Over the last few weeks Arts Council England (ACE) has been pushing the case for arts funding, via reports, press releases and Tweets in almost purely economic terms. The funding monolith even went so far as to create info-graphics that people could share around, via the internet, citing various statistics.

This outpouring of numbers appears to be a response to Culture Secretary Maria Miller's request that the arts need to make a good economic case to avoid further cuts in the up and coming spending review that takes place in late June.

It's not the first time ACE has started firing out lots of large numbers to fend of funding cuts. They did almost exactly the same thing the last time (in 2010) when their funding was under threat and on that occasion they received a 30% hammer blow to their coffers and the cuts have continued ever since.

So if history tells us anything it's that economic arguments when it comes to the arts don't really work, even if the arguments are true. Detractors of Ms Miller have also pointed out that economic reports vouching for the arts as a booster rocket for any economy have been kicking around for decades.

Ms Miller is either ignoring them, doesn't know they exist or simply doesn't care.

The Culture Secretary's speech, delivered at the British Museum in April, confirmed that Ms Miller was somewhat clueless about both her job as a government minister and the portfolio of responsibilities she has in her department.

Time and again the coalition government in the UK has demonstrated that facts are not something they are all that interested in hearing. Although a lot of arguments made by ACE in favour of the arts, in public at least, are pretty weak sauce you can't really blame them for the craven nature of the current crop of incumbents in Westminster.

Power of the People

You can be certain about one thing when it comes to politicians though. What they care about more than anything else is getting re-elected and to do that they need votes.

One of ACE's statistics, embedded below, claims that an astonishing 89,000,000 people (approximately) attended some form of performance or event given by an NPO company. That's about 20,000,000 more people than actually live in the UK. The stat probably means the number of attendees at all the NPO events but even if the number is only 50% accurate that would be a lot of fire power to throw at the politicians.

89,415,012 ppl attended exhibitions, performances & film screenings in 2011/12 by funded National porfolio orgs #artsfunding #culturematters

— ACE National (@ace_national) May 13, 2013

The number isn't the fire power though, it's the people that attend the events.

Arts Council England and the culture industry in general need to actively encourage the people who show up at their events to lobby their local MP's and councillors about arts funding.

Asking people to argue with politicians about "percentage contribution to national gross domestic product" is probably not a good idea. Getting them make a far simpler points such as;

"You know the local art gallery? Well I quite like it and visit it all the time. It's publicly funded so if it closes because of cuts, I'm voting for somebody else!"

It's a simple message but one that will certainly start a conversation with politicians and get their attention if enough people actually do it.

Wood For The Trees

How do you get people to lobby their MP to substantively support the arts? Well, you could try asking them!

At a recent performance in Leeds the AD of bgroup, Ben Wright, made a very short speech prior to the company's performance of 'Just As We Are'. Mr Wright simply asked all of those in attendance to fill out the forms that had been left on their seats which would not only help the company with ACE it would also help the Riley Theatre to secure future funding to bring new work to the venue.

He used no statistics, no mention of GDP, no convoluted esoteric arguments. Asking nicely was all it took and people responded in-kind.

On a wider scale the approach is almost as simple. First of all you have to actually let people know that the work you are presenting to them is publicly funded. Not funded by "the government" but publicly funded. Governments don't have any money, it's all your money. An ACE logo on the back of a leaflet isn't enough though, you have to try harder than that.

Then you have to let people know that the gallery, the company, or whatever it is, might be in jeopardy because of irrational cuts being made to national and local budgets. Again, keep the explanation simple, if they like the thing they are seeing or the thing they are doing and they want it to continue then the funding has to continue.

Finally you have to let them know who to contact so they can actually do a bit of activism on your behalf. Things get tricky here because local MP's and councillors are dependant on where the visitor to your venue is from and that is not necessarily going to be the same as where the venue or a particular company is located.

Fortunately the internets spring to the rescue here with websites like Writetothem.com and Theyworkforyou.com. Write To Them in particular makes it very easy to find out who your local MP is, who your local councillors are and even who your local MEP's are. They also make it very easy for people to contact them via the website.

If you're not a bricks and mortar venue (like a dance company for example) then use your website, your Twitter feeds, Facebook pages and your performances to let people know what's going on, where your funding comes from, why it needs to continue and who your audience can contact to voice their views.

The most important advocacy method however is direct engagement, actually talk to people who come to your show and encourage them to get politically involved in helping your company.

Climbing The Mountain

One of Arts Council England's info-graphics with a slightly dubious claim

Now, we know what you're thinking. Persuading people to lobby their local politicians about arts funding, that's going to be kinda hard, right?

Yes, it probably is. But think about how much time you spend trying to get feedback through paper forms, voxpops, Twitter and Facebook. Also, consider the herculean task involved in trying to replace public funding with private sponsorship. A task with a 95%-99% probability of failure.

If you have the confidence to ask people for money, asking them to contact an MP should be easy. Also, just because you do one thing doesn't mean you can't do the other things.

Currently, no dance company we know of actively encourages people to lobby their MP's and councillors in favour of the arts. Everybody is so focused on the people that don't listen (government ministers) they've forgotten about the people with the real power, the voters.

If ACE's numbers are correct there is a massive army of people out there who come along to arts events and, presumably, would like to continue to do so. If you want to lobby someone for support then lobby them because they have something far more powerful than a ministerial position in government.

They have the power to throw those people out of office.

by Michelle Lefevre

Every time the discussion about arts funding comes up, especially on newspaper websites like the Guardian or The Daily Express, the trolls come out to play with their particular brand of "reasoning" about why this poor little country can't afford, or shouldn't even bother, funding the arts.

Well dear readers allow us to debunk those myths for you and when you come up against said trolls in your internet or real world travels don't waste your time arguing with them just say "reason 4 applies here, now push off!"

1. This country is broke

We're not sure if the people who make this claim can read but don't you think if a major economy in the world, like the economy of the UK, was in-fact "broke" it would have been in a few of the newspapers?

This type of comment probably stems from a joke message left on a desk at the UK's Treasury by outgoing Labour minister Liam Byrne in 2010 that said;

"Dear Chief Secretary. I am afraid there is no money. Kind Regards --- and good luck! Liam."

Mr Byrne's joke wasn't funny or true but some journalists and anybody with an invalid point to make seized on the note as proof positive that this country is penniless.

However, if there was no money to pay for anything then everything, from schools to hospitals and beyond, would be closed-down because nobody would be getting paid. Even if people showed up to work anyway there would be no water and no power because the bills would not be getting paid.

That's what happens when you are broke, you don't have any money to pay for stuff.

Provisional numbers from HMRC (the UK's tax people) put receipts across all taxes they collect at £469Billion (up £2Billion from the previous year) for 2012-2013. Tax collection is also a continuos process, the £469Billion doesn't show up in the government's bank account on day one of the financial year with everybody crossing their fingers hoping the money doesn't run out for the next 365 days.

Also, despite recent downgrading by a few agencies this country has a very healthy credit rating that means we can borrow money if we need it, which is what we do all the time.

There's nothing unusual about any of this, it's just how countries work.

2. The poor pay for the play things of the middle class.

Some variations of this reasoning have the middle-classes paying for the pastimes of the rich.

Either way, as an argument, it doesn't hold up to even basic scrutiny.

Properly defining what classifies somebody as being "middle class" is, in and of itself, not a simple task but if we take "poor people" to mean those on very low incomes (at or below the national minimum wage over a year) or those on state benefits then we have a place to start.

Simple arithmetic illustrates that people on low income and state benefits pay a lot less in taxes than those classified as being middle-class. Even people on benefits pay taxes though, VAT is a relatively hefty tax of 20% on almost everything you buy.

Let us take a simple example though.

A middle class family of four (two adults and two children) pay taxes that contribute to the running of state schools. Should they be able to cry foul because a family of six (two adults and four children) with lower income receive the exact same education even though they contribute less, in monetary terms, into the system?

Of course not!

That's how a progressive system works, in theory. A state run education system is of benefit to all so everybody gets the same treatment irrespective of your income tax band or overall contribution.

The arts are no different. Some people contribute more, some contribute less, but the arts benefit everybody just the same.

Again, the amount of money that actually goes into the arts (via Arts Council England, Creative Scotland, etc) is tiny when compared to the overall budget of the UK's government. If people on very low income were to receive their personal contribution to the arts as a rebate every year the amount returned would be irrelevant to their financial standing.

3. The arts are elitist

Sure the ROH is annoying and unimaginative but you can get cheap tickets and they could be even cheaper if they cut some of their costs.

The simple response to this claim is; "oh no they aren't!" Nobody is excluded from taking part in any of the arts activity funded by either ACE, Creative Scotland or local government. If you buy a ticket for a show at the Royal Opera House they don't run a credit check on you before they let you through the door.

Even the ROH has cheap tickets if Opera and Ballet are your thing and you happen to live in London. Scottish Ballet are based in Glasgow, a city where poor people can go to feel morally superior. Birmingham Royal Ballet is based in, funnily enough, Birmingham. A city where people from Glasgow can go to feel morally superior!

If we leave the many arts events that take place that are completely free to one-side for the moment consider this. If your argument is that you can't afford tickets therefore the arts are only for "posh" people then what you are inadvertently doing is arguing for greater subsidy to help reduce ticket prices because you want to go to the theatre but you can't afford it.

Large scale organisations, like the National Theatre, could probably do a lot to reduce costs and their ticket prices but the middle and the small scale can't do that because they don't have much to cut back to begin with. If you want to go to the theatre but can't pay the ticket price, write to your MP and ask for more arts subsidy, not less.

4. The Opera and Ballet Obsession

It's true that the largest slice of public arts money does go toward the largest organisations. A situation that needs to change.

