Monday, February 27, 2023

My 14 Foot Tall Face

 I was driving along Highway 401 the other day with my daughter in the passenger seat. She turned to me and asked incredulously, "Uh, Mom, is that you on a billboard?"

Sure enough, projected on the electronic advertisement board was my grinning face.


(Note: This photo was taken several days afterwards and captured safely. I parked in a nearby mall with a decent view to take the shot.)

This is not a complete surprise. Back in October, I was invited to a media project with the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario. The film production crew spent two full days capturing the voices and experiences of educators from all over Ontario. A lot of videos were shot. A lot of photos were taken. Below is "my clip". (If it doesn't work, I have two links below that might take you to the final product, housed on the ETFO Facebook page.)

   


https://www.facebook.com/ETFOprovincialoffice/videos/545646884252231

https://fb.watch/iBeQjp_tl0/

As a media literacy teacher as well as a teacher-librarian, I wish I could have smuggled in my students to get a close look at exactly how something like this is produced. It takes a long time. Before filming, I was strapped up for audio and sat for makeup. (My microphone sat under my clothes.) I didn't have any lines to memorize, so those words are all my own. My "speech" is constructed from excerpts from an interview the crew conducted with me on site. I was given advanced notice about some of the questions so I had time to think and mentally prepare, but the goal was to be my authentic self. The students I interact with in the video aren't my students; they were compensated for their time. The phrase "paid actor" sounds terrible because it implies they aren't what they seem; however, these were kids from around the GTA and interacting with them was similar to a day at school with the regular students I serve. For instance, I brought in the wooden building blocks so that a more current view of the teacher-librarian role could be portrayed. Thankfully, the director was flexible and allowed the team to shoot several scenes involving this STEM challenge, in addition to their planned scenes involving shelving and book recommendations. When the students / child actors came into the space to shoot the scenes involving the library, they gravitated to the blocks right away and were keen to explore with them. The students also clamored to use certain books as props during the "book borrowing" scenes. We had to be cautious not to show too much of the cover because then we'd have to get permissions from the author or publisher. That's why, in some of the stills in which I am leaning on a pile of books, I have the spines facing away from the camera.

Even though my head is larger than life, I won't be getting a swollen head from this coverage any time soon. A couple of people have noticed it on staff but I'm just one of a few people profiled. Plus, working with elementary students has a way of keeping you humble. I have to artfully field questions such as:

 "Why is your bum so big?" 

"I think you mean curvy, not big", I'll suggest.

"Why are your arms so lumpy?"

"Those are my muscles." (This is actually truer than the curvy bottom reply.)

"Are you having a baby?" (Often followed by patting my stomach.)

"No. Must be my clothes." (Followed by sneak peeks at my figure wondering what they are noticing.)

"Are you the oldest teacher here?"

"I'm only 50."

"You look funny without your glasses on."

"You aren't used to seeing me without my glasses."

My husband may joke that I'm now a billboard model, but as long as the ad messages get across about the importance of maintaining public education, I'll handle catching glimpses of myself in unexpected places. 




1 comment:

  1. Aaaahhh! This is awesome! Now I'm going to have to find a billboard!

    ReplyDelete