I’d better post about this before I forget! I’ve been so exhausted after recent shoots… I choose to blame it on the heat rather than on my increasing age… LOL. Age is nothing to me. How I feel and act is far more important! (I say this because my cumpleaños approaches…)
This past Wednesday, Sonja Stark, freelance videographer extraordinaire of Pilotgirl Productions, and I ventured into NYC at the crack of dawn to beat the forecasted thunderstorms and capture some desperately needed outside A-Roll for The Faithful Traveler’s episode on St. Elizabeth Ann Seton in NYC. I had a number of challenges to face me that day:
- This week felt like real summer has finally hit the East Coast. It promised to be hot and humid.
- The weather people kept saying it was supposed to rain around noon.
- I needed the battery in my laptop to stay alive, to power some of our very important equipment (more on this in a bit)
- I was worried about shooting in Battery Park–you never know…
Thanks be to God, everything went swimmingly. It wasn’t nearly as hot or humid as it could have been and it didn’t rain. Although my laptop battery did get pretty close to dying, I had a long opportunity to charge it during lunch, and that made all the difference. And shooting in Battery Park was not only worry-free, it was an opportunity for serendipitous joy! I love that!
Here’s how the day went down:
Sony and I met in front of the Seton Shrine at 8 State Street around 7:20 and went straight into the park to get started. The sun was out, but not in full-force, and the sky was clearish, so we could get a nice shot of the Statue of Liberty and all the lovely boats to-ing and from-ing on the water behind me.
We shot a scene or two for the Seton in MD episode, then I went to a nearby Au Bon Pain to change clothes for the Seton in NYC episode.
Ah continuity. In case it hadn’t occurred to you, sometimes we have to return to a location to finish up shooting what we couldn’t do on the first day. If we shot A-Roll (with me in front of the camera), I have to be sure to wear the same thing, do my make-up and hair the same way, etc., to make sure it doesn’t look like we’re shooting a month or more later. I do my best to keep track of these things, but sometimes I wonder if I’m wearing the right shoes, accessories, or socks whenever we reshoot something. You all should have a fun time trying to figure out if I got something wrong! I know for a fact that I wore the wrong pants in one episode (I won’t say which!), but they’re the same color as the right pants, so we’ll have to see if it’s even noticeable. There are just only so many things a girl can keep track of on her own, you know?
So, while I changed, Sonja shot some lovely B-Roll of the park and the water. Then we started on this marathon-like filming spree.
And now, about that important equipment. I’ve thought long and hard about revealing what I’m about to reveal to you. The main reason why is that I’m not entirely proud of using it because I don’t think it’s normally used for shows like ours. However, it has recently occurred to me that it’ll be hard to hide this once you see the footage. And honestly, what’s the point in keeping it a secret? I’ve never claimed to be perfect! 🙂
So, here’s the secret: after filming episodes 1-3, David I decided that to get a teleprompter. Can I tell you, it’s been one of the best things we’ve ever done, and has made a huge difference in our shoots.
Now, I know that Samantha Brown ad-libs or memorizes her lines for her show. I know that Rick Steves memorizes his lines, and I’m sure every other travel show host does the same. I could do the same if I were only doing the show in English. But I’m not. We shoot every show in both English and Spanish, and while memorizing my lines in English would be doable, doing the same with my lines in Spanish proved to be so frustrating and time-consuming on past shoots, we just had to give in. Ever since, filming my spots in Spanish—and English—has been one big fat JOY.
So the only thing I have to worry about is hiding the remote control I have in my hand to run the prompter (yes—I tell you, we do it ALL without help), and fact is, I fail a lot of the time. You can see it in some of the shots. It’s there, in my hand, shining like a silver little bit of guilt. But whatEVER, I say! I don’t deliver my lines like I’m reading, and after that, what else is there to be ashamed of? I need help to produce this show, and that help has happened to come in the form of this fancy little bit of equipment that has made life easy. Thank God for that. But don’t bother watching the show in order to find the remote. You’ll miss so much. This show really does rock. I’m so proud of it. 🙂
So! Back to Wednesday! Around noonish, my laptop battery was close to dying, and we had shot everything we needed to shoot in Battery Park. After that, we had something to film in front of the shrine, and one thing to film in front of St Peter’s (first Catholic church in NYC), and the rest was B-Roll. At this point, both Sonja and I were drenched in sweat, but she just kept pushing along like the fearsome trooper that she is.
That was another great thing we decided to do for the show—hire Sonja to help. She has been such a source of joy for me, I don’t know what we would have done without her!
Sonja told me there were some mimes across the way dressed as the Statue of Liberty, but said they wouldn’t let her film them without her giving them some money. I thought it would be fun to get me on film with one of them, and since I had a fiver in my pocket (very unusual for me), I decided we should ask the next mime we came to if we could film him/her for the show. Well, talk about serendipity!
The mime photographed above is Omar Paz, a fabulously nice immigrant from Colombia! As soon as I heard his accent, we started speaking in Spanish, and what a doll! He was so excited to be on our show, and he even took off his mask to show us his true identity! It occurred to me that, in real life, I would never have thought to pay a mime for a photo. But for a mere $5, not only did I get a wonderful memory, but I was able to contribute to the livelihood of an honest man who was trying to make an honest living by bringing joy to the lives of tourists. It made me so happy to help Omar out, and I was so happy that he allowed us to include him in our show, even if it will be for about 4 frames… LOL.
Another angel we met during our shoot was Diane, the secretary at the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Shrine on State Street. God love that woman! She is kind and generous, and just an angel! She brought us pink lemonade and let us sit by her fan while my computer charged up. I don’t think we would have survived without her kindness! If you visit the shrine, make SURE you say hi. Tell her I sent you. She is awesome.
After lunch at Au Bon Pain, we headed over to St. Peter’s to get exterior shots of the church and just one bit of me in front of the camera. The B-Roll was pretty easy to get, but once we set me up in front of the camera, the hijinks began. God love New Yorkers—either they are so used to seeing cameras it doesn’t phase them, or they are so single-minded in their pedestrian natures, they don’t even see the cameras! It took us about 10 minutes to get one shot because of all of the people who kept walking in front of our camera. We were exhausted at this point, and it was hard not to get completely frustrated.
But, God sent us another angel in the form of Jim, the safety worker who happened to be sitting on the church steps, watching the builders across the street to make sure they were being safe. Not only did jim offer to keep people from walking into our shot, he called another one of his men to come and help him do it even more effectively! Well, we were set, and it was just a minute or two by the time we finished the shot.
That’s another thing I love about New Yorkers. They are SO eager to help. You just have to ask. It’s sort of like God, you know? He’s there. You just gotta ask him for some assistance and it’s a sure thing.
After that, we drove around lower Manhattan getting B-Roll of St. Paul’s Episcopalian Chapel, Trinity Church, City Hall, and Canal Street. We were done by 4:30 p.m. And while I worried that I’d get stuck in outgoing traffic, the Holland Tunnel was the ONLY tunnel/bridge that afternoon that wasn’t congested with accidents or traffic.
Have I mentioned that God is way too good to me?
So, the day was a resounding success. We’re not done filming yet—we still have to get 3 or 4 locations, but things are going great, and the footage looks amazing.
Thanks to all of you who kept us in your prayers. Nothing is more valuable to us right now, and we appreciate it immensely.
Hasta luego!
(photo by Sonja Stark of Pilotgirl Productions)