Mid Point Review

Mid Term Review

Ever since I've discovered YouTube, I've been a huge fan of the format of the website and the content that is shared for everyone.  In my spare time, I've watched hours of videos that are informative yet entertaining and the time I've spent "drooling" over cool projects feels like time well spent.  The ability to see a project be created from scratch, in some instances, is an opportunity that was not possible in the past and I am grateful for it.  I have finished many videos feeling inspired to create and try new things.


One of my favorite channels that I've subscribed to is that of Jimmy Diresta. According to his bio, he is "an experienced television personality as an on camera  designer/builder host. Jimmy combines his charisma with his innate ability to solve problems with found objects , a wide variety of tools, techniques, with sweat and bruit force" ("TV").  The projects that he creates on his YouTube channel showcase the years of experience that he has and the insight that he provides is worthwhile to any person interested in fabrication.  Through his videos, he utilizes a number of materials and tools and the mysticism that lies in a final product is unveiled for everyone to see.  

In addition to the educational value that his videos have, there is an entertaining element as well.  His videos rarely take the route of other, more traditional instructional videos by having little to no narration, and the whole video is all action, meaning that he is showing what he is doing instead of talking about it.  In the interest of time, portions of the videos are sped up for monotonous activities, like drilling holes or cutting repeated shapes.  In my opinion, the whole aesthetic of the video is a fast paced, informative, visual narration of how he constructs his projects.    

In that vein, my project fulfills my desire to provide a similar channel for technical theater.  I do not have nearly as much experience as he does but I want to share my passion for creation and the results of my experimentation I do on the stage.  For my target audience, which includes students and amateur fabricators, sharing the procedures of proper power tool use and construction techniques will hopefully  empower people to experiment themselves and get involved.  In addition to making informative content, I am utilizing interesting camera angles to make the footage more entertaining.

The other goal that I have developed for my project is archiving all of the work that I do and displaying my skills. Being that I am still not settled into a career, I plan on using these videos as a portfolio piece, accompanied by still pictures.      

The main struggles that I have had so far is making sure that everything comes out right.  As I have been working, I noticed that the planning that I did was not as extensive as it should have been and in the future I will make sure that I am more elaborative with my story boards.

With that being said, it has really been an honor to create content to share in the community and a goal of mine to have an audience which is willing to have a conversational relationship with me.


TV. (n.d.). Retrieved April 12, 2015, from http://www.jimmydiresta.com/