My wife and I went to watch a friend's daughter in her elementary school's choral production tonight. It was, well, an elementary school production. The songs were corny, the kids did some things to make us laugh, and the dancing was just as hokey. It was an elementary school production, so it was what it was. But she had a fun time and looked cute in her '50s era poodle skirt, so that's what counts.
We don't have kids of our own yet. But we have lots of friends that do and have a church full of children also. We have one neice on my side, and two nephews and a neice on my wife's. So we're around kids alot.
I observed something this evening that I had observed alot at several other places, church in particular (you'll notice in the upcoming paragraphs many references back to this).
They had a professional videographer set up to shoot the production tonight. We have a camera set up in our sound booth at church to shoot our early worship service. Neither were/are elevated real high so the potential to get a lot of heads or backsides is pretty high.
The parents in attendance were made aware of the camera and asked not to block it by getting up and down or walking back and forth in front of it. Our early-service goers are well aware of where our camera is placed at church and of the fact that we record the service each week, yet continue to stand in its path or walk back and forth in front of it.
(When you watch the DVD of our early service, the sermon is often given by someone's bald head)
This fact in mind (camera in back of church during service and camera in back of cafeteria for choral production), the parents in both places decide not to care. They get up at random times during the service/choral production to stand up, walk around, and block the view of the video camera or other people.
It's like watching a whack-a-mole game come alive. I'd love to have a big 20-foot rubber mallet to whack people back down into the seats in either case.
I know they're thinking "I'm not going to settle for sitting in my seat and dealing with the fact that I didn't get here early enough to sit in the first two or three rows or bring my own tripod to set up in the back of the room also, so I'm going to stand up, make an inconsiderate ass of myself, and block people's view so they can't see their own children."
This irritates me.
I was asked to shoot the kids' Christmas skit at church the Christmas-before-last. So I took the church camera off the tripod at the back of the room and decided to carry it up to the front to get some nice close-ups of the production. I thought this wouldn't be too difficult and would be a little more intimate for the people watching the end-product video/DVD.
Yet, I was battling parent after parent walking in front of me thinking they're the shit because they have a 2.5 megapixel digital camera and are getting in my way.
"Hello, I know you see me crouching down here with the real nice, real expensive church video camera trying to some real nice footage of your kid. So get out of my way."
I have a really big issue with people who are just rude and don't show any respect to people around them. I understand that taking pictures or video of your kid is a big deal. I'll probably feel the same way when my wife and I have kids.
But when you're in a location where you're going to get in people's way and disturb their own enjoyment of their own child's participation in whatever is going on, at least have the common courtesy to stay in your own freaking seat --- or spend a few extra bucks, get a tripod, and stand in the back of the room with all the other more intelligent parents who brought their own tripods.
Or better yet -- just leave it up to the professionals, sit back in your chair, relax, and don't worry about it.
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