Posted by Betsy Bowers on November 14, 2012 at 11:42am
Hi all,
I had my first show last weekend and recieved some great help/advise from a few show regulars. I'm looking to adjust my booth set up slightly and was looking for advise from y'all too. I sculpt one off ceramic animals, and I make time lapses of their creation... I'm planning on setting up a flat screen TV and set my time lapses play on a loop (with no audio). That way people can be drawn in by the process and see the finished pieces.
Here's a link to one of my videos: http://betsybowers.com/blog/2012/10/here-come-the-dancing-bears/
After reading up on past discussions - I'm going to make a trip to batteries plus to see what kind of battery hook up I'll need... (I'm planning on running the TV and two or three lights on it).
I'll be at the CraftArt show this weekend, and plan to use this new setup. I'll have blown up images of my sculptures on the walls, the timelapses on the TV, and the sculptures of course, on display.
I'll also have a few signs made saying "original hand sculpted ceramics". I had seceral of people not understanding what my pieces were made from, and actually "flicking them". I even had a few that asked me who I bought my molds from. I was hoping that the signs, and process time lapse would be more informative... Though I realize I'll still hve occasional "flickers" :)
Do any of you use tvs in your booths? pros, cons? Any comments, or suggestions are appreciated.
Thank you!
Betsy
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I couldn't get through 15 seconds of that video...
I have a 2 minute video done by a friend of mine who has made tv commercials for over 30 years. Without getting into it, y'all have seen many of the commercials his company has made. I wanted a 5 minute video of me demonstrating my process. He claimed that 1) people max attention span for this sort of thing is 2 minutes. You start to lose them after 2 minutes. 2) people want to hear you and see you. They want to know your personality because this is what you are selling as much as the work. So, my video is basically me talking for 2 minutes with cut scenes of me making and firing my pieces. of the 2 minutes, 1 minute is a closeup of me pontificating, 30 seconds shows me throwing pots and 30 seconds shows me firing pots. I show it on my I-phone to those who have engaged me to explain my process.
I second that the video is too fast, it also gives the illusion that it takes "no time" to make these when in fact we all know that it takes several days or more. I second the digital picture frame, especially one that runs on batteries. Also a slide show might be a better way to go. A friend of mine had a slide show on her facebook page of the blizzard accumulating 30" of snow on her balcony. Each picture was 30 minutes apart and then she set it to move forward fairly quickly.
I agree that a TV will jam up your booth with tire kickers, maybe a small portable DVD player. Another thing you can do is give each purchaser a dvd of the process.
I thought of running a video in my booth too, which shows me making my art, tells my life story etc. but my bf talked me out of it. I had PBS do a mini documentary on me (about 7 minutes long). It turned out great but I DO think it would distract my customers from buying and also block the view of other customers so I decided against it.
I do like Davids suggestion. I might try that at my next few shows though. Thanks David!
Ray Morton > MIchelle MonetMarch 6, 2013 at 9:21am
One of the problems of being next next to Michelle Monet is that the crowd of people jammed around her booth wanting to buy her stuff kept waking me up.
Hi Michelle! This is the wood guy who was next to you the first week of Gatlinburg. Hope all is going great for you.
ahhh RAY! LOL. I just now saw this post. It was nice meeting you toooo of course. YES I did finish a CD in my home studio. Ill have it for sale at all of my art shows now. Are you doing the Gatlinburg show this year??
Donald Lee > MIchelle MonetMarch 5, 2013 at 9:51pm
(My take on things) Although I don't have real experiences yet in the booth I do sell TV's at a retail store as a part time job. I would say a LED would be the way to go. plasma can glare in the sun and although I prefer there look, because of the glare I would say LED. They are also brighter then Plasma(led=LCD)(just dif lighting system)
As a side note don't buy new. floor display can be a lot cheaper. I have seen a 50 inch plasma 3D TV sell for 130$ on clearance. Or buy off E-bay or used
They actually do make TV's made for outside too but they are insanely expansive. Also if you were to put a frame around the TV and invert it deep into the frame the shadow the frame would make may look OK in daytime.
