In House Production

Tammy thinks of Florida. There's a sale at Fabricland. A sign in the window says it's 66% off the regular price of most fabrics. Tammy remembers the green curtain they used as a green screen for tourist photos at the hotel lobby where we stayed last month.

You don't even have to leave the hotel. You can get your photo taken in front of the green screen and the friendly resort photographer can put in any background you want. It doesn't matter how gusty the hurricane winds are outside. We can key-out the green screen behind you and slip in a picture of the Everglades.

I can do that! I say. Here at Fabricland, Tammy finds a shade of green that might work. She gets four meters for twenty bucks.

A few thumbtacks later and the living room is now a green screen studio. I teach the kids how to take the lint off the fabric using some masking tape.

I wonder what they'll remember from this period. Will they grow up to really take part? Will Sunny start to edit? Will Georgia play the drums? This has become a real "in-house production."

The kids watch movies, stay in their pajamas and forage for snacks. Mom and Pop shoot the next video. We're in our Instant Video bubble.

All the time, I'm cheesy zooming with the camera and thinking "What the heck am I going to put in the background?"



Moon and the Stars
by Tammy Lin Foreman

cars and castles
create more hassles
than the sky and earth
giving birth
to more awe and wonder
hear the thunder
lightning came first
followed by the burst

meant to scare
to make aware
you have no power
with your castles
and cars
building great speed
more than we need
marry myself
to the
moon and the stars


perfect wedding
darkness spreading
no question of
my lover above

oh a
perfect wedding
ah uh oh

Georgia leaves a trail of pictures in the camera for me to discover. Close-up snapshots from the 5 year-old perspective. Clues to the private world she shares with her older sister.

For use in Tammy's background I started with excerpts from Craig Baldwin's 1999 film "Spectres of the Spectrum." Craig Baldwin's been a huge inspiration to me, especially his editing of public domain archival footage. Shout out to this innovative filmmaker / artist.

:-)