I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. DeMille

Me in the make-up chair...now, where is my cappucino and Evian???

Last Friday I did my first official on-camera interview. I was a wee bit nervous (well, more than a wee bit, considering I get nervous over the most mundane things), especially after seeing the test shots the day before. I was lacking sleep (as usual) had frizzy hair (afro-ish) and had about 50 gallons of water retention in my face. After seeing the test shots, I couldn't help but freak the hell out. Does my face REALLY look like that? It was kinda orange (apparently it wasn't white-balanced, whatever the hell that means), kinda haggard and kinda ten times its usual size. I ran to the computer, threw all notions of work aside, and searched the net for someone to tell me that the camera doesn't really add ten pounds and that it was all in my head. But alas, all I found were bloggers like me, freaking out that the camera adds ten pounds.

So what did I do? I took an hour long lunch break and headed to Save-On-Foods where I stacked up with a heap of herbal remedies. Low-cal soups (Miso soup, which apparently is full of live bacteria, just like yogurt), Dandelion Tea (gets rid of water retention, tastes like dirt) and Green Tea horse pills (eat something before you take one or you will puke). Armed with my new potions, I ran back to work and got started on losing weight in 24 hours.

Here is something I learned. You can't lose weight in 24 hours. One of those bullshit facts of life, apparently. But you can make yourself look better by getting enough sleep, doing your hair right and having the right posture.
Oh, and having a make-up artist. I think she may have prevented the camera lens from cracking.

Above is Kirk Shaw, the CEO of Insight Films Studios, Canada's 7th largest production company. Kirk is a bigwig in town and makes an obscene amount of films and TV movies each year. But despite all his success, this was his first on-camera interview. And since it happened to be mine as well, I kinda felt more at ease. He was just as nervous as I was.

In the end, the whole interview went great and I actually enjoyed myself. Especially as the camera wasn't on me the whole interview, all I had to do was ask questions and watch him sweat under the lights. Of course, I had my turn on camera before the actual interview in which I talked to the wall and laughed at imaginary comments. Ahh, the magic of TV (well, Podcasting).

Hopefully the magic will be strong enough so that it all looks good. Then I might link it to the blog. But if it looks like crap, forget it. Save that for the blooper real.