Tuesday 10th June
Rio de Janeiro
At least Sean and I had a few hours,
around three or four, in our beds.
After spending the evening in the
hotel lobby and then having a quick shower Rav joined us at midnight when
Guiherme came to pick us up to drive us to the ITN apartment.
Tonight going through a series of
red lights and seeing armed police on the street corners felt normal.
We got to the apartment in plenty of
time to do our broadcasts as the guys that were staying there were heading off
to bed, all except Colin the engineer. He was there to make sure all the
technical things worked out right, which they did.
There were no problems and the
broadcasts went off without a hitch.
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| Sean on air in my camera monitor |
The timing of the last broadcast was
perfect. We had no sooner come off air when the heavens opened sending the rain
lashing down.
Not all the kit had been brought in
so we had to dash around getting the camera, sound and lighting away whilst
trying not to get soaked.
The spectacularly hot, bright sunny
weather had deserted us. When daylight came the rain eased but the thick grey
clouds remained.
We went back to bed for another few
hours sleep before getting up again for some filming in the afternoon.
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| Grey sky, deserted beach, only the mountain says Rio not Britain |
The promenade at the deserted
Copacabana beach was busy with fans from many countries taking a stroll.
We did a lot of interviews with some
of them about who was going to win and all that kind of stuff.
At the far end of the beach the main
official Fan Fest area was being set up. We were surprised that it was not
nearer completion with only a couple of days to go before the kick off of the
first game.
I did a piece to camera with Sean
expressing this.
The afternoon was dragging its
greyness into evening when we got back to the hotel for Rav to get to work on
the edit.
Once we had the material in the
computer we needed to get some food. Earlier we’d spotted what looked like
quite a nice sushi restaurant not far from the hotel.
The Brazilian born Japanese lady
owner who had lived in London for a few years was very welcoming.
The sushi was very good, and more
importantly came very quickly. We wanted to get back to the hotel as soon as we
could to get the voice track recorded, the piece edited, our kit packed for
tomorrow’s trip to Manaus and get some sleep in the few hours that would be
left before we had to go back to see Colin at the ITN apartment.
Wednesday 11th June
Rio de Janeiro
I had managed about four hours in
bed as had Sean. Rav’s time between the sheets had been a bit less but not as
bad as last night because the Internet connection had been a bit better and
there was just the edited report and a few other shots to send back to Good
Morning Britain.
This time Guilherme was not alone
when he met us at midnight. We needed another vehicle for the kit. So he had
brought along a taxi.
It would not be possible for us to
do a full morning’s live broadcasting because we had to leave to catch a flight
to Manaus before the end of the programme.
On the balcony of the apartment the
now well-drilled rig was done in a few moments. Things were all up and running
giving us time to have a cup of coffee.
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| Rav and Sean go through scripts.. |
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| … then time for a broadcasting breakfast |
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| Colin connecting the camera to the satellite equipment |
Mine ended up pretty cold. The warm
much needed caffeine hit had just been poured when we heard the rain.
Unlike yesterday we were not going
to miss this deluge.
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| The rain begins |
As quickly as we could we deriggged
the kit and got it rerigged inside.
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| Inside camera position for me... |
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| ..not so for Sean and Rav, the human brolly stand |
After we had done our second to last
live broadcast we recorded the short tease and broadcast that would go out when
we were on our way to the airport.
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| Sean on air when the rain eased up |
Despite the dreadful conditions we
got through another morning with no major problems.
The only minor glitch was that one
very short bit of voice track that was needed for a promotion spot later on ITV
had not been recorded properly in London and we had to do it again, but we did
not find out about that until we had put most of the kit away ready for our
rush to the airport.
Thankfully having to get a lot of
the kit back out and set up again did not make us too late. In fact, although
there was a long queue at check in and the machines initially did not recognise
our booking, by the time we did get checked in there was time for a very quick
coffee because the flight was delayed.
