Behind the scenes with Shaunti: WHY IS THE CAT IN MY VIDEO SHOOT?
So this is a little peek into my life. And probably the life of any author/speaker, truth be told!
Have you ever seen me or another author on one of those little informal videos we sometimes record as part of a video blog, or to give a shout-out about a book release or, for me, about a fun event that is coming up? Simple and easy, right? After all, it is a 60-second video. How long could it take?
You have NO IDEA. This is what is going on behind the scenes. And why, sometimes, recording even a 60-second video, and getting it right, could take thirty minutes, believe it or not.
Picture this scene, which happened last week. My assistant Theresa comes over to my home office with a list of things to accomplish that day, one of which is recording a 60-second video for a women’s event I am really looking forward to speaking at, in January. Thankfully, this is informal, so we don’t need the extra time to set up lights and sound. Just an iPhone, my (somewhat faulty) memory of what I need to say, and a room with halfway decent lighting – in this case, the front room where my kids do their homework. We push all the messy papers out of the line of the shot, sit down in our chairs, Theresa points the iPhone in my direction and I start off with a “Really looking forward to being with you at the Fearfully and Wonderfully Made Conference on January 10 in North Carolina –”
“Cut”, Theresa says, “you forgot to say the city.”
“You’re right. Okay, try it again.”
My next try, I get all the way through what I want to say, but don’t say the correct website where women can register for tickets.
Theresa just chuckles, patient woman that she is, and we try it again.
But next time, in the middle of the shoot, suddenly there’s an extra presence on camera: one of my two cats jostles Theresa and the camera as he jumps into the shot to investigate what is going on. I shoo him away, but we get about 10 seconds into the next effort, and the other one jumps up on the table to say hi. About halfway through the next attempt, both of them decide to make an appearance.
You see, Flash and Storm are social creatures. They also think they are dogs. They have a sixth sense for the fact that we are doing something fun, and they want in on it!
My patience now running thin, I pick up both cats, and put them into the guest bathroom down the hallway and close the door. It’s only sixty seconds. We’ll capture the video, I’ll let the cats out, and we’ll be golden.
“Hi, I’m Shaunti Feldhahn and I’m really looking forward to being with you at the Fearfully and Wonderfully Made Conf—“ BANG! BANG! BANG! Rattle rattle rattle! BANG!
The cats are rather put out at being kept in the bathroom instead of out where the fun is, and are rattling the door trying to get out (I told you they think they are dogs).
I look at Theresa’s face and stop recording. “You can hear that on camera, can’t you?”
“Yes.” Sweet, patient Theresa is clearly wondering when on earth she’s going to get back to the other 156 things on her to-do list for the day.
“Okay, let’s let them out so they don’t make noise and just try to record it really fast, before they come back in here.”
This time, I don’t even get the recording started before Storm swoops back in and jumps back up on the table. That is when Theresa decides to keep the recording going and records this video, perhaps hoping to show Storm the video so he will see the error of his ways. I’m sure it will work. Eventually.
I carry him out of the room, deposit him on the other side of the house, sprint back to my chair, sit down and we start recording what ended up being the video we used. I remembered everything I was supposed to say, and it was fine, but if you look closely as I near the end, you can see that I start talking more and more quickly withmywordsrunningtogetherlikethis. In my peripheral vision, Flash had appeared in the room, and was clearly gonna make a move! So suddenly part of my concentration, as I was still talking, was taken by mentally measuring how long it would take for him to jump up on the table and appear in the shot. We managedtogetitdone, hit stop, and yep the cat appeared in shot about a nanosecond later.
All told, recording the sixty second video had taken more than twenty minutes.
I love my cats, but OY. They are definitely on the naughty list for Santa this year!
Storm’s blooper reel:
The FINAL clip: