TV Show Filming; Makeup Girl! Sunset Over the Fairway

This morning the filming of the first two episodes of the Messages of Hope television series began. Chris Lavelle and Tim Epner from North Island Media in Rochester, NY, arrived early and set up to video the first scene in our kitchen. Here are Suzanne, Nancy O’Neal, and Elizabeth Magee-Wingle prepping for the first take.

And Bev Garlipp is having her 8th cup of coffee (due to multiple video takes, Suzanne had to keep re-pouring coffee from our "bottomless pot"!)  

Steve Jasper had agreed to re-enact his very emotional reading with Suzanne from last year. Here he is trying to shield the bright light from interfering with my camera’s light meter. Chris and Tim are setting up lights and microphones, not a quick or easy process. They are real professionals, and made sure that everything was right before starting their cameras. 

This may seem like a mundane shot; it’s just food, right? WRONG! This is part of the gourmet shrimp salad lunch provided by the Ann Lavelle Movie Production Support Team (you guessed it, Ann is the entire team). She very thoughtfully prepared lunch for us and delivered it during the shoot so that Suzanne could concentrate on the movie. Ann, you are a doll! 

Here Tim and Chris are carefully adjusting mike levels and camera focus for Steve’s interview. Steve is holding a baseball that was given to him by his grandson three days before his reading, a description of which Suzanne brought through from Steve’s deceased father during his reading. 

Our part-time makeup girl had to go to work on Steve because of the hot lights making him perspire. She must have done okay because the director didn’t fire her... (Uh, Steve, pink shirt and makeup... hmmm.... I'd better not go there!)

Suzanne re-enacted a phone reading with a client who had lost a son. It was so emotional for her that she actually had goose-bumps on her arms when she recounted the evidence from that reading. 

One of the neatest technology gizmos that Chris and Tim brought was this monitor, which plugged into their big video camera and displayed all the technical data you see on the screen. It also gave us the first glimpse of what the finished product would look like on television after Chris and Tim do their editing back in Rochester, NY.  

So, what does a cameraman do during his time off? After the shoot was completed, Tim ran outside onto the Amelia golf course's #2 fairway to catch the sun as it went to sleep below the horizon. I caught Tim setting up his gear just before he was bitten by some kind of nasty bug while standing in the tall grass. (He’s lucky it wasn’t a snake!) 

We were both too tired to cook, so we treated ourselves to a Thai dinner out. Our good friend Gail Grossman was kind enough to snap our picture on her way out. It was nice end to a long, but very rewarding and productive, day of filming.