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| Leaving a grey, wet Rio |
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| This week it has been a case of sleep when you can not when you need to |
A rather taciturn driver was waiting
for us as we hit the hot humid air of Manaus.
The kit was piled into the curtained
minibus and we were driven to the hotel, a drive of about an hour.
It was too early to get to our
rooms.
Too early?
Certainly not by my body clock it
wasn’t.
What we did do was to get the gear
out of the boxes and then jump straight in to our local contact, Renata’s car.
She took us out through the town to
one of the rivers that flow near Manaus to catch a boat for a filming trip on
the river.
The Solimões and Negro rivers meet
at Manaus, merging together to form the Amazon.
True to form things were a bit
rushed to get there in time because of the delay arriving in Manaus.
The trip on the river was nothing
short of amazing, the clearly visible junction of the muddy brown Solimões and
the appropriately almost black Negro, an incredible floating town complete with
houses, church and school with no school bus but a school boat, exotic noisy
birds, little alligators, monkeys and the evocative sounds of the rainforest.
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| Straight off the plane, into a minibus, drop off the kit, into a car and then on to a boat.. |
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| ..and yes Sean you can use your mobile whilst driving a boat |
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| On the river |
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| Filming from our boat |
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| Part of the floating town |
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| One of the locals on his daily commute |
None of us fancied meeting mum or
dad.
There we did a piece to camera and I
did lots of shots.
We had almost finished when the boat
driver said that it was about to rain.
A few moments later his prediction
came true in a torrent of biblical proportions.
Bits of tree and were being broken
off with loud cracks like rifle shots, blown down and then crashing into the
water as the wind whipped around us.
Our hope of keeping a little bit dry
was somewhat forlorn. The dry leaves forming a roof on the narrow platform was
no match for the wind and rain that lashed down.
In less than a minute or so the rain
had breached the leaf made canopy. Wind driven rain hit us from all sides. Huge
heavy drops fell on us from the now pointless covering.
We did a couple of pieces to camera
to illustrate how quickly and dramatically the weather can change and I got
some shots of the effects of the wind and the rain bouncing on the water.
Then we beat a hasty retreat back
along the now sodden and potentially slippery walkway to the floating closed
restaurant that the boat was moored beside.
The fairly long ride back to the get
off the boat was pretty miserable. We were totally soaked to the skin.
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| Not the best of views.. |
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| ..on the ride back.. |
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| ..to the little jetty.. |
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| ..beside it locals getting off one of the river ferrys |
On the journey back in the car there
was no way that we wanted the normally cooling effects of the air-conditioning
in Renata’s small car.
The journey back to the hotel was
not the most pleasant that we have had. Not only were we all still absolutely
saturated an already congested city had more of a traffic problem than normal.
It took us the best part of two
hours on a journey that should have perhaps taken forty minutes.
On this long drive back there were
rumours starting to gather pace that the pitch for Saturday’s game was not in a
very good condition.
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| The rain continued on the drive back.. |
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| ..in to the evening and still in traffic |
Would it be possible to do the live
broadcasts from inside the stadium beside the pitch?
Could we get some shots of the pitch
to send back to London?
Rav made a few calls. It did not
come as much of a surprise that there was no way that we could get access to
the stadium tonight.
However, after a lot of
conversations and phone calls we did manage to secure an appointment to get in
tomorrow.
One of the on-going stories about
Brazil and the World Cup was that it was not ready.
In the course of the talks about
getting in to see the pitch it transpired that things might not be going all
that well getting the stadium fully prepared for the start of the tournament.
There was a total power failure and
things were, according to the venue manager “pretty frantic!”
When we got back to the hotel and
checked in the first thing that we needed to do was to get out of our clothes,
which were still very wet.
Once we had dried ourselves out Rav
got on with the edit and I recorded Sean’s voice over.
At that point, around 8:15 pm (9:15
pm by our body clocks) there was a chance that we would get a couple of hours
sleep.
The roof terrace of the hotel was an
ideal place for our live broadcasts using the little BGAN satellite terminal.
