Show Me - who I am

I recently attended a 4 day festival of workshops for creative producers. I am a creative producer.

During the sessions there was, each time the invitation from the host the ever humble Chris Grady opportunity to introduce ourselves to the group in the Zoom chat.

I regularly find myself meeting talented and passionate people each effortlessly introduce themselves. Their name and an appropriately length regaling of recent projects followed by an off the cuff insight to the driving force behind their drive to produce work.

I am not good at this! I did settle upon a version my growing confidence can offer here at the close of April 2021.

Hello I’m Caron, based in Long Eaton in the East Midlands. I’m a theatre maker, and digital events producer. Exploring immersive hybrid experiences and non binary identities. Unashamedly dyslexic.

That’s me right now. I never feel my accomplishments add anything to my prospects or I should say I don’t feel they impress upon anyone. It’s work and I enjoy it but there’s nothing special in what I do and few people know who I worked for or care.

My destination is more important interesting than my origin.

My aspirations are to create a live immersive performance stage for plays, storytelling and musicals that is hi tech with a low carbon footprint with a pinch of crypto.

NFT’s ... minty!!!
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Audio / Speech to text (with free tiers)

Prior to Covid I was never far from my Livescribe pen and notebook. The Livescribe pen enables me to take notes while it records the audio in the room. Following the meeting at the tap of the nib on a word the audio is played back from the moment the tapped word was written. My written notes were digitised and converted into text I then copy and paste the text into a google doc. On the occasion I needed the full transcription I’d export the audio file from the pen and import it to Otter. 

Otter was also an app I’d run on my phone and with permission of the room, I’d capture full transcripts while using my Livescribe pen for notes.

Then came Covid. My pen was rendered useless as I wore headphones for video calls. Early on as I familiarised myself with Zoom and its settings I discovered Zoom could connect to Otter for live transcription and in turn provided in a side by side browser window captions for deaf, hard of hearing and those ‘listening’ with audio off or turned right down.

Over the course of the Lockdown Otter evolved to provide on-screen subtitles. For me, its major use has been to provide a record and transcribe my meetings.
It’s pretty accurate. However, I have discovered we are not! Transcription for presentations with intended even partly rehearsed, structured speech renders full sentences. Free thought discussions and conversations I have found flip mid-sentence between future and present tenses. People frequently do not complete sentences or infer a list and then fail to fulfil the points.

My solution within my workflow which facilitates closed captions as a service in my work uses Otter’s business tier. The tiers are Basic (free) Pro and Business. The free tier does not connect to Zoom and importing audio for transcription is limited to 3 before an upgrade is required.

 

 

You can use the Basic free plan of Otter as long as you'd like, but there are a few usage limits to keep in mind.

• Transcription limit - Up to 600 minutes per month
• Transcription duration- Up to 40 minutes per transcription
• File imports- Import up to three audio or video files

Best #voicenote tool EVER. IMHO (in my humble opinion), 600 free #transcription minutes a month! https://otter.ai/referrals/O598JJY5

Here is the CC Otter.ai 1 month free trial code - “OTTER_TRIAL”

https://otter.ai/pricing

Here are alternative options.

If you are a Microsoft 360 user Word has a speech to text and audio import for transcription built-in.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/transcribe-your-recordings-7fc2efec-245e-45f0-b053-

https://www.freetranscriptions.com/pricing/

FREE - 300 minutes (5 hours) of audio per month

Just a note about how awesome Otter’s customer support is. In the early days of covid when I first used Otter to provide CC in Zoom Webinar, an Otter support rep joined my webinar rehearsal and actually talked me through the set up when I was struggling. They are fast to respond to support requests and meticulously follow up.

Let me know your solution. Any further question please comment below.

 

Have you had enough Zoom? One more it should be this one.

Niche information sessions serve 2 purposes. One, to unite and recognise the niche, and Two for those not resident within the niche to gain greater understanding and advocacy.

Equity's Equalities Committees are hosting a series of weekly virtual coffees to help members to keep connected. Every Thursday at 11.30am performance industry professionals gather on Zoom to hear from Equity members, staff and activists on an array of topics, ask questions and share experiences.

