15 Minutes of Fame?

Some of you have probably seen those "I'm a Mormon" videos floating around. They feature Mormons in their natural habitat, to show the world we are actually normal people (actually, some of us are really cool people!), not horned monsters like some believe.

I've always said that I would never, ever be picked for something like that because I'm not cool enough. My life is pretty low key. I don't surf, mountain climb, or ride motorcycles. I don't have any deeply resonating life stories like some of the people share (I'm the mother of two disabled children... I survived cancer... I served in the military...)

Well, before you get too excited... no, I'm not going to be in a "I'm a Mormon" ad. :)

But a month or so back, I agreed to be filmed for a short piece on the work that I do. The School of Family Life at BYU is putting up some videos of alumni working at their jobs, just to give the undergrads an idea of possible career paths. Today I got an email explaining what it will be like. The guy says it will be along the lines of an "I'm a Mormon" video. "The video is expected to be brief yet tantalizing and stimulating. "

OY!

First of all, I didn't realize a short video clip involved so much filming. It sounds like I will be interviewed for an hour, and then they want to film 1-2 hours of me working to include in the final cut.

Except... I telecommute. My work day consists of sitting in front of a computer doing stuff. I love it, but... how the heck are they going to capture that on camera in an interesting way? It seems like the video will rely on me describing what I do, since there isn't much to show (unless they want to film my computer...)

The email said if I had any ideas on how to share my career in an interesting way, I should let him know. I'm afraid I'm coming up with a complete blank. I'm not a media person... I don't even like being in the spotlight usually! Cameras make me nervous.

Well... we'll get through this. This guy is in the media department, so he's had at least some training on how to make these things interesting. We'll pull it off somehow!