lights, camera...and a rock'n roller

‘Let men and women make good sentences. Let them learn to spell the sound of the waterfall and the noise of the bathwater. Let us get down the colors of the baseball gloves, the difference in shade between the centerfielder’s deep pocket and the discreet indentation of the catcher’s mitt…Let us enlist the Vocabulary, the Syntax, the high grammar of the mysterious world.’ – Stanley Elkin

(A quote from the textbook I’m using in my latest writing class. Motivating.)

Over the past two weeks, ms. potter and I have been consumed with creating a plan and a script for a video we spent the last two days shooting. Not much time = much stress.

Peter rabbit came on board with his curly locks and his camera skill. And all of the other ‘stars’ who we enlisted did so without hesitation…well, except for great guy.

He is no willing actor. He would much rather design and build an entire house in a day than have to stand in front of a video camera, or any camera for that matter. But, I promised that all he’d have to do is stand beside me holding a very heavy spotlight and shine it on me…how hard can that be?

I had also asked the father if he would mind helping out. I mentioned that the video would be uploaded to youtube; that his bit would be about online learning through skype; and that he would just need to smile into the little camera on the computer monitor. He had no idea what I was actually talking about, but he said yes.

Fortunately for us, he had been involved in some late-night-drinking embarrassments at our place two nights previously, and was feeling very sheepish about it all. I probably could’ve asked him to fund the entire video production; he was in a ‘yes’ state of mind.

So, great guy and the father showed up at the shoot together…their late-night bonding session having not worn off…and they were both total pros. This family, I must say, is very photogenic. We kept saying, ‘wow, you look so great on film’…and they would each say at their respective times, ‘Ja, ja.’ Humble not, but great-looking yes. We were just missing the sister or the model trio would’ve been complete.

Cut to rock’n roller. He showed up exactly on time (we made his call noon, thinking that would be early enough) and he had literally just rolled out of bed. He’s been having a tough time of late and so was looking quite rough around the edges…but at least he showed up, in jazzy pin-stripes, with a kerchief tied around his neck, and his beauty of a stand-up bass in tow. This particular instrument is its own character in any performance mr. roller gives.

Rock’n roller’s bit involved, of course, some jazzy-tune playing. It was groovy fun, with a hint of crazy. I rocked out a little bit beside him, while the gargoyle atop his bass hopped and wiggled along to the beat. Rock’n roller did his thing, not taking too many cues from peter, so the whole thing was a luscious mix of adlib and the spontaneous. That’s the genius behind artists who roll out of bed and create.

The shoot wouldn’t have been complete without an appearance by my newest fascinator out of Paris. She/it played the part of a Queen-like head-topper, and did it well if I do say so myself.

In a month or so, after peter has worked his magic, all of his table-top camera-angling and film slicing and dicing will be in full view for all of you to see…unless my part is so embarrassing I don’t tell you about its release. Very good possibility.