Finally I have had a somewhat successful first shoot in my shed studio. The shed.. sorry... studio is 8 feet by 6 feet and filled around the edges with stuff you usually find in sheds, such as lawn mowers of which I have one, garden chairs of which I have many and the obligatory spider of which I have even more of. Now the shed has four lights and a handmade 4 feet wide five feet tall green screen, tripod and autocue and can once and for all be known as a studio.
After one, shall we say, test recording in my shed a week or so ago the main outcome from said testing was that my face was well lit even though a little red from my physical excursions leading up to the first press of the record button and that I didn’t cast a lot of shadow on my all important green screen. It is very important, I am told, to reduce the amount of shadow placed upon a green screen to allow the technology involved to transport the person in front of the green screen to where ever the computer tells it to well, which I think I have accomplished.
Of course I’ve been arsing around trying to set things up just so, and make it as easy as possible to just slip in to the studio when everyone has gone to bed to record my videos without interruption and more importantly to stop anyone from standing outside the shed door in the dark sniggering at my attempts at creating entertainment.
Having finished the preparations and having rewritten my first introductory videos script, the first draft was very poor and I’ll leave the rest of the world to judge the second draft, I was ready to power up the lights and let the camera roll, although cameras don’t roll anymore. I was ready and set to capture my first video, the first ‘The Tag Hour’ episode or at least the ‘to camera’ part of it. I would film the inserts and comedic interjections from the secondary character the following night, which just happens to be tonight as I write this.
And then came the amazing understanding of how easy everyone else seems to make it look. Whether their videos are scripted and scrolled in front of their faces on an autocue or not, it became quite clear to me that even though I know I can do it and have little trouble telling other people how to do it as soon as I pushed record on the camera my knees started to wobble, my face turned red and my tongue tried to escape through the back of my head.
I have acted before and I see no real difference in what I am attempting now and after several takes I was beginning to feel more at home. I’m sure after a few weeks making several episodes of my fledgling show that things will become easier and more natural and my imagination will start firing and they may even become funny and entertaining. But it was a shock and it will be even more of a shock when I come to edit the footage over the next few days and see my awkward face staring back at me, red, uncomfortable and screwed up. What have I let myself in for? Only time will tell.
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