"My home office is being used by my partner, so I’ve carved out space in our guest room and Frankenstein’d it into a makeshift studio. Keep in mind — even though I am a Cinema Studies Professor — I have ZERO production experience! I’ve never made anything, ever. I’m a historian! If you need to know the history of the VCR, I’m your guy! But making a video? Um, what?

But I knew I wanted to do something interesting, engaging, and memorable for our students. For many of them, this is their last term! I just can’t have them go out without at least trying to do something fun. Besides, anyone who’s ever had my classes knows I’m just not going to do anything if it isn’t in the spirit of positivity, optimism, and enthusiasm. That’s just who I am, even now.

So I’ve cobbled together whatever floor lamps I could find, some tripods, my camera, a weird iPad holder (did you know Pages’ “presenter mode” acts as a teleprompter?), a cheapo green screen I had in the garage, and opened iMovie and just decided to go for it. The thing is, you don’t have to be great at this stuff. You just have to try.

That doesn’t mean I’m going to wear proper pants, though. My Dunder Mifflin pajamas are fine.

After one week, I’d say this is a success — even if my production methods aren’t going to win any Oscars anytime soon. Don’t worry — I’m going to stick to history when this is over."