I better write this while the memories are fresh or it’ll never get written. Yesterday, for the TV show Sujata, the producer, interviewed me and Liz with a few shots of us at our desks. Today, it was B-footage time.
B-footage is all the extra shots you’ll see in a documentary normally with the person talking. For me, I mentioned my favorite type of transportation is the auto-rickshaw so part of our shooting today included me going to off campus, through security to hail a rickshaw. We road up the road and back. During that time, they also had me go up and buy a soda from one of the vendors. The shot was fine until I asked for a bottle opener and was walked back to the machine.
Sadly, that shot may find its way into the final cut.
From that point, we went to the hostel where they got footage of me riding a bicycle to the hostel, dismounting and getting my key. A little footage of me writing an email, watching ESPN, and looking out the window and we moved on.
A funny moment in the hostel was when they were shooting a little footage of the housing right beside the campus. While they are filming the area a guy walks into the camera shot, the film crew becomes excited (like in Wild Kingdom where they finally spy the 1 eyed newt in its native surroundings) and starts following him; they did that until we realised he was on his way to uh, well, see a man about a horse. (for those confused and not from the south; he would have preferred a little privacy)
Aside from invading privacy, there were some surreal moments like when during one of the conversations on the right shot and angle, I noticed the camera man was wearing a WVU hat. The front said Air Force, but the bill of the hat had our logo. I asked him about it and just received silence.
Our final shot was of me walking to and from the giant pyramind on campus. Frankly, I’ve never even been in the building until today, but it does look pretty cool.
All and all a pretty remarkable day. I’m not certain when the final piece will come to air, but have been promised an email letting me know.
