The Rate Debate

I didn't have to do any long distance driving this holiday weekend, thank goodness. But my brother brought my niece Kate up from south Florida and my step-sister Beverly was in town from South Carolina. I thought it was the perfect time to attempt my first scripted video, with cast and lines, costumes and locations (all less than a mile from my house.) Kate is in the 10th grade but she already has more training in this kind of thing than I do. She's in the TV Academy in her high school. They have professional cameras and boom mics and all kinds of stuff I would love to have. I just used my trusty old Casio EX-FH20 to shoot this. My budget was $36 for a genuine military BDU coat and a sheriff patch from Amazon.

My step-sister Bev is no amateur. She moved out of New York and is taking a break from professional comedy because she has small children. Looks like she hasn't updated her website in over a year. (I can relate.) My graphic designer friend Stephen Leacock came up from Tallahassee to play the part of the do-right man. Kate and I planned ahead so we only took an hour of their time, not counting making them drive out to my house. I am not very comfortable with asking people to do stuff for me. I think I need to embrace wasting other people's time if I ever do this again because I pretty much only had one usable take for each clip. Camera was out of focus, or just not even recording, when I thought it was good.

Happy Thanksgiving!