I know an update is long overdue - I’m planning a long one in the next couple of days. For now, a thought on the video visualizer:
For the past month, I’ve gone back and forth on whether or not I should use video clips in the app. The clips aren’t particularly useful for contra dancers - we all know what a swing looks like, and seeing a disjointed mashup of individual moves from several dances strung together doesn’t actually tell an informed user much.
I ultimately decided to include the clips anyway - I needed something to demonstrate to an uninformed user what the words on the screen mean, and the clips were the fastest way to do that. I also got to explore the minefield that is video on the web, which could prove to be useful later (if for no other reason than because I now know how unpleasant it is to work with video in web browsers).
Now that the video clips are up and running, I’m extremely glad they’re there. While I’ve still got big dreams for many features to come, the app now feels whole in a way it didn’t without the visualizer.
Unexpectedly, creating this feature turned out to be my most emotional experience so far at Hackbright. It was wonderful to spend a day poring through videos of my DC, Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore friends having a blast dancing, but it was hard not to dwell on the fact that I haven’t seen most of those people in months and I miss them enormously.
I’m super grateful to @dougplummer for letting me work with his footage. His tendencies toward bird’s eye views and intimate close-ups yield videos that capture both the complexity and the joy of contra dancing.