Blog: The Video Shoot

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I got up extremely early on Saturday morning because I had WORK to do: CRAFT WORK! I was due at Stately B3ta Mansions later that day to SHOOT THE VIDOE for "The Gay Train" and had several props I needed to make, like a sign saying "Balham", a London Underground roundel and, my favourite, replica signs saying "Love", "Liebe", "Amore" and "Amour" for cuddly toys to hold, like the Beatles did in "All You Need Is Love". Of these I was especially proud.

I'd already made my Mini-Masks of GRATE Homosexuals, so packed them up too along with a few changes of shirt, a glove puppet, a model policeman and a road atlas and headed NORTH for Kentish Town, where the epochal moment in video-making was due to happen. Once I arrived we got going pretty swiftly, and did the whole intro bit at high speed. At one point I found myself in Mr Manuel's bed. "Ooh, Hibbett Porn!" said Mrs Manuel as she passed by. Yes.

That done we FELL upon a big box of lego, and between us laid out a train track before building a train with big seats, so that several Small Cuddly Toys could sit in it. The train was adorned with rainbow flags and other paraphenalia, and then Rob got out his STEADICAM (also known as SOME PLUMBING) and film loads of lovely shots of it speeding around the track. When you see it I am sure you will agree, it is a thing of beauty - i KNEW all those hours of Lego Training would come in handy one day!

That done it was back to filming ME, and we did three or four complete run throughs of me singing the song sat in the middle of the track, DANCING. Rob, DIRECTING, joined in, and again Lucy came by to see us both cavorting wildly. There was also some giggling.

I think we were both a bit knackered by that point so we BROKE FOR LUNCH, also to LOOK upon their young son Angus for a bit. We had POSH SANDWICHES and CUSTARD TARTS, it was DELICIOUS, and then it was back to work, this time to go through the song line by long to film "cutaways". The first one we did was me walking past a sign saying "Balham", on my way there, which was neither amusing nor clever but will hopefully make sense when it's all put together. Actually, the whole day was pretty much like that, and was very much like doing the way we do RECORDING - we did lots and lots of small BITS at high speed, dashing from one to the other, in the hope that it'll all WORK when it's editted together. I must say, working with Mr Manuel in this way was a JOY as we both happily followed each others IDEAS without worry, prevarication,or MESSING ABOUT.

Having said that, some of those ideas were a bit RUM. I think you will know the ones i speak of when you see it, but I may come to regret being persuaded to pose for STILL PHOTOGRAPHS outside with my sleeves rolled up and my arms folded behind me head whilst wearing a tight leather cap. And a moustache.

There were also Vikings, a Fez, Mr Manuel in the leather cap, lots and lots more dancing, glove puppets, dancing heads, and a finale with me underneath a huge pile of cuddly toys talking to a cat upon my shoulder who was representing the father of one of my oldest friends. As I say, hopefully it'll make sense when it's done!

To finish off we needed to film the bit about letting off balloons, so we went out into the garden where we discovered that it's HELIUM balloons you need, not ordinary ones. They tend to just drift around, then drop. Thus, in order to get footage of balloons going UP, i ended up chasing balloons around the garden, throwing them back into the air like a young Andrew Ridgely whilst Rob filmed them, both us us getting a bit dizzy and LARFING. That bit felt the MOST like I expect Normal Video Making feels.

With that over we were DONE, and we all retired to the PUB for a well earned BEER. Rob's now got the ENORMOUS task of editting down about 70 minutes worth of LARKING ABOUT into a 3 and a bit minute video, a task which i do not envy, but if it's anything like as GRATE as it appeared to be IN MY MIND at the time, then it will be ACE!

posted 15/5/2006 by MJ Hibbett

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SPAMBOT FILTER: an animal that says 'to-whit to-whoo' (3)
	(e.g. for an animal that says 'cluck' type 'hen')