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Catching a virus ... we hope!
Posted by Dave Bull on June 29, 2012 [Permalink]
It has been a very interesting day here today ... We had a full house of ladies here: Yasui-san was trimming poets prints for our project to re-awaken that series; Tsushima-san wrapped up the final finishing work on the current batch of cases; and Ayumi-san and Ishikawa-san both continued with their printing training sessions.
And I plugged away at the carving of the colour blocks for the 'Rickshaw Cart' print (as it is coming to be known).
But for most of the afternoon, many of us found it difficult to concentrate on our work. Late Wednesday evening, just before going to bed, I had uploaded a short video to YouTube - not the Kingfisher one I did yesterday, but one showing how a colour block is carved, having filmed it during the making of one in the current batch. I 'telescoped' the process into around 4 minutes, and added a voice-over narration explaining what I was doing.
It's this one:
All fine and good. When I woke up in the morning I saw that it had received a few dozen views. Nice.
Jed then put a link on his Ukiyoe Heroes Facebook page, and things started to move. Through Thursday it showed pretty good access through the day, ending up with a few hundred views by the time I packed up that evening.
When I woke up this morning, I found my email Inbox jammed with notices from YouTube letting me know that 'so and so has subscribed to your YouTube channel'. It seems that word had started to spread, and sometime around noon our time here in Tokyo, it took off ... As I write, it has been viewed more than 12,000 19,000 times ...
Now that's no big deal on YouTube, where Justin B. gets that many views every minute, but for Jed and I, it's a very good sign that there is indeed plenty of interest in our project. I'm certainly not going to start counting chickens here, but so far, this Hail Mary pass is at least looking to be headed in the general direction of the end zone!
I nearly forgot! Let's take a look at the colour block set so far!
I should be finished sometime early tomorrow morning (Saturday), and will then get some paper wet for a first print test. Do you think I should bother turning the camera on? :-)
Added by: preston on June 30, 2012
Hail, Yes!
Added by: Marc Kahn on June 30, 2012
Wow! Dave Bull goes viral...
Added by: Annie B on June 30, 2012
I love Preston's response :) And I'm really happy for you that this project is taking off! It's a great collaboration.
Added by: Sue Kallaugher on June 30, 2012
Yes, absolutely,this is all potential Kickstarter material!!
Added by: Fumi Bull on June 30, 2012
I think he was joking about not putting the camera on. When is it NOT on in his studio??? He even manages to take a video of a bird 'not' catching a fish.... (5 minutes of my time I will never get back!)
Added by: Dave on June 30, 2012
Five minutes I will never get back ...
Hey, that was five minutes of quality time! (for _me_, anyway!)
Added by: Jeremy Pearse on June 30, 2012
Great that you are getting so much coverage with this new project. I'm fully behind it too and hope that the launch on Kickstarter will take off and allow you to carve and print the whole series. I have watched with amazement as the 'Likes' on Jed's fb page have climbed steadily since the inception then seemingly double overnight! Last time I took a look, it was over 8,000!
As for the Kingfisher video Fumi, I have to side with Dave on this one. I have loved birds since I was a child so seeing a video of one of my favorites was a very special treat indeed. Did you notice it coughing up a pellet about half-way through? All those pesky fish bones have to be gotten rid of somehow!
Added by: Tom Kristensen on June 30, 2012
I also vote for the kingfisher - and for Jed - I am waiting for The Birds of Japan print series.
Added by: Dave on June 30, 2012
Access to the video seems to be levelling off now (after two days) and currently stands at just over 35,000 viewers. If we could interest just around .2% of them in one of the prints, our project would be successful!
Added by: Tom Kristensen on June 30, 2012
If I do the maths 35000 viewers x .2% gives 70 print sales, seems like a pretty low target, I can see you selling out 70 prints on the first day. How will you decide how many prints to make?
Added by: Dave on June 30, 2012
How will you decide how many prints to make ...
Not my decision; I'll be waiting for Jed to place his order! He's the 'publisher' on this one, and although of course he and I are planning all eventualities, and what to do in each case, all the 'business' is at his end.
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