behind the scenes

A SNEAK PEEK INTO HOW WE MAKE OUR VIDEO TUTORIALS

In the April edition of our Knit Pickers PEI Newsletter, I mentioned wearing many hats.  I knit, weave tartans, design patterns.  I am also the website manager, video content creator, producer, and editor.  I am the social media guru, office accountant, writer of the blog and newsletter.  I am the order fulfillment centre.  This is the reality of owning and operating a small business in rural PEI.  But – I do have 3 production assistants:  George, Carnie and Hobbes. 

George loves to participate in the video shoots.

Carnie is learning how to weave tartans.  She particularly likes to help out with the flow of wool when I wind a warp.
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And Hobbes gets all wrapped up in knitting projects.

I’m also very lucky to have a sister who is my spare brain – when mine is short circuiting due to system overload.  She is the Guru of Google and the creator of all of the goofy sheep pics that we use on our Ewe Love labels and in social media promo.
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She also gave me my first piece of video equipment for Christmas – a tripod for my cell phone!  
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I film in a small corner of my “loom room”.  It houses my floor loom, table top loom, tri-loom, warping board and two tall cube cabinets full of wool along with a couple of bookcases and a sewing machine.  The first photo with George shows my early set-up – my cell attached to the tripod, sitting on the table that usually holds my table-top loom.  The window faces west which results in a very bright afternoon light – so bright that I have to draw the drapes for filming.  Morning light is non-existent.  The overhead lighting is pitiful, to say the least.  I clip spotlights to bookcases when I am weaving!  I tried this for filming but it was creating all sorts of shadows and bright spots.  Then I made the best $20.00 investment ever!  I found a ring light that could attach to my tripod and an adjustable arm that holds my cell phone that attaches to the ring light.  The ring light has 3 lighting modes – daylight, incandescent and fluorescent – and each has 3 levels of brightness.  No more spotlights attached to bookcases and extension cords strung every which way! 
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​The tripod, ring light and adjustable arm are all from UBeesize.  No – this blog is not sponsored.  I am just so happy to have found affordable equipment that I can use to create videos.  They have all sorts of fun and inexpensive gadgets if you want to play around with your own videos!

Of course, I still need to edit the video clips when filming is all done.  My delightful production assistants have a tendency to either bump the tripod, walk in front of the camera or play with the wool.  They’re cute – but not terribly helpful.  Mind you, when the work day is done, they are awfully loving and cuddly!

So – when you watch a tutorial on the Knit Pickers PEI YouTube channel, just imagine that you’ve been backstage and caught a peek at all the behind-the-scenes fun that goes into making these videos!  If you subscribe to our channel, you can click on the little “bell” to receive notifications when a new tutorial is uploaded!