Is This What Reality TV is Like?

We aren't huge reality TV watchers here in our household. In fact, Ryan can probably claim complete exemption from such frivolities. I do watch the Duggars and Bates - but I try to watch those while he's at work, so he can have more time for football.

But last week, we had a little touch of reality TV here in our home. And it was quite the to-do, let me tell you!

I mentioned it briefly yesterday in the shuffle post, but if you missed it, here's the background:

Earlier this summer, when I started leading the women's ministry, Ryan and I were also given the opportunity to oversee the small group ministry at our church. We were part of the startup of such groups a couple of years ago, serving as small group leaders in our home. Since then, many of the other groups have dissolved, for one reason or another. The church asked if we would be willing to try to relaunch that program, and we said yes!

The timing of it all made it too awkward to try to start it up for fall, because we didn't have enough time to come up with a plan and properly implement it. We (along with the church leadership) decided it was better to wait and try to do it correctly, rather than trying to do it haphazardly.

So last Tuesday afternoon, the church's video production guy came over to our house and set up camp in our living room, prepping to record a 2 minute(ish) promo video about small groups.

I helped Scott bring in all the equipment, and then I went into hair and makeup while he got all the tripods set up, the lenses selected, and began tweaking the lighting.

And lest you get any wrong impressions, "hair and makeup" means I did my own. Ryan did his own too. ;)

Since Scott didn't have an assistant with him, and since I had time to help, I did...including helping him shop the house for chairs and decorations for the area in our living room where Ryan and I would sit while he recorded us.

Ryan scurried home from work as quickly as he could, changed out of scrubs and into video clothes (is that even a term?) and then he got the script up and running on his computer.

I'd written the script a while ago and the church gave its approval for it to be used for the relaunch. I'd color coded it (shocking, right?) so we could read our parts.

The official recording photo. If we'd had an extra person in the house, it would have been fun to get pictures of recording in action, but it was just the three of us, and we were all just a little busy.

Ready, with microphones on!

Scott had four camera angles going at all times, and we recorded the whole script 4-5 times. We wrapped up about a half hour before small group began, and we had to take everything back down  to make room for a full living room!

Scott stayed and took footage of our group arriving, getting snacks and coffee, settling in and talking - and then he stayed to observe the group in action. He took a little more footage at the end, before fully packing up and going home.

I can't wait to see the whole thing! All I know is it took a LOT of work to set up, film, and tear down - and he hadn't even started editing yet!!!

Kind of a fun little experience though!