Video Production
Improving salsa videos, from an instructional, technical and artistic perspective...
When I want to learn something about, say, painting or internet design, I go to the library or on the net, I get a good reference and I explore the literature. It frustrated me immensely that this was not possible for Latin dance.
The closer we get to a salsa literature are the many salsa videos available. However, these videos are rarely produced for this purpose, and consequently they are not representative of the immense variety displayed by today's social salsa scene. Some 80% of available salsa videos is on LA/NY salsa, which represents, at most, 50% of the salsa danced around the world.
The first person who made a real effort to overcome this issue was Eric Freeman with his 'Salsa a la Cubana' serie. With it, he brought for the first time traditional Cuban salsa to the outside world. This is an area we will focus on as well, in our future projects.
Another drawback of common salsa videos is the scarce use of video technology to enhance their educational potential. Video editing technology and film making technology offer far more than what is available in today's videos. This includes music and rhythm aids, camera views, slow motions, beat counters and so on. We made a considerable effort in this direction in our videos, and we hope to bring continuous improvements in the following ones by being in line with technological developments.
Finally, dance is art. It is supposed to be about 'beauty'. Salsa videos are rarely visually beautiful, or at least artistic. This has little to do with production budgets. Producers of expensive salsa videos usually invest money in fancy equipment and flashy effects, which may make the video impressive but rarely artistic or beautiful. There are exceptions of course. Within the limitation of our skill and budget, we try to make our videos visually pleasant. Here again, we are interested in collaborating and in co-producing videos if you have interesting projects.
