Keith in Video Shoot -- Tuesday, 04Nov2014

My daughter is taking a TV production class at the college, and they needed some musicians to come in for the kids to get experience making "live TV". I volunteered.

They treat it like it's going out live, so there's no rehearsal and they don't know anything about the songs -- when/if there's an instrumental verse, when it ends, etc. They have to play it by ear as it were, with the director cutting from camera to camera on instinct. It's like those backstage views of them producing the Academy Awards show, with a guy yelling, "Cut to camera 2!"

The kids take turns acting as cameramen, stage, tech, and actual directors, etc. I just had to try to play my songs without mistakes so they could do their respective jobs around me. Which was harder than it sounds...

I started with "You've Got a Friend", 'cuz I've played so much that I can play it in my sleep. (Of course I also played my best song, "Over the Rainbow", and then, for something not quite so mellow, "Please Come to Boston".) But I'm used to being able to sneak a glance at the music stand to see if I'm, you know, singing the second verse second, and maybe peek at the chords that are coming up. They kept telling me that I didn't, but then strongly implied that I did, have to look into the active camera, or better yet, smile at it.

Now I know that, as a performer, I'm supposed to maintain eye contact with the audience, blah, blah, blah. And I try to, but mostly I like to make sure the music doesn't get screwed up, so I keep more of an eye on the book than the people. And when I do look up, I can look wherever I want to.

But with the pressure to not make any mistakes, and then being obliged to look up at the constantly moving target of whichever of the three cameras had its red light on -- well, it sounds easy, but wasn't, for me anyway. And you can (or at least *I* can) see the discomfort in my eyes as I try to look up, but then panic about the next chord or lyric, or notice that I'm looking at the wrong camera. And I made mistakes in places I've never made them before, like getting the cities out of order in "Please Come to Boston".

After each song, we'd all jam into the little control room to watch the playback, and a critique and compliment session from the director and teacher. Then the kids would get musical chaired into new positions for the next song.

So, nerve-wracking but fun, and I ended up with some pretty nice videos to post on my webpage and Facebook, and maybe use to get some gigs. But the weirdest part was spending the afternoon being referred to as "The Talent". It's oddly impersonal but complimentary at the same time.