I went to speak to the duty manager
to check that it would be alright for us to be up there from midnight until
about 4 am.
The access for the terrace is,
rather strangely through the little well equipped gymnasium, which is only open
until 11 pm.
The duty manager’s English was not
very good. It took me quite a while to make her understand what it was that we
wanted to do.
The pained expression on her face
when she at last seemed to understand had me worried that she was not going to
be amenable.
She said the she would need to call
and talk to the general manager to seek permission.
After a short conversation on the
phone she said that it would not be possible.
Rav called Renata to ask if she
could help.
A very short time later she arrived
at the hotel with a two alternatives that might work.
Not far from the hotel is a
pedestrian bridge over the road that runs beside the hotel.
At the top of the concrete stairs on
the opposite side from the hotel it was possible to make out the stadium in the
distance, which was lit up. Obviously the power had come back on.
It was another sign that the stadium
was being worked on frantically because Renata said that the lights would more
than likely be on all night as they had been for some time.
This position was not ideal but
would work if nothing better could be found.
The next option was an apartment
overlooking the stadium.
On the way to have a look the
downside was that the owner had asked for 3000 Brazilian Real as a fee to rent
it to us.
This was almost £800. Renata had
said that this was very much a speculative request and he would be talked down
to a more realistic figure if the place was suitable.
We arrived and the current tenant
showed us out on to the small balcony.
Sure enough the shot of the stadium
was perfect. Apart from the flagrant attempt at a bit of profiteering the
downside was that it was not possible to see the satellite from the balcony.
So, that location was a definite no.
We were now only two hours away from
Good Morning Britain going on air and our first scheduled broadcast at the
start of programme and we still had no firm location.
Renata suggested that there might be
a possibility at another hotel not too far away.
We got to the Millennium hotel and
Renata used all her skills of negotiation on the girl behind the reception
desk. Like her opposite number in our hotel she called her general manager.
This time the news was much better.
We were given the green light and it would only cost about £70.
The only thing was that we had not
yet seen what the shot was like from the roof.
Domingo, the elderly smiling
security man wearing a pistol on his hip took us up to the rooftop pool area.
It was perfect. The shot of the
Manaus cityscape was great, there was a clear shot of the stadium and to top it
all there was a huge area of clear sky leading to the satellite.
Renata had certainly earned her fee.
She dropped me back at the hotel where Rav had just finished editing the piece
and it was on its way to London.
We gathered our kit and joined by
Sean got a taxi to the hotel.
Thursday 12th June
Manaus
Wednesday had become Thursday as I
got all the kit set up in time to easily make the first of our many broadcasts
of the morning.
It was hot and very sticky with the humidity. All the equipment was covered in a thin layer of dampness. I was so pleased that the days of tape were gone because I did not have to worry about the dreaded "humid" error that usually took an hour or so to stabilise.
The kit performed flawlessly.
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| Amazonia stadium from our camera position |
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| Sean and Rav going through scripts. |
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| The city of Manaus.. |
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| ..from the roof terrace |
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| Sean on air |
We had been on the go since around
11 pm on Tuesday night. No wonder we were feeling a bit jaded. It had been a 30
hours shift.
At 10 am we were on the go again. We
were being allowed into the stadium.
The story of the state of the pitch
and the power cut was gathering pace.
Sean and I were two of the very few
media that managed to get inside the stadium to film the pitch.
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| Amazonia stadium Broadcast Information Office |
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| I had my accreditation, now the camera had its official sticker |
Sean did a piece to camera at the
side of pitch and then one up in the stands.
We had to work pretty quickly
because we were only allowed to be in for a short time. Although he was very
helpful Louis was quite firm on the amount of time we could film.
Clearly the story about the pitch
did stand up because it was clear to see the areas of brown and Sean saw grass
seed in the area near one of the corner flags.
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| Filming.. |
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| ..inside the Amazonia Arena Stadium |
They had quite a good little story
to tell so Sean did an interview with them after which I did a few shots of
them.