However, the obsession the cultural funding detractors have with opera and ballet are completely ridiculous because they ignore the thousands and thousands of performances that take place year round, produced by small and mid-scale companies, across the entire country.

Not everything is happening in a massive theatre in London or a massive theatre in some other major city for that matter. Additionally, not everything is a performance in a theatre. Often overlooked are education programmes, street theatre, free festivals, galleries, museums and so much more.

5. Non subsidised art is better

In response to such a ludicrous claim we would simply say "prove it!"

The substance for this position depends on what publication you are reading but it's either subsidy that makes the art not risky enough or, conversely, obscure drivel that nobody wants to watch because they (the artists) know they can get away with it since there is little or no financial risk involved.

People who make this claim also don't realise or have conveniently forgotten that a lot of commercially produced arts benefit from subsidy, just not from ACE. The tax relief provided to film production in the UK being one example.

A lot of art that is subsidised is completely terrible, but that's the creative world for you. Sometimes, things are going to suck.

6. It should make economic sense

Dancing folk tend not to have Swiss bank accounts or diverse investment portfolios. Photo: Marcio Cabral de Moura via Flickr

Economists argue that one way to stimulate the economy, especially when that economy appears to be struggling, is to invest, to create jobs, to stimulate!

This is exactly what arts funding does, it creates jobs. Also, what do you think happens when, for example, a choreographer receives a £5,000 commission to create a new work on a dance company or youth group?

Do you imagine they invest that fee in offshore bonds, stash it in a Swiss bank account? No, what they do is pay rent, buy food and purchase goods and services from local and multinational providers. In other words, they get the commission and that money then flows into the economy. One way or another that £5,000 ends up right back where it started, with the government that provided it in the first place.

Let us consider an outdoor arts festival as another example, how does that "make economic sense"?

First of all it creates jobs for the participants. The festival organisers use local contractors for a multitude of services from lights to safety barriers to chairs for people to sit on. The festival attracts people toward the city or town where the festival is taking place including tourists. Those people then spend money on local services like transportation, food and whatever else happens to be available.

Again, it's an economic engine that fuels the flow of money from a centralised source, through the population and then back to the centralised source as well as stimulating spending through related activity.

If you completely eliminate hundreds of millions in arts funding just exactly what do you think the consequences will be? A few less "luvvies" putting on a play?

7. False Equivalency

This argument usually takes the form of; "we can't pay for A because we need to pay for B". A common example is somebody stating that people can't get treatment on the NHS for something or other so why should we put money into the arts.

The false equivalency comes in because the assumption being made is that a person is not getting treatment on the NHS because of arts funding. Making such a claim is as ridiculous as saying soldiers don't have body armour because somebody is receiving housing benefit.

If a soldier doesn't have body armour it's because the Ministry of Defence can't manage their own £43Billion budget and if the NHS can't provide adequate treatment it's because they can't manage their £128Billion budget.

Spending on other government departments causes problems with arts funding, not the other way around.

8. Arts Council England is an old boys network that is craven, lacking in transparency and introduces policies that are not in the best interests of either the arts or the general public.

Ok, you got us on that one!

The joint Arts Council England (ACE) venture with the BBC that is The Space continues to operate, pushing the line that it's all about giving "the people" access to "the arts" or something like that.

After the initial, and hugely expensive, launch where ACE paid huge sums of money for not very interesting films about dance pieces, the powers that be have shifted focus to presenting pre-recorded lived performances of dance companies.

Now, when we say dance companies (plural) what we mean is dance company (singular) with the company in question being Rambert Dance Company.

At the time of writing they currently have four works, in their entirety, on the website so that anybody and everybody can go along and watch all of those works for free.

So what could possibly go wrong? Well, take a look at the compilation video we have put together below on just one of the works, 'Sub' by Itzik Galili, and you will see exactly what has gone wrong.

Extracts from 'Sub' by Rambert Dance Company. Article19 has edited the clips from the full video but the clips themselves have not been altered. The video contains no sound, use full screen to expand the player.

The whole point of shooting a live performance of a dance work is to then bring that work to others on video. Via the internet or otherwise.

You're not making a "film", you're making a "recording". The difference is very important because a "recording" is a visual representation of what actually happened and 'Sub' as it appears on The Space is nothing of the sort.

At several points during the video we see slow motion representations of the choreography achieved by shooting the movement at high speed and then playing the video back at normal speed.

Unless the dancers, as good as they are, can defy the laws of physics then this camera trickery has no place in the video. It also creates choreographic continuity problems by ruining the timing of the movement itself.

What does timing matter in a dance work though when the film company gets to show off their over-cranking mad-skillz?

Let's ignore the dancer in the background who is moving because we need to show you this completely pointless close-up of a dancers face

Broken Gears

The film company (in this case Nylon Films based in London) also appear to have some problems with their equipment. We've highlighted several issues in the video above where you can see some rather clunky attempts to reframe certain shots, tripod kicking and somewhat hopeless attempts to track the dancers as they move around the stage.

Filming a live show is not easy and mistakes are going to be made. The whole point of filming over multiple nights or with multiple cameras however is so you can edit the final video to remove those mistakes.

If the shots that are included are the only ones the company had then they didn't have the shots and the video should have been canned.

Speaking of editing. In several sections of the video the editor appears to be randomly jumping around to various parts of the choreography. We say "appears to be" because it's very hard to tell if certain sections of movement are related to one another. You lose all sense of the sequences the dancers are performing because all you can see are close-ups of somebody's torso.

You might be able to get away with this jump-cutting in a montage video or with spoken narrative in a dramatic film but for dance the sequences are the narrative. If you chop up the sequences all we are left with is a perfume commercial. Just a bunch of nicely lit images that don't mean anything.

Who the hell are those people at the front? Fear the floating heads of doom!

Clarity of Purpose

Our video highlights a dozen issues with the video but we found about three dozen more. So many in fact we could keep this piece going for a few thousand words.

There are numerous problems with the basic technical competence throughout the filming and editing of the video and it's hard to understand how anybody could let these pass even the most basic editorial checks.

For people who have never seen either Rambert Dance Company or the work of Itzik Galili it is especially tragic.

At the most basic level the film makers and the management of Rambert have added visual garnish to a work and to a company that is simply not needed. The dancers and the choreographer are impressive all on their own. Just film the work competently and all will be well.

If the objective of The Space is to bring art into people's lives for free then we need to make sure that what they are seeing is an accurate representation of the theatrical performances they are recording. Not a badly made facsimile of that performance.

What's also hard to understand is why Rambert, the best funded non-ballet company in this country, couldn't be bothered hiring a more capable company to do the film work.

If you think you might see something better in the other three pieces on The Space, all from Rambert, then you would be wrong. This might be hard to believe, but they're actually worse.

At the time of writing Rambert had not responded to questions put to them by Article19 about their videos on The Space. Repeated phone calls to Nylon Films went unanswered.

by Martin French

With some pomp and very little circumstance the National Funding Scheme (NFS) for the arts officially launched the "Donate" initiative at an event held somewhere in the UK and attended by people who couldn't possibly be less important to this particular story.

"Donate", according to the press blurb and the website;

"is a new way to give to the cultural things that inspire and move you. It's been designed to make it easy for you to make donations to cultural causes using your mobile phone."

Ed "manchild" Vaizy the current Culture Secretary was heard to say something about the scheme (the NFS website carries the Cabinet Office logo mind you not the DCMS logo) taking advantage of "new technologies" to fund culture and the arts.

If he's referring to the internet and mobile phones then he's either been locked in a deep freeze in his local butchers for 20 years or he's a bit of an idiot. Take your pick.

Doughnut

The idea behind "Donate" is very simple. It enables you to give money to the cultural charity of your choice using the internet, a cell phone or an NFC chip enabled debit or credit card.

If you don't know what an NFC chip is then don't worry, you're not alone. Also, unless the cultural organisation "of your choice" happens to be one of the 11 "launch" partners then you're out of luck because the scheme is in "beta" mode until the end of the year.

The touted difference of the "Donate" idea, compared to other online fundraising services, is that you can donate using mobile technology like the aforementioned NFC chip in your phone (if you have one).

There are also rumblings about donating at the point of "highest emotional engagement" which means that you can give money just after you have seen a show, or attended a museum, when you're feeling "really emotional" about the whole thing.

No word as yet on a feature to get your money back if you failed to be moved to tears by whatever cultural event you have attended, but we digress.

The Rub

As with most things connected to the Government's half-baked ideas to stimulate fund raising for cultural institutions across the land it misses one important point by about a thousand miles.

You've been able to do all of this for years.

Websites like Justgiving.com do all of the above (sans the NFC thing and QR Codes). If you choose to do so you can give money to any charity registered with that service from home or on your cell phone from anywhere in the world that has an internet connection.

They will collect the Gift Aid, a government tax incentive for giving to charities, process the payments and basically do all of the heavy lifting for you. You can even give money at the point of "highest emotional engagement" if you wish (stop laughing at the back).

Justgiving also has the added advantage of being available right now to absolutely any charity that wants to use it.

Skimming Off The Top

Another kick in the chest for the "Donate" scheme is that Justgiving will give your charity of choice more money when you donate using them.

Justgiving charges a 5% fee on the Gift Aid from your donation plus a 1.3% credit card fee on the entire amount less their own fee. To be a member of the website you need to pay an £18 membership fee per month but you only pay as long as you use the service so you can sign up for a month and then leave if you wish.

The "Donate" scheme on the other hand charges 4% on the total amount donated (that's donation plus Gift Aid) and an unspecified amount for the credit card charges.

When we asked the PR folk for NFS to clarify the credit card payment charges they told us that the receiving charity would get between 93% and 95% of the total amount donated.

