Tending to Plants and Myself During COVID-19

Selecting the focus for my video project was easy — I have been tending to houseplants for the past few years, and for the first few months of the pandemic I devoted a lot of my free time to looking into and taking care of them, as did many people. If anything, my plant collection probably grew in those first few months. They’ve traveled with me during my move and been a big part of the process of accepting these changing times, so they were the first idea that came to mind.

I rather enjoyed collecting b-roll for this project, as it only involved carrying my phone around with me and filming the things that I regularly do. Although some of it was hard to capture, such as me watering plants, I was able to work out ways to get different shot styles and angles to make it work. I also tried to mix up the scenery of what I was filming, which I did by going to a local nursery, Plants and Planters, and filming b-roll there while looking at their greenhouse. After having filmed my b-roll, I wound up having a lot of excess footage, which made for an easier editing process.

After filming the b-roll, I sat and filmed my interview portion of the video. This took me a few attempts, just because there were times when I would stumble on my words or not say quite what I wanted to say. It wasn’t too long, though, until I filmed a version that I was satisfied with and moved forward. It was helpful to film this after shooting my b-roll, since I had an idea in my head of what footage I had available and that somewhat lead the topics I discussed.

It wasn’t until after I got all of my footage that I made my storyboard, because beforehand I didn’t have a solid idea of what b-roll I would have. With specific shots already taken, it was easier to put together and envision the video as a whole. Because the interview portion was very basic, I wanted the b-roll to provide some varying shots. I used an assortment of long, medium, and close-up shots to give the viewer a dynamic and interesting perspective.

To put together my project I used iMovie, the free video editing software available on my laptop. I have used iMovie before on many occasions, so it didn’t take me long to get comfortable with it and not very long to put together my video. The most difficult part was probably layering the audio and deciding when to plug in b-roll, but once I found a rhythm in my interview recording I was able to create those spots easily.

Ultimately, I enjoyed this project and being able to document something that I enjoy doing to share with others. Although it was a short video, it took a good amount of time and was satisfying to complete, and makes me interested in attempting other video projects.