The Armour Archive

On April 29th, we were presented with Robert MacPherson's valuable insight into his method, knowledge and theories of armour design design, patterning and proper fitting.

The sessions are now available for download by ARS member. An approximately 7 minute preview can be viewed here:

Mac - Armour Design I

You will need RealMedia player to view the videos. It is available for download here: http://www.real.com

The Full videos (over two full hours) are available for download on the ARS member's site. The downloadable videos are 320x240 resolution w/ high quality audio.

Information on membership can be viewed here.

The information presented can be summed up in a comment from one attendee: "Where have you been for the last 20 years while we were struggling to figure this stuff out?"

These are truly a unique educational tool. Tips, tricks and insight from an top caliber armourer are being shared in a mass format for the first time!

I cannot overestimate the things Mac told us. Simple little things like how to get the shapes right <i>before</i> you hammer steel, and the ways to figure out where you're going with a design.

As he said in the presentation, anyone can raise a knee-cop, but we need to know when to stop.

Just watched them both, WOW! get them!

OH... WOW!!!

I tried to quickly fastforward through them, but that's just impossible, I get caught every time I pause to listen to a section. Now THIS is the level of information that I need! Never mind ToMAR, that book is just dilluted peanuts compared to this.

Brian, reserve a copy of the DVD(s) for me!

RalphS wrote:OH... WOW!!!

Never mind ToMAR, that book is just dilluted peanuts compared to this.

And more expensive! We are beginning to be a pretty good "bang for the buck", no doubt.

We should have about 3 or 4 more videos up later this week. Presentations from the conference in October of '05.

There are three available now, we just completed the upload of an hour and a half of Chicago Swordplay Guild's interpretation of Fiore dei Liberi armoured combat!

We are making an impact, that is for certain. With Dave Rylak (Cet) as our newly appointed Director of Education, I suspect we will be making even more progress. And with Jason Grimes as Webmaster, there should be more activity on the online front, as well. And Thomas Hayman is graciously taking the point on building a schedule for chats and subjects in order to facilitate sharing the wealth.

We have good people and we are getting good things done, that is for certain! Let's keep it up.... perhaps there is no limit to how far the bar can be raised?

I want to thank all the members for making this possible! Without you there would be no ARS!

Are there plans to make DVD's available to those folks who are on dial-up? (Yes, we still live in caves).

Thanks.

From the ARS message board:

They will be made available shortly for purchase on DVD for the public. The DVD version is significantly higher resolution which results in better detail of the presentation slideshow. There will be a significant discount for members, as well, if you wish to purchase the DVD version.

It'll be worth the money if only to see the presentation slides more clearly.

Mike,

You will be glad to know that the videos from last year's conference will be made available shortly, as well.

All but David Edge's. We will need to extract his from the DVCAM tapes. We were not provided a RealMedia version of that one.

I really liked his... was hoping to make it one of the first available. Who new the British could be funny!

Ah, excellent! I'm looking forward to those presentations.

It was quite a piece, yes. Who knew so much stuff could give you cancer?

I like your new setup, Brian. It looks like the videos came out nice and easy.

Mike F wrote:Ah, excellent! I'm looking forward to those presentations.

It was quite a piece, yes. Who knew so much stuff could give you cancer?

I like your new setup, Brian. It looks like the videos came out nice and easy.

Nice, yes. I will give you that. Easy.... well, let's leave that one alone. We can talk about it over a beer some time.

Great news! I look forward to the dvd release. Has any decision been made as to how much the dvd's will cost?

Brian W. Rainey wrote:Nice, yes. I will give you that. Easy.... well, let's leave that one alone. We can talk about it over a beer some time.

Sounds good. Give me an excuse for coming down there again.

btmcrae wrote:Great news! I look forward to the dvd release. Has any decision been made as to how much the dvd's will cost?

To be honest, the initial effort has been to get the video posted in an online format for the ARS members.

We still need to estimate the material, time, packaging and shipping costs around a DVD release. Then there is determining the value of the information included in the presentations.

To be honest, I would think that the DVDs should probably go for no less than probably a hundred dollars. Heck, armour making videos (Valentine raising a great helm) are about a hundred bucks. Some of the content in these videos is the culmination of the hard work of some of the brightest minds in armour research today. Mac literally dumped his thoughts and processes out in a slideshow for folks. Years of his learning and insight now available to the masses, essentially.

However, none of that matters if the general public is only willing to pay 5 dollars a DVD. Sort of an issue just coming up with the difference between estimated value and public acceptance.

Thoughts? Determining a price point is something that has been up in the air. The informal MAG gatherings go for $20.00 per DVD. So I would think that the more formal, professional content on the seminar and conference vids should be coorespondingly higher.

Or, folks could join ARS and get the downloads for free! If you are a member (forgive me, I do not recognize the AA name), send me a note, we can possibly burn the online versions to a disk for you and send it out in the post... that is an option if your issue is download speed. Perhaps we can work something out.

