Blog: 'The first thing to get stuck into was the cleaning'

At the end of last year our health professionals, Jenny and Yolanda, developed Around the House in 80 Days – a series of movement videos to help counter the impact of lockdown and shielding among older people. They posted the videos on YouTube throughout November, with a view to encouraging people to move more.
But how did two self-confessed YouTube novices turn themselves into film-makers and presenters? Jenny Ackland takes us behind the scenes to a world of inquisitive pets and discarded loo brushes.

We tackled this project with our usual enthusiasm. Lack of any filming experience didn’t stop us even though we had to do the filming ourselves, in our own homes using our mobile phones.

At that point we were in blissful ignorance about the huge number of pitfalls that would befall us so we carried on regardless.

First thing was to get stuck into the cleaning - we didn’t want red faces about our domestic failings. Wipes, polish, sprays - you name it! Everything was given a good once over.

We moved as much of our ‘stuff’ into unseen corners to try and create a bit of space to show the movements. If you had turned the camera round, the genuine state of our houses would have been a real eye opener!

Positioning the camera correctly was a bit of a trial too. We would try balancing the tripod in so many different places - in the sink, on top of wardrobes, boxes - anything to try and get our whole bodies in a shot. The tripod would sometimes overbalance and land on the floor or in the bath on one occasion - good job it was empty!

Interruptions were frequent and mainly of the animal variety. Yolanda’s dogs Matilda (Tilly) and Hector and cats Rudi and Rolo all wanted to get their five minutes of fame.

Fireworks would sometimes be going off outside and make you jump or a lorry would pass by just when you thought you had managed to get a good take - and then had to do it all over again.

You will notice in the films that we used a variety of props to encourage people to do some of the movements in a particular room, for example cleaning the loo.

Originally we used an actual loo brush (a clean one, of course) however in the final takes we used a wooden spoon after being rightly advised that waving a loo brush around might not seem very hygienic.

Despite all the trials and hazards, we had great fun making the films and hope this article gives you some insight into what really happened behind the scenes.