By Numbers – Jenny 44

 

[For back story go here: Story so far at 30 Nov 2020 and this one.]

[For other back story click in-links] 

Jenny and Helen watched with excitement as the views and likes cruised past 100,000 and headed into the stratosphere. It was an unexpected hit, but then viral hits always were. Spend too long trying to think of something that’s going to be popular and you just end up with a dud. Helen had posted videos to TikTok before, but had absolutely nothing like this response. She was very pleased with the result and only slightly miffed that it seemed her mum was the key factor to their popularity.

The session had started with the two trying for a good hour and a half to set up the phone tripod and light. Getting it in the right position, right height, aimed at the right part of the room and lit correctly was a huge challenge, but Jenny insisted it had to be right – they had to be able to shoot at least some of this video as a two-shot, otherwise the impact would be lost. They could get single shots of each other quite easily and switch between the two, but it was the context and overall set up that would sell it.

With Helen at her easel and Jenny sat with a sketch pad on her lap they flicked the phone camera on to time-lapse and launched into their respective creative works. A still life arrangement had been set out on the bedside table and they gave themselves 30 minutes to come up with some kind of representation of this. Helen was moving oil paint over her canvas while Jenny scribbled as best she could with a set of graphite pencils.

“I’ve not done anything like this for years,” said Jenny laughing. “I’m completely at sea. How are you even meant to do this?”

“Just draw what you see,” advised Helen. “Follow this lines of the objects and don’t overthink it. It needs to be swift and clean and simple.”

Jenny tried to follow this advice but was unconvinced that her effort was really going anywhere. Instead of a bedside lamp and a pile of books her picture was morphing towards a city scene with tower blocks and a very weak sun nudging over the horizon. Or possibly a UFO.

“You’ve had years of practice,” said Jenny.

“You’ve had more,” said Helen. “Even if you’ve then not done anything for ages, but you know, you used to do this at school, right?”

“You know how far away school is now?” said Jenny.

“Break!” exclaimed Helen and on the agreed signal they both lifted their canvasses to the camera to demonstrate how far they’d got. Then they reset themselves and continued.

“We never painted with oils,” said Jenny. “Nothing more fancy than those chalky things.”

“You mean pastels,” said Helen. “And I think we should talk less. Get more art done and our mouths might look weird flapping around on the video.”

And so they continued in silence until the alarm beeped.

“OK, that’s it,” said Helen.

They rearranged themselves to shoot the reveal. Both in front of the camera, and on a count of three lift their artwork for the viewing public to see.

A few set up one-shots and close-ups of each of them working individually and Helen and Jenny sat down to edit the film together. They slapped titles over the top, hashtags, comment requests and the occasional special effect and by the end of the afternoon the video was good to go.

Jenny made them tea and brought biscuits as they ceremoniously uploaded the video and sat to watch the response.

Quite a few comments thought the theme was definitely an alien invasion and no one offered to buy either of the final masterpieces. This was besides the point, however. ‘Painting with Mum’ looked like it was going to be a hit and both Helen and Jenny were enthusiastic to do some more. 

“We could mix up the media,” said Helen. “Take requests and everything. And it will all promote my work too.”

“What about sculpture?” said Jenny, “Can we do sculpture?”

Helen felt this might be pushing the boat out a little too far but it was very good to be doing something so enjoyable with someone else. It was strange how within the confines of their house it had taken this time to find a combination of activities and set-ups to find something that clicked. But here it was and for now they would continue to find new ways of creating new content.

“Maybe we can get Izzy involved too,” said Jenny. “Then you could call it ‘Painting with my mums’. Instant hit.”