When You Just Have To Roar! A Short Video
My publisher, Redleaf Lane, asked me to make a short video to go along with the release of the book I illustrated. The book is When You Just Have To Roar! written by Rachel Robertson. It is a fun a look at classroom expectations for those just starting school. I put it off for a short time, partly because I wasn’t sure where our tripod was, and partially because I was stricken with stage fright. Who has even heard of stage fright when doing a drawing? I thought back to my dad and step-dad who did chalk talks at the Museum of Cartoon Art in Port Chester, NY. It was a great place full of newspaper and comic book cartoons. They both worked as cartoonists. I don’t recall them getting nervous before these events. The drawings they made always turned out great. They even managed to crack jokes while standing at the pad of paper with a giant marker. I wonder if they practiced beforehand? The museum closed some time ago and the collection has a new home. I’ll save that story for another post. You can find out more about the museum and collection on Wikipedia.
Back to my video… I chose to draw a character named Sammi. I used a tripod mounted GoPro. (a present we had not used except to film the dog’s point of view as she sniffed around the house) I did a couple of takes. During the first take the cat felt like playing the part of the muse and walked all around the desk. On take two my children suddenly announced their urgent need for a snack. Usually they can handle this themselves. This time my focus was broken as I heard the kitchen being torn apart. Even drawing happy little children takes a certain level of concentration. Take three worked. Finally I had a usable shot. I imported the video into Adobe Premiere Pro. This was my first time editing anything in this program. I haven’t done any editing in years. It went surprisingly well. It did take a little longer than I would have liked since I switched back and forth to the tutorial videos. Exporting was a snap. I hope you enjoy it.
-Priscilla
