Dysbooks Filming

I have been wanting to film some book reviews for a long time. I have stacks of books I have read  waiting for this treatment, but I got busy with editing The Book, which is launched this November at The Festival of Dyslexic Culture. - Which sounds awesome, and a bit posh. I suppose it's the culture part, it brings images to mind of people sipping tea, all these non-conformist dyslexics, maybe one with a punk-pink Mohawk?

I don't know, that thought just amuses me. I like tea out of fancy cups, so why not?

I doubt there will be any tea drinking at the festival, but I like the idea of some sort of dyslexia and afternoon tea combination. I think it would be a wonderful way to spend time and to get to know fellow dyslexics, and if no one showed up, well, more cucumber sandwiches and scones for me.

I'm honestly tempted to pitch that to the London Meet Up Group  for dyslexics (is it two groups now, three?) that I hang about on the fringes of, I haven't been in so long, for a while I couldn't afford the travel into London, and then I was so busy...not just with the book. Now I'm settled again and some how all the pieces that were up in the air seem to have fallen down in the right places.

Life is strange like that. It can randomly do things to you to mess you up, and then as if it's flipped a coin, it can as easily come out alright. But I'm woffling, I'm meant to be telling you about the filming, which took place earlier in the week.

We decided the set would be my conservatory (by which I mean myself and my lovely friend Laura), There's a white wall in there that seemed a sensible backdrop, and I'd written up the reviews and used a sand timer to check the length. I was working all weekend, so I was tired, and had no time to properly learn what I had written, so I wasn't sure how well I was going to do.

Laura has some very fancy filming equipment, and I was also worried I or my cat would end up breaking something delicate, or valuable, most likely both. We shut the cat out and I gathered together the books I was going to be using. I have so many books, and because I have to organise them at work I do my own randomised thing at home, so finding them all was not as easy as it should have been. Luckily, I'd vaguely themed them by subject or genre.

I carfully set up a little pile of titles behind where I was going to sit so they would be in the shot, including two by dyslexic writer Blake Charlton (who is awesomely inspiring, and not just because he's a bestselling author). I didn't think I was going to have time to do a review of his books, but I liked the idea of them being there. I wanted to get a teapot in the shot, too, but Laura laughed, and said it looked like it was coming out of my head, so that got shifted out of the way rather quickly.

I was temped to dress up for the first review, which is of The Bullet-Catchers Daughter, by dyslexic writer Rod Duncan. I'd found a look already, but it seemed a lot of work considering most of the outfit wouldn't be seen in the shot, and I had to wear a little clip on microphone, like a newsreader, and I wasn't sure how that would work with the corset.

Looking into the camera was really intimidating, and then there was a directional microphone sitting on top of that, which looked a bit like a gun, and a free standing light which made me blink. I felt like I was about to make a total fool of myself in front of Laura. I swiftly re-read my review; out-loud as I remember things I hear better than things I just read. I have an odd way of getting lines or speeches to stick if I say them to myself, or hear someone else say them. This has never made sense to me as my short term memory is incredibly bad, and I often forget what people say right after they've said it.

This worked, and I said the whole thing back to myself while Laura was out of the room for a moment. When she returned, up went the little filming clipboard in front of the camera, when it went down I started talking; and messed up almost right away. I apologised, we started over, I messed up again without getting any further. I was starting to wonder how much of Laura's time I was going to waste. Then she suggested I count to five before I went into the review, and I got almost all the way to the end without making a mistake or loosing the words. She said if I messed up again to keep going as she could cut certain mistakes out in editing. Moments later we were done, and I was able to watch myself back.

The huge pauses I'd imagined weren't that huge, though I sounded very posh and British to my own ears. I wasn't sure I liked my teeth, and my hair was too long, but I thought the review was at least semi-coherent.

We moved on to the next one, which is aimed at parents of dyslexic kids, and going to cover several books on dyslexia which I think are especially helpful. Knowing I was judging myself too harshly helped, and I was able to launch into the review with only a few odd stutters, or moments when I wondered about the gibberish coming out of my mouth. I had to start a section over, but it came out pretty well, we watched that back and that was it, done.

I really hope people like the reviews, and find them helpful, but even if nothing else comes of it, I really enjoyed seeing Laura and working on something creative with her again, like we used to back when we were in school.

It was worth it just for that.