Whew! What a week it was last week… Last Wednesday, I brought pal and photog instructor guru Zack Arias into my studio for another episiode of chasejarvisLIVE. We chatted photography for 2 hours and took questions from the live Twitter audience via #cjlive. Was a blast. While about 20,000 of you caught the interview LIVE–it seemed like I got at least that many tweets/emails/fbook requests to post it again here on the blog, so… As you wish. Here ’tis.
From there, we shipped Zack and his crew into our creativeLIVE studio where he put on one heckuva studio lighting course all day Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Hopefully you saw the interwebs booming, especially with the @creativeLIVE and #askzack tags. I’m pretty sure Zack swiped some ratings from the World Cup. Or at least we had fun trying. I wanted to give a huge shoutout to Zack and his team for an amazing effort. You guys and gals nailed it. Also a shoutout also to all the manufacturers that kicked in gear for Zack to give away, as well as uber thanks to B&H Photo Video for their support of the creativeLIVE studio and G-Technology for keeping our gobs and gobs of data safe. They support us, please support them. I hope lots of you tuned in. And if you didn’t but wished you had, the course is available for download here.
While I’ve got you, I wanted to ask for your feedback. Not somebody else’s…YOURS. In the comments below, we’re looking to find out a few things with the goal of making creativeLIVE the best it can be. Tell us whatever you want, but please help us by answering some or all of the following particulars about our LIVE, free, worldwide creative education platform:
1. What makes the creativeLIVE approach different, better, worse? How does our class format compare to others?
2. Where do you live? We want to understand the breadth of our audience with the comments on this post. Where are you from, and when are you watching the LIVE feed?
3. Does this live worldwide format really work? This is the important part. What does the experience feel like to you? Can you help describe this format to someone who’s never seen it?
Thanks for taking the time! If you’re new here, I invite you to subscribe/follow via links above and to the right. Lots more stuff heading your way soon on all our channels…
1. I love the possibility to ask questions and get them answered in real time. It’s almost like sitting in the lecture room. This is the point that for me makes this MUCH better than a normal DVD.
2. Europe Austria
3. Zack’s workshop was a bit hard time wise, especially since the rerun time was not so clearly set. Falling asleep at around 3:00 and standing up at 5:00 in the morning to watch the rerun, just to notice it hadn’t started yet was not so cool (but hey I’m not complaining I got the great workshop for free!)
I noticed the second day rerun was missing he breaks. The third day rerun was much better for me, since it left them in and thereby enabled me to go to the toilet and eat without my laptop 😛
Generally speaking I thought the Aperture class was ok, but I’d never buy it. IMHO video is great for things that have a lot to do with intuition and stomach feelings, but a book is better for hard facts. Also Scott’s workshop felt as if he was just promoting himself.
Zack on the other hand was enthusiastic and his workshop made me really want to visit one in real. If I have time (and my girlfriend lets me spend the money) I’ll try to join the upcoming one in the UK.
So I guess it’s not only a good way to sell the downloads, but also a great way to promote these workshops. I honestly never before thought about joining one, but now that I’ve seen Zack’s I really want to experience it in flesh and blood.
1. I definitely like the live format. More of an organic feel than other static educational offerings. The audience participation via social media brings the internet classroom up a notch in my opinion. I purchased the downloads after watching most of the Friday session, seeing how good the quality of Zack’s information and teaching was, and realizing I wouldn’t be able watch the whole session over the weekend. Saving $50 was a motivator too.
2. Watching from Victoria, BC Pacific Daylight Time.
3. The format works well for delivering live information in most time zones. Production logistics and quality will improve the more of these you do. Can’t wait for David Duchemin.
1. What makes the creativeLIVE approach different, better, worse? How does our class format compare to others?
Honestly, I was skeptical about spending a weekend in front of my computer, but I was so impressed with the whole event…the production/streaming quality was amazing. I was in awe of the fact that it was live – I generally don’t like watching classes or video tutorials online b/c the quality is always terrible. This made me feel like I was right there and a part of the class. Of course it is difficult to just watch and not be able to get your hands on lights, modifiers etc. in order to practice what is being taught. The students that were there were a great addition for me b/c we got to see them put everything into practice.
2. Where do you live?
Burbank, CA. Watched the whole thing live from Fri – Sun.
3. Does this live worldwide format really work?
It worked for me….but if I was in a different time zone, I can see how it would be a pain. I don’t think I would have made it through the live broadcast or the re-broadcast.
To me, this says tons about our industry – that Zack was so willing to share his knowledge and experiences and that creativeLIVE made it available for free! There are so many nay-sayers who are not willing to help those who just want to learn, so really – a big thanks to everyone – this was amazing!
I am really loving CreativeLIVE and all that it has to offer. Being a stay-at-home and homeschooling mom doesn’t afford me a lot of opportunity to take in workshops such as this past weekend with Zack. I can’t tell you how much learned and how valuable it was to me.
I really think you need to check out the link I’m attaching. I would love to see him on CreativeLIVE. I’ve been so inspired by his posts. Check him out.
http://smogranch.wordpress.com/2010/06/16/questions-from-a-reader-about-process/
1. What makes the creativeLIVE approach different, better, worse? How does our class format compare to others?
I like the “live” in front of an audience format. It keeps it real compared to video that has been cleansed of any real-life problems. I liked the multiple views (video of the shoot, views of the camera back, views on the teathered laptop).
I like the time spent on Zack’s philosophy of sharing with the local community and his community of friends/associates. It was refreshing to hear/see this.
I saw nothing that was worse than other courses other than have to wait through the breaks – I see no way to avoid that when watching a live presentation. I just left my speakers on and did other things and came back when I heard voices again.
2. Where do you live? We want to understand the breadth of our audience with the comments on this post. Where are you from, and when are you watching the LIVE feed?
I live in California. I watched the Friday session (to the extent I could) at work and then watched the Sat/Sun sessions at home.
3. Does this live worldwide format really work? This is the important part. What does the experience feel like to you? Can you help describe this format to someone who’s never seen it?
To me it felt very much like a live lecture class on photography. I did not try to read on-line viewer comments and questions as I thought the density of information coming from Zack was as much as I could handle.
The Twitter-based give-away was fun – even though I didn’t get the monster 7 foot modifier – I was so sure it was MINE! I’d keep that feature just for the fun of it to the extent it works with the class being given.
Zack’s class was great – thank for putting it on. I also enjoyed the John Greengo course which was full of detail. Even though I knew most of the material, I still learned small things that will improve my photography and my selection of equipment in the future.
I’m now really looking forward to the Watercolor course.
I hope these courses make you enough money that you are able to continue this operation. Best wishes.