Brian W. Rainey wrote:

btmcrae wrote:Great news! I look forward to the dvd release. Has any decision been made as to how much the dvd's will cost?

To be honest, the initial effort has been to get the video posted in an online format for the ARS members.

We still need to estimate the material, time, packaging and shipping costs around a DVD release. Then there is determining the value of the information included in the presentations.

To be honest, I would think that the DVDs should probably go for no less than probably a hundred dollars. Heck, armour making videos (Valentine raising a great helm) are about a hundred bucks. Some of the content in these videos is the culmination of the hard work of some of the brightest minds in armour research today. Mac literally dumped his thoughts and processes out in a slideshow for folks. Years of his learning and insight now available to the masses, essentially.

However, none of that matters if the general public is only willing to pay 5 dollars a DVD. Sort of an issue just coming up with the difference between estimated value and public acceptance.

Thoughts? Determining a price point is something that has been up in the air. The informal MAG gatherings go for $20.00 per DVD. So I would think that the more formal, professional content on the seminar and conference vids should be coorespondingly higher.

Or, folks could join ARS and get the downloads for free! If you are a member (forgive me, I do not recognize the AA name), send me a note, we can possibly burn the online versions to a disk for you and send it out in the post... that is an option if your issue is download speed. Perhaps we can work something out.

Having been there, I can say that the seminar was invaluble. Were I not an ARS member and not been there, I would be willing to pay 50-75 for something like this.

I was also lucky enough to have sat at lunch and just shot the shit with Mac at the conference. To have half of his skill and a quater of his knowledge.....

Pick this up with gloves on cuz this is gonna be Hot!

I'd pay a hundred, but $50-$75 sounds like a better range.

It also depends on what it contains. The entire day, start to finish, is easily worth $100. If it was a two DVD set but $100 per DVD, I'd have to pass.

I'd -prefer- if it went for $15-$20 per disk, but this is exceedingly useful information from a top-notch source, and the ARS needs support as well.

I wouldn't drop any lower than $40.

TOMAR is not overly cheap. Trade videos, gunsmithing books, technical manuals, and standards publications are not cheap. This is easily on par with any of those for usefulness and professionalism of content. The production cost are lower for a video than a thousand pages written and illustrated by a man over the course of a year, but you're not asking $300 for a copy, either.

These are my thoughts.

Count me in for those DVD's.

$50-$75 sounds reasonable for the collection. Depending on how many dvd's there are you could sell them individually for a portion of that amount too. My opinion would be to sell them as event packages so as to get away from any orders such as " I'd like disc 'A' from the 05' conference series and disc 'C' from the 06' conference series." This would just make it easier for production and keeping track of everything. It might also make things more affordable by dividing the series up for the more cash-strapped folks who can afford only one series at a time. Something like this:

ARS October Conference 05'(2 dvd's, 2 hours total) $30

ARS April Conference 06"(2 dvd's, 2 hours total) $30

I also recommend listing a table of contents and a brief description of what each section covers in any adverts(like most of us really need any bait on this hook ). Some still pictures would make a nice bonus feature on the dvd's too, if possible.

Just my 2 cents.

Question: I logged in to ARS but I have no idea where I download the videos from. Where are they?

Archie Zietman wrote:Question: I logged in to ARS but I have no idea where I download the videos from. Where are they?

Our new ewbmaster is working on adding them to the site. For the moment, they are accessible via the message board... unader BoD Communication.

btmcrae wrote:$50-$75 sounds reasonable for the collection. Depending on how many dvd's there are you could sell them individually for a portion of that amount too. My opinion would be to sell them as event packages so as to get away from any orders such as " I'd like disc 'A' from the 06' conference series and disc 'C' from the 06' conference series." This would just make it easier or production and keeping track of everything. It might also make things more affordable by dividing the series up for the more cash-strapped folks who can afford only one series at a time. Something like this:

ARS October Conference 05'(2 dvd's, 2 hours total) $30

ARS April Conference 06"(2 dvd's, 2 hours total) $30

I also recommend listing a table of contents and a brief description of what each section covers in any adverts(like most of us really need any bait on this hook ). Some still pictures would make a nice bonus feature on the dvd's too, if possible.

Just my 2 cents.

Excellent advice.

Yeah, managing individual disk purchases would be a nightmare. We will be working on an all or nothing approach. Including the early MAG stuff... there will probably be a MAG bundle, rather than the individual disk ordering that currently exists off of talbotsfineaccessories.com.

When the video page is complete, there will be a short blurb on each. Still shots are a great idea!

Thank you!

Brian

For those who did not have the chance to go, I must say I learned a lot. it was truly amazing. so if you didn't go, you really should buy this DVD or download it and learn some priceless Mac teaching/techniques for design.

Our new ewbmaster is working on adding them to the site. For the moment, they are accessible via the message board... unader BoD Communication.

Can you be more specific? I can't seem to find the 1 hour downloads on the site, even though I am logged in.

