We're on TV!

Remember when we went to the studios of WTIU on the campus of Indiana University to film a segment on color theory for The Friday Zone?

Today it's airing!   WTIU is in Bloomington, Indiana - channel 30 or channel 5, depending on your system.   The Friday Zone airs at 4:30pm this afternoon and again at 11:00 am tomorrow. 

Look for the YouTube clip on my sidebar in a day or so.

See you in the Zone!

Lights, Camera....Action: The Sequel

Do you remember last Spring when the crew of The Weekly Special came to the studio to interview me about dyeing yarn?    Read all about it here.   You can see the YouTube clip on my side bar -->.

I met some wonderful people and had a really great experience.  Imagine how excited I was when the producer, Eric Bolstridge, contacted me to do a piece for The Friday Zone!

The Friday Zone is a program especially designed for kids 6-9 years old that's produced in Bloomington, Indiana by WTIU on the campus of Indiana University.  They asked me to be a guest for a segment on color theory.

Of course, I said, 'Yes!'

We planned the material, packed up three boxes of dyes and tools and samples and headed to Studio 6 at IU on Wednesday afternoon.

After loading everything in with the help of some of the backstage crew, we got settled in behind the cameras with the rest of the crew.    You can see a bit of the area where the crew stays during production.   It was much much darker than these pics show.

This is Michelle.  She was so friendly!  We especially appreciated the time she spent chatting with us before filming started.  It helped calm my nerves a lot.

A lot, I tell you.    Michelle deserves a raise.

I was very excited to find out that she was one of the cameramen.   Here she is behind Camera 1.

Sometime during rehearsal, I'm pretty sure I remember Mike, the stage manager, telling me to look into Camera 1.  Now that I think about it, it would have been nice if I had actually done that.

I'm pretty sure that I never looked at Camera 1 at any time during filming.

I think my subconscious was working on the premise that if I didn't actually make eye contact with a camera, then quite possibly the cameras weren't there and there was nothing for me to be nervous about. 

Denial is my friend.

This is Tyler, the audio guy.   He helped me put the mic on without destroying the mic or strangling myself.

He said they prefer it when guests don't strangle themselves.

I think that's a good policy.

Here I am not strangling myself.    I just let Tyler fix it all.   He's especially good at fixing the loop next to the clip.  This is a highly sought after skill, he tells me.

I think they should give him a raise, too.

Here are the hosts of the Friday Zone!


Emily and Taylor are rehearsing the opening segment of this episode.

And here they are during filming.

My part of the show was divided into three parts.  The first part was at the couch, where I talk about some basic color harmonies.  I brought way too many samples, but it looked pretty all set up.

This is what was going on behind the cameras.

The set is very bright and the backstage area is very dark. Everyone wears black and everybody is very quiet. 

It took me a while to realize that the quiet was deceptive.  Actually, there was a very lively conversation going on that I couldn't hear.

Here's the thing about being a guest on a show like this. You miss a lot.

Most everyone else on set gets to wear a little audio bud thingie in their ear so the producer, etc. can tell them what to do and how to adjust things better.   The producer tells folks when to practice, when to film, when to stop, where to sit, etc. 

The guest doesn't get one of those ear bud thingies.  I'm guessing that this is true for all guests and not just me because I tried to strangle myself with the mic when they came out last Spring to film for The Weekly Special.  

What this means is that there is a constant conversation going on only half of which you can hear.  And when  Mike comes over and asks if that arrangement is going to work and are you OK with this, he really isn't talking to you, he's talking to Eric, in the booth.  But he'll be polite when you answer him as if he was actually talking to you.

So, basically, everyone else knows what they are doing and what's going on and the guest has no clue.

No clue at all.

It's a little disconcerting.  But you gotta roll with it.

This is me on the monitor, and on the couch, not looking at Camera 1.   [It looks like the monitor is one of those big ones on the wall behind us, but really it's a normal sized one on a stand, back behind the camera next to where the crew sits.  Bad perspective. Sorry about that.]

This is me holding the color wheel.  It's the one thing that I did really well.

Really, really well.

I held the color wheel up for Camera 1, so they could get a good clear shot of it.   For about 5 minutes.  Then we realized that I should have been holding up another one.  So I held that one up.  This is what happens when you bring four different color wheels to demonstrate things with.

I hope that my skill at holding things up for Camera 1 makes up for the fact that I never actually looked at Camera 1 myself.   

This is where we did the second part of my segment.   We've got a big white board ready to show what happens when we combine different colors of light - additive color mixing.

That's Mike on the left.  He's the stage manager.

During the actual filming of this segment, I was standing where Taylor is in the pic, talking about additive color mixing and Taylor was manning the lights so we could see what happens when we mix them. 

These are my beautiful helpers.  They got to be on camera with me for the third segment - subtractive color mixing with dyes. 





I learned a lot about being on set and on camera.  Next time will be easier.

Here's what I learned about being on TV when you have no idea what's going on:

• Don't expect to hear the whole Lights, Camera, Action thing.   If they say that, and I don't think they do, it's in the earbud thingie and since you don't have one, you aren't going to hear it.  
• They do use the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 hand signal.   Watch for that.  It means you're filming. 
  
• Trust that the hosts will lead you where you need to be in the conversation.   Remember, they've got someone whispering in their ears about how to move the topic along.
• Smile all the time.  Especially if you're not planning on actually looking at Camera 1 to see if the little light is blinking or on or whatever [I would know which if I had actually looked at the camera] and filming is in progress.
  
• Pretend that every practice is the real thing.  For all you know, it is.   I never did figure out if a take was just a rehearsal or not.   It all felt real, until someone cracked a joke or stopped mid-sentence.  Plus, I figured it would be bad form if I kept interrupting to ask, 'Are we filming?' 
  
