First, I have to admit that having a television film crew around isn't as glamorous or even as exciting as it may seem. It was actually kind of awkward, standing around, watching the branding, looking over and being startled by a huge camera lens in your face. And then you become all aware and self-conscious--should I put my arm here? Ooh, am I standing up straight? Does my face have a natural expression? Why does H-Bomb have to be whining when the huge fuzzy microphone is right over his head? Perfect.
So to be completely honest, it's kind of annoying. Although it is interesting to see the process, and we'll be interested to see the finished product, about which we have no idea. There were three guys: a film guy, a sound guy and a guy taking still photos. The photographer guy was named Dave, but the other two have slipped my mind. Anyway, Dave is supposed to send us a disc of shots when it's all said and done.
So film guy and sound guy were just kind of hovering around, sticking their camera/microphone close to the action, while camera guy Dave was running around taking pictures. It will be interesting to see what they end up with. They basically shot some film/stills while the branding was going on, and then there were some staged shots: Number One, H-Bomb and Sawed Off riding around the corral on his horse, through the cattle herd. C.G., galloping up a big hill on her horse. C.G. and Number One riding along toward the camera. Kind of silly, really.
They also put a wireless mike on CG at one point during the branding, and then she started talking a lot more. One can only imagine what she had to say as she was castrating a calf, but once the mike was on, she was talking to herself (or to the mike actually) about something. (how dull her knife was? how big the calf's...oh never mind)
Wifey helped me get lunch ready for everyone after they were done filming, and all the film guys are nice and friendly. Then they set up equipment for Doug Fabrizio of public radio's Radio West to do an interview with CG. I didn't know he did anything besides radio, but they filmed it. CG is apparently going to do a radio interview in town this week also. Number One and I stuck around after lunch, waiting to meet "The Fabulous Fabrizio" (as his crew affectionately calls him). Although he's not a tall guy, he IS actually taller than the crew reported. "Fab" (short for both "fabulous" and "fabrizio") arrived just in time to see Sawed Off slam H-Bomb's little John Deere Gator (AKA, H-Bomb's Jeep) into the side of the film crew's van. It was sweet. The fab one laughed, and introduced himself as "Doug." The film crew had suggested one of us refer to him as The Fabulous Fabrizio to "throw him off his game" right before the interview, but we didn't.
Also, neither Number One nor I were interviewed at all. No one knows what they are going to use the footage/photos for, and it's actually funny that we weren't asked to sign any releases. Will that come later? I have no idea. I need to ask someone about that...now that I'm thinking about it.
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