My very first video

Video-making has never been on my radar. I’m a writer, not a filmmaker, after all. I’m lucky to have a son who’s a filmmaker, and he’s made me some great book trailers over the years. There really hasn’t been any need for me to learn to do it myself.

But then, this social distancing thing came along and all of a sudden, I couldn’t do bookshop visits, or talks to schools and other groups. I noticed other writers doing amazing videos, and I wanted to do one too, but… I had no idea where to begin.

So, when The Lismore Regional Gallery and The Quad offered an at-home artistic residency called Together//Alone, I thought this might be just the spur a movie-making novice needed to have a go. I applied to make a video called ‘Writing the Girl with the Gold Bikini’. A short time later, I found out my application was successful. After I finished celebrating, I realised I had only seven days to make my video and freaked out.

I’m not exactly a technophobe, but I’m coming from a fairly low base. Step one was to figure out how to use iMovie. I discovered some great templates and spent way too much time checking them out. I also spent a lot of time pondering different approaches to capturing vision and sound with the equipment I’ve got available. I didn’t want to lash out on new gear. In the end, I filmed with a phone and tripod and used the microphone from a pair of headphones tucked into my shirt. It worked okay, but I think next time I’ll invest in a microphone and upload a teleprompter app. Live and learn.

I was super-proud of my first attempt. I sent it to my son, and he said, ‘It’s um… good’, but the way he said ‘good’ made it sound like ‘bad’. Apparently, all my transitions between film clips were terrible. Secretly, I already knew they were terrible, but I was hoping no-one would notice. I went back to work.

The final result is here – a six-minute video where I talk about the inspiration, setting, character and development of ‘The Girl with the Gold Bikini’. I feel like a kid bringing their artwork home from school. It might not be amazing, in fact I am well aware that it has some technical issues, but I did it all by myself! My next video can only be an improvement.

If you’d like to read ‘The Girl with the Gold Bikini’ , it is available at your favourite bookshop, or in print here and ebook here.