• Figure that even if you are awful, they're probably going to be too polite to tell you and  you can live in blissful ignorance until that segment hits YouTube.
• Remember, YouTube is not forever.   I hope. 

All in all we had a wonderful experience.  Thanks so much to the cast and crew of The Friday Zone for having us!

Stay tuned!  I'll let you know when this episode of The Friday Zone airs.

We're on TV tonight!

Remember when the crew from The Weekly Special came to the studio to interview me?  Well, tonight they're re-running the show.   In just a few short hours, you can see me in my studio doing what I do best - getting color all over everything.

Here's the link to the Weekly Special's episode on the fiber arts.   The program airs again tonight, Thursday, Sept 29, 2011 at 8 pm Eastern Daylight time.   PBS, Bloomington, Indiana - Channel 5 or 30 depending on your hookup.

If you missed it, the Youtube clip of my part of the program is on the right side of the blog.   You can at least watch my part of it. 

It's a wrap!

but not the kind of wrap you can normally expect from me.  

Here's a link to my bit on the Weekly Special on fiber art that aired last night.   

And here's the page with the other bits on the fiber arts.

As a fun bit of luck, K1 and K2 appeared in the piece on the rooing day at Wee Sheep Farm - Pam is a friend of ours and we happened to be there helping that day.   And K2 is in the first part of the segment on me.    They deserve some limelight since they worked so hard taking all the photos for our piece on the behind the scenes action when The Weekly Special crew came out here. 

We're on the air in 5, 4, 3...

Remember when the crew from The Weekly Special came to the studio to interview me?  Well, tonight's the big night!   In just a few short hours, you can see me in my studio doing what I do best - getting color all over everything. 

Here's the link to the Weekly Special's episode on the fiber arts.   The program airs tonight, May 5, 2011 at 8 pm Eastern Daylight time. 

I'll let you know when they've posted the video stream online. 

Lights, camera....action!

Yesterday, we turned my dye studio into a tv studio.

A crew from WTIU [Bloomington, Indiana] came to my studio to film a segment on my dyeing for The Weekly Special.    Very exciting!    It's set to air on May 5th.  

It took me days, days!, to get the studio ready for TV.   It will stay clean for another 10 minutes, so if you want to see it, you'd better hurry.  

When they came, they brought all their TV camera equipment in handy cases.    When I saw the cases, I wasn't too worried....

and then I realized that tripods took up a lot more space set up than they did in the boxes.  It's a good thing I cleaned so much.   

They brought a camera and two lights.  

Confession #1:  Cameras are not my friend.    I do not appreciate looking like an orca on screen - even if I do look like one in person.    The producer assured me that they would use the Skinny Filter on the camera which would make me look 20 pounds thinner on TV.    I'm so relieved.

The crew was fabulous!   This is Eric, the producer.

and Ilsa, the grip.

and Jacob, the cameraman.   He's in charge of the Skinny Filter, so I was extra nice to him.

Jacob had to stand in front of the Big Hot And Extremely Bright Light.     It was big, hot and extremely bright.   Really - during the whole interview I felt like I was looking at Eric through a heavy mist.    They told me Do Not Look Into The Big Hot And Extremely Bright Light.   So I didn't.   I enjoy what little eyesight I have left. 

I thought the mini-monitor was pretty cool.    That's me in the monitor.   Too bad they couldn't just use that still and voice over the dialog.

This is me getting the mic on. 

It had a long cord connected to the little box thingie and everything.   I didn't want the mic on, but apparently making the audience lip read is bad form.   So I wore it.   I was  relieved that I didn't strangle myself with it or trip the cameraman.   That would have been bad. 

Taping was in two parts:  The Interview and The Dyeing Process.   I got a little break between, which was good because my knuckles were kinda white after the interview.

Jacob and Eric were very relaxed.

I wasn't. 

See that skein of handspun on my lap - it kept me sane.   I just pretended I could hide behind it.  I also kept my hands on it so I wouldn't wave them around.    The whole keeping-my-hands-from-moving-around thing didn't really work, as you can see.  

This is me trying to look like I know what I'm talking about during The Interview.

Confession #2:   I totally suck at impromptu interviews.   I get all tongue-tied, my vocabulary deserts me, I lose my train of thought,  I give too many details,  I move my hands too much.    Every time Eric asked a question, 40 things popped into my brain at the same time - the loudest one being 'I have no idea how to answer that question!'.  Too bad they couldn't tape all the noise in my head - THAT would have made for some gripping reality TV.  

Eric took it all in stride and never even once rolled his eyes out loud, so I was extra nice to him.    

It's kind of a minor miracle that we managed to turn the studio into a....studio.   We even had a studio audience!  At the bottom of this photo you can see part of the studio audience.   The other part of the studio audience took the photo.

After The Interview,  they taped The Dyeing Process, which meant that Jacob had to follow me around with the camera on his shoulder.    This is me getting the yarn out of the soda solution. 

And this is me rinsing the already dyed yarn.

Confession #3:    It takes 3 days to dye stuff from start to finish.    They didn't want to come over three days in a row, so I had things ready at four stages:  White and dry, in skeins; wetted-out and ready to dye; already dyed and ready to rinse; already rinsed and hanging on the drying rack.  That way they could film the whole process without actually being here for the whole process.  

When it was all over, they packed everything up...

and then we went down to the chicken coop to talk chickens.  Eric is getting chickens this month and he wanted to see ours.  

Confession #4:   It was really exciting but I'm relieved that it's over.  Mostly, I'm just glad I didn't fart on camera.   

Really.