Tag Archives: tv

Old Filming in SF

Making my way through old shots for other projects often results in finding stuff I had completely forgotten about.  Before we lived in the Bay Area, I was there for some other reason.  I was down near the water and there was a film crew working on a production of some sort.  The character was on a dock and was approached by some other guys at which point he falls into the water.  There was a diver that got set up in the water beforehand for safety purposes.  Then they filmed the sequence.  I don’t recall them doing it more than once which made it easier than drying the guy off and giving him fresh clothes, I guess!

Filming Crews and Their Serious Gear

We came upon a few filming crews while we were in the Maasai Mara.  There were professional photographers but more of the video teams.  National Geographic had a crew out working and there were others filming too.  You would sometimes find vehicles that were scouting crews for the filming.  The thing I found funny was that they often had signs saying that they were filming crews and not to follow them.  I might never have paid attention to them until I knew that they were filming crews and might well have good intel about where animals were!

Modified vehicles which allow the camera operator to sit outside the vehicle and shoot looked like just the sort of thing I would like to have.  They weren’t always in use, though.  I did see one operator sitting inside the vehicle with his feet up while checking stuff on his phone.  Looking at the very pricey lenses attached to the camera rigs was almost as fun as looking at the animals.  Nat Geo also had a vehicle with a gimbal mount out on the front of the vehicle.  It would have been fun to see that in use!

One thing that occurred to me as I watched these teams at work was the volume of material that they would collect that would be culled down to make a TV show.  Sure, this would be a vast amount of data to store and sort but how different this must be from the days of wet film.  Those crews shooting things like the early Big Cat Diaries must have been carrying a ton of stock and then had to manage all of it through processing and cataloging.  That must have been a very time consuming and expensive proposition.

Welford Park

If you are a fan of a certain British cooking program, this post maybe more relevant to you.  I have never watched Bake Off but Nancy has and she knew of Welford Park, the location where it has been shot.  The grounds are not normally open to the public – only paying TV crews – but once a year they open up for the snowdrops which I previously posted about.  After walking through the woods and seeing the flowers, we came back to the main house where they had a café since a spot of lunch was in order.

Having not watched the show, I am not familiar with the layout of the grounds.  However, I am told that the steps down to the lawn from the house are a feature of some of the TV footage.  The house itself appears in shots and the lawn area, which was clear while we were there, is where they have the tents in which the contestants undertaken their challenges.  If you have seen the show, hopefully these shots will be recognizable to you.

Lens Envy

Camera gear is always something that you can find a better and more expensive version of.  However, you really feel like an amateur when you go up against the TV guys.  There were a few camera locations I passed by when shooting at Ridge.  They were using these huge Canon zoom lenses.  They would be a bit of a nuisance to carry around and cost more than I care to think about but you still feel a little envious.

Gratuitous Self Publicist

If you are searching through the TV listings for something to watch, take a look at Strip the City on the Science Channel.  There are a number of episodes from different cities but take a look at the episode about Chicago.  One part of the show features the bridges across the river and they include the Michigan Avenue bridge getting jammed open when the weather was too hot.

If you are a regular reader of this blog or a subscriber to my YouTube channel, the footage might seem familiar.  Have a look here and you will see what I mean.  This is one of a couple of projects where my video footage has been used.  I guess video is a useful addition to the portfolio!