Behind the scenes of Photoshop User TV’s Webinar

I’ve always wondered what happens behind the scenes of Photoshop user TV. Yesterday I had a great opportunity to be on the Live Webinar for the release of Photoshop CS5 and was able to see first hand what goes on.

Let me start by explaining how it happen. I’ve been behind the eight ball since I came back from “Vacation With Vanelli” in North Carolina and then Photoshop World in Orlando a week later. The back projects caught up with me and I had to take a nap. I receive a text from Terry Reinert Tuesday asking me if I saw the early show. His text was full of excitement and enthusiasm. I couldn’t believe I missed the first show. I watched the second show and called in for a question about the new painting feature.. We’ll I said the question was for a “friend” Fay Sirkis. On a side note Fay is one of today’s most sought after digital artist and she specializes in  Fine Portrait Painting. Now can you see why it was funny? During the show Alan Hess playfully harassed me and Elizabeth “Firgs” Gast started the “Hey the show is missing a Vanelli”. Scott said we are short handed tomorrow why don’t you come over and work security (another inside joke). I thought he was kidding. After  Larry Becker assured me he was serious, I asked Norm DiCrocco and Tom Clark if they could take over my karate class and I took the 163 mile drive to Tampa. It took a group of people to help make this happen and I’m very thankful!

I was greeted with the tradition “Vanelli is in the building lock down alert” from Larry Becker. I made my rounds to say hi to the NAPP staff (I love them!) before I saw the man himself, Scott Kelby. We did our usual joking and he asked if I wanted to do a tutorial. I thought I was just coming for a visit! I had a jump drive with me but no computer. Scott said no problem, we’ll get RC to get you one.  RC Concepcion is the Swiss Army Knife of NAPP. He looked for a windows 7 based machine loaded with CS5. When that was proving to be difficult, he prepared a MAC machine for me. Keep in mind he was downloading the beta, getting the computer ready, arranging for IT to have the video feed set up, ordering food, researching questions and preparing his tutorial for the show. (There’s more in a bit!). I created a few quick tutorials keeping in mind I was on a different platform and well, it’s a live show. Scott assured me if I messed up it would be OK, they would just razz me for the entire show.

We walked to the studio from the office to set up. When we got there, the video crew was ready. I gave a huge hug to Nancy “NAPP News” Masse who was preparing the whole live chat section of the show. Juan (who is also a talented Photog and Photoshop user) did my makeup and I sat down for a sound test. Jason “The Scriv” Scrivner runs a tight ship! Keep in mind, my computer still hasn’t downloaded CS5 and I’m hiding the fact I’m getting nervous. Dave Cross kept us all entertained with his humor and I was amazed at how cool and collective he was. If he were an Italian I would compare him to the king of cool, Dean Martin. Scott showed up 5 minutes before the show and the studio took on a life of its own!

Scriv gave us the count down and the guys were joking all the way down to the 5 second mark. Then BAM we were live! Did I mention I still didn’t have CS5 download…let alone installed yet? Three minutes into the show, CS5 was finally downloaded. RC must have had an internal clock, he walked over and installed it quick and padded me on the shoulder. I just laugh and took in how calm everyone was. I loaded my image and with one minute to spare, Scott had me do my tutorial! Once I completed my first tutorial, I reminded myself of lessons I learned from my years on the National Karate Circuit.  I stilled myself to soak in the memory of the event and to live in the moment.I saw how everyone was just having fun. Nancy was trying to hold in her laughs as she typed 80 words a minute organizing the live text chat. RC was working on two computers having a blast answering text questions and preparing his tutorials. Scott and Dave bounced off each other as seasoned Host and Co-host. Scoot also included everyone from us to the video crew into the show! It was an incredible experience to be with friends doing what I love.

The second show’s format was a little different. Larry Becker filled in for Scott. RC and Dave came up with a JDI (Just Do It) idea 15 minutes before the show. RC gave me my JDI and Dave pulled from his own JDI library. I’m sure when Thomas Knoll (the creator of Photoshop) watches Dave he says “Wow Photoshop can do that?”. The man knows his stuff!  With Larry being on the show, I remembered what my son Alec said before I left. I told him I was a little nervous and he said just don’t mess up and if Larry is on the show, don’t try to be funny, you can’t compete with that! Larry is the Executive Director of NAPP. One of his many job duties is to organizes great deals for NAPP members. He is a natural born speaker, motivator and teacher. His photography and Photoshop skills are amazing. With so much talent around me, could you understand why I was a little nervous?

On a side note, I now know how the gang feels when I text them during a show. After my distracting experience from Alan Hess, Mike Kubeisy, Kevin McSparron, Dawn Camp, Terry Reinert and Randy Van Duinen, I will limit my pranks. did you notice at one point Scott asked me a question and I couldn’t answer, I just laughed?  MATT KLOSKOWSKI was texting comments like…. “Dude your bombing the show. Just kidding you’re the only good one, the other guys are hacks.” He had me laughing so hard, I had to turn my phone off.  For that, I have arranged another sparring match for him with Superfoot Wallace.

I just want to thank Scott, the crew and you the viewers  for making my experience a memorable one!

Photo credit Juan Alfonso via his android phone