Cameraman based in Edinburgh, employed by ITN, working for ITV's Good Morning Britain covering stories all over the UK and the world. War Zones, World Cups, Royal Tours and many other less exciting assignments, like interviewing current and ex Prime Ministers have kept me busy over the years working in Breakfast Television since GMTV came on the scene back in '93 and regional TV before that. In 2009 I began to record what it is like to work, the often strange and long hours needed to bring the hard news, human interest and fluffy fun to the UK's TV screens in the morning, mostly broadcasting live.

Wednesday 17 June 2009

Olive OIl Anyone?

Tuesday 16th June


Bit of a busy day.


Didn’t have time to do the blog.


Just crashed out.


We were all up early for the live broadcasts from the Turkish port of Kusadasi.


There was not as big a crowd as we would have liked to join in with the workouts because a load of the 3000 or so passengers had gone ashore on excursions.


There were just enough willing victims left to give Mr Motivator and Deanne to work with and give a good bit of atmosphere.



Simon Wires Deanne. 


Nigel Just Wires. 

As soon as the live broadcasts were finished Simon the Sound Recordist, Chantel the Producer, Deanne and I along with our three ladies dashed off the boat to do a bit of filming.


Us actually getting a shore was in doubt for a while because of Turkish Immigration beaurocracy. 


Filming anywhere near any site of antiquity in Turkey requires a special permit that costs a lot of money.


We were not going to be shooting near anything at all old. However, we still should have had a permit.


After a lot of negotiation between the Princess Cruises, Turkish Authorities and GMTV we were given tacit approval to film and get through Immigration with minimum fuss.


So, as we went through the Immigration  channel at the port along with a few of the other passengers no one paid us any attention.


Our bus took us on a half hour trip winding up through the tree covered hills to a small village called Sirinja.


The item we were doing was about olive oil and the nutritional benefits.


At a very picturesque restaurant we did a piece to camera with Deanne telling Sharon and Julia about the calories in olive oil.


The Turkish people that owned the restaurant, on old school house with tables both outside in the playground and inside in the classrooms were very helpful.


They moved tables, cleared an area for us, got their music turned and happily replaced baskets of bread as we did a few retakes.


Once we had done that, it was time to get shots of olive trees and do the opening piece to camera.


In the bus twisting back down to Kusadasi the conversation turned to Turkish baths and having a massage.


Being rubbed down by a big hairy Turk is a slightly disconcerting experience for us guys.


We were discussing the things that could and have gone on during a legitimate massage at a proper establishment when Deanne told us about a little incident that happened to her a few years ago.


I’m not sure if she pressed charges!



Chantel Gives Deanne the Script.




The Happy Crew!

As we were getting to the ship there was a request from London that we needed to get a shot to be used the next morning that showed the scale of the ship.


The best place to do it from was at the front of the ship with the huge bow looming above.


The bit of quayside that we needed to be on to get the shot had a sign that said “Authorised Personnel only”. 


Ignoring it we went through the little low gateway and set up to so the shot. It would not take long to do.


Deanne was just finishing learning her lines when a chap came up to us and said in a very heavy accent “It is not authorised”. 


Simon immediately said, “it’s alright we’re with the ship.”


The man shrugged and said, “Not long.”


As quickly as we could we got it done.


We were one of the last people to go back aboard before the ship got ready to set sail.


The piece we had filmed needed to be edited and we had to do a pre recording for Friday’s programme.


The hope is that the pre record never gets seen because it is only there as a standby.


On Friday we will be fully at sea cruising along on our way to Naples.


It might be difficult for the satellite dish to stay locked on the satellite. So in the event that the signal is not good enough the live broadcast will be replaced by this one.


There were two minor little things that caused us a bit of irritation. The area we would be using was still full of people. In this instance the crew did not want to ask them to move.


After all the passengers had paid a lot of cash to come on this trip.


However as soon as a sun bed was vacated a deck hand whipped it away. 


Also for a while we were a bit closer to land than we wanted to be.


Then poor Rachel was not feeling very well and also a bit homesick.


The girls were good sports and up for it but even for them it comes as a bit of a shock the amount of things that needs to be done to make the programme work.


It is not a real holiday.


Anyway we got it all done with Rachel joining in but it was obvious to us that things were not as they should have been.


Then in the fading light at the rear of the ship Mr M and Deanne worked out a routine for tomorrows ABBA theme.



ABBA Day (rehearsal)

I finished off the edit and Simon did the editing of the stuff that we had just done.


It was at that point 9:30 pm that I realised that I had not had the chance to eat since midday.


I grabbed a quick bite to eat and went to bed.

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