Monday, September 22, 2008

The Final Bang (on YouTube now)



You may have already seen this one but if you haven't, here it is. Perhaps you're wanting to know the backstory with the helicopter shot? Okay then. But maybe you should watch first before I blow your mind? Okay go watch while I sit here admiring myself in this rusty butter knife.

Back so soon?

So Erik and Ben were going up in a helicopter and I was supposed to stand on the top of the dimple hill and they'd get an awesome shot of the roof with me on it, waving. So I get this call from them saying they're about to go up and that I should go up on the roof in about ten minutes and I say "you'll call me to let me know when you're shooting the roof though right?" except I don't get all that out because they have to go and their phones are being confiscated and just wave at all helicopters. So I haul my toned and shapely caboose up there and there happen to be a lot of people setting up and there are some drums on teh top of the dimple hill as well but I explain that I have to go up there and wave at helicopters. I offer to soundcheck their drums but they don't take me up on it and also they want to make sure I'm not "drunk or anything" WHICH I WASN'T, I'm just clumsyish and kind of lost at most times. So I'm up there looking in the sky and one of the guys explains that I don't have to look, I'll just hear the helicopter. This was probably right and it's good he said taht because every time i craned my neck to look at the sky I started to get dizzy and worried I'd take a tumble down dimple mountain, taking out a snare drum and a drummer and possibly a guitar on my way. There was also a guitar up there. So then I developed a dog like sense of hearing, or whatever animal has crazy good hearing, and lurched at all loud noises and waved like a maniac at planes and various things flying by including a flock of birds. Finally after about half an hour I gave up and went downstairs. Erik and Ben told me they didn't see me up there but then they didn't see much of the roof either.

The next day they were goign to go up to the observation deck of the Empire State Building and film me on the roof that way so that it would look like it was from a helicopter. "Is the human eye so good that people know roughly what helicopter shots shoudl look like?" I asked. Ben assured me it would work, however he misunderstood my question. I wasn't asking if people would be able to tell the difference between a helicopter shot and an Empire State Building shot. I was asking if we really need to go up to the Empire State Building for this shot, can't we just hold the camera above our heads and shake it and pretend that was from a helicopter with some kind of phenomenal zoom function. I'm kind of glad he didn't understand my question though, as this is why I'm in front of the camera and on a blog and not behind a camera, etc. So again I hauled ass up to the roof with my microphone and waited while explaining to the guys what was going on and worrying they would think I think I'm being filmed but really the whole thing is in my head since I'm saying I'm going to be filmed by peopel on the Empire STate Building and that's why I have to wave at no one.

But it was goign to take an hour and a half to get to the observation deck, so we scrapped that and filmed what you saw, instead.

Also, by this point my throat and my interviewing style was a little raw.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like the video the way it is, but a shot of you on dimple hill from the helicopter would have been pretty cool. I have an even better idea though. Are you ready for it?

You would have been ON the helicopter, which was taking you to the rooftop for the Final Bang. Now the helo can't land on the roof, so they would have lowered you down a 200' cable and dropped you off. Even better - they would have lowered you before they got to the rooftop and filmed you being swung over and around some of the skyscrapers. You're not afraid of heights, are you?

So I'm in the middle of making a major decision. Everybody keeps telling me how great the show Lost is. I never watched it, but last week the SciFi channel started showing it from the beginning. Last week I watched the 2 hour pilot and the next 2 episides. It's on right now and I'm trying to decide whether to keep watching it. So far I give it a B- but I think it's supposed to get better.

One problem is they're showing 4 episodes every Monday night. Ugh! But I'm thinking I can watch one or two episodes on Monday and record the others to watch later. The other problem is there's a pregnant woman on the show who's really annoying. I'm hoping they build a raft and set her adrift.

Your seƱor moment cartoon is pretty good!

Toddrod said...

Joe! Don't watch Lost... ew. Actually, I've also heard it's pretty good, but the only decent TV show I've enjoyed in the past couple years has been Battlestar Galactica. I say if you aren't sure if you will like it, then rent the dvds from Netflix, and watch at your discretion.

Toddrod

Anonymous said...

Toddrod, I watched last night's episodes but I'm still unsure whether to keep watching. So far each episode has mostly focused on a different character's background and how they ended up on the plane that crashed. So that's a little boring. But I've looked at some of the online maps of Lost Island and it looks like it'll get a lot better.

Here's one map: tinyurl.com/47zujr

I've also heard a little about other things that happen. Oh hell, I'll probably end up watching it. What else do I have to do on Monday nights?

Have fun on Red Eye tonight Alison!! It'll be a little different since you're not going to be in the studio.

Toddrod said...

Yeah! Hope you have fun on Red Eye tonight Alison. I'll be watching of course. I wrote Greg an email under my Activity Pit chat room name "boinkity." I hope he reads it. They must get hundreds of emails, and it's really hard to make one stand out to get it read on air. Wish me luck.

Toddrod