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| Sean with Phil and Johnny after the interview |
We now had plenty of material for a
good news story and a bit of colour if we needed it.
Renata came up trumps again taking
us to an excellent restaurant for a late lunch.
The opening ceremony was being
broadcast as we ate.
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| Watching the opening ceremony in the restaurant.. |
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| ..with a local soft drink and Tanbaqui, fish from the river |
Outside there was the constant crack
of firecrackers that had been going off all during the game and for quite a
while afterwards.
It was around 6 pm when I got to my
bed. I would have to be up by around 11 pm to start to get ready to set up for
our live broadcasts.
We had hoped to be back at the
perfect position at the Millennium Hotel but sadly there was a function going
on there.
The good news was that Renata had
spoken to the general manager of our hotel during the day and secured
permission, at no extra cost, for us to use the roof terrace.
Friday 13th June
Manaus
It might have been a dream location
only two floors above my bedroom but the early part of the morning was a
nightmare.
The BGAN system had behaved
impeccably yesterday, never failing once.
However, for a while this morning it
did not want to play ball. The signal that was being received in London was not very good to the point that the pictures and sound were unusable.
Once again we were working in conditions of very high humidity. The display on Rav's hygrometer was showing over 90% humidity.
This may have been a factor but given that the conditions were very similar yesterday it was probably just one of the foibles of the system.
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| Trying to get the BGAN working |
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| The set up on the terrace bathed in blue light |
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| Phones and computers for Sean and Rav.. |
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| ..right up until.. |
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| ..we go on air |
It was pretty important to get up
and running for a bit of a surprise for Sean.
His kids had done a Father’s Day
message for him.
Thankfully the broadcasting gods
were in our favour and before it came to that part of the programme we were on
air.
It proved well worthwhile. Sean’s
reaction to his two kids was perfect. He had no idea that it was happening.
By 4:30 am we had finished
broadcasting and were heading back to bed for about three hours sleep before we
needed to be back at it, albeit in a fairly leisurely way.
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| Nice tidy desk in my room in Manaus |
Renata took us to the banks of the
Amazon where I got an opportunity to do some shots with my newest bit of kit, a
small drone.
We shot some material for a project being done by one of the producers in London.
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| Renata |
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| Preparing the drone |
Saturday 14th June
Manaus and travel
It was great to have had a proper
night’s sleep for the first time on the trip. I had gone to bed at about 10:30
last night and did not get up until around 7 am. Although, I did wake up at
midnight, ready to go to work.
I went out and did some general
shots of Manaus on the drone before packing for the flight back to Rio.
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| A quick GMB Team Manaus pic before leaving |
Some (lo res) footage from the drone
It was around 10 pm in a slightly cooler Rio when we met Guilherme at the airport.
He drove us back to our hotel where
we went straight to be to get a reasonable night’s sleep because from tomorrow
on we would be back to sleeping four hours or so at a time.
Sunday 15th June
Rio de Janeiro
Another full night's sleep was very much appreciated. Feeling refreshed and regenerated we were ready to start a new week.
Guilherme arrived outside the hotel with a small pick up truck, ideal for the shooting that we would be doing today.
England fan Chris had travelled across the world on a Vespa and sidecar raising cash for UNICEF.
We set about doing a report on his adventures.
It was a bit of minor technical challenge to be able to get the interview done as he rode along the Copacabana with Sean in the sidecar.
The radio mic would not work very well so we decided to record the audio on Rav's camera that Sean kept by his feet and then sync it up to my camera that was in the pickup truck and the two GoPro cameras that were stuck to the Vespa and sidecar.
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| The best hotel in town. Not ours obviously .. |
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| ..but we were parked in front of it.. |
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| ..for more phone play.. |
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| ..and getting the tripod rigged in the back of the pickup |
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| Rav and Sean meeting Chris |
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| Getting the GoPros rigged.. |
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| ..on the sidecar and scooter.. |
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| ..before setting off around the Copacabana.. |
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| ..and the inevitable Rio traffic |
On the midnight drive