The Making of the Is This All There Is? Promo Video

When MTV was new, I watched it for hours on end.  Back in the day, a couple of my favorites were “Mickey” and “Thriller.”  Bring back memories for anyone out there?  At some point, MTV started showing “The Making of” stories, where you got a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the videos.  I went crazy for them and would stay glued to my spot when Martha Quinn teased that one was coming up.  I always dreamed I would be famous someday (still dreaming) and a glimpse of anything inside the entertainment world was thrilling, even if it was in my own messy teenage bedroom with a bag of Doritos and a Diet Coke.

So, I thought it would be fun to share my own “The Making of” story about the process of creating the video for my book.  I hope you’ll watch it and spread the word after you read this too (I’m trying to get better at shameless plugs).  By the way, I realize this is just a little promo video and hardly anyone will even see it, but remember – I need to come up with a new blog topic every week, so cut me some slack!

I’ve been reading everything I can find on the Internet about how to promote a romance novel (I think that’s my genre, but still not 100% sure).  Repeatedly, I came across the recommendation to create a professional, well-made promotional video about the book and put it ion YouTube.  Yeah right, I don’t have the money for something like that, I thought.

All along, I knew it was something my almost-16-year-old son could do.  I just couldn’t imagine how to make that work.  I knew it would take hours, and then there was the sticky issue of well, you know, the subject of the book.  Still, knowing the talent and equipment was right here in my own home gnawed at me.

So, I asked him.  “Sure, no problem,” he said.  You see, he’s a really, really good kid.  But his saying yes didn’t reassure me that it would actually happen.  There were scheduling challenges, creative disagreements, and the touchy question of how to tell him when I completely changed my mind and didn’t want to use something that took us a long time to film or edit.

It was an odd experience being at the mercy of my child for something so important to me.  Usually, I have no qualms about telling him when he does something I don’t like or when I think he needs to get to work on something.  But in this case, he was completely in charge.  I had to wait until he was available.  I had to have convincing arguments for changing things or trying to do something different – because I have no idea in hell how to use Final Cut Pro!

Driving around finding locations and shooting all the footage (most of which we didn’t use) wasn’t too bad.  There was some tension, some debate.  I pushed for things he said we couldn’t legally do, like filming kids at the park.  Ultimately, though, that part was fun, especially coming up with new ideas together as we combed the neighborhood.  Every time he made a suggestion, I realized he had a very good sense of what the book was all about, and seemed perfectly comfortable with it.

Then there was the issue of the working space for editing, where we spent long chunks of time together.  I had to hold my tongue about what I’ll just call, “the state of his room.”  It’s not a place anyone but a teenage boy would feel comfortable sitting in for hours.  I did my best not to say a word about it.  I mean, if you were sitting in your brilliant professional editor’s studio, and he was giving you a fantastic deal for his services, you wouldn’t comment on the dirty clothes and empty candy wrappers strewn about, would you?  And he had the nerve to complain when I got hungry and brought in one of what he likes to call my “stinky salads.”

You know how you have these isolated memories from a long time ago that perfectly capture the feelings of that entire time of your life?  Here’s one for me.  I was standing at the bottom of what seemed an endless set of concrete steps.  They led up to the local post office, where I had an errand to run.  But I was so paralyzed by the fear of falling that I couldn’t take the first step, even with my mother right by my side to help me.  She appeared to be just as frightened as I was.  I thought I was going insane.  I had propelled myself up those stairs many times.  But something was very different on that day.  I was different, an entirely new person I had never imagined I could become.  You see, I had a little extra weight on me that day, in the form of a one-week-old blob clutched to my chest with its tiny limbs dangling from the holes on the sides and bottom of a Baby Bjorn. Suddenly, that little creature, at less than 10 pounds, had replaced everything that mattered before.  I didn’t feel worthy of being his primary source of protection and nourishment every minute of every day, for what felt like it would be forever.

But as you all know, things change.  Things change so much.  At some point, the tables start to turn, and it happens much sooner than you think it will or than you want it to.  One day, you wake up and that tiny baby who was completely dependent on you is now better than you at most things and smarter than you in most ways.  One day, you need him to help you more than he needs you.  You need him to teach you about technology and history and popular culture so you can relate to the college students you teach.  You need him to help you keep your skills sharp and your knowledge current and he’s the best person you know to do it.  You even need him to help you make a video that you hope may help sell a few of the books you’re trying desperately to get the word out about.

I guess this blog post wasn’t really about the video.  It was about how my son is growing up and moving away from me and it’s exciting and heartbreaking at the same time.  In the last couple of months before he gets his driver’s license, which I know will change everything, I feel like that new mommy again, clinging to him as tightly as I can, wanting to smell and feel him all the time, using any excuse to be with him.

Here’s the video.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KT6uSuyFIuM  Please take a look!  I’d love to know what you think.

Thanks for reading and all your support,

Patricia

Website/Blog (Read every Thursday): http://www.patriciamann.me

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