I met with my supervisor yesterday to discuss a video that I will be developing later this season.
The cast of Vanity Fair, adapted by Kate Hamill from the novel by William Makepeace Thackeray and directed by Eric Tucker at the Pearl Theatre.
(© Russ Rowland)
The video I need to make is to promote an upcoming production of Vanity Fair. It’s a familiar title and story for those who know it or have been exposed to Reese Witherspoon’s movie. But, this adaptation is not a normal production—it’s new and purposefully rough around the edges: multiple actors play multiple roles. The design of the set employs bare bulbs in the background of the walls to demonstrate scene shifts. The show art is also designed like a beaten up theater marquee. This is a production trying to get back to the basics of how to tell a story.
Show art for the production at the Pearl Theatre utilizing marquee light bulbs.
I got inspired by the design choice to use bare bulbs in the set as well as the artwork: why don’t we actually light up the title Vanity Fair, like an old theater marquee?
Only problem was: I do not have a green screen in my inventory of gear (my predecessors, as far as I can tell, never filmed footage to animate). And while this design exists as part of animation preset packages you can buy, I didn’t want to buy something if we ended up not wanting to stick with this idea and waste the company’s money. But, I knew I had a few spare minutes of time to freely experiment (which I just learned is key to creativity in this podcast episode).
So, the challenge was set: I needed to make light bulbs light up, and in a pattern of my choosing, in the shape of letters.
I got to work.
First problem to solve? Find an old-fashioned lightbulb.
This actually took some doing because my office has only environmentally friendly bulbs in all our free-standing lights. Again, you can buy stock footage of bulbs. But, I did some digging, and found one outdated bulb in the lamp of our HR Manager’s office. She graciously let me borrow it.
Second problem to solve was finding a lamp that I could adjust the neck and height. This proved to also be difficult to find as most lamps in our office aren’t built to be taken apart, let alone are short enough to easily manipulate. I eventually found one on a coworker’s desk in Publications. She also was kind enough to let me steal her lamp for the shoot.
Last, I needed a black backdrop. Since I didn’t have a green screen, I needed the next best thing, which was light absorption on a neutral background. This was probably the strangest thing I’ve done to date at my job. The closest match I could find without asking our production teams to get involved (they are very busy people, who don’t need a marketer to ask them for fabric scraps on a Tuesday afternoon during Tech) were some leftover black mousepads. The fabric of those mousepads provided enough coverage behind the lamp that I could film quite easily without any noticeable light bleed or wall behind it.
Once I had everything collected, I was ready to begin.
Lightbulb provided by HR, lamp provided by Publications, black fabric (aka mousepads) found in our office supply closet.
I took two shots where I manually plugged and unplugged the lightbulb and captured its glowing light (as well as the camera’s auto-adjustments to the light). My office mate thought the entire thing was hilarious. Although, I had to warn him that the bare bulb would cause an uncomfortably bright light in our office for a couple minutes.
You might ask: why?
Why in the world would I spend time forcing something to happen—with mousepads—when I could have planned it out, done a formal request for gear purchases and / or stock footage? The answer is simple: money is tight and I like the challenge.
I am one of those people who enjoys coming up with solutions and finding wiggle room for development, even when it looks like there’s no point in trying. I knew I had time to try to make something happen, whether or not I succeeded. Plus, I don’t like to just sit and wait for feedback on the projects that are out for edits—I like to keep moving. In waiting for feedback on five other videos in rotation, I could take that 20 minutes to set up a shot, and make something out of nothing.
Given all that, I think the end result is a great start.