Please excuse my faint knowlege of the ARS, but how does one become a member? I would REALLY like to get these videos, granted I am just a novice armourer. Is there a time frame for joining or have to reach certain armour accomplishments? Do I have to be a member to receive this information or do I just purchase them? I live in SC and its hard to find a goodsized group seriously interested in armouring locally and I work too much to get away to a seminar anywhere. Any help appreciated.

lorenzo2 wrote:Our new ewbmaster is working on adding them to the site. For the moment, they are accessible via the message board... unader BoD Communication.

Can you be more specific? I can't seem to find the 1 hour downloads on the site, even though I am logged in.

Hmm... are you a member? If so, are you getting the member's e-mail notices? If not, let me know... I can turn them back on for you.

E-mail and the message board are our two primary channels for getting info out in a timely manner.

Here is the direct link to the message board:

http://www.armourresearchsociety.org/ph ... .php?t=262

Hammerhand: check here:

http://www.armourresearchsociety.org/membership.html

Click your option and you are on your way. They take firstborn, "maidens", and antique harnesses(full or partial) in payment.

Well, maybe not those, but they do take checks and (international)money orders at least.

HammerHand wrote:Please excuse my faint knowlege of the ARS, but how does one become a member? I would REALLY like to get these videos, granted I am just a novice armourer. Is there a time frame for joining or have to reach certain armour accomplishments? Do I have to be a member to receive this information or do I just purchase them? I live in SC and its hard to find a goodsized group seriously interested in armouring locally and I work too much to get away to a seminar anywhere. Any help appreciated.

Sorry for the delay in response. I was getting a "bad gateway" error when trying to reply last night.

There are no prerequisites to being a member... other than the desire to learn about historic armour and share information.

We are an a 501(c)3 educational organization. Membership donations are tax deductible and go toward the operation of the organization and the presentation/publication of information in a variety of formats.

Thus far we have held a number of workshop/seminars, published a print journal and held a large conference with some of the top minds in the field of armour research. Our membership is extremely approachable and share a common bond of wanting to further knowledge in the field. We are holding a session in July for handling extant armour at the Higgins. We are trying to work in similar sessions at other museums on the East coast, as well. Hopefully for this fall. We will be at the Wallace Collection in spring of '07 for another conference, hopefully two days with lots of time for study and discussion. Lots going on and you are more than welcome to join us!

Some folks are active online, some not. We have a couple of tools that can be leveraged to communicate with other members. We have an online forum (not unlike the AA) that tends to be more historic armour specific, rather than reenactment. We also have a chatroom that will be leveraged more heavily as a posting of chat topics and times is developed (currently underway).

Feel free to send me a message if you would like more information on the organization, would simply like to chat or are interested in joining. The membership link was posted above.

I am a member. Thanks for the link.

I finally had the time to sit down and watch the Mac videos. They were excellent. Mac spends two hours talking about what goes into the design and research of a piece of armor; how it moves, how it fits the customer, how pics in museum catalogs can fool you, how to use drawings to focus the activity and how to avoid common anatomical mistakes. In short, what he is talking about is a universal thought process applicable to any piece.
The only thing that is a bit of a problem (and a small one at that) is he refers to some handouts that were distributed at the event. I think those should have been made available on the ARS site for the viewer to follow along.

lorenzo2 wrote:The only thing that is a bit of a problem (and a small one at that) is he refers to some handouts that were distributed at the event. I think those should have been made available on the ARS site for the viewer to follow along.

Agreed, that was the only takeaway from the entire segment, I believe. The handouts were a series of scaled drawings of a human head. Which could be used to assist in correctly determining how to size a helm from a picture in a book.

The handouts were provided by Mr. MacPherson's to the audience with expressed direction not to reproduce them in any fashion, electronic or otherwise.

After watching the video again, I think it not be that difficult to make something similar by drawing a lifesize human head and reducing it by X percentage on a Xerox machine. I believe that is what he did in order to create the originals.

Haven't checked this thread in while.

Any updates as to the availablility and price of the DVD collections?

Thanks.

btmcrae wrote:Haven't checked this thread in while.

Any updates as to the availablility and price of the DVD collections?

Thanks.

Unfortunately, only exploratory effort has gone into transfering the videos to DVD. In order to do so, we would need the raw footage off the source tapes, which would be expensive to retrieve (DVCAM tapes). The equipment rental to pull the video from the tapes is not cheap and would require a solid 8.5 hours of dedicated time to perform that actual transfer. We have checked with local schools, libraries and other organizations and the hardware is not easily identifiable for loan purposes.

The RealMedia files that we cut live at the event, in a low resolution format, were edited and made available for members. However, this video would not be suitable for publication to DVD.

This is still identified as an important deliverable (part of an overall publication strategy) but will probably be budgetted in 2007, it is also tabled while we focus efforts toward a few other things (journal, '07 conference at Wallace, spring study sessions, publications, fall of '07 armour displays and seminars, etc).

Thanks for the update Brian.

One day I will give up this arboreal dial-up living and come down to the terrestrial, less moneky-like life of the high-speed internet. Then the evolutionary process will truly begin.