Fun With Fountain Pens

On set with the Rose Mary Stretch

I think you might find this funny.

For the ‘Fun With Fountain Pens’ segment of SimonTV LIVE broadcasts I need an overhead camera. The set looks like this:

Just before the segment starts I swing the ring light down and the overhead camera attaches to it. I usually forget to switch off the main camera when I do this, and I laugh watching the recordings afterwards of myself reaching around above my head to deploy it.

It’s positioned to one side so that the overhead rig is outside the field of view of the main camera. The cost is I have to reach across quite a bit, so that my hands are in shot when I’m fiddling about with the pens and ink. It’s the SimonTV equivalent of the Rose Mary Stretch. And it’s quite a skill to get into the habit of looking at the screen showing my hands rather than my natural inclination to look down at my actual hands.

Another thing: the overhead is the third camera.

The broadcast camera is always operating. But I also need the green room camera underneath it so people I’m interviewing can see as well as hear me. It’s detachable so I only put it up when there’s a guest online because it occludes so much screen real estate. It’s also not great for the guests: because it’s lower than the broadcast camera, it seems like I’m looking at their forehead. I figure it’s better than just hearing my voice because they can at least see my expressions and gesticulations.

So there we go. Much of the time it’s just me, the mic and one camera, all nice and tidy like. Pictured here is the worst case where I have a variety of components limiting my field of view.