Behind the Scenes :: 25 Ways to Wear a Scarf


by Wendy



Hi everyone! 
 As some of you might already know,
 I have a dedicated YouTube channel for all things fashion
 =) Please subscribe =P 
Mystery Man and I try our very best to release two videos per week.
 It’s just the two of us working on the episodes
 and we film all of the videos in our bedroom.
 And last Friday, 
we released a special episode on scarves!
We were having coffee about three weeks ago
 and I asked him if we could do a scarf episode. 
 I love wearing scarves – light chiffon for Spring and Summer, 
cashmere for Fall, and wool for Winter. 
 So I wanted to film a scarf episode
 that will cover different material compositions for different seasons. And thus the birth of “25 Ways to Wear a Scarf”.
In addition to being informative,
 Mystery Man wanted the video to be very creative.
 As we were brainstorming,
 I could see his mind opening and building concepts.
 He pitched the idea of creating a “Brady Bunch” 
like video where there would be 25 boxes
 that interact with each other.
 I thought the concept was rather difficult,
 but I trusted his expertise and execution.
 And so we started planning.
We spent about 3 days story-boarding and mapping out
 exactly what to do for the video.
 Mystery Man sketched out each figure and it’s position on the grid, 
and more importantly,
 where my perspective would go as each box appears on the main frame. Below is a snapshot of the program 
that he wrote where if he moved the main focus,
 the stick figure’s eye line would move along with it!


Each box was dedicated to a particular scarf tie and was planned out in advance. Because box 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 stayed on camera for the whole filming time, I had to make sure that these particular ties were memorized and rehearsed, so that I could do them confidently without error.


In order for Mystery Man to accurately time each box’s appearance, he programmed a countdown system where he would shout the exact timing for me to appear and re-appear to create the countdown intro section.


As I faced the camera to do all of the scarf ties, I had this reference board in front of me to know which direction to look at to interact with my neighboring boxes. The numbering system was backwards to reflect the mirror image of the actual number order.




During our first few attempts, Mystery Man had a hard time letting me know all of the instructional timings. So in order for Mystery Man to film, direct, and time all of the boxes accurately, he programmed notes on a video that appeared on his computer screen so that he could direct me as I faced the camera.


We used butterfly style lighting to light me and green screen style lighting behind me to achieve the clean background look.


After a few days of test shooting, it took us two 4-hour sessions of filming over 2 days to complete the video. Afterward, Mystery Man spent 4 sleepless days editing the footage, hoping to release the video on time. The final video took over six hours to render.





By Friday, we were almost done – so close! 
But we ran into music problems. 
 We couldn’t get in contact with the musician 
who we wanted to use the background music to. 
 Mystery Man is a brilliant film-maker, editor, and director, 
but he and I are not musicians. 
 Without the permission of the artist, 
we had to create our own background music.
 After listening to over 400 available music pieces to purchase, 
we narrowed it down to one. 
 But that one lacked the pacing that we wanted for the video. 
 So Mystery Man infused a couple of additional beats using GarageBand. 
 As you can see,
 this is why I love this man.
 He’s a do-er!
This was truly a labor of love.
 We learned so much 
during this process 
that we’re even thinking about doing a sequel!
 I hope you enjoyed it
 as much as we enjoyed making it.
 And hope to see you again
 on YouTube land!