If, over a period of 2 months, you received 100 donations of £100 from individuals all claiming the basic rate of Gift Aid your charity would receive £12,178 if you used Justgiving.

For the same level of donations through the "Donate" scheme you would receive £11,875 (at the 95% figure) or £11,625 (at the 93%) figure. A difference of £303 and £553 respectively.

The more money you raise the more you lose if you go with the NFS "Donate" scheme. If you were lucky enough to be able to grab 100 donations of £1000 over a period of 12 months then Justgiving would return £121,935 after all the fees. "Donate" would return £118.750 (at 95%) and £116,250 (at 93%). A staggering difference of £3,175 and £5,675 respectively.

Essentially, the more money you raise the more you lose as a charity if you use "Donate" instead of a rival service like Justgiving.

Emotional Engagement

When we asked the NFS press flacks to explain why an arts organisation would accept donations using the "Donate" scheme when they would receive less money if they did so using Justgiving the same line about "emotional engagement" was trotted out along with the ability to use multiple methods to donate.

All of which is true if you use Justgiving and has been for years.

Given that not everybody in the arts can use "Donate" just yet and the fact that you ultimately end up with less money if you use it then we have to ask...... what's the point?

There is also a bit of an issue with donating at the "highest point of emotional engagement". Yes, the language is completely ridiculous but there is a more serious problem. Arts organisations do have to ask for money but you have to wonder if right after the show is the best time to do it.

Your audience have already subsidised the company (or whatever it is) through the Arts Council or local government funding, paid for a ticket, bought their concessions and their programme and it's at that point you decide to try and tap them for more money?

At the time of writing the Cabinet Office had not responded to questions pertaining to their involvement. Arts Council England, for once, is not involved in this at all, at least in any way we could find.

by Article19

When you hire a plumber to come to your home the first thing that anybody will tell you is "hire a person recommended by somebody that you know". A personal recommendation is worth its weight in gold and helps you to avoid a massive bill and pools of water all over your kitchen floor.

The same goes for any trade, be they electricians, builders, designers or dance teachers.

Now, allow us to introduce you to The Dance Register, a website that claims to bring dance teachers to the masses with a simple search engine and a self enforced code of conduct.

The website (www.thedanceregister.co.uk) was created with the backing of several dance organisations. The Council for Dance Education and Training (CDET), The Dance Training and Accreditation Partnership (DTAP), DanceUK, The Foundation for Community Dance (FCD) and The Exercise Movement & Dance Partnership (EMDP).

DTAP however are the ones responsible for it existing and they received funding from Arts Council England to make it happen.

Rhyme and Reason

On the "about" section of the website The Register claims to provide;

"a nationally recognised, free to search 'one-stop shop' website for people looking for a suitably qualified and/or experienced dance teacher"

and the ability to;

"enable employers, parents, carers and participants to identify dance teachers who are committed to sound professional practice and high quality dance teaching and leadership."

All of that sounds great, on a funding application, but in reality such a website cannot possibly provide any of those things.

To get on The Register you have to meet a minimum set of requirements that include being over the age of 18, being an EU citizen or a non-citizen with a work permit, having insurance, first aid training and a suitably obscure "[commitment] to ongoing training and continuing professional development."

If you are wondering where the "peer reviewed and verified capability to actually teach any kind of dance whatsoever" is then you will not find it on The Dance Register.

DTAP will also charge you £40 if you want to join using this direct method.

Another way to get yourself on the list is to join via one of the above mentioned "gateway organisations" but that has the same problem. Being a member of any of those organisations is proof of nothing more than the fact that you are a member of that organisation.

It's All In The Data

What of the data that the website actually provides? Searches are a pretty simple affair. You just type in your postcode along with the age group and the style of dance you want the teacher to teach and hit the button.

The "advanced search" option will let you add a few more details and search by town or city if you wish.

You will then be presented with a list of teachers that are close to you geographically.

Depending on your where you live you may or may not get lucky. Most of the profiles we checked on The Register were completely empty apart from the teachers name.

A spokesperson for DanceUK told us that this was because the site was new and that people would add more and more information at a later date. That seems unlikely however because why would you miss out what the site deems to be some of the most important information to begin with, the information about your professional qualifications?

empty profiles and personal data on The Dance Register

Another issue with the site is the fact that, in some cases, it was revealing home addresses and personal phone numbers for the registered teacher.

DanceUK explained that individuals have to "opt-in" to having this data shown to the public. That may be the case but it is incredibly bad practice to even allow such information to be shown at all. Not even Facebook, with all its personal privacy issues, allows that kind of data to be stored on their website.

With the profiles where more detailed information had been added we still run into the original problem. All you have are words on a website and a lots of acronyms for professional memberships and nothing more.

The teachers on The Dance Register may well be the best and brightest in the history of teaching dance but without further evidence, how are we or anybody else to know this?

Also, if the implication is that being on The Register means you are a good teacher, what if you choose not to be on it? Is there a suggestion that you have something to hide? Is this a case of "you're a good teacher if we say you're a good teacher?"

Bad Teacher

If you are on the site you have committed, although you are not legally obliged, to follow the "code of conduct". This is a torturously long document comprised of no less than 53 bullet points covering everything from the language you use in class to knowing all about, somewhat ironically, the data protection act.

Should DTAP become aware of a teacher breaching the code of conduct, it's not entirely clear how that would happen, then said teacher would be subjected to the DTAP "disciplinary procedure".

The procedure itself is, as you would expect, quite wordy but this particular paragraph stood out.

"Please note that if, during investigation, a breach of the law is found to have occurred, DTAP will immediately refer the matter to the appropriate legal body and suspend a Dance Professional's membership of The Dance Register until such a time as any legal investigation has been concluded."

Again, it's not at all clear how an organisation with no legal powers, no subpoena power or power of arrest is going to be able to investigate anything to the point where they would discover a "breach of the law". At most it will all be a lot of hearsay and not much else sans any video or audio recordings.

The worst punishment that DTAP can hand out is throwing a member off The Register.

When we asked the spokesperson to comment on the disciplinary procedure and the enforcement of it they pretty much gave us the above quoted paragraph.

Additionally they told us this;

"the Dance Register has been created as a database of dance teachers. We are clear that we are not commenting on the teachers' ability but that we have checked that the teachers on the register meet the minimum benchmarks of the industry and adhere to the code of practice. The website states that employers should undertake their own formal checks for employment purposes."

Straight from the horses mouth dear readers, they "are not commenting on the teachers' ability."

Plausible Deniability

If the Dance Register cannot prove the capabilities of a particular teacher then why does it even exist to begin with?

The Dance Register is evidence of nothing more than you have your name on a website. The addition of the CDET and DTAP logos, among others, across the bottom would appear to lend credibility (at least for the unwary) but membership or association with organisations is evidence of just that, membership or association.

These organisations, with paying members, have no way of verifying the skills, or lack thereof, of any of their members when it comes to something as subjective as dance teaching.

Anybody can obtain insurance, a CRB check and first aid training, pass a few courses and call themselves a dance teacher. It doesn't mean they are any good at teaching though.

A doctor trains for several years to obtain a medical licence but even that doesn't prove they are actually any good at treating patients.

Good teachers, much like good doctors, are identified through peer recommendation (and peer review on occasion), through evidence of their achievements, through actually witnessing them at their place of work so their their skill set can be verified by other skilled professionals.

The suggestion that IDAT, CDET or ENCP have created a reliable and verifiable directory of good dance teachers is demonstrably false.

Of course, the terms and conditions of using the site remove any trace of liability from those putting their names to this website. If you hire a teacher that turns out to be a complete basked case then it's not their fault.

As for Arts Council England and their part in this? At first a spokesperson for ACE told us that "the Register is a hugely useful tool for the dance industry". When we asked them for evidence to support that claim they changed tack to being "confident that it will be widely used in the dance industry."

DTAP received £184,936 toward the;

"1. refinement and dissemination of the National Occupation Standards (NOS) in Dance Teaching & Leading which will include making them applicable to specialist markets, and creating a qualification and training framework for the dance sector

2. building capacity and further developing the Diploma in Dance Teaching & Leading (DDTAL) qualification

3. marketing and communications to develop awareness and take-up of DTAP's activities, and in particular work to make sure the Dance Register becomes self-financing"

If the Dance Register is any indication of the thinking underpinning all of the above the we do not hold out hope that anything credible will come from DTAP's endeavours.

Teaching dance is not like training to be a plumber, we think it's a lot more important than that.

Professional dancer Bettina Carpi. Professional dancer's need jobs, it's not rocket science.

by Michelle Lefevre

Often times, here in TheLab™, we talk about creating jobs for dancers and the fact that nobody else seems to talk about creating jobs for dancers. Just exactly how do you go about creating jobs for dancers though and who's going to pay for it and how much would it cost?

One idea, and we have floated this before, many years ago, is to make dancers employees of the state, just like civil servants. Having the dancers employed by the DCMS might not to be a good idea, in fact that would be a really bad idea, so we would make them employees of Arts Council England.

The Fifty

As a starting point we would like to see 50 jobs created for professional dancers, we shall call them "The Fifty". This would create, if you will, a small standing army of professionals across the country.

These dancers would not be attached to any dance company though, they would be freelance, freelancers with PAYE.

The advantage of having the dancers paid and employed separately from a dance company (or the restrictions of short term funding agreements) is that they are free to pursue their own creative and educational endeavours in any way they wish to do so.

Available options for these dancers and the profession as a whole would be numerous.

For example; An independent choreographer could employ an additional dancer or two from The Fifty for their GFA funded project because they would not have to pay the additional dancers salaries. Creative possibilities are immediately expanded with minimal additional cost overhead.

Given local authority cuts and spending restrictions in schools it might be easier for a dancer to get an education project off the ground in a particular area if they are already pre-employed.

