Lights, camera, "go ahead"

My supervisor John, who is Hennepin County's organics recycling specialist, wanted to make a how-to video to address all those questions from residents on what can and can't be composted from what you generate at home. So he put Andre and I on the task. I researched other videos, wrote an outline and gathered many props, and Public Affairs turned the outline into a script and handled the actual making of the video. Here's a behind-the-scenes look at Hennepin County's newest video, shot at our house.

Asian invasion!

Jim, in the blue cap, was the cameraman, and when he was ready for us to start speaking or moving, he'd say "go ahead."

I didn't realize how much lighting goes into making a video.

We tripped the electrical circuit three times.

The crew checked out the footage on this small screen.

We shot in the front yard, back yard, kitchen, bathroom, living room, dining room, bedroom, entryway and driveway.

Clowning around.

(This shoot took place in mid-June, but John wouldn't let me post these pictures until the video was complete.)

But this wasn't the end of shooting. We also shot footage at the Wedge Co-op and SET's composting site in Empire Township, shot all the props in a basement storage room at the Government Center, and we recorded voiceovers at the Government Center.

The next week, we were at the Wedge, at 7 a.m. The store is a beehive of activity, as Jim put it, at that time of day, with people stocking the shelves and getting the store ready for shoppers.

On the left is Steve from Public Affairs. He turned the outline into a script and directed the video.

I'm a regular customer at the Wedge, and it was fun to be there before regular business hours.

And then later that day ... this is a storage room at the Government Center that was transformed into a studio for us to shoot the props.

That brown object on the left is a very, very ripe banana.

I was in charge of arranging all the props and making sure we shot all the props on the list. As you'll see in the video, there were a lot of props.

Arranging them just so.

We got a preview about halfway through the editing process. Deb (not pictured) did a fantastic job of putting the video together and editing it.

And then the week after that we went to the composting site, which you probably recognize from my earlier posts. I coordinated with the transfer station so we could film a load of organics being delivered.

Today Steve was the cameraman.

And the last step for Andre and I was recording the voiceovers.

Annnnnddd, here's the finished video! Scroll down about a third of the way down the page. You'll need Microsoft Silverlight to play it. Hope you find it useful! Making this video was a wonderful experience! I learned so much, and it was a lot of fun!