How did you start publishing your DVDs?

When I was young, I dreamt of being an author, writing books for everyone to read. Fortunately, however, my ASL talents proved stronger than my writing abilities!  Once I brought a book I'd written to a publisher who supported Deaf schools, but my book was declined. I felt that my writing was not great. Then, a mentor and business consultant encouraged me to use my hands to express myself! And there, I found my talent. So far, I've produced more than a dozen DVDs.

 

To create a DVD, you need a start-up investment, a script, a time-frame, and a business plan with a budget for filming, editing and marketing the video. Although I'm familiar with Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premier, and other resources, and I can produce a script and come to a point when I think I'm ready to get it on camera, it can take a lot more time than I originally planned to get everything recorded! I'm grateful for the patience shown by my DVD publishers, because sometimes I make silly mistakes, and have to start over and sign things again and again! When I watch my own hilarious bloopers, I really am amazed at how silly I can be. Once, I signed something and then fell down when a fly zoomed in front of me. Another time, I just froze and forgot what I was supposed to say next! Sometimes I finger-spell something wrong, because I'm so focused on what I'm signing. It's always a challenge to get the recordings done, but we have fun in the process.

After all of the “signing” parts are over, we sit down and watch the footage to choose the best parts and get them in order. Editing, retouching, cleaning-up, and all of those fun tasks can take up to a month to complete. Once I've got a “final draft”, I send it out to my editor as well as to certain viewers and friends to make sure there are no silly mistakes, glitches, or parts that make people say, "What?"  After gathering all this feedback and making corrections, we polish everything, confirm the final version, and that DVD is ready to go!

Currently, I have only one vendor, Harris Communications. This great company has been so good to me for a long time, but I am also hoping to expand to bookstores and other sales venues.  Amazon sells two of my DVDs. Running my own business as a workshop presenter, keynote speaker, stage performer and video producer is deeply rewarding, so I no longer worry about those publishers who turned down my books. Thanks to video technology, multimedia enhancements for my workshops and performances, great people to work with, and all I have learned, I feel I have had plenty of successes and it seems sometimes that my whole life is just magical.

Check out Trix Bruce's DVDs!
http://www.trixbruce.com/dvds/

With these video programs, you can earn CEUs from the comfort of home! You’ll be able to improve your ASL storytelling techniques and interpreting skills.