Addicted to using a camera?!
I keep a lot of old tapes and stuff in storage at my parent's house in Fredricksburg. When I was there a month ago I went through a lot of it and came across some of my old short films as well as some video that I shot as a kid. The piece of video below is from the NBC affiliate in Houston. They had a (very) short-lived fluff segment on their news broadcast called "Hats Off to Houston." The reason it's called that is because the "reporter" who did these pieces of ground-breaking journalism wore a big panama hat, or something that looked like a panama hat. At the end of the segment he would sign off by saying, "Hats off to Houston!"
Anyway, this is somewhat embarrasing but I have to post it because it's so hilarious. I have to explain a few things about this video but I want you to watch it first and then I'll explain afterward.
So when Paul, the reporter, got to my house he said he wanted to shoot me "in motion." He suggested I ride a bike. This felt like a weird suggestion but I went with it because I wanted to be on TV. As I was about to get on the bike he said, "Wait! We have to promote safe riding behavior. You should wear a helmet." I resisted, but he insisted. So I put on the goddamn ugly helmet. I knew I would look ridiculous, but I went with it because I really wanted to be on TV.
After the interview, he said that he wanted to shoot me shooting something with a camcorder. There was a guy working on the carpet in our house so Paul suggested I "practice camera angles" on him. Now, generally speaking, I do not "practice camera angles" normally. (I should also mention that I generally do not get my ideas for films while sitting in coffee shops in Austin.) But there I was, unable to offer up anything better to do, and so I set myself up to look really dumb. Because looking really dumb gets you on TV.
Am I really "addicted to using a camera"??? Do I need a 12-step program for camera addiction? I admit that I am powerless over the camera and my life has become unmanageable.
