Do It Myself Blog – Glenda Watson Hyatt

Motivational Speaker

Lights. Camera. Action! …But not quite that much, please!

Filed under: Living with a disability — by at 6:51 pm on Thursday, July 19, 2012

Glenda demonstrating her computer while the camera man recordsYesterday I had the pleasure of welcoming the film crew from the Fetzer Institute into our home and my home office.

This wasn’t the first time a film crew had been in my home. The first was many, many moons ago when the National Film Board of Canada filmed On Top of the World. (Oh, that brings back happy memories!)

And yesterday was likely not the last time I will welcome a crew with a mondo video camera into my home, but that is another post…quite possibly in the not distance future… Smile

But it was the first time I had done an on-camera interview! Once again my iPad was put to the test. I was given the interview questions ahead of time and, after writing my text responses in Microsoft Word, I used TextAloud to convert the text to speech. I then emailed the audio files to myself on my iPad.

Audio files in an email on my iPad

When I was asked a set question during the interview, I tapped the appropriate audio file and “Kate” spoke my response perfectly. I so love my Kate! We have done so many wickedly awesome things together.

But the one phenomenon that I really, really, really don’t like is how my body goes into “spaz out” mode whenever a nearby camera is turned on; the more expensive the camera, the more pronounced the “spaz out” mode. And telling myself to relax only accomplishes putting more focus on my body’s unintentional movement, which amps up the movement even more.

I have often wondered whether mastering a few acting techniques would aid in muffling this mind-body disconnect. This is something I would like to learn before I interact with the next film crew, so that when “Action!” is called, only intended action is put forth, or, less unintended action is caught on video.

If you enjoyed this post, consider buying me a chai tea latte. Thanks kindly.

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7 Comments »

Comment by Paula Lee Bright

July 19, 2012 @ 7:32 pm

Girl? I’m proud to know you!

Let me do some thinking back some 33 years. I was on the stage for a decade. Maybe I can recall some tips that used to allay my nervousness. Then again–maybe I’ll have a senior moment and have no idea!

Spazzing out ain’t all bad. It shows the truth of what you live with and have triumphed over. So be proud, no matter how it goes. I think you did great. xoxoxo

Comment by Spashionista

July 19, 2012 @ 7:36 pm

I have the same “spazzing” problem; hence my moniker LOL! I am fortunate in that I can speak with only a slight impediment, but that does little if anything to make me relax on camera. My husband often takes photos of me for my site and he’s just learned to take a ton of them and weed out the really palsied ones. I don’t do much better on video – I take that back, I just look drunk on video ;-P
If you figure out some nifty zen technique to master MASS (media-amplified spaz syndrome)please share it with me!

Comment by Glenda

July 19, 2012 @ 9:11 pm

MASS! I love it, Spashionista! Thank goodness for digital cameras with delete buttons, eh?

Comment by Interview questions

July 19, 2012 @ 10:21 pm

the first step for preparing interview is to leave nervousness and fear.when we feel free on nervousness then only we can attend interview perfectly and faithfully.

Comment by Kimberley

July 20, 2012 @ 11:50 am

I’m sure you did great! As a blind person who uses screen reading software I know how you feel about ‘Kate’, even though you use software to ‘speak’ for you and I use it to speak to me.

There’s a certain kind of comfort I get when using my computer and hearing the familiar voice reading things to me. It’s like an old friend.

I’ve made it a habit over the years to have different voice settings on each piece of equipment. It started out as a way of knowing exactly what was speaking to me, but it has developed into my laptop, iPod, watch etc. having it’s own ‘personality’ and quirks as it were.

When I switched from Windows to my Mac I felt lost for weeks because I had to get use to the voice settings and I felt a bit like I had lost an old friend.

That may sound very odd to some people, but I’m sure that anyone who uses text to speech software will understand.

Comment by Dr. Michelle Harrison

July 20, 2012 @ 7:42 pm

Glenda, I’ve been thinking about your startle/spazz response and the best image I can think of is horse jumping, namely as you go over a hurdle you are already focused on the next one. I agree that “trying to relax’ just makes it worse. Actually you have to try to keep your attention elsewhere. I’ve been working with one of our girls with CP whose legs kick out wildly any time she is excited. I’m working on using soothing sounds and stroking her legs, trying to get the soothing sound into her response.

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