Behind the Scenes of Shooting a Promo Video...

Last year, I sat in on Kandy Lozano's lecture at the Montserrat Encaustic Conference in Beverly MA, about painting in a large format. During this session, Kandy showed us a video of her process set to music. It was a lovely montage of her working, painting, fusing, and scraping, with the occassional quote of what inspires her. I think it is safe to say that a lot of us left thinking "I want a video like that!"

Well, seeing as how I am now engaged to a guy who does video productions and has a few music videos, along with various corporate/ promo videos, under his belt, I decided to see what he could do for me so that I could promote my artwork more effectively. I naively thought that I would be able to go into the studio and do what I do, which is paint, while he just followed me around with a camera. Boy was I wrong! This past Sunday's shoot took about 12 hours  and was one of the most tiring days I have ever experienced. There were lights everywhere that were constantly being moved for different shots. A long jib arm was used with a camera attached at the end in order to get close ups and pan from one end of a shot to another. A large flat screen was set up so that shots could be viewed while Ben or Adam were shooting. This was no amateur production! There was a crew of three people and enough equipment to choke a donkey! Equipment filled my space, along with two other people's spaces and the walkway. Then there was the actual shooting of my working...

I didn't think it would be too hard to paint on camera since I am used to people watching me paint and perform. (I do teach in front of students and have been in various bands so I am very familiar with being watched.) But as we started shooting, I found that it was hard to paint with my panel angled so that the camera got more than just the back of my head covering what I was working on. I also got a little camera shy knowing that people would see every mistake that I would make and may not understand that what I was painting now wasn't necessarily the way it would look like at the end. It was hard to have to stop what I was doing and wait for lights to be moved, lenses to be changed, or any other various reasons I was constantly told to "hold" while something was adjusted. It was hard to have a camera two inches from my face or next to my blow torch as I was trying to get some details in or was fusing a delicate spot. It was a long, difficult day and by the end, I was exhausted.

At any rate, the experience was definitely worth it as I looked back at the playbacks and saw what the camera captured. I can't wait until the editing is done and I can show everyone my work, process, and what 12 hours of shooting and many hours of editing can do.  Big thanks to the best fiance ever, Ben Morse, and special thanks to Adam Wadenius and Matt Hurless who aren't engaged to me and have no other reason for doing this other than they are great people who believe in my work!