A professional dancer could essentially run classes and workshops for "free" because they have the security of their ACE funded salary to fall back on. Longer term projects would have their costs significantly reduced if the lead professionals pay is removed from the equation.

It would also work the other way around with schools and colleges being able to ask a local professional to come along and explore new opportunities with their students. Dance in education benefits hugely from the involvement of professional dancers.

For full time professional companies there could also be advantages. Injury is a common problem, dancers often lose their jobs if the injury is so serious that they have to be replaced on tour by another dancer.

In the event of an injury the company could quickly call in a suitable replacement from the ranks of The Fifty until their own dancer is ready to go again. The injured dancer retains their job and the dance company does not have to find additional money to employ a new dancer.

To be perfectly clear, if you were on of The Fifty, sitting on your ass and doing nothing would not be an option.

To mitigate any potential problems with choreographers and dance companies turning to The Fifty for dancers because they know they would not have to pay them, simple restrictions could be put in place.

For example; Any NPO dance company could be prevented, via their funding agreement with ACE, from employing more than one member of The Fifty for an extended period of time for anything other than covering an injury.

For project funded companies the restrictions could be no more than two members of The Fifty at any one time or a specific percentage of dancers needed for the project as a whole.

Working out the details of the restrictions would be important in retaining an open and fair job market for freelance professional dancers (which is essentially what all professional dancers are since so few of them are on permanent full time contracts).

The Cost

You might think that something like this would be very expensive but you would be wrong.

All of the dancers would start at the same pay level of £27,500 per year plus a £650 health insurance bonus. So, for the first year, that would cost just over £1.4Million. If we factor in an annual pay rise of just 3% (given the current economic climate that's pretty poor but within reason) then over a ten year period the entire project will set ACE back just over £16.1Million.

In the tenth year The Fifty would be earning £36,729 per annum which sounds like a lot but you have 10 years of inflation and other cost of living rises to take into account.

Relatively speaking, the total cost over ten years is a lot of money. It's still a lot less however than the annual amount given to The Royal Opera House in a single year (£25.7Million for 2013/2014).

Where would the money come from? Well that's simple, Grants for the Arts, which in turn is funded by the National Lottery. ACE has said many times that the money available through GFA will be rising, now that the Olympics are done and dusted, so what better way to spend the money. They would need to change some rules but rules are written to be changed.

Making the Cut

To keep things fair each dancer would only be allowed to remain in the programme for a maximum of two years with the possibility of returning after 3 or 4 years.

Dancers could be chosen for the project not by ACE (the very thought is chilling) but by a collective of dance company directors, experienced professional dancers and, perhaps, some involvement from the main dance schools in the UK. This collective would also be responsible for monitoring the activities of the entire group.

A mix of dancers, dancer/choreographers, recent graduates and those with a strong interest in dance in education would keep the talent pool of The Fifty as varied as possible.

The Full Time Conundrum

In the dance world there are dancers who desperately want to be within a larger company and there are those that want the freedom to go where they want and pursue a range of different projects, sometimes all at once. A project like The Fifty is for the latter.

The programme would create a strong pool of talent that was available for a wide range of creative opportunities. It might also encourage dancers to locate themselves in parts of the country that are often without a strong dance community because there are simply no jobs available and precious few professional opportunities.

That's how you create 50 jobs for 50 professional dancers for ten years.

by Martin French

Electronic storage is a pain the ass, no doubt about it. Pretty much everything is now "digital" so that means the good folks of Planet Earth have had to become familiar with hard disk technology, backups and the ever present "Cloud".

Cloud storage is just the Silicon Valley way of saying "remote servers", in fact the entire internet is little more than tens of thousands of remote servers connected by cables and switches.

Calling it a "Cloud" makes it sound fluffy and cute and only slightly less boring than a beige sofa.

Storing data online provides many advantages for the perpetually forgetful and those prone to spilling hot drinks all over their laptop or dropping their cell phones in the toilet.

The internet is home to many online storage services, all of which have a free option that folks in the wacky world of the arts will be thrilled to learn all about we feel sure.

For this piece we're going to look at the top four. "Google Drive", the awesomely monikered "SkyDrive" from Microsoft, "Dropbox" and "Cloud Drive" from Amazon.

Consistency

On your own computer these "cloud" devices all work in much the same way, apart from Amazon's "Cloud Drive". You install an application on your machine, set the location of the folder on your hard disk and then any files and folders copied or saved to those folders will automatically be uploaded.

If you connect another computer using the same storage account (on a laptop for example) the files already in the cloud will be downloaded to the newly connected machine. If you make changes on the new machine those changes will be reflected on your other connected devices and so on.

All of the featured services also have mobile applications for all popular smartphones so you can manage your files directly on your phone. Smartphone apps don't sync the files however because phone storage space is at a premium. To use the mobile apps you need an internet connection (wifi 3G or 4G preferably) so you can grab individual files as you need them.

Google Drive

Google Drive too stupid to know how much storage you are using.

As the name very obviously suggests this one comes from the worlds biggest advertising company, Google.

For free you get 5GB of storage which is more than enough for thousands of regular documents and a fair few large images. Setting the thing up is very simple. All you need is a Google account so if you have a Gmail account you already have access to Google Drive.

If you use Google Docs (their online word processor and spreadsheet programmes) then you can select an option to have these documents synched to your local computer folder for offline viewing (allegedly).

Creating new documents is available from inside the Google Drive website and anything you do create will automatically transfer to your local computer. Our test document however (a simple text based file) could not be opened with any application that we had on our systems.

You can upgrade to more storage if you start to run low. 25GB of space will set you back $2.49 per month, there is no option to pay per by year and save some money.

When we tested this particular service we stumbled across a rather massive, show stopping problem. Despite only having a few files in our "Google Drive" folder the app reports that we have used some 24% (1.18GB) of our free storage space.

In reality we only have 331Mb of documents in there. What's happening is Google Drive is storing deleted items in the trash folder, a folder that is only visible if you go looking for it via the web interface.

Despite repeated attempts to empty this trash folder some of the items would not delete and the system still reported we were using 23% of our storage space. We tried to resolve this problem, which many others were having, with Google but Google's support services for users are, to be blunt, crap!

Dropbox

Dropbox is by far the most developed of the online storage services

Dropbox was the first of the online storage companies to make these kinds of services as simple to use as possible. They popularised the idea of having a folder on your local computer and anything in it synchronise with an online service.

The overall web interface for the product shows a level of design and operational maturity that other online products lack.

For free you get 2GB of storage which is a little tight fisted for todays connected devices but if you're careful and only store the things that you really need to backup or use on the move you should be fine.

You can get additional free storage by recommending friends to the service (up to a maximum of 16GB) or by hooking various other accounts to the Dropbox service like Twitter and Facebook (125Mb each).

Files are uploaded in the background as you work, a small spinning icon on the menu bar is the only indication that something is afoot.

Via the web based interface you can set up folders to share with other users or even email links to specific files. Removing the links once they have been shared is a very simple process so you can easily keep files safe from prying eyes, be careful what you share though!

Dropbox keeps a list of computers and devices that are linked to the account in the settings of the web interface. From there you can make sure that devices you no longer used are permanently disconnected from the service although files stored locally on the machine will remain in place. You cannot remote delete files.

Should you decide to pay for extra storage you can get 100GB, 200GB or 500GB for $99(US), $199(US) and $499 respectively. All the packages cost more if you pay monthly.

Sky Drive

From the worlds biggest software company comes 7GB of free storage in the shape of SkyDrive, which has by far the best name out of any of these services.

Via a web browser the SkyDrive service is accessed through the Outlook.com domain name which is the home of the new look version of Hotmail. If you have a Hotmail account already then you can cross grade to Outlook.com and get the SkyDrive storage into the bargain.

The interface gives you a multitude of ways to handle your files and interact with them. Only a few file types can be viewed online, like images and videos, but editing is only available for Microsoft documents from Word, Excel and Powerpoint. The feature set is limited within these editors unless you upgrade to "Office365", the online version of Microsoft's Office suite.

SkyDrive's share options let other people edit your stuff.

You can also create new documents inside SkyDrive's online interface in Word, Excel and Powerpoint format. Unlike Google Drive you can even open these documents on your local machine and you don't need the native versions of Word, etc to do it.

A uniques feature for this type of application is the ability to embed documents or even entire folders into website pages for online sharing. (Dropbox allows you to share individual links to files).

This might be useful if you have a lot of items you need to distribute or if you want to give access to just one file via your website.

An embedded folder is represented by a single blue tile on the webpage of your choice. When clicked, the SkyDrive website will open (although not inside your own SkyDrive account) where users can then download the files to their own machine.

If you want more storage from SkyDrive then Microsoft offers the best prices for additional storage for this type of service. 20Gb is just £6 per year. You can go as high as 100GB of online drive space for £32 per year.

Cloud Drive

Amazon's Cloud Drive - functional but not much else

Finally we have Amazon's "Cloud Drive" product which is the only one of the four we have tested that doesn't work automatically to keep files synchronised between your computer and the online storage service.

When you install the Cloud Drive application on your computer you have two ways to upload individual files or folders. You can drag and drop items into an upload window or select a file or folder, right click on it with your mouse and choose a context sensitive menu option to "Upload To Amazon Cloud Drive".

Neither option is particularly intuitive.

When files have finished uploading a small green tick shows up on the OSX menu bar where the applications icon lives. We imaging it will behave in much the same way on Windows Taskbar.

You can share documents from within the Cloud Drive web interface but editing and creating documents is not possible.

Unlike the other services it is perhaps best to think of Cloud Drive as more of an online locker for certain files that you want to keep safe and accessible from anywhere in the world.

