When the 2020 Cartoon Crossroads Columbus (CXC) event was moved online due to the pandemic, the curators at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum (BICLM) reached out to me to see if there would be a way to offer a virtual behind-the-scenes tour to show attendees. After discussing options, we decided that a pre-recorded and edited video would best serve our needs. The curators and their team at the BICLM filmed clips, scanned artwork and sent me a detailed outline of the video they envisioned. My job was to edit everything together. After many hours in Adobe Premiere Pro, the video above was created. All of the animation (pans, zooms, etc.) was hand-programmed in the software.
The CXC event was a huge success, and the curators and virtual guests had wonderful things to say about the video:
“Anna Stiles did an absolutely amazing job editing the virtual tour. If you watch, you will see just how many different segments and pans and zooms of artwork had to be edited together. I really can’t say enough about how wonderful she was to work with and how professional the final product looks. She also transcribed the audio for closed captioning so that we could post the virtual tour on the Libraries’ YouTube and make it more accessible!” – Jenny Robb, Head Curator at the BICLM
“Seriously, there’s a lot pandemic virtual play out there but your artist-curated tour of the Billy stopped me in my tracks. This is brilliant! I’ve already shared with my comics studies courses and of course on social media.” – Anonymous Attendee
“Outstanding! The best virtual event I have attended since this whole pandemic thing screwed with our world.” – Anonymous Attendee
“Just wanted to doff my hat and say the vault tour was excellent. What a creative, entertaining, and educational introduction to the Museum’s holdings! The filming and editing was great, and this really showed what an incredible resource the Billy Ireland collection is.” – Anonymous Cartoonist
