Busmans holiday

I think this may be a British term, so for all my readers from other climes, a busmans holiday is where you do the same thing on holiday as you do at work.

It could be said that my entire North American cycle has been a busmans holiday, due to the fact that every day I am filming with a video camera and at least once a week going the whole hog and wiring up some willing participant for an interview on camera.

However, just a few days ago it was my turn to be the willing interviewee.

On the 4th July myself and Pauline had journeyed to the small town of Afton to watch a traditional 4th July parade, which was a wonderful spectacle and quite emotional at times. Before the parade I interviewed a number of people on camera and one such person was Brian Dellis, a TV producer/director out of Minneapolis, producing a series of programmes under the banner "Life To The Max". Like minds got chatting and before you know it we had arranged to do a shoot with him in Stillwater four days hence.

The programme uses this as it's description: "Life to the Max is a show that highlights stories of perseverance, tenacity and winning attitudes. It is more than just a sports show; it's a program about those who look at the glass half full". We certainly had a lot to live up to!

Apart from the interview the crew also shot a fair amount of B-roll, or GV's (general views) as we tend to call them back home. At one point Brian was hanging out of the back of his van with the tailgate up filming us. Try doing that in the UK through the city streets. Gorilla film making at it's purest.

The film shoot is certainly good for publicity for the website and film Sleepless 'til Seattle but the programme doesn't air until October, when I'll be home in Scotland and Pauline will be in New Zealand. However, as our shoot day drew to a close a local news station affiliated to CBS turned up and shot a piece on us for the ten o'clock news and hopefully they'll be doing a follow up in Fargo in a few days.

Both Pauline and I had great fun and for me it was a big change to be in front of the camera instead of behind. I'm not sure which I prefer to be honest but behind the camera is certainly less nerve racking. There is also the fact that my friends are of the opinion that I have a face for radio.

Who needs enemies!