If you upload the same document more than once then the application will detect this and ask if you want to make a copy or overwrite the original file. Again, it is neither intuitive or automatic but it could be useful for certain types of files.

Additional storage can be bought on an annual basis with as much as 1000 Gigabytes available for $500 a year. It's not clear what happens to your files if you stop paying for it though since Cloud Drive is not a synching service so there is no guarantee that the files on your Cloud Drive are also on your local machine.

What's The Best?

Here in TheLab™ we use both SkyDrive and Dropbox. The latter is a well developed service that is also integrated into many mobile apps and has really good sharing options. The free storage capacity is a little on the stingy side though and additional storage is expensive.

SkyDrive provides a lot of storage up front and additional storage is far cheaper than Dropbox. If you use a Windows 8 phone (like a Lumia 920 or HTC 8S) or a Microsoft Surface or Windows 8 computer then SkyDrive is already well embedded into your devices and provides a simple to use online storage service and synching ability. SkyDrive apps are also available for all mobile platforms and desktop computers.

You can also create and edit certain types of Office documents using the service which will come in handy even if you don't have those applications on your local machine.

Google Drive's inability to accurately record how much storage space you are using is completely unforgivable. The fact that you can create documents on the service (Google Docs) and have them available for offline viewing is completely pointless if you can't even open them on your local machine. Avoid!

Cloud Drive from Amazon is a useful service for simple file storage but the whole system of uploading files is not at all intuitive and it doesn't work as a synching service so if you use a paid option and then stop paying for it, who knows?

Update 9th May 2013: Since this piece was published Amazon have changed the way Cloud Drive works. It now synchronises like all the other services.

Dance, what is the principal art form, the body or the choreography? I asked myself this question recently whilst struggling to maintain the technique in a professional class. I looked at the vacant faces in the mirror, including my own, gripped by determination.

Then, almost on cue, a voice encouraged us to soften our bodies and asked us, "Where had the enjoyment gone? Why did we look like we were dead inside? Come on people...let your lights shine!"

It made me laugh, however I realised that in professional training, we can easily lose sight of ourselves and why we dance. As we conform our bodies to the shapes and structures of our teachers and mentors, the danger is that our uniqueness is lost.

Choreographers such as Lynne Taylor-Corbett have spoken of being influenced by passion and not just technique, the importance of the human and not just the body. She credited Alvin Ailey for this. How refreshing it is to find those who support this ethos. 20 years ago, Bill. T. Jones challenged social norms and stereotypes by embracing dancers of all shapes, sizes and colour.

But there will always be those for whom dance is a visual escape, an aesthetic art, a reflection of beauty, grace or athletic capability.

There are those who do not feel dance should be used as a political platform or social commentary. This is where choreography often projects its power over the human form. The body becomes a pliable material for the artist to sculpt to please such audiences.

Maguy Marin reflected that she grew tired of feeling that dancers were there to serve a choreographer and it seems this view is reflected by a new wave of creators. They believe the dancer should be part of the artistic process and their input, creativity and personal stories add to and shape the original ideas of the catalyst.

Errol White

In 2012, Errol White Dance Company brought the personal to the dance in 'I Am'. It demonstrated the incredible power of authentic movement to make an emotional connection to the audience. The company continues to develop their work with a strong ethos of dance as human movement communication. It may be risky to put yourself out there but it is a methodology that both dancer and witness can gain from:

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." Anais Nin 

As a graduate performer seeking work, I experienced two common types of auditions. Those where you were expected to conform to the director's vision or those where you were expected to show them your own vision. I discovered that my training had not supported my ability to be myself and to share that.

It should have been about the growth of myself, rather than merely the growth of my muscles. I believe the best training needs to address both and it is important for all contemporary dancers to seek this balance, or risk losing out personally and professionally.

Years later as I rediscover a new joy in dancing and performing, and I revisit the same steps, technique and choreography again. I realise that, even when I repeat them over and over, I am not tired or bored, lost or frustrated, because I am there with the movement, as I am, different in every breath and moment.

When this feeling is not developed and the dancer is not in touch with their inner self, the dance is merely a physical body in space and the performance is incomplete.

Susan Cunningham is a professional dancer living a working in Edinburgh.

By Martin French

The internet is miraculous, no doubt about it, but collaborating with others on projects can get a bit messy if you're dependant on regular tools like email to keep things organised between yourself and other members of your team.

On the web there are a number of organisational tools to help you keep track of all kinds of information like deadlines, tasks and a myriad of other things.

One such tool is Producteev (geddit?). Producteev works on the principal of "workspaces". Inside each workspace you can create tasks that can be assigned to different members of that "workspace" to be completed. Other members can simply follow along and observe or collaborate with you.

You can interact with Producteev via a browser based interface, a phone application (Android and iOS) or a dedicated application on your computer (Windows and OSX).

For the purposes of this piece we shall focus on the browser application.

Start your Browser

Once you have signed up for your free account you can add one additional team member, the free account has some restrictions and each member needs a Producteev login. New members are added via the big green plus button (see image) and you can also set up some workspaces.

The user interface is relatively clean and finding your way around is easy.

Producteev's User Interface. Click to Embiggen

On the far left you have a folder list that's very similar to an email application. You can pull up a list of completed tasks, tasks that have been "starred" along with tasks that are due "today" or tasks that are late.

Any tasks that you have created are displayed in the centre column along with labels, priority stars, scheduled completion dates and the avatar of the person assigned to complete the task.

Clicking on a specific task will roll out the right hand panel (see image) where you can see a more detailed set of controls for the task at hand.

Creating a Task

Entering a new task is simple. Just type in the ever present task creation box at the top of the centre column, hit the add button and that's it. The task will then show up in all the applications you have on other devices. That natty feature is not automatic though because updates are not "pushed" to other devices.

If you have assigned a task to a team member then they will receive an email or a notification (for the phone applications and the OSX desktop application).

Should the notifications become annoying they can all be turned off via the preferences of the individual user accounts.

The real power in these applications however comes in the right hand panel.

Regular emails can quickly become lost in the sea of electronic messages many people receive on a daily basis. Because Producteev has a built in message system you can keep all correspondence relating to a particular task in one place alongside any documents you might want to attach.

Images can be previewed from within the web application and PDF and text based documents can be annotated with notes. Weirdly though you cannot do that from within either the desktop application on OSX or the iPhone application.

All documents can be downloaded to the users computer if they need to be accessed locally. This feature is available on the desktop and mobile applications.

Messaging aside, you can also set completion dates for the task, create reminders that are emailed to you, so you don't forget to actually do the job, and set "subtasks" within the main task.

Tasks can also be set to recur over any given period of time (daily, monthly, annually or whatever you need).

The administrator for the workspace can determine which members of the group can actually see the event which means if you're planning to oust the chairman of the board, you can do it with some privacy.

Many folks get concerned about using these types of online services for fear their data will be trapped inside the application. Producteev has a very straightforward export option which enables you to download all of your data as a simple CSV file that can be imported with ease into any database application or spreadsheet program.

File attachments are not downloaded though and we couldn't find a way to retrieve those en-masse.

Linking to specific tasks is a simple matter of clicking

Spanners

As for the downsides? Well, the desktop application on OSX (Mac computers) is a complete pig. It's poorly designed and very clunky. Even on a brand new iMac it has performance issues that should not exist for such a simple application. The one saving grace for the app is the ability to set a global "new task" key so you just hit the hotkey on your keyboard and you can immediately start a new task, the app does need to be open though.

The fact that you can edit document "inline" using the web application but not the desktop version is completely ridiculous and hopefully that will be fixed with an update.

On mobile devices things are not much better. The iOS (iPhone) application is a bit of a muddle and could do with a serious overhaul.

As for the web based application? Well it works quickly and smoothly but could do with a little streamlining and tweaking on the design front but our quibbles with it are minor.

The option to set tasks to recur over time could certainly do with a few tweaks to provide users with clearer and more granular options. It would also be nice if notes posted to tasks could be threaded so team members could respond to specific notes.

Many applications on the desktop and mobile have Dropbox or Skydrive integration. There are some sharing options on the mobile version of the app but they are limited to copying individual files.

Quibbles

The free account is very restrictive in that you can only add one additional person to a workspace. A "pro" workspace will cost you $20(US) per month and those workspaces can have as many users as you like as well as unlimited storage space for file attachments (free accounts are limited to 500MB).

If you want to get all "privacy" orientated then additional workspaces can be added for more money and you can start restricted access to those workspaces so you can hatch your evil plans.

Minor quibbles aside Producteev works very well and is one of the simpler and more reliable group task management applications out there. The creators have promised major updates in the coming months covering the various platforms (mobile, web and desktop). We shall update this article when that happens.

[ Producteev ]

Candoco Dance Company

'Studies in C' Candoco Dance Company

The London based rep company currently have multiple touring strings on the go all at once. Their next show will be in Pully, Switzerland on February 15th with Turning 20 featuring 'Set and Reset (Reset)', 'Looking Back', and 'This is It'.

In addition they also have 'Studies for C' a single piece of work by Javier De Frutos which is also folded into another triple bill called 'Three Acts of Play' that includes 'Set and Reset' (Reset)' and 'Imperfect Storm' by Wendy Houstoun.

Candoco's touring over the coming months will include travel to Holland, Germany and ....... Liverpool!

The company are also touring a mix and match programme featuring one or more of the above works alongside 'In Translation' by Emanuel Gat. Got all of that?

Apart from a very confusing rep structure the company are also working with dance maker Thomas Hauert, but they won't tell us anything about that.

[ Candoco on Tour ]

Retina Dance Company

'Corporalis' from Retina Dance Company

Last year we brought you a feature or two on the massive professional/community project 'Layers of Skin' that brought together local dancers and community dancers for every live show the company did on tour.

