A/N: Inspired by the scene in "The Very Vegimal Christmas" where the Vegimals watch a video about how to rescue the rest of the crew from a blob (It makes more sense in context lol).
"Dashi, can you please do me a favor?" the Captain asked as he came into the HQ. Dashi swiveled around in her chair.
"Of course, Captain. What do you need?"
"I was thinking about future generations of Octonauts. They would need training."
Dashi nodded. He was, in fact, correct.
"Do you think you would be able to make a list of training videos?"
Her ears twitched, confused if she heard that right. "Excuse me?"
"Videos," he repeated. "Ones that would educate future cadets on protocol and what to do during certain types of emergencies. I know you have much experience in photography. So filmmaking might be similar."
"Oh," she said. Thinking a million miles a minute of how to pull something like that off. "Of course, Captain." She never did something like that before. What kind of equipment should she use? Did her current camera have a video feature? Do they need lighting? What kind? Would her lights for photography work?
"What did you have in mind?" she said while thinking all this, pulling up a blank document on the computer. "Any ideas on the subjects - in concrete form, I mean. What is the tone or look you want to give?" That applied to photography, so that should work for film, right?
"Hmm, I'm not sure," the Captain put a paw to his chin. "I guess like the average educational video," he said vaguely.
Great.
"I'll research into it and see what I can do." Dashi said.
And research she did, pouring over countless of websites about filmmaking and educational videos (for references) and everything she could think of. Good thing they were not that deep in the ocean, so the ship had good internet connection. It took several days, but she finally felt like it was something she could pull off. Of course, she would need a few victims- er, helpers.
"Ok, so when the rope goes down, grab it; and the Captain will pull you up," Dashi said, using her paw to direct Kwazii and Peso in the "set." Kwazii and Peso were in green pudding, making it look like a blob. The Captain was in a Gup, which was suspended about them. He had a rope in his paw.
Dashi also held an object: a megaphone. She found it in the storage area in the Octopod, among some random crates, and thought it was perfect. 'Cause hey, she had to look the part.
"Um, how long do we need to hold onto the rope?" Peso asked. He looked at his lanky flippers. "I'm afraid I won't be able to hold on for too long."
"Don't worry, Peso," Dashi said. "You'll get to rest in between takes."
Peso nodded, still a bit uneasy.
"And don't forget your lines," Dashi said in the megaphone, which screeched. Kwazii covered his pointy ears.
"Ok," Dashi said wearily. She didn't know how, but her ears were more droopy than usual. "Kwazii, for the hundredth time, it's a blob, not pudding. Peso, you have to hold on longer, until I say 'cut.' Not before. Captain, you need to pull the rope a bit more slowly, or else I can't follow it with my camera."
At this point, she might just have to edit the camera move out. It was just too bothersome to keep in.
"Sorry," they all chorused.
"It's fine," she said, still in the same tone, and waving her hand. "Let's just do it one more time."
She did end up having to edit around the move, and Kwazii did end up saying "pudding" again, but Peso did not fall down, so she called it a wrap anyway.
"Ugh", Dashi groaned, laying her head on the desk. "Just kill me." It was 3 in the morning, the lamp on the desk was too bright for her liking, and she was stuck in the terminal pit that was post production.
No wonder the websites recommended that you should not try to "fix it in post."
The tutorials seemed simple enough. To make a background appear digitally (like a picture of the ocean, or a video of the Grand Canyon, or stars, (the last one was what she wanted to do)), she had to do a green screen. Of course, she didn't have the proper materials that they recommended, so she just opted to have a regular old green blanket for the Captain to stand in front of and give his lessons.
But nope.
The blanket gave a weird texture in the background, even when she digitally replaced the green with another background. And it was noticeable. So noticeable. And she had found an old video camera (her photo camera ended up not having a video function), and the age showed. It was so grainy that she couldn't look at the screen without cringing.
Sure, she guessed this could have been expected, since this was her first time filming; and she never did something like this before. But she wanted it to be flawless!
She sighed and put her head back up. "Ok, there must be a way to fix this," she said, searching on the internet again. She had been searching for the past hour, but there has to be something, right?
So there was a way to minimize the blanket texture, but no way (at least to her knowledge) of fully taking the grain away.
She was ashamed, and so sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck as the other Octonauts stood in front of the screen in the HQ. "It's a work in progress," Dashi said. "It's not that good." But she needed their feedback on the tutorials, just in case she missed anything.
She didn't really hear what they said, but it was probably a "don't worry about it" or "it's gonna be fine." As if it could be fine.
But she calmed herself, and refrained from bouncing her leg as she put the cursor on the start button. "Ok, let's go," she muttered.
She stayed still as the video played, glancing every now and then at the audience's reaction. But she never looked at the screen, too overwhelmed and nervous. It was only a couple of the tutorials; there would be too many for them to sit through at once ( and for them to be able to give good feedback).
Once the video ended, she took an inconspicuous breath and turned towards the audience. She was about to speak when she was bombarded with applause.
"Excellent," Captain Barnacles said.
"This is going to be very useful," Professor Inkling remarked.
"I really like those graphics!" Shellington chimed in.
"Uh... Thank you?" She took a hold of herself. "Are there any things that need to be changed?"
"I think there needs to be a video about how to handle a Gup," Tweak said.
"Aye, and a video about the basics of Vegimalnese," Shellington added.
"I can definitely do that," Dashi said. "Anything about the videos I showed you, though?"
They considered.
"Nope."
"Not that I can think of, at the moment." The Captain said.
"You did a marvelous job."
She raised a confused eyebrow, but said "Thank you," all the same. After they left, Dashi quizzically looked up at the screen, the frozen image of a grainy Captain in front of a weirdly textured sky of stars.
She raised a paw to her head.
She was getting a headache.
