They can’t hear you

On today’s shoot, I got to deal with clients who were unwilling to hold still while trying to shoot the videos. On prior video shoots, my actors were very willing to follow directions and eager to please. Maybe the difference here is that the clients were simply unwilling to follow directions. When I tried to keep them from rocking violently back and forth, one client would protest that he could not help it. I tried to set a ground rule to stay a distance back from the camera but the client ignored and completely killed the focus by pressing their nose nearly to the camera lense.

I was not behind the camera the whole time. J did most of the shooting while W and I would try to dash out of the frame as one of the clients would rapidly change directions or tell J to point the camera elsewhere. Like a fool, still wanting to appear professional, I had worn a knee length skirt. When I suddenly had to duck, I had to drop my sketchbook in front of my legs “just in case” as I crouched. That was a learning experience. The second surprise was when one of the clients turned his head after having gotten in the camera’s lense and I suddenly saw myself reflected in his sunglasses. I’m rather glad that these videos are only going onto myspace. I’ll try to edit myself out of them because I think a “little white girl” would rather miss the effect these rappers are seeking.

The three of us were “jumped” by this one very…vocal woman in one of the project neighborhoods who was determined to be in the video. She was dancing with a lot of booty shaking and up on our clients. She followed us around, demanding to be in the video, and W was harassed to take photos of her till he did so. Fortunately, I was of not much interest to her. I carefully kept my attention trained elsewhere hoping to not gain her ire.

The pleasant surprise of today was when we all stopped at a convienence store. My stomach was unhappy so I headed to the bathroom only to find out that the women’s was locked and no one had a key. So J suggested I go to the men’s room. When I came out, J and W were waiting a respectable distance away, keeping watch for me since we were in a dangerous neighborhood. It was touching, to quote a line one of the client’s kept using today.