The new work is 'Corporalis', a piece that, according to the press blurb, brings together dance and the "built environment'. Preview videos show the dancers messing about with a large reflective metal structure that moves about on the stage about as much as the dancers do. When it come to Retina, that's a lot of movement.

It all kicks off on February 19th at the Playhouse Theatre in Nottingham with national and international touring to follow.

'Layers of Skin' will also continue touring for the foreseeable future so remind yourself of that work with the video below.

[ Retina Tour Schedule ]

Phoenix Dance Theatre

The long running Leeds based company kicked off their "spring" tour last week. 'Particle Velocity' has nothing to do with science at all, we think, but does include works from the company AD Sharon Watson, Douglas Thorpe, Jose Agudo and a work from contemporary dance's very own Dumbledore, Richard Alston.

Gone are the dark days of 'Cattle Call' as the company gets back to actually creating and performing dance work again. Just say no to musical theatre.

Phoenix will be touring around the UK until May, no international dates as yet but check their website for more details.

[ Phoenix Dance Theatre ]

Company Chameleon

The newly minted NPO from Manchester will premiere their new double bill 'Pictures We Make' in Manchester on February 14th which is of course valentine's day. If you're expecting a really bad valentine's day pun in this sentence then you don't know us at all, do you?

'Pictures We Make' features one work from the improbably monikered Goddard/Nixon and a second half created by the company's ADs Antony Missen and Kevin Turner.

Initial tour dates have the company running around until March travelling to Derby, Newcastle upon Tyne and Plymouth. Check their tour dates for a venue near you.

[ Company Chameleon ]

Bgroup

'Just As We Are' bgroup

Ben Wright's small company of dancers are creating a new work at this very moment (depending on when you're reading this) entitled 'Just As We Are'. We have very few details with regard to what this show is about but it's Ben Wright so it probably won't involve a lot of dancing about in pyjamas to Bejamin Britten.

The work kicks off at The Point in Eastleigh on March 7th and then continues touring into April across England stopping off in London, Brighton and Leeds among other places.

[ bgroup Website ]

Richard Alston Dance Company

Dumbledore Richard Alston Dance Company will be running around the country, not literally of course, throughout the Spring performing works with improbable titles for their current tour.

'Buzzing Round the Hunisuccle', 'Shimmer', 'The Devil in the Detail' to name but a few of the pieces that will cover the length and breadth of the country for the middle class masses to lap up.

If lyrical dancing in pyjamas is your thing then check out the tour listing on the company's website.

[ RADC ]

Motionhouse Dance Theatre

The Leamington based dancing folk are currently in the United States touring 'Scattered' up and down the west coast. That particular work has been on tour for about 143 years now and if it doesn't go away soon it could become the Nutcracker of the contemporary world.

Mercifully, the company are set to start a new production soon called 'Broken' which probably won't have a ramp in it. Fingers crossed. 'Broken' premieres on October 2nd at Warwick Arts Centre

[ Motion House Dance Theatre ]

Jasmin Vardimon Company

'Freedom' Jasmin Vardimon Company

Following on from the very heavy antics of '7734' the Israeli dance maker is back on tour right now with a complete change of direction, if the title is anything to go by, called 'Freedom'. Sources close to the production tell us that this work is much more dance orientated than '7734' but don't expect a lot of dancing about in pyjamas to jaunty tunes though.

The company also has JV2 up and running touring across the country with a triple bill featuring works by Mafalda Deville, Tim Casson and Ms Vardimon herself. Appropriately named 'Tomorrow' the work is about showing the dancers and dance makers of tomorrow.... geddit?

Check out the tour dates on the company's website.

[ Jasmin Vardimon Company ]

Scottish Dance Theatre

If there's one thing that we notice from the current tour dates of most dance companies is that they don't go anywhere near Scotland.

Scottish Dance Theatre correct that problem, sort of, by touring almost exclusively in the land of tartan and haggis.

The company has a varied bill of works to tour including 'Winter Again' by Norwegian dance maker Jo Stromgren, 'Innocence' by newly appointed AD Fleur Darkin, a show aimed at small kids up to the age of 7, and 'Second Coming' by Victor Quijada.

Touring kicks off on February 20 at the Dundee Rep Theatre in Scotland and continues until the end of April with dates across Scotland and a couple in England and Wales.

[ Scottish Dance Theatre ]

Verve 2013

The 2013 edition of the graduate company from the Northern School of Contemporary Dance features a repertoire of work from Angus Balbernie, Frauke Requardt, James Wilton and Ben Wright. That particularly diverse range of dance makers will be making their debut with the always talented graduate dancers on March 1 at the Riley Theatre in Leeds before they embark on a tour across the UK. No European dates as yet but they usually manage to get in a few before the end of the run.

While you are waiting for the new tour to kick off remind yourself of the company's previous antics with a look at 'Vertical Road' from Verve 12.

[ Verve Tour Dates ]

If you've ever listened to people in positions of power answering tough questions then you already know the drill. The man or woman in a suit (pantsuit?) will waffle for minutes on end about nothing in particular.

They will admit to nothing, they will account for nothing, they just want to get it over with so they can get back to counting the days until they retire.

We, here in TheLab™, thought to ourselves what would happen if ACE (Arts Council England) actually had communications and policy staffers that, you know, knew what they were doing?

Granted, if that was the case then most of these incidents would never happen in the first place but let's gloss over that plot hole and move on.

The Andrea Stark Debacle

Arts Professional revealed that a former ACE employee, Andrea Stark, was being paid a six figure salary by the funding body despite working for a new employer. It also transpired that Ms Stark would receive a six figure severance package when she finally cuts her ties with ACE.

Her new employer has ties to the Royal Opera House and its former chairman Tony Hall. ROH is a recipient of huge amounts of ACE funding.

The funding monolith denied anything improper had taken place. Here's what they should have said though.

"After a detailed investigation of this matter serious problems have been identified in staff employment procedures and with the judgement of many high ranking staff members at Arts Council England's central office.

We would like to extend our sincerest apologies to the general public and the artists, companies and groups that we fund across the country. The independent team tasked with investigating this situation have made the following recommendations that will be implemented immediately.

All senior staff members will be contractually forbidden from being employed in any capacity by any organisation that has received funding from Arts Council England for a period of three years after leaving this organisation. This will include all NPO funded bodies and any GFA funded group that has received more than £50,000 from ACE in the previous twelve months.

This ban will extend to any organisation where board members, chairmanships or other senior positions are held by individuals or groups of individuals that also have positions of authority within ACE funded NPOs or GFA funded bodies.

Additionally, Ms Stark's employment with Arts Council England has been terminated (with immediate effect) and she is now ineligible for any redundancy payment from this organisation.

All senior staff members involved in this situation have been issued with a final written warning with regards to their conduct in this matter. Should any further situations arise within the next 12 months (or any historic situations come to light) that are deemed to be grossly unprofessional, incompetent or in violation of ACE's code of ethics and code of practice then that staff member's employment will be immediately terminated resulting in the complete loss of all redundancy and pension benefits.

Arts Council England believes that it can only operate with the full trust and support of the general public and the organisations within the arts that look to us for both financial support and, ultimately, decisive leadership.

In this instance that trust has been broken and we must work tirelessly to restore confidence in this funding body.

The independent group appointed for the purposes of investigating this matter will form a new, permanent watchdog to oversee all potential conflicts of interest and to ensure strict adherence to our new code of ethics and code of practice."

During a recent "live chat" with Arts Council England CEO Alan Davey, a participant asked Mr Davey why he and others should get a pay rise when all around them are being cut or sacked. Mr Davey waffled, here's what he should have said.

Statement issued by Alan Davey, CEO Arts Council England

"Upon receiving the Renumeration Committee's recommendation of a pay increase for senior staff members at Arts Council England I have personally made the decision to reject their recommendation.

Given the ongoing turmoil caused by cuts to funding for the arts from both central and local government and the staff reductions at Arts Council England itself it would be highly inappropriate to accept any increase in pay for the foreseeable future.

In order to ensure both confidence in my leadership and confidence in the Arts Council in general I have ordered a freeze on all senior executive pay for the next three years.

Additionally, I have discussed with and I am recommending that senior staff take a 5% pay reduction (also for the next three years). The outcome of this ongoing discussion will be made public by the end of this week.

Arts Council England must lead from the front during the continued assault on the arts by our elected officials and we must also lead by example."

The Live Chats Debacle

During the last live chat with ACE CEO Alan Davey a participant pointed out that the live chats were not much more than a PR exercise and little of what was said to the public was of any real value.

Mr Davey waffled, here's what he should have said.

"Following a detailed review of the current format of Live Chats with ACE senior staff members we have initiated a complete revamp of how we interact with members of the public and the press.

The current format will be replaced with bi-monthly live Google+ Hangouts (a multi user video chat system open to the public to view) where members of the public, artists and others will be able to put questions to senior staff members. These questions will not be pre-screened although participants will be selected by ACE to represent a cross section of people involved with the arts across the country.

In addition ACE will also host quarterly "Town Hall" meetings across England where a live audience will be able to ask direct questions of our CEO and other senior members of ACE. Each meeting will concern a different art form, such as dance, theatre, visual art etc. The meetings will be filmed and the video made available, unedited, as soon as possible after the event.

We are instituting these changes because we realise that public and press access to senior staff is vitally important in building and maintaining confidence in the organisation. It is also vitally important that we receive feedback on our policies and use that feedback to make substantive changes to those policies when necessary so that we can better serve the needs of the diverse range of individuals and organisations that we support."

In a statement from the real ACE communications folks they denied the funding body was completely useless, or at least they would if we asked them, because who would admit to such a thing?

