the needles out in front of her lap. It's cumbersome and very prone to the knitting dropping out of the shot which is a common issue in some of the older videos. We occasionally get emails about a few of them that were especially bad.

Nowadays, we're a bit more fancy. We have a camera mounted up high on a ceiling beam pointed at a space right in front of where Amy sits. That camera has a cable running to a monitor in front of Amy so she can always see if her hands are in the frame.

Anyhow, that's the behind the scenes magic here at KnittingHelp.com.

how in the world do you get the bird's eye view like that? I have tried and tried, and the closest I can come is the camera pointed at my lap in front of me, which is NOT where I want it.