Behind The Scenes: How I Turn My House Upside Down To Record UpsideDown Videos

It always begins as just another morning at the Hullman house.

I pack the kids’ lunches, wish them a nice day, walk LY to his preschool and Eliana to her kindergarten, come back home…

And that’s when my small (tiny, really) house, normally quiet and calm in the morning hours, is taken over by

 camera, lights, action! 

The race against time begins, as it always does on recording days of UpsideDown Parenting episodes; outside of buying flowers around the corner from my house, everything takes place between my four walls.

No, Dr. Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go! doesn’t apply on those intense days (nor to my current life situation at large);

For me, it’s oh, the spaces you’ll transform!

Here’s what I mean:

 

Ran out to buy flowers for the recording session.

It’s time to decide what to put the flowers in: a vase? A mug? So many options!

And which tea mug will accompany them?

Okay, I think I nailed it down.

Then again, doesn’t this look better?

(I guess my father’s right; He always said it’s too easy to get me to tchachken around with the less important stuff.)

Now let’s get down to business: I need to move aside the dining room table—aka, activity center, aka, the best place to pile anything that doesn’t have an official place—anywhere. See the shelf right over the table? That’s where the flowers are going to be, along with the tea mug.

(a different angle, just to put ourselves in context, yeah?)

The coast is clear:

I moved the table aside, cleared the shelf, took down the framed painting, and my daughter (who skipped school that day for an excuse so lame I can’t even recall J) gives you a sense of how small the space really is.

When I host a guest for an interview or conversation (such as here) I pull up two chairs…

…and when it’s a solo episode, I sit on the bar stool. It helps me keep my back straight as I speak to the camera.

Oy, what’s that?! All of a sudden, a zebra joins the set.

Just kidding, it’s the outfit I’d laid out in advance for the recording, complete with accessories. Usually, we aim to record at least 2 episodes in one session, that means laying out two or three outfits. But today, we scheduled only one.

This is my makeup. I lay it on heavily for the recording, and then make sure to scrape it off my face before I pick up the children from school. I don’t want them to be traumatizedJ.

(And do you recognize my lipstick from my mothering essentials?

As I head towards the bathroom to apply the makeup, my husband—the man behind the camera and so much more!—comes home from the Shuk with what locals affectionately call “shuk cart” (and the closest we’ve ever gotten to owning a car). And what’s inside? Everything we need for making a simple lunch in the little time we’ll have left when we’re done recording the episode.

Now that Barak is home, setting up our recording equipment may begin.

Here’s where we hide our recording equipment out of reach of little chubby hands. (We asked our talented handyman to add a door and a lock to these IKEA open shelves).

This is how it looks inside.

And here’s how our dining room magically transforms into a recording studio:

Testing, 1 2 3

See the piece of glass in front of my husband?

That’s our DIY teleprompter that saves me, and mainly you, from long, tiresome episodes and instead presents the information exactly in the words I’ve chosen through hours of laboring on the text.

(I know, I should be more careful when I mention labor in a website for mothers).

And after we edit, add some cute gimmicks and more importantly slides that emphasize the main TakeAways, we’re ready to deliver the episode to your inbox!

You know it’s the right one ‘cause the zebra’s taking up almost the whole screen.

Now, I’d like to give this post perhaps an unexpected twist and ask you:

Is there anything you would have liked to do and haven’t yet because of lack of space?

Please share with me if this post gave you any inspiration to look at your home differently in that respect! You’re welcome to write directly to my private email: noga at upsidedownparenting dot com

And please give a shout to other mothers if they could use this example of stretching space & living larger, whatever size space they occupy!

Enjoy a happy, healthy winter,

Yours,