Thursday, September 11, 2014

Phat Fiber Box Sept 2014 The Southwest Preview Video!

3 comments:

Maureen said...

I don't know who's in charge of this irritating 'show????', but the rude people in the background who are talking over the narrator should zip it! They distract from the beauty of the yarn,etc. I would never donate anything if it was shown and discussed on this ????. It's not even light-hearted, it's distracting to have people talking over each other, some singing, others bringing up subjects that are not related to the items being unwrapped. Rarely is an artisan mentioned by name--though the talking talking talking heads in the background make it almost impossible to hear. It would be nice to be able to understand what the main narrator is saying about the contents.
My hearing may be off from trying to separate the voices, watch the items being shown, but it seems there aren't many interesting questions or comments shared with the audience. What about mentioning how much work it is to spin lace yarn; the process to kettle dye or paint yarn, how yarn is (or can be)spun? Or some positive comments on the packaging. I managed to see some really unique handmade containers. I don't know if the Phat Boxes are filled with donated items; if they are it seems a little more enthusiasm wouldn't go wrong and perhaps gain more items for your boxes.
Well, one less site to waste my time on. And, of course, you have to be from my birth state of IL.

Jessica Jo said...

That was really rude. I'm tempted to post a rebuttal but it wouldn't do any good.
Jessie, all of us who watch and care about the Phat Phiber boxes because of what they are really appreciate all the work you guys do for it. Don't pay any heed to this dumb ****. You guys are great.

Brekke said...

First, I'd like to say that this is my first time having been invited to the box sale and I was curious what the video would be like. I'm curious about the product and while I don't think I'll be able to manage the budget for it this month, I did want to see if it could be worth doing so in the future. I'm prefacing this so that you understand that I've never had any experience with the videos or much of anything else with Phat Fibers except for the bits I've skimmed on Ravelry.

Preface out of the way, I'd like to mention that I also found the background voice distracting. It was louder than the narrator's which occasionally made it very difficult to understand what said narrator was saying. My suspicion is that perhaps the background voice belongs to whomever operates the camera which would, by default, make that voice louder. The song portion of the video was particularly vexing because it was INCREDIBLY and suddenly loud since I had turned the volume up quite a bit to hear the narrator. I was able to figure out more of the creators' names, but some of that was because I was watching the cards that came with each sample. I eventually found the extra voices so distracting that I turned the sound off and just watched what was coming next. I'm sure I missed out on information that way, but it kept me from just giving up.

While I firmly believe that Maureen could have been more polite, I did want to mention that I, too, as someone new to Phat Fibers found it incredibly distracting and frustrating that the background commentary was louder and less constructive than the main narration. I know it is easy to shut down someone who is rude and not consider their words at all, so I am hoping that by aiming to be more polite the message might be heard.

I even have a couple of possible solutions, the biggest simply being to ensure that the camera is on a steady tripod so that the background speaker can step a bit further away from the camera. Both voices being close to the same volume would help things considerably. Also, if the secondary speaker is generally more loud in volume than the primary narrator, it might be worth finding a way to put that person closer to the camera so that the softer voice is picked up more clearly. Obviously, I have no idea how you have your video equipment set up, so I can't tailor suggestions directly to you, but I really hate it when I see people offer criticism without even offering potential solutions.

Overall, I did find the unveiling of the different products quite fun and interesting and my etsy account has quite a few more favorites added to it than it did an hour ago, so that was definitely fun and I am still curious about how the box works. I just also wanted to point out that some of the preview experience was marred with sound difficulties.