Retrospective - Winter 2022/2023

L'école du ballon (The balloon art school)

1- Initial Opening (partially)

In February, I invited some members of the website to test the first available course, and thus be able to proceed to the last corrections and final touches before its opening to the general public.

2- Results of the first tests

The first feedback led me to revise my copy so that each course will be published in two distinct versions.

• The first version will be the version originally planned. This version will offer you personalized support through forums and messaging, allowing the exchange of photos and videos... in other words, an exchange of exercises and feedback on their evaluation. And at the end, the training will be sanctioned by a certificate attesting to the follow-up of the courses and its level.
• The second version will be a self-taught version. In other words, you will have free and full access to the complete courses, but without personalized support or final evaluation.

I found it useful to add this second option for multiple reasons.

• Sending photos or video is not always easy in some cases
• Some people learn very well, or even better, on their own.
• For those looking only for a quick reminder of the basics, sending and returning exercises and assessments would be a waste of time.
• etc

3- Unforeseen events

Right in the middle of this initial testing period, I was contacted by a publisher of educational material who asked me to assist him with a suite of photo and video tutorials for a twisting balloon kit that should soon be released in the United States.

And I have to admit, I'm not very good at multitasking.

I have therefore, in recent weeks, immersed myself in the design of these new video tutorials and in so doing I have postponed the opening of "l'école du ballon". Again!

But that's not all!

By pure coincidence, and sometimes events are well engineered that way, I was put in contact in March with a balloon supplier, in France this time, for similar projects.

Hmm... finally, I think I'm going to have to learn multitasking!

4- Let's see the good side of things

Now let's not forget that there is always -always- a good side to everything!

These last few weeks, I turned into a full-time video editor and realized how much I needed to improve technically. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about techniques related to balloon twisting, I'm talking about video editing and video post-production techniques.

I mean, most of the time, until now, I made my little video tutorials for YouTube in an artisanal way, and that was when I had time, between two animation or balloon decoration contracts. The educational content was all I really cared about, the rest was pretty secondary to me.

But now, I have to produce professional grade videos. In other words, not only the content, but the envelope has to be absolutely impeccable! If only at the level of color correction and speech clarity.

And I've learned so much in this domain in recent weeks, that now when I watch my videos on YouTube... well... I'm reminded what my teachers regularly told me in my younger years: "Can do (so much) better!" As a result, last week, I've been "having fun" remastering some of the videos from "l'école du ballon" curriculum.

Now of course, we have to keep a balance... We all improve, all the time, but the danger of wanting to do everything perfectly is either doing nothing or taking a very long time!

But anyway, these recent events should be the prelude to a qualitative step that will reflect on the next videos posted either on YouTube or on the balloon school.

That's definitely a good thing!

And those were the main news of the last few months.

I will keep you informed as soon as the English side of l'école du ballon" opens.

Until then, the very best to you,