Seeing HitRECord on Zero Dollars A Day
This little essay, and the collab it is part of ( http://hitrecord.org/records/50638 ), began as my response to Laikaa in a thread.
It's about making your contribution to hitRECord even when you are severely budget challenged, lacking the sophisticated hardware and software that some of us might assume are necessary to make the sort of audio and visual art you find here.
She wrote:
For a while now I've been hitting hearts at hitRECord which I am assured helps in some small way but I'm sad to say that I've felt a little...I dunno...isolated from the whole process. I have no editing equipment, I can't afford a video camera and my laptop doesn't even have a damn soundcard. I felt limited to photographs and text (although I'm sure 'limited' is a word I shouldn't use) because a majority of the material that is remixed tends to be video and audio records.
I stick around because I genuinely believe in the work that is being done here and I love watching records grow and evolve. I embrace the positivity, the loyalty and the sheer sense of pride in this place that every hitRECorder seems to have. It's comforting to know that such a supportive place actually exists. I was bursting with happiness knowing that you all got to Sundance and I knew that when I sent around links to certain records that my friends would click and enjoy the current products as much as I did. Sadly though, it still felt like I was pressing my nose against the glass unable to fully participate because all I saw were limitations in my way. I was watching something great happen; a giant, collaborative, creative dance that I felt I could never join in on. It was fiercely intimidating but thankfully I can feel that melting away.
-----------------------
Her words moved me because I have many of the same problems and felt much the same way, at least where audio and video were concerned. But the more time I spend here, the more it becomes clear how many budget-challenged hitRECorders we have out there, and how much of all this amazing art is produced on some of the most average, sometimes even ragtag equipment.
I was suddenly reminded of a photographer friend (an old skool film photographer) who a few years back once told me that the true genius of Ansel Adams was that he managed to produce his world class photographs in the 1940's,'30's and even 20s! He explained that this was a time when photographic and manufacturing technology was far less mature, and the consistency of even the best equipment and film stock he had to work with was all over the place. He compensated with the most painstaking workarounds for his terrible equipment and film, and produced world class art that still outshines many of today's photographers.
So, this was was my response:
@Laikaa I am in exactly the same boat! Or so I first thought. I'm scary broke too right now, I have only an old desktop computer, no laptop, no webcam or video camera, no microphone even, unreliable Internet.... But the point is I found *some* workarounds.
I found a sort of workaround for the microphone by recording a couple of sound RECords into my cellphone! Then I had no bluetooth on the computer to receive the file from the phone. I finally figured out I could text message the sound file to my email, and then download it. Crazy, but it worked. The phone's little mic is low quality, but not as bad as I expected. I had no audio editing software to clean it up, but Audacity ( http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ ) is a free and legal download and was capable and quick to install and learn, and I had never done audio editing.
I do have a half decent digital still camera - one of these days I will look into whether it can do video. Most can do at least a few minutes of low resolution video, and that is better than nothing. Plenty of great video RECords are that short. So, I will try. Maybe you have or can borrow a digital still camera that can do *some* video.
There's some great free video editing software out there too, and it's on my list to try out. And then you can always REmix other peoples video too.
Finally, don't underestimate the extreme power of those text and still image RECords. I'm mostly a writer, thus far, so text is what I'm all about. It *is* harder for text RECords to get noticed. Text people have to stick together and Heart each other. Oh, and if you want to edit images and don't have Photoshop, GIMP ( gimp.org ) is also a free, legal download and an extremely capable Photoshop competitor.
It's about making your contribution to hitRECord even when you are severely budget challenged, lacking the sophisticated hardware and software that some of us might assume are necessary to make the sort of audio and visual art you find here.
She wrote:
For a while now I've been hitting hearts at hitRECord which I am assured helps in some small way but I'm sad to say that I've felt a little...I dunno...isolated from the whole process. I have no editing equipment, I can't afford a video camera and my laptop doesn't even have a damn soundcard. I felt limited to photographs and text (although I'm sure 'limited' is a word I shouldn't use) because a majority of the material that is remixed tends to be video and audio records.
I stick around because I genuinely believe in the work that is being done here and I love watching records grow and evolve. I embrace the positivity, the loyalty and the sheer sense of pride in this place that every hitRECorder seems to have. It's comforting to know that such a supportive place actually exists. I was bursting with happiness knowing that you all got to Sundance and I knew that when I sent around links to certain records that my friends would click and enjoy the current products as much as I did. Sadly though, it still felt like I was pressing my nose against the glass unable to fully participate because all I saw were limitations in my way. I was watching something great happen; a giant, collaborative, creative dance that I felt I could never join in on. It was fiercely intimidating but thankfully I can feel that melting away.
-----------------------
Her words moved me because I have many of the same problems and felt much the same way, at least where audio and video were concerned. But the more time I spend here, the more it becomes clear how many budget-challenged hitRECorders we have out there, and how much of all this amazing art is produced on some of the most average, sometimes even ragtag equipment.
I was suddenly reminded of a photographer friend (an old skool film photographer) who a few years back once told me that the true genius of Ansel Adams was that he managed to produce his world class photographs in the 1940's,'30's and even 20s! He explained that this was a time when photographic and manufacturing technology was far less mature, and the consistency of even the best equipment and film stock he had to work with was all over the place. He compensated with the most painstaking workarounds for his terrible equipment and film, and produced world class art that still outshines many of today's photographers.
So, this was was my response:
@Laikaa I am in exactly the same boat! Or so I first thought. I'm scary broke too right now, I have only an old desktop computer, no laptop, no webcam or video camera, no microphone even, unreliable Internet.... But the point is I found *some* workarounds.
I found a sort of workaround for the microphone by recording a couple of sound RECords into my cellphone! Then I had no bluetooth on the computer to receive the file from the phone. I finally figured out I could text message the sound file to my email, and then download it. Crazy, but it worked. The phone's little mic is low quality, but not as bad as I expected. I had no audio editing software to clean it up, but Audacity ( http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ ) is a free and legal download and was capable and quick to install and learn, and I had never done audio editing.
I do have a half decent digital still camera - one of these days I will look into whether it can do video. Most can do at least a few minutes of low resolution video, and that is better than nothing. Plenty of great video RECords are that short. So, I will try. Maybe you have or can borrow a digital still camera that can do *some* video.
There's some great free video editing software out there too, and it's on my list to try out. And then you can always REmix other peoples video too.
Finally, don't underestimate the extreme power of those text and still image RECords. I'm mostly a writer, thus far, so text is what I'm all about. It *is* harder for text RECords to get noticed. Text people have to stick together and Heart each other. Oh, and if you want to edit images and don't have Photoshop, GIMP ( gimp.org ) is also a free, legal download and an extremely capable Photoshop competitor.
