BEHIND THE SCENES - Epi Pen

Here is some behind the scenes footage from the epi pen video. The first clip is a Cameo I filmed Thursday morning. The "BJ" effect (me spraying hand sanitizer on the lens from off camera), my technical confusion, screaming at an unseen person off camera, and the allergic reaction/seizure are all recurring motifs I use in the Cameos a lot, especially if the people don't give me anything to work with. But this one was the first where I tried stabbing myself with the "epi pen" (flash light I had in the glove box).

If you film a Cameo in-app the interface is very similar to Vine where you can start and stop recording multiple times and create a montage of clips.

This amused me. Initially that day I was planning on filming a longer driving video where I pick my son up from school drunk. But I wanted more time to prepare a few more things for that. So instead, I returned to the epi pen idea and decided it would work for a short little bite-sized video.

I am always worried the makeup looks fake. Part of selling it is not only the physical application, but also the lighting during shooting. Since I don't use any lights in the car, I have to control the lighting by changing where and how I am physically parked in relation to the sun. From an outsiders perspective I can only imagine how this process must look.

The first handful of clips are "rehearsals," to get the performance right. You can see me laughing throughout most of the takes. This is usually a good sign, because if I am laughing shooting it that usually means others will laugh watching it (though, this is not always the case).

The first "real take" ended up being the one I used. I had to edit out my laughter, which you can hear in this original version. This was because I was not really planning the camera falling and showing my death via leg spasms. That was improvised when I realized the camera fell in exactly the perfect place.

Thankfully, my face wasn't onscreen, so I could still use it and just edit the sound out. I tried several other takes, but ultimately I could not repeat the lucky break I'd had with the first one.