Ventures Video Taping Myself

In order to fully promote my handcrafted soap business, Sonoran Scents from the Heart,  I felt the need to make videos of how I make the lovely soaps I have for sale. My movie camera is an iPhone 4 GS. It has a great camera for taking pictures and videos. I've never had any qualms about taking movies of others or of my kitties. Taking videos of myself, however, is proving to be much more challenging!



I needed a tripod to get my iPhone high enough to video tape the counter space where I planned to make my soap. I found a really nice one on Amazon.com. The trouble with it was that it was pretty short! I fixed that problem mounting it on top of my huge coffee thermos. I positioned it so that it was perfect! The iPhone rested against my cabinet to keep it from moving. I got everything ready ... oils and lye perfect temperature ... parchment paper covering stains on cutting board ... everything within arm's reach ... cleared my throat ... took a drink of water ... cleared my throat again. I started sweating. Who would have thought taking a video of yourself would make you feel like you do when you go in for a job interview?


I tried to touch my camera 'button' on the back of the iPhone to start the video. Nothing happened! It couldn't sense my finger because I had gloves on! grr. I had to remove my gloves. Started the video. Tried to put glove back on ... that was a challenge with sweaty hands! Finally! I went through the entire soap-making procedure while making "Frosted Raspberry Soap". I thought it was done perfectly. I checked my iPhone. It had run out of memory!! I spoke so softly that it didn't record my voice anyway. 


Next time, I attempted to video tape myself making Lavender Vanilla Soap. I tried to make sure to have enough memory, speak loudly, and not have gloves on when I turned it on. When I uploaded the movie to my computer, I noticed the iPhone had somehow gotten away from the cabinet and was moving gradually upward, taking pics of my ceiling. AAAAHHHHH! Good thing I'm naturally stubborn!


I video taped the making of Prickly Pear Soap. This one turned out fairly well except that when I turned away from the counter and banged the soap in the mold on the floor to remove air bubbles, a glop of raw, uncured soap popped up and landed right on my lower lip! OUCH! I was still video taping so held in the screams until I'd shut the camera off. 

I think I need to hire someone to video tape for me! Any takers? :)