For the final part of our series of features about creating media for your company we shall focus on crafting an edit and talk a little about planning your shooting so you have enough material to actually edit something together.

What we're not going to do with this piece is teach you how to use a particular piece of software.

Teaching a specific piece of complex software is a long process, even to master the basics, but we are planning some screencasts on the subject in the coming weeks and months.

What we are going to do is cover the basics in terms of structuring a piece of video. There are, of course, many different kinds of video production you can make so we will have the generalise a little.

Planning

Many film makers overdo the planning side of things, usually to justify their fees. Planning does matter but it's often just a matter of sorting out times and dates, where the film maker (that's you) needs to be at any given time.

If you're covering a month long project and you can't be there every day to cover every single moment then you need to determine the key points of the project and take the time to capture moments from those days.

If it's a rehearsal period leading up to a premiere then company class, first day of rehearsal, end of week one, at least two or three additional days of rehearsals throughout the process including the final day of studio rehearsal, a technical day, first day in the theatre, tech run and then live show.

Simple! (sort of)

Mix and match the above to suit your particular project but the main point is to capture the significant moments throughout the project so in your final film you can go from Point A to Point B.

If kids are involved (anybody under the age of 18) then make sure they are cleared to be filmed by their parents.

Structure

simple hand written notes and structure can help a lot when cutting

No matter what your video is about, just like any story it needs to have a beginning a middle and an end. Even if you're making a simple feature consisting of a sequence from your work the beginning will be the opening titles, the middle will be the footage of your work and the end will be the credits.

For more complex pieces, such as a short form documentary, the three pronged approach becomes a little more detailed and a little more nuanced.

Here in TheLab™, for more complex projects, we create a simple timeline, by hand, in a notebook. This timeline is little more than a general structure for the edit with some rough timings and details of the particular sections of the project we are going to introduce as the video progresses.

These scribbles can be enormously helpful, especially if you have hundreds of clips from lots of different days, because you can quickly visualise how you think the edit should unfold.

Once Upon A Time

try to keep the speed of your edits under control - sequence from Premiere CS6

If you're crafting a short documentary then the beginning becomes an introduction to the film, setting up the story you're about to tell the viewers with your awesome camera work and finely honed interview skills.

It can be a simple montage of clips covering the range of situations and people involved in the project or an interview, where a participant essentially narrates the premise of the project.

Because this is editing you can use both of the above examples and mix them together. Pretty tricky huh?

The film's middle section is comprised of material that actually tells your story. Not every project is a linear experience but every project does progress through time and for the purposes of your film this is ideal (high five for the space time continuum). Even a one day project goes from Point A to Point B.

Now, this doesn't mean that your edits have to be done in chronological order but it does give you, as the editor, a logical progression to follow.

Try very hard to moderate the speed of your cutting. Don't be afraid to hold a shot for an extended period of time if you really want to show what's happing. Rapid cutting doesn't make things more exciting just because. You can end up annoying the hell out of your viewers if you persistently cut rapidly from one thing to another.

If you're editing a show together from multiple angles then pick your edit points carefully. Don't flip from one camera to the next for no particular reason. Make sure, in the final cut, that viewers can easily follow the choreography and everything hasn't descended into a massively confusing flurry of camera angles.

Interviews

Documentaries are, in many cases, constructed through the narrative supplied via the interviews you conduct with participants, teachers, organisers, et-al.

Talking to people at the beginning or during a project can provide some good material but interviewing people at the end of a project is vitally important.

If the project is finished then you can ask people about particular things that happened during the time everybody was working together. You can't do that if nothing's happened yet.

It also becomes much easier to tie your questions to material you know you have filmed.

For your final edit, what people are saying doesn't always have to tie in directly with what people see on screen but occasional direct references help connect the interviewee with the material you have filmed.

If your interviewees all sound like they are commenting from afar on the project then your video is in danger of looking like something a local council makes to promote traffic lights.

Another thing we often see in edits of finished films is far too much time spent showing the viewers the person who is speaking. For a dance project the interesting part is the work you are creating, the activity in the studio.

Show the person who is speaking so you can introduce them and name check them but then cut back to the action, so to speak, as soon as possible. We don't need to see the person to hear them, no matter how pretty you think they are.

Music and Sound

simple sound editing is very straight forward in most editing packages

Adding some music to your edit, especially for dance, is a very obvious way to give your production lot of texture.

If you are crafting a new piece of work then you probably already have music from a composer to use but if not, don't despair.

These days a lot of great music is available, royalty free, from websites like Vimeo.com and withetiquette.com (there are lots of others though). Try and choose something a little out of the ordinary, don't always go for the heavy beats/techno whatever and please don't "cut to the beat" whatever you do!

Mixing sound can be done inside your editing program (Adobe Premiere CS6 makes this very easy) or if you want to get more technical with things you can pull your finished edit into Adobe Audition, Pro Tools, Logic or one of a dozen other sound packages if you have access to them.

When you run music over an interview try to strike an easy balance between the voice of the interviewee and being able to hear the music. You want it to be noticeable but not distracting or so loud your viewers can't hear the words being spoken.

If you look at the image above you will notice a curve line on the volume of the audio track in the editor. Most editors allow you to do this kind of very simple fading in and fading out with audio tracks.

When transitioning from music to voice take the music away (not completely though) about half a second before you bring in the voice. This will create a smooth transition. If, on the edit, the voice part appears to crash in then add a short fade-in to smooth things out.

Overall, try to avoid any jarring transitions in the sound from one section of your film to another. Don't be afraid to fade to black and go silent briefly to bring in a new section of the film.

Graphics

keep your graphics clean and simple, the interviewee is the important thing

Finally we come to on screen graphics and what we lovingly call I.G.E's, which stands for "irrelevant graphical elements".

If you don't know anything about graphic design or how to use motion graphics software like After Effects then keep things simple.

White text on a black background may be a cliche but it's really hard to do it badly. just keep it simple, keep your type at a reasonable size so it's easy to read but not so large it looks clumsy.

Editing programs all have title designers built in with access to a decent range of type styles. Choose a clean and clear typeface, no fancy swirls or twirls and the use of Comic Sans will be met with swift, violent action.

For "lower third" graphics, shown above, the principles are the same. Again, if you can't do clever motion graphics then use the built in title designer to create something simple and clean.

The persons name should be in a larger type with their job/title in a slightly smaller type beneath it. Add a subtle drop shadow to help separate the title from the background and keep it on screen for about 7 seconds so people can read it. Simple fades can be applied to titles or you can just crash them in and out if you want to be edgy!

Finally, the I.G.E. In the example above you can see the IGE on the top right, which in this case is a URL for the festival. Most television programs these days have some sort of IGE on the screen. They can help with watermarking and to provide a useful piece of information, like a web address, for your viewers.

Keep them small, keep them simple and keep them out of the way

[ Video Gear for 2013 ]
[ Editing in 2013 ]
[ Filming Dance in 2013 ]

Thus far in our series of articles to help you with video production for your dance company, et al, we've covered the kind of equipment you need to shoot and the equipment you need to edit.

So what about actually shooting some dance then? What have we got to say about that? Well dear readers here are some top tips for a number of shooting situations.

Framing Live Dancers

Dancers from Emio Greco | PC in 'La Commedia'

This is the easy one. Professional dancers and professional choreography need to be filmed using, what we call, "full frame".

If you look at the screenshot above taken from a recent show you can see the entire body of both dancers in the frame. If you look at any of the video features of live work on Article19 you will note that we do not film closeups.

Do not fall victim to the age old "tv people" problem of trying to "fill the frame". Dancers are tall and thin, relatively speaking, and a video frame is short and fat, they will never fit together, just get over it.

Also, you don't spend weeks crafting choreography just so you can film the upper half of it on your dancers.

In some circumstances the stage might be full of dancers scattered across the entire space. You can either pull back for a very wide angle shot or focus on just one or two of the dancers and as the work progresses, and very smoothly, move the focus of your shot to other dancers within the larger group.

Framing Rehearsal

Now, rehearsal is a slightly different room full of dancers. If you're filming rehearsals to provide a straight up preview of your creation then the same rules apply for shooting a live show.

On the other hand, if you're crafting a short documentary then you will need to mix things up a little and get in closer with your shots so you can pick out some details.

Berit Lundene of Panta Rei Danseteater during the Coda Ung Workshops

For the example, above, we needed to illustrate the younger dancers participating with the professional dancers. To do that required pushing in a little bit tighter to frame the professional (Berit on the right in the red T-Shirt) with the young boy to the left enthusiastically joining in.

In this instance the movement is not the important thing, the facial expressions of the kids alongside the professional dancers is.

For documentary purposes, rehearsals and workshops are about showing interactions between the participants as well as showing the work.

Framing an Interview

The third thing you really need to learn how to frame is an interview. Pointing a camera at somebody's face sounds simple but it's amazing the how many film makers do it badly.

Live Rosenvingue Jackson from Coda Oslo International Dance Festival

If you look at the screen grab above from a recent interview we did the setup is very simple.

The camera is placed to the right of the interviewee and the camera operator sits to the left of the camera. Framing wise the interviewee is situated to the right of the frame so they look across the frame to the left as they talk to the interviewer. Simple!

Safe to say if you place the interviewee to the left of the frame and have them looking to the left then it's just going to look weird.

Weird is also what you will get if you have your subject talking directly to the camera. Some say this gives the impression of the subject talking directly to the viewer which is nonsense because your viewers aren't that stupid.

You should also try and avoid using multiple cameras. Rapidly editing a single person interview is as annoying as it is pointless. Filmmakers and TV people (again) deploy this particular gimmick because they think it makes somebody boring appear more interesting. It doesn't

The Microphone

Our equipment tips, if you followed through with any of them, furnished you with an audio recording device and/or a microphone to record people during the interview you have perfectly framed after following the advice above.

