Every time I write a blog entry I wonder whether I’m going to have anything to write about the next month. Will anything exciting happen? What if it doesn’t? Just a few short weeks ago when I was writing about my first podcast experience, I had no idea that the next entry would be written in semi isolation or that pasta and toilet paper would become semi-precious items.
Man alive, these are crazy times, aren’t they?
Given that the National Gallery is currently closed, it feels almost cruel to mention the Titian exhibition, but ‘Titian: Love, Desire, Death’ sparked a frenzy of activity in me that I am grateful for in ways I couldn’t have possibly imagined. It’s only three months ago that, out of an unfeasible fantasy (mine), the idea of making videos was born (my friend’s). See my post ‘Making movies (in my kitchen)’ for the progression on that one!
Anyway, if the exhibition hadn’t excited me enough to make videos exploring the works, I wouldn’t have the equipment that I have today to make little videos, and without the little videos, I very much doubt that I would have come up with the idea of ‘Elevenses with Lynne’, an Instagram ‘live’ born out of our strange new circumstances that I’ve started doing every Monday and Thursday.
Perhaps I shouldn’t admit this but I feel as though I’m flying by the seat of my pants. I’ve done two now and I’m learning all the time. There haven’t been any major incidents so far apart from a mini melt-down joining my own chat the second time round:
Me (my brain): Oh, I’ll put my phone on ’do not disturb’ in case someone calls or I get a flurry of messages whilst I’m online.
Me (my brain): Where’s ’do not disturb’? Oh yeah, done!
Me (my brain): Right, deep breath, here we go, get on line… the bloody ‘stories’ button isn’t clicking, damn, damn… oh, here I am, good. Right, go to the bottom of the screen, scroll across, where’s the ‘live’ button? WHERE’S the ‘live’ button? OMG WHERE IS THE LIVE BUTTON? What have I done? Is this what I did before?
Me (my brain – another part of it): It’s 11am, it’s 11am, it’s 11am, it’s 11am
Me (my brain): Okay, start again, no, I’m sure it’s in ‘stories’, is it in ‘stories’, THINK. WHAT DID YOU DO BEFORE?
Me (my brain – another part of it): It’s 11am, it’s 11am, it’s 11am, it’s 11am
Me (my brain): Oh no, people are going to join and I won’t be there and they’ll all go away and they’ll think I didn’t do my ‘live’. Where is that butt… oh, wait, has it got something to do with putting the phone on ’do not disturb’? Let me try that.
Me (my brain – another part of it): It’s 11am, it’s 11am, it’s 11am, it’s 11am
Me (my brain): Where’s ‘do not disturb’? Okay, there it is, switch it off. OMG, stories button won’t work again, oh it works and…..
Me: Hello! Good morning!
So, folks, the takeaway from me this month is don’t put your phone on ‘do not disturb’ and try to go ‘live’ on Instagram because it doesn’t work. The ‘live’ thing works in so many other ways though; technology is wonderful when you know how to do it, and my goodness, we’re all going to learn quickly.
The green screen, by the way, is also being put to good use. I’m planning a video a week which will be posted on the gallery and media page. It’s not the same as being in a gallery, of course, but it has it’s merits; not least of which being that I can re-take and edit, unlike another platform, mentioned above.
And in a second, ‘by the way’, I don’t have any worries about not having anything to write about next time. Covid-19 will ensure that we have a new experience almost every day I should think – just in ways we could never anticipate!
The photos are screen shots taken just after my panic. Don’t I look relaxed?! You can see the full ‘live’ which is all about St Sebastian on my Instagram feed.
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