Jonathan Grado

If I didn't turn off the lights and run up the basement stairs as fast as possible I knew I would just be absolutely consumed by it (them on the weekends). Still, I loved my basement growing up.

In my mind my family basement is this warm yet static place with the television changing over time. I know the look of it changed over time, but I always remember it looking a specific way. As my brother and I got older the TVs evolved. I've had this idea for awhile to put my photography on an old CRT TV and film it. I knew I wanted an old tv that had the controls on the bottom to keep it as symmetrical as possible. I wanted to be reminded of watching tv in my basement again.

I had kept an eye out for TVs for sale, and over the summer finally found one pop up in driving distance. The purpose of this had changed a few times though, and I landed on the idea of not only using it for a self portrait, but filming it as well.

The biggest hurdle wasn't finding the right TV though, it was how would I stream and film an old CRT TV?

First I had to film the actual TV content. That part is me in front of the blue velvet. Then when that video was done, I had to mirror my MacBook to the TV. To do this I had the MacBook use an HDMI out to a component converter, and then from the component converter go to a coaxial converter. That coaxial cable then attached to the VHF connectors on the back of the TV.

Filming the CRT TV was tricky. The major things to do are to make sure the shutter speed of my camera was divisible by 30 and to hide all the reflections in the TV screen. With some trial and error I think it came out pretty nicely. One was filmed in front of blue velvet, and the other in a flower installation. But the last thing I haven't touched on, am I still scared of the basement? I don't know but I'm glad I run faster now.

You can see one of these videos living on my homepage and about page.