If you read our piece 'The Media Paradox' from before Christmas then you will, of course, remember the section where we talked about "polar patterns" on microphones.

A polar pattern is nothing more complex than the area around a microphone that will pick up the sound. Directional microphones (like the ones we recommended for you) will pick up sound from a very specific polar pattern.

So, using a microphone stand (they are very cheap so there's no reason not to have one) position the microphone so that the tip is about 10-12 inches above your interviewees head and about 10-12 inches in front of their face. Make sure the tip is pointing toward your interviewees head, roughly in the direction of their mouth.

Keep an eye on the audio meters, all cameras and recording devices have them, and make sure the levels are not too loud (the meters will stick to the top level) or too quiet. They should hover around the -12DB area, it doesn't matter what that means just try to keep your sound levels around that kind of area.

Tripod Trips

Not all your shots have to be about movement - Kari Scotnes Vikjord - Panta Rei Danseteater

In our previous piece about purchasing equipment we recommended two different, high quality sets of "sticks" to put your camera on.

Both recommendations utilise so-called "fluid heads". This is important because it allows you, the operator, to adjust how stiff or loose the action is when you pan (left to right) or tilt (up and down) the camera.

For shooting with a tripod it's important to get the camera balanced correctly and to set the "drag" appropriately. Because individual cameras have different weights and physical sizes they will all balance differently.

However, in general, try to get the cameras weight positioned directly over the centre point of the tripod. The "drag" settings, adjusted using the control knobs on the tripod head, should be set so the tripod can pan and tilt without you having to hold onto the tripod with your other hand.

The settings should not be so loose though that when you tilt the camera forward and let go of the "pan bar" it keeps dropping on its own.

When you get the settings just right for your camera then it will make tracking moving dancers and people a lot easier and a lot more pleasant for those watching your creation.

My Eyes

The viewfinder is the thing at the back, don't use it, use the screen!

From our perspective, here in TheLab™, people who film looking through a viewfinder (except in very rare circumstances) should be slapped with a kipper.

The problem with looking through a viewfinder is that your other eye is usually closed, thus removing all your beautifully evolved peripheral vision capabilities.

Most cameras, even very expensive high-end devices, are fitted with flip out screens and, for dance, these are massively more effective.

If you're filming a live show or a busy rehearsal/workshop then it's important to keep yourself aware about what else is going on in the room around you or on the stage.

Your peripheral vision can see dancers entering stage left or right while you film a solo in the middle so you can get yourself ready to move the camera, nice and smoothly, over to where the action is.

Don't get tunnel vision, always keep an eye on what's going to happen and not just what's happening on the little screen in front of you.

Taking The Time

Perhaps the most important tip we can offer is this. Take the time.

You want to know why TV news crews are so monumentally bad at filming "arts packages" for television? They show up for 10 minutes, shoot some pre-set crap and then bugger off (but not before the talking head has asked you a bunch of inane questions though).

Our short documentary for Coda Oslo (Coda UNG) took twelve days to film and none of it was set up for the camera. If you want to film what's happening then you have to be there, you have to wait for it to happen, that's why it's called documenting.

Shooting a live show takes a different kind of patience. If you want to get good at it then you have to keep doing it. The more practice you have, the more you work with your gear, the more accomplished you will become.

If you want to develop some skills then you have to be prepared to learn them.

[ Video Gear for 2013 ]
[ Editing in 2013 ]
[ Crafting an Edit ]

Last week we featured a comprehensive suggestion list for what video gear you might like to purchase if you're planning a 2013 video production strategy of some sort.

This week we bring you less of a list, more of a series of recommendations for the gear you need to actually edit what you shoot on your expensive, or not so expensive, new video equipment.

The Box

If you don't have a computer then you can't edit, simple as that. So, if you're in the market for a new computer for the new year then look no further than Apple's iMac (late 2012 model).

Although the aesthetics of a particular machine are not really a priority, Apple's all in one machine really is a design marvel. The leading edge of the computer is incredibly thin with the main bulk of the internals placed to the centre rear of the machine.

The 21.5 inch model is also incredibly lightweight, so light in fact we have a hard time cleaning ours because it will not sit still on the desk.

Aesthetics aside the power for the computer's brain is provided by Intel's Core i5 or i7 processors (you can specify which before you purchase). But even the slightly slower i5 is more than enough for even the most arduous HD editing tasks.

Another crucial part of computing is how much memory your computer has, this should not be confused with hard drive storage space.

As standard, all the new iMacs come with 8GB of RAM. Again, this is more than enough for general use but if you love running a couple of dozen applications at the same time then you can boost the memory up to 16GB for the 21.5 inch models and 32GB for the, as yet unavailable, 27 inch models.

It's important to note that the 21.5 inch models are completely sealed units and cannot be upgraded in any way (at least internally) after purchase. Not unless you have some serious technical skills. The 27 inch model does have user accessible memory for upgrading.

As for the monitor itself? Well you get a 1920x1080 display which is incredibly bright and crisp and renders text and images extremely well. In general use the computer is very pleasant to operate for long periods of time.

Drive

The hard drive, not to be confused with the memory, is where all your applications go and lots more besides. The 21.5 inch model has two options; a standard 1TB (terabyte or 1000 gigabytes) of storage as standard. For £200 you can upgrade to a so-called "Fusion Drive" that mixes the regular "mechanical" hard drive with a 128GB Solid State Drive (SSD).

Essentially this makes booting the computer and loading applications faster than with the standard "mechanical" drive. Having used a machine with SSD technology we can vouch for the speed increase but Apple is overcharging for the tech so unless you are a real speed freak, don't bother, the mechanical drive works just fine and is plenty fast enough.

Speaking of disc drives the iMac doesn't come with an "optical" drive fitted at all. No DVD discs or CDs in this machine. You can get an external one however, avoid Apple's own over priced "super drive", if you really need one though so all is not lost.

There are also no "Firewire" connectors on this machine, a staple of Apple computers in the past and essential for video work. Those ports have been replaced with the much faster "Thunderbolt" connector and four USB 3.0 ports (more of which later).

The Externals

When editing video, or sound and music for that matter, it is essential that all of your media (video files, images, music, etc) is stored on a fast, external hard drive.

We're not going to bore you with the technical details as to why you need to do this but safe to say it keeps everything running far more smoothly when you work that way.

External drives also make it very easy to move complex projects around from one machine to another. All you do is take the drive with you and, if the host computer is running the same editing software, just plug it in and off you go.

There are two choices for drive connections on the new iMac; Thunderbolt and USB3.0. Of the two, Thunderbolt is the fastest but the big problem is the external hard drives that use Thunderbolt connections are almost three times more expensive than their USB3.0 counterparts.

USB2.0 was not fast enough to edit video material effectively, trust us, we tried it once, but USB3.0 is a different matter.

We have extensively tested a Lacie D2 3TB USB 3.0 7,200rpm external drive with Full HD video and can report no problems at all . For just £176 it's a bargain and it's also a lot quieter than its Firewire counterparts.

The drive can store about 150 hours of HD video material although that's dependant on the type of video you shoot, the type of camera you use and the file format it uses for storing video on the memory cards.

The Cutting

For the actual editing there are only three realistic choices for most people. Adobe Premiere CS6, Avid Media Composer 6 or Final Cut Pro X.

Media Composer is hugely expensive (over £2,000) so let's forget that one and Final Cut Pro X (just £199) is little more than an amped up version of iMovie.

FCPX is a nagging, nannying pain in the ass that's always trying to interfere with what you are editing by doing things "automatically" and the editing interface itself is a none standard, confusing mess. Avoid it!

This leaves us with Adobe Premiere CS6 which is far from perfect but as an editor it does exactly what you want it to do when you tell it to do it and does it very quickly.

Premiere Pro CS6 - Click The Image for Larger Version

As you can see from the image above the software itself is not for the faint hearted when it comes to working with computers. The nature of video editing however requires a certain level of complexity from the software you use so there will be a learning curve.

Premiere CS6 includes a wide range of tools for you to work on your footage from colour correction all the way down to too many goofy filters you will never use.

A big advantage with the software is its ability to edit digital video files from a huge range of cameras with no long drawn out process of converting video clips from one format to another. A massive time saver in the all digital world of editing.

You can just take your shots from the camera's memory card, drop them into Premiere and off you go!

The best approach to something this complex (if you have never edited before) is to not try and learn how to use every single feature, there is simply no need to do that. Grasp the basics first and then progress as you need to, learning how to use new features as you come to need them.

Article19 will have a feature on editing and shooting in a couple of weeks but there are also dozens of online tutorials on YouTube and Adobe's own website that will walk you through the software if you're an absolute beginner.

Creative Clouds

Cost wise there are a number of options when purchasing Premiere CS6. Adobe has a new service called "Creative Cloud" where you don't actually buy the software at all, you rent it. For about £17 per month you can rent a single application for as long as you might need it.

Alternatively you can pay about £47 a month (with a minimum one year subscription) and have complete access to all of Adobe's applications (including Photoshop and After Effects among others).

You can also buy the applications outright which for Premiere CS6 on its own will be an eye watering £804. You can also save money if you purchase the so called CS6 "Master Collection", that includes 16 different applications not all of which are for video production, for a credit card melting £2,644.

I should note that these prices are for individual licences. If you want to install on more than one machine in an office then it will cost more.

Complexity

If you are going to get yourself or your organisation into the world of creating and editing video then there is no easy or cheap way to get it done.

For less than £2,000 though you can get a very capable editing system with software that will be good to go for several years, if you treat it nicely.

[ Video Gear for 2013 ]
[ Filming Dance in 2013 ]
[ Crafting an Edit ]