Lansing video producer Karen Stefl, owner of Render Studios, conducts business on Zoom in front of a collage of old film reels and her surround sound home theater. Image: David Poulson
By Great Lakes Echo staff
Backgrounds might speak louder than words. Ever thought about what yours is saying?
You’d better. People are peering over the shoulders of reporters, business executives, students, teachers, health care providers and others forced online by the coronavirus.
They’re looking for clues about whom they’re talking to. And deciphering that background could well be as important as the message they hear. Or it could be incredibly distracting.
“What any environment transmits about you, whether it’s warm colors, or cool colors, or busy-ness or serenity—there’s a lot that could be said about that extra character that is outside of the main character,” said Karen Stefl, owner of Render Studios, a Lansing, Michigan, video production company.
That extra character is the setting.
Stefl looks for clues in the backgrounds of others to establish common ground: “To find how we’re similar is a good way to establish a connection with someone.”
She interviews her own clients from home while sitting in front of a collage of old film reels contrasted with a modern surround-sound home movie system.
What do others do? Great Lakes Echo reporters asked around.
Susan Lahti
By Lucas Day
Susan Lahti’s Barbie dolls wave to her viewers during a video chat.
When Susan Lahti, a fifth-grade math and science teacher at Boyne City Middle School, joined a faculty meeting by the video-conference service Zoom, she perched over 40 Barbie dolls behind her.
“I’ve been in a few Zoom meetings lately and it just seems like everyone’s sitting in their house and there’s these awkward silences and pauses and I found it so interesting to look at everyone’s background,” Lahti said. “Some of the meetings just seemed kind of stale and I thought, ‘I want to jazz mine up a bit. I’m going to have Barbies in the background just as a talking point.’”
A longtime Barbie collector, Lahti and her 5-year-old daughter positioned the dolls waving from their doll house.
“I heard a couple of others comment ‘Oh that seems kind of crazy, that’s kind of creepy,’ having all these Barbies looking at them,” Lahti said with a laugh.
The teacher often moves to different spots for different meetings to change the background. She once taught while surrounded by cat figurines to bring a smile to her students.
“I think that it’s important that we can find humor in things when everything seems so stressful right now,” she said.
Jeannine Irvine
This painting is Jeannine Irvine’s backdrop when she counsels financial clients. Image: Jeannine Irvine
By Nyjah Bunn
Jeannine Irvine of Detroit is a retired social worker who is now a consultant for Primerica, a financial services company. Usually she sees clients face to face at their homes.
The pandemic means all of her meetings are virtual, she said.
She chooses to take them in front of a large painting of a woman dancer with a purple background and heavy gold trim.
“I chose this spot because it’s comfortable, and I wanted my audience to know I’m working from home,” Irvine said.
Ruqaiyah Rogers
By Brianna Lane
Inspirational messages like this one appear behind Ruqaiyah Rogers when provides therapy. Image: Ruqaiyah Rogers
Ruqaiyah Rogers uses posters and pictures to comfort patients at her real office at Pine Rest Christian Mental Health Services in Grand Rapids.
Now the outpatient therapist seeks to provide similar comfort during her virtual appointments while the pandemic limits travel and social distancing.
It’s another tool to help people make the transition from reality to virtual reality.
“People have had to warm up to what telehealth is,” she said.
Rogers provides her counseling from her dining room with BlueJeans, a video conferencing platform similar to Zoom.
“I chose a room in the house where the colors are warm, to give an inviting feel because it is video chat,” she said. “I still want to have an in-person connection as much as possible.”
And she still puts posters with inspirational messages where her patients can see them.
Sarah Brundrett
By Taylor Haelterman
Background options are limited for Sarah Brundrett, a French instructor at Michigan State University.
“I’m in my bedroom at my parent’s house now, so (the bedroom) is my only option,” she said. “This is one of the best places with (a Wi-Fi) connection, but I think if I was at my apartment I would definitely choose more of a neutral background.”
And she needs one soon.
“Next week I have to defend my thesis so it definitely will (change),” Brundrett said. “I probably won’t do it in my bedroom here.”
Michelle Huff
By Kyana Coleman
Michelle Huff, a Zumba instructor in Oak Park, Michigan, has moved to Zoom to lead her sessions.
“I host classes in my living room and the only thing people see are the table, couch and doorway,” Huff said. “It’s shot at a wide angle so that people can focus on the Zumba moves.”
The setting works because her kids and husband are not in the way, she said. She keeps the living room clean to ensure professionalism.
Most people are understanding of the conditions required of working from home, she said. Her clients are comfortable because they are home, too, and most have already attended her in-person sessions.
Leah Karp
by Morgan Duerden
Leah Karp Zooms, but not for school or work. The Holland, Michigan, stay-at-home mom uses the video-conferencing service to make social distancing more… social.
Leah Karp’s kitchen doubles as a Zoom studio. Image: Leah Karp
“Oh, I Zoom with my friends every weekend,” Karp said. “We usually get together to play games, so instead we are doing our best to do it over video calls.”
She and her friends choose their backgrounds to bring normalcy to uncertain times
“We set up in our kitchens because that’s where we would always gather and play when we hung out in person,” Karp said. “I’ve found myself cleaning and straightening up my kitchen before we get on Zoom. I wipe down the table even though I know people won’t be able to see it. It’s a habit.”
And Karp notices the backgrounds of her friends.
“Looking at all the kitchens makes it seem like nothing has changed between our group,” she said. “Each of the families kids seem to visit the kitchen at one time or another so we all get to say hi to them too.”
Sid Iyer
Sid Iyer created a virtual background of two versions of himself arguing behind yet another version. Image: Sid Iyer
By Ben Goldman
Of course, virtual interactions don’t require real backgrounds.
“After having all my classes at UC Berkeley move online to Zoom, I started seeing people making their own virtual backgrounds,” said Sid Iyer, a senior at that school. “With my experience in comedy and video editing, I figured I could make one myself.
“So I created a virtual background of me walking in on myself in a class and arguing with another me.
“I thought it would be funny to have the contrast of chaos in the background and focused learning in the foreground.”
The virtual background feature allows him to fully express himself when social interaction is sparse, Iyer said. “I think a lot of people are making their own backgrounds because it gives them an opportunity to personalize learning over the internet, which can feel isolating at times.”
Collin Fitzpatrick
By Lucas Day
Personalizing learning can also be embarrassing.
Collin Fitzpatrick, an advertising management student at Michigan State University, was the first person to have his camera turned on for a presentation he and three classmates gave their professor.
He realized to his horror that his screen name wasn’t his own and his background was of an inebriated friend sun tanning while holding a drink.
“[My professor] squinted at the screen and I was the only one active with him, like our screens were the only ones showing up,” Fitzpatrick said. “I was like ‘Why are you squinting?’ And I look and I see ‘Tall glass of water’ as my name.
“I immediately remembered from the night before when we had our Happy Hour Zoom meeting that we were messing around with backgrounds.”
When he realized his mistake, he leaned in to block the view of the photo with his body. But in his frenzy he changed the background to another photo of himself at a music festival with friends.
“I was like ‘Oh gosh, they can see this, this is horrible,’” Fitzpatrick said.
Luckily, the fiasco didn’t hurt his presentation nor the professor’s evaluation.
“This was one of [my] best grades, it was like 100%. He loved our presentation.”