This was shot back when I was in the practice of growing a beard in the wintertime. In this case I shaved my chin for the "mutton chop" look. It was quite distinctive. I happened to be out and about when I overheard some local character talking. He had an interesting, folksy way of speaking, and he said something about "Bob Cooper." The way he said the name really stuck with me. When I got home I decided to shoot a short character piece. It was the first time in ages I'd done anything like that.

The character came together pretty quickly. I just did my best to mimic the guy I'd overheard. The trick was what to say. I just let the camera roll and rambled on about any manner of things. If I stumbled upon something interesting I would try to go with it, but nothing was coming together. Finally I landed on the character having a secret of some kind. I just got deeper and deeper into how serious this secret was, and how devastating it would be if it were revealed. I didn't concern myself with what the secret might be. I didn't need to. I just left the audience hanging. It was a classic "leave them wanting more" technique.

It's not much of a video, but it was something to do. I really like playing characters, losing myself in them, and living their experience. This one makes for a decent footnote in my catalog.