Equity’s next Zoom’s In On is zooming in on Dyslexia.

Around 10% of adults in the UK have dyslexia, and some drama schools report that up to 30% of their students are dyslexic.

It's not just coming out of drama school but a life long understanding of adapting and understanding life as it is perceived by your brain. How do you manage, work and co-create with #Dyslexia and help those around you to do the same.

Join to hear experiences of being dyslexic in the industry, what support is available and what best practice looks like in the workplace and casting process.

There will be a chance to hear from invited speakers and ask your questions.

Equity make these meetings fully inclusive and accessible. If you have any access needs - for example, if you need a BSL interpreter or if you are dyslexic and would benefit from alternatives to using the chat function for the meeting, please email Lottie on [email protected].

Captioning is available via Otter.ai for any meeting by clicking on the icon on the top left of the screen.

It's good for non-dyslexics to attend. There is additional funding to be had with dyslexics on your production. Extra good planning is needed as time moves slightly differently. To accommodate Dyslexic thinking presents immeasurable rewards. Sustainability and focus being just 2 major advantages. I see my dyslexia as a gift but it needs management and understanding.

Join us to hear speakers talk about their experiences, what support is available and what best practice looks like

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/equity-zooms-in-on-dyslexia-tickets-150586011815

Equity Zooms in on - archive

https://www.equity.org.uk/at-work/equity-zooms-in-on

Mindfulness in March - Seeing Red.

Visual text overload. It’s a Dyslexia thing. There is only so much interpretation of squiggly lines forming letters combined to form words, strung into sentences I can process. On top of that their is the expected reciprocal text return.

I’m just searching for some mental equilibrium. 

I just want to listen or talk.I visited Clubhouse and Stereo. Nothing grabbed my attention. I considered firing up a conversation but on Stereo swiping through the available people I got shy and wasn’t sure how I’d start a conversation. 

Then I looked for an online piece of theatre but where to start and I don’t really have time for a full length show. What about a podcast? There is part of me that wants live right now. So after scrolling a few update feeds in Facebook and Linked in I remembered I forgot to watch my fellow Equity Online Branch committee member and sharer of my first name Caron Reidy’s YouTube monologue screening. I’m going to do that.

Here is the link. Caron’s monologue “Red” starts at 26”50’

https://youtu.be/UefaGAyl0vc

Recorded media is a fabulous technology. I’ve not seen Caron perform live on stage. I haven’t seen any TV episodes. Before COVID it would have just been showreels. This was a wonderful treat. And a genuinely good performance.

Neurodiversity Affinity - #Dyslexia and All

West Midlands Neurodiversity Theatre Network met this evening. This was my first time. Thank you Tracey Briggs fellow dyslexia. The host was Birmingham playwright Matthew Gabrelli.

Holly Clark was his guest, a midlands based theatre maker who iscurrently developing an arts council supported project about dyspraxia. She shared with us her experiences working with an access worker to support the completion of her recent successful Arts Council Application.

I was surprised at how at ease I felt. I didn’t want to hide my divergence. I was curious to know how the others would express theirs. I need not have worried. There was a comradely clarity we just knew. I hope the others felt the same. We shared.

I will be looking for a support worker to help align my world view moire patterns I inevitably have to tackle to put pen to paper.

 Links

https://matthewgabrielli.wordpress.com/

https://twitter.com/hollydclark

Neurodiversity Affinity - #Dyslexia and All

West Midlands Neurodiversity Theatre Network met this evening. This was my first time. Thank you Tracey Briggs fellow dyslexia. The host was Birmingham playwright Matthew Gabrelli

Holly Clark was his guest, a midlands based theatre maker who iscurrently developing an arts council supported project about dyspraxia.She shared with us her experiences working with an access worker to support the completion of her recent successful Arts Council Application.

I was surprised at how at ease I felt. I didn’t want to hide my divergence. I was curious to know how the others would express theirs. I need not have worried. There was a comradely clarity we just knew. I hope the others felt the same. We shared.

I will be looking for a support worker to help align my world view moire patterns I inevitably have to tackle to put pen to paper.
 

https://matthewgabrielli.wordpress.com/

https://twitter.com/hollydclark