I use an ipad with retina display in my booth. The image is easy to see and I have it in "picture frame" mode. It is usually set to show installation images but if someone is interested I can show them another photo album, for instance a process slide show. I also like that I can go directly to my website and show the customers how to reference the piece they are considering. I paid for my ipad the first time I used it. The couple couldn't remember the size of the table they just bought. We went on line to the Stickley furniture site, found the table with dimensions and they bought a $750 piece. They were ready to walk out. It's just another selling tool for me. I think a tv would be more of a distraction.
Great work! I did watch the video all the way thru because I really wanted to see the end result and I love it. But the video was so fast it made me motion sick. Not sure if that can be changed or you even want to change it. The pictures are a good idea. What about a QR code that links peoples smart phones to the video if they are interested in seeing the process?
Replies
I couldn't get through 15 seconds of that video...
I have a 2 minute video done by a friend of mine who has made tv commercials for over 30 years. Without getting into it, y'all have seen many of the commercials his company has made. I wanted a 5 minute video of me demonstrating my process. He claimed that 1) people max attention span for this sort of thing is 2 minutes. You start to lose them after 2 minutes. 2) people want to hear you and see you. They want to know your personality because this is what you are selling as much as the work. So, my video is basically me talking for 2 minutes with cut scenes of me making and firing my pieces. of the 2 minutes, 1 minute is a closeup of me pontificating, 30 seconds shows me throwing pots and 30 seconds shows me firing pots. I show it on my I-phone to those who have engaged me to explain my process.
I second that the video is too fast, it also gives the illusion that it takes "no time" to make these when in fact we all know that it takes several days or more. I second the digital picture frame, especially one that runs on batteries. Also a slide show might be a better way to go. A friend of mine had a slide show on her facebook page of the blizzard accumulating 30" of snow on her balcony. Each picture was 30 minutes apart and then she set it to move forward fairly quickly.
I agree that a TV will jam up your booth with tire kickers, maybe a small portable DVD player. Another thing you can do is give each purchaser a dvd of the process.
martha
I thought of running a video in my booth too, which shows me making my art, tells my life story etc. but my bf talked me out of it. I had PBS do a mini documentary on me (about 7 minutes long). It turned out great but I DO think it would distract my customers from buying and also block the view of other customers so I decided against it.
I do like Davids suggestion. I might try that at my next few shows though. Thanks David!
Here's my link:
MICHELLE MONET ON PBS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB-lA48Ql7s&list=UU7TvVDkbuqI31F...
.
One of the problems of being next next to Michelle Monet is that the crowd of people jammed around her booth wanting to buy her stuff kept waking me up.
Hi Michelle! This is the wood guy who was next to you the first week of Gatlinburg. Hope all is going great for you.
Did you get ever get into the studio to record?
Enjoyedgetting to know you last fall.
ahhh RAY! LOL. I just now saw this post. It was nice meeting you toooo of course. YES I did finish a CD in my home studio. Ill have it for sale at all of my art shows now. Are you doing the Gatlinburg show this year??
(My take on things) Although I don't have real experiences yet in the booth I do sell TV's at a retail store as a part time job. I would say a LED would be the way to go. plasma can glare in the sun and although I prefer there look, because of the glare I would say LED. They are also brighter then Plasma(led=LCD)(just dif lighting system)
As a side note don't buy new. floor display can be a lot cheaper. I have seen a 50 inch plasma 3D TV sell for 130$ on clearance. Or buy off E-bay or used
They actually do make TV's made for outside too but they are insanely expansive. Also if you were to put a frame around the TV and invert it deep into the frame the shadow the frame would make may look OK in daytime.
grrrr again sorry did not see the fact the post is from November. grrrrr
I use an ipad with retina display in my booth. The image is easy to see and I have it in "picture frame" mode. It is usually set to show installation images but if someone is interested I can show them another photo album, for instance a process slide show. I also like that I can go directly to my website and show the customers how to reference the piece they are considering. I paid for my ipad the first time I used it. The couple couldn't remember the size of the table they just bought. We went on line to the Stickley furniture site, found the table with dimensions and they bought a $750 piece. They were ready to walk out. It's just another selling tool for me. I think a tv would be more of a distraction.
Great work! I did watch the video all the way thru because I really wanted to see the end result and I love it. But the video was so fast it made me motion sick. Not sure if that can be changed or you even want to change it. The pictures are a good idea. What about a QR code that links peoples smart phones to the video if they are interested in seeing the process?
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