The power of staging and scenery.

There's a funny clip today of David Cameron having a serious parliamentary committee discussion with his cotswold stone fireplace, table lamp and books behind him, and his teenage son just saunters past with a glass in his hand!

ixion

Does the presence of the Union Flag add a certain gravitas to the pronouncements of Cabinet ministers addressing us from their homes??‍♀️
Perhaps MH hasn't got space in his red downstairs loo?

(Can anyone recall when this addition became a feature?)

I think it’s a subtle reminder of the Union, and as a counterweight to Sturgeon’s pro-independence, anti-English stance

Any time you are on public display, you are likely being judged. Turn up at the Dr's looking like you've never done a days work in your life and don't intend to there is an unconscious bias against fast treatment. Turn up looking like you are professional and desperate to work, you'll get more traction. Research has been done to back this and I am sure it is the same in other areas of life too.

I agree with lots of you that it's really important that the setting is right for the circumstances and, in the same way that you dress for work or any other occasion, the background should reflect the image you want to portray.

I've been holding lots of client meetings over Zoom, Teams or on Facetime over the last twelve months. My clients and other associates have all commented that they love seeing my home as I've been to most of theirs several times over the years.

Quite a few have become more relaxed and even more open than previously as they now see me as a person and not just a professional that they have to deal with.

I did start off with a corporate background back in March last year but felt it was more distracting as it made my hands and hair too shimmery. I decided I'd have to settle for the room behind being neat and tidy instead so my untidy DH is now putting things away rather than leaving them out. Bonus!

There is a company that hires out books for theatre and film. They are now hiring to people who want to give a certain look on zoom interviews....

I always have a bland background. Usually a white emulsioned wall. People are so curious and sometimes even rude. I don't encourage that and, as someone has previously said, it can be a huge distraction from what is being said.

Zooming from the sofa reveals the bottom half of a print on the wall behind me. Skyping from the dining table is in front of a bookcase in which no titles have been specially placed for effect, but which includes half a shelf of matching volumes. If asked, I admit that they are Goethe’s collected works, but add hastily that they are not well thumbed.

Peston's room 'scruffy'? That's a bit harsh! Just because it wasn't contrived.

I always zoom from a dimly lit space so that wrinkles, double chins and other horrors are hard to see.

ExaltedWombat

Peston's room 'scruffy'? That's a bit harsh! Just because it wasn't contrived.

Apologies, I was probably comparing it with the tidiness of The Queen's in the same sentence!

Theoddbird

There is a company that hires out books for theatre and film. They are now hiring to people who want to give a certain look on zoom interviews....

That's an enterprising company Theoddbird. I guess anyone wanting to "manage" their image might well buy into that.

During a classroom zoom lesson my attention often wanders off due to a students dad usually in his pj's and dressing gown in the background and their cat perched on a stand just doing cat things. It's as if I've never seen a cat before!

My own faux pas was joining in a zoom school assembly from home with the bottom half of Pink Floyds Back Catalogue poster behind me. A row of artistically painted bottoms sitting in a row.

I have fond memories of my antiquarian book dealer friend sorting worthless books into colour bundles. He sold them by the metre 30 plus years ago.

Mostly they went to decorate upmarket show-homes - but once he sold loads to a "new money" person who had just acquired a big library in his traditional home but hardly read anything! He obviously didn't want it to feel empty.

Sorry Folks, but I find those flags just a bit sinister. Remind me of Nuremberg Rallies.

I used to know a seller of second hand books who sold them by the metre to interior decorators - just one step from there to the bookshelf wallpaper!

DS1, who works from home two days a week, had to remember to hide a raunchy calendar his two teenage children had given him the Christmas before last, before taking a Teams meeting.

Unfortunately my side of the desk in our study gives me the book shelves as background. Thankfully the books on the visible shelves are reports, photocopied articles in carboard boxes, and a mix of books standing on edge as they are too tall for the shelves, interspersed with rather worn secndhand books whose titles are illegible from a distance.

DH has the fireplace beside him that has been fitted with deep shelves containing document boxes with no labels on them, so we are supplied with backgrounds of suitable gravitas, but no one knows what any of the books are or what is in the document boxes - could be empty.