THANK GOD THAT’S OVER. That would be the taping of the gardening how-to video I agreed to do for a
new website of how-to videos. Why all the relief? Ladies, you know. Guys, maybe you do, too. But more important than how-do-I-look is do-I-make-sense? The topic suggested to me was "How to Create a Garden" after all, not something I could just demonstrate. And one horrifying sit-down with a tape recorder told me this wasn’t something I was going to just WING. Unlike Ms. Amy Stewart, who’s so good on her feet I’m sure she could do an off-the-cuff on any old topic. Or Kathy Jentz, who does radio and TV all the time and does it so WELL. God love ‘em; I’m not one of ‘em.
But at least I knew what had to be done. And that would be prepare. Ignore the person telling me not to write a script. Write it and practice it. Then create cue cards to refer to while I’m talking to the camera sans-script. It all happened this morning and I can at least report that I survived it. Let’s hear it for Girl Scout training.
So preparedness and videographer Derek Campbell are all it takes to make it a surprisingly happy experience. He’s a really nice guy who seems to be good at what he does. So when he promises he won’t make me look bad, I believe. I WANT to believe.
But as I said, it’s OVER.
Photo: Derek and his two cameras. See the cue cards taped to the back of the beach chair on the left? Very professional.
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Susan- for such a famous blogger – you’re such a wimp. What? You can’t build a garden in 6 minutes?! What were you thinking. I see them do it on tv all the time. Heck they take it all down in the same time and then build it all back up. Isn’t all that real? Gasp. What a horrible thought — tv isn’t real. And here you are trying to fool us with cue cards. What’s next??? Your own magazine titled “Susan” where you write everything yourself as well as take the pictures and trial the recipes? There’s somebody out there doing it right now so we’ll expect better things from you than just a gasp. Get with it girl.
Gosh, is there really any such thing as a famous blogger? OK, I can think of a couple but famous gardenblogger? There’s an oxymoron!
1) I suspect when you have over 100K subscribers and 100K in income/year (and there are multiple blogs with this) you have a relative sense of “fame” in the blogging world.
so in this case you are indeed “famous”.
2) Unfortunately, none of those numbers are gardening bloggers to be sure.
3) But you don’t restrict yourself to gardening (google Susan Harris and see what pops up)
4) Oxymoron – sounds like a stupid cow to me. But what do I know?
5) Onwards to fame and fun Susan – onwards to fame and fun.
Doug, I did as you instructed and with a name like mine, I’m just happy to be on Google’s first page, finally. But you DO know that I’m not a television writer, fitness instructor or equestrian, right?
So, you’re not a fitness guru either? I’m disappointed. But,will you give me free advice about pruning a leggy purpleleaf sandcherry? It’s smack in front of our front window so I don’t think I want to do the hard cutback 100% to the ground I’ve read about to rejuvenate it. Elsewhere I’ve read about cutting back 50% of the larger branches this year and 50 % next year. It’s one large trunk that branches into 5-6 about 6″ off the ground. Can you help me?
I’m sure you did great! And you are so lucky to be able to pre-tape and then be able to edit it — good editing can save anything, IMHO.
Most everything I’ve done has been live, on-the-fly — nerve-wracking, but over fast. Speaking of which I’m on live today – Ch 4 (here in DC) at 4 pm – try not to judge too harshly now that you are a pro!
CANNOT wait to see this!!
You brave brave goil !
Kudo’s to you for having the guts to stand infront of a camera and chat about something you love.
I once was talked into doing a segment for HGTV and found the whole experience terrifying, and quite frankly not my cup of tea.
It was inhumanely hot the day we were taping my 15 minutes of fame and my nerves were at their peak.
The poor powder puff girl had her hands full with powdering off the sheen of sweat on my reddening face.
By the end of the shoot I looked like some frightful geisha girl with 10 pounds of white pancake makeup on … or was it Tammy Faye ? – FRIGHTFUL INDEED !
Never, never again. .. and society will be forever grateful I spared them of this awkward lack of social poise.
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