Tuesday, May 22, 2007

You want to take pictures of what....

Well, it seems that the more people you know the more trouble you can get into.....

We know this cat named Nick. Nick works at a local broadcast school teaching camera stuff. Nick and students are looking for the 'personal touch' to add to a story about South Florida's water restrictions. Well, this is not really a story but more a kind of project that is being treated like a real story.

Well, a bunch of students all came by the house to film a 'Typical Homeowner and thier reaction to the current water restrictions.' Andy and I are that typical homeowner because Nick asked if we would be willing to have a bunch of students practice being News Anchors in our back yard.

OK, on to the fame part of this post.... One of the other teachers at this school is Cary Codd, a real live reporter for our local Channel 4. He was impressed with the yard, the landscaping in general, and most impressed by our ability to speak on camera without drooling or giggling. About a week after the students did their thing in the yard, we got boosted from Phase 1 water restrictions up to Phase 2. About a week after that, the Water-Management-People started talking about Phase 3. Well, Cary was interviewing the Water Management People who are also in Hollywood and wanted to put a homeowners face to the story and remembered us. He called about 6:30 in the evening and wanted to know if we were intersted and willing to be on the 10 o'clock news and since I hadn't had a cocktail yet I said sure. The 'real' news crew showed up about 8 and started filming the yard while they had at least a bit of light to work with.

After about 45 minutes of wandering around the yard with a camera in my face, Cary says "Great! We can work from this" and started to break things down. Now, the whole time we are doing the interview bit, the Chanel 4 News truck is parked in our front yard. After a while, they raise up thier little attenea thing on the truck and start to edit the footage they just shot. Andy and I asked if they needed anything else from us and they said no. We went inside and had a light dinner and went on about our evening.

The End Result....


Now, if everyone gets 15 minutes of fame, I should have about 13 more before my flame dies.....'