Probably one of the worst videos I’ve ever taken there.

Notice how I put this text UNDERNEATH the video. Hopefully you’ll already have watched it, and so this won’t put you off, depending on how big your screen is and how short your attention span is – if you’re anything like me you’ll have already skipped to the end of this post. Actually, you’ve probably not even opened it in the first place after refusing to wait more than 0.2 nanoseconds for it to load, so hopefully, I’m only talking to people unafflicted with ADD here.

To be fair, I got the video after someone grabbed me at work whilst on the way to do something, and said The Chain was starting that minute. I had my camera in my bag in its trusty pink trainer sock (the receiver of many a disgusted look as it exchanges hands. It’s CLEAN, dammit) so I ran down and set up in front of the impromptu stage next to an official-looking photographer.

The feeling of generalised insecurity that comes with carrying around a tiny Flip camera in an old sock usually stops me from standing at the back with the big guns, and their array of  heavy cameras, tripods, and those sticks with furry bits on. You wouldn’t park your Morris Minor next to a Porche without at least a small pang of inferiority. Especially not it said Morris Minor was ensconsed in a pink trainer sock from Tesco (8-14 years).

So yes, anyway, I ‘set up’ (read: extracted camera from sock) next to this girl, and started filming. Two minutes later, I had no idea what was going on – the photographer woman (an actor, it turns out) had done a kind of rolling jump into the side of me, I’d gone sprawling across the floor, felt the sensation of a large quantity of water land on my head, then felt a sudden blast of heat and light as the pyrotechnics went off. At which point it happened all over again.

It took about four repetitions for me to realise what was going on, and then a further ten mintues to recover from that horrible post-stress embarrassment when you realise your initial reaction was completely disproportionate to what’s just happened, everyone’s clocked your panicky yelp, and made a mental note never to be next to you in an emergency.

The performance was the result of a week of masterclasses with Richard Stamp (from dotComedy). He can explain the idea behind it better than I can, and I managed to keep the camera still for this one, so, enjoy…

 
For those of you who were concerned, the sock is now dry and making a full recovery in the sub-tropical climes of the Arches marketing office.

Rosie x

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