A Day In The Life
04th April 2009
Beep.
Be beep.
Be be be beep.
Snooze.
What seems like one second later…
Beep.
Be beep.
Be be be “Alright, stop! I’ll get up,” beep.
It’s day 5 on our South African odyssey. First stop today, Johannesburg, to see Nick Kotch a British journo who’s made Africa his home.
I always take time to set up a shot. After 3 days it’s clear that Dusko shares the same attention to detail gene so getting everything to look right involves a fair bit of time and fiddling. This morning we ushered Nick outside with Matthew and proceeded to move all of the furniture round in his living room, using 3 lights and plumping numerous cushions to get the look we wanted.
45 minutes after we arrived, Matthew began the interview with Nick and was 2 questions in when, the dog of the house, a cheeky little Jack Russell, decided to take its place in the shot: jump, boing, stretch, she settled along the top of the sofa in the top right of the shot. Nick, her slave, was the only person who didn’t see her trying to claim her 15 minutes of fame.
We stopped the tape, the dog was locked outside and we conducted the interview without any further incidents. Nick proved not only to be a great contributor but a brilliant host too, and once we'd finished recording he made us a pot of proper coffee. Dusko, not to be outdone, went to the van and came back with a box of home made cookies. Ready to sit down and tuck in, my phone rang.
“Hi Laura it’s Philip here.”
“Hello Philip, how’re you?”
“Good. Michael Hussey (Australian cricketer) has a window at 1.30pm can you get here for that?”
“Yes we can. Thanks, see you soon.”
Pack up the van, jump in, drive across Johannesburg.
Arrive at the hotel, 4 of us have an opinion on where to park: over there on the left, no right, not that way, head for the exit, there’s a space. Park. Phew.
Unpack the kit. Into the hotel, up in the lift, set up in Philip’s bedroom.
Hotel rooms are generally horrible to film in. They’re too small, have a huge bed in them and dodgy artwork on the walls that you can’t avoid. We swapped the chairs round, moved the table and got rid of the lamp. The attention to detail gene was not happy. With 10 minutes to go before Mike Hussey arrived, we reset the shot completely, got him into position and were ready to roll at 1.30pm. Did I mention that the attention to detail gene has a perform under pressure partner?
For the record Mr H was incredibly nice.
Pack, thank you, goodbye, down in the lift, out to the car, pack, drive.
We filmed in and around the city in the afternoon, culminating in Matthew’s piece to camera on top of a hill overlooking the city. What you won’t see when the feature goes out on Inside Sport are the two guys lounging on the grass about 5 metres away from Matthew, smoking some very pungent herbal cigarettes.
Pack. "Thanks guys". Meet our taxi driver Eric. Home, eventually. Order breakfast boxes for the morning. Call people, email people. Set the alarm for 0530. Sleep.
Zzzzzz.
Beep.
Be beep.
Be be be beep.
Snooze.
What seems like one second later…
Beep.
Be beep.
Be be be “Alright, stop! I’ll get up,” beep.
It’s day 5 on our South African odyssey. First stop today, Johannesburg, to see Nick Kotch a British journo who’s made Africa his home.
I always take time to set up a shot. After 3 days it’s clear that Dusko shares the same attention to detail gene so getting everything to look right involves a fair bit of time and fiddling. This morning we ushered Nick outside with Matthew and proceeded to move all of the furniture round in his living room, using 3 lights and plumping numerous cushions to get the look we wanted.
45 minutes after we arrived, Matthew began the interview with Nick and was 2 questions in when, the dog of the house, a cheeky little Jack Russell, decided to take its place in the shot: jump, boing, stretch, she settled along the top of the sofa in the top right of the shot. Nick, her slave, was the only person who didn’t see her trying to claim her 15 minutes of fame.
We stopped the tape, the dog was locked outside and we conducted the interview without any further incidents. Nick proved not only to be a great contributor but a brilliant host too, and once we'd finished recording he made us a pot of proper coffee. Dusko, not to be outdone, went to the van and came back with a box of home made cookies. Ready to sit down and tuck in, my phone rang.
“Hi Laura it’s Philip here.”
“Hello Philip, how’re you?”
“Good. Michael Hussey (Australian cricketer) has a window at 1.30pm can you get here for that?”
“Yes we can. Thanks, see you soon.”
Pack up the van, jump in, drive across Johannesburg.
Arrive at the hotel, 4 of us have an opinion on where to park: over there on the left, no right, not that way, head for the exit, there’s a space. Park. Phew.
Unpack the kit. Into the hotel, up in the lift, set up in Philip’s bedroom.
Hotel rooms are generally horrible to film in. They’re too small, have a huge bed in them and dodgy artwork on the walls that you can’t avoid. We swapped the chairs round, moved the table and got rid of the lamp. The attention to detail gene was not happy. With 10 minutes to go before Mike Hussey arrived, we reset the shot completely, got him into position and were ready to roll at 1.30pm. Did I mention that the attention to detail gene has a perform under pressure partner?
For the record Mr H was incredibly nice.
Pack, thank you, goodbye, down in the lift, out to the car, pack, drive.
We filmed in and around the city in the afternoon, culminating in Matthew’s piece to camera on top of a hill overlooking the city. What you won’t see when the feature goes out on Inside Sport are the two guys lounging on the grass about 5 metres away from Matthew, smoking some very pungent herbal cigarettes.
Pack. "Thanks guys". Meet our taxi driver Eric. Home, eventually. Order breakfast boxes for the morning. Call people, email people. Set the alarm for 0530. Sleep.
Zzzzzz.
Beep.