Date: Sat, 4 Oct 1997 10:07:47 -0400 (EDT) From: Larry Moss To: Balloon Twister List Subject: Video Review: Balloon-gineering Balloon-gineering - The Art of Designing and Constructing Balloon Sculptures Vol 2 - Dynamic Interactive Cranial Design; VHS 90 minutes Vol 3 - From Balloon Animals to Balloon Sculpture; VHS, 60 minutes by Royal Sorell, CBA and Patty Sorell, CBA Balloon Designs with a Twist! $30 each Several months ago I reviewed Volume 1 of the Balloon-gineering video series. Overall, I liked the first video and was glad to add it to my library. However, I wasn't quite sure what audience to recommend it to. I thought that advanced twisters might find it too basic and that beginners would be left wanting more. More has now been provided! Much of the new material will appeal to experienced twisters. Beginners that followed the basics on Volume 1 will be challenged, but not overwhelmed. Volume 2, Dynamic Interactive Cranial Design. As the name suggests, this video presents variations in head gear. However, content is extended far beyond the limits of hats placed on the top of someone's head. Masks, and even full body costumes are demonstrated. Personally, after years of twisting balloons for crowds, I've found that costume pieces are just about the fastest, high-visiblity pieces of balloon art to distribute. They're also great fun. I've spent several Halloweens wearing costumes made out of balloons. This video outlines many constructions that can be immediately incorporated into your repertoire. Hopefully the material will stir up your creative energies and enable you to develop a range of new creations. Volume 3, From Balloon Animals to Balloon Sculpture. Invigorating your creativity level is exactly what the third volume is designed to do. Rather than provide recipes for sculptures, the focus is on the theory of design as applied to advanced balloon sculpture. As a bonus, there are many terrific, usable figures found on the tape. You will come away from this video inspired to design your own stuff. I'm a strong believer that balloon art should be treated as an art, and not a series of steps to recreate a sculpture envisioned by someone else. Let's get into the nitty gritty. Volume 2 contains several hat bases, including the basic one-balloon helmet that appears in every introductory work on balloons, a two balloon base, and a mask or goggle base. The Sorells build on all of these themes using spirals, braids, flowers, and various other ideas. The goggle concept was most interesting to me, since I've never seen a similar base in print or on video before. It's every bit as simple to create as the basic helmet, but allows you to build in another direction. I've always made elaborate head gear and have often built costumes around hats. However, I have avoided making masks... until I saw some of Royal's creations. Once you see how easy it is to build masks, you're likely to spend a lot of time incorporating them into your artwork. As I suggested above, the nitty gritty of the sculptures on tape 3 isn't really definable in terms of sculpture instructions. It isn't about the details of how to make a dragon mask, or a Santa costume. It's about designing your own figures and creating a twisting style. Learning how to make kissing swans, hugging teddy bears, a road runner, a tommy gun, and a lot of other neat stuff is just a side benefit. More importantly, you're shown how and why certain techniques work to fit everything together. Those that have read my reviews in the past are probably wondering when I'll get to the negative points, knowing that I always try to show both sides. Quite honestly, writing about faults in these tapes is very difficult. The quality is simply superb. However, in all fairness to potential buyers, I will mention a few points, which merely amount to minor annoyances. Several times I felt that the editing could have been better. I don't need to see part of a sculpture made a second time because a balloon popped. I know these artists are human. Even if I don't see a balloon burst on my screen, I trust that it happens sometimes. The main reason this bothered me is that in all other respects, the production of the videos was superb. One of my other common complaints is the lack of a polished, well-developed script. But I will say that the dialog and directions were far more organized than those I've seen on other videos. I applaud the Sorrells for what they've produced. The three tapes do a good job of complimenting one another. The production quality of all of the tapes is exceptional, compared to similar videos. A beginner at balloon art could easily treat this set as a fairly robust introduction. Armed with the information from these three tapes and a bit of determination, that beginner will be ready to hit the streets with his balloons. An experienced twister looking for new material that can be used instantly will find Volume 2 to be a great asset. The twister that wants to advance to the higher level, turning her work into art, should access Volume 3 for insights about how to combine balloon fundamentals to develop new sculptures. To order, contact: Royal and Patty Sorell Balloon Designs with a Twist! Peabody, MA, USA psorell@star.net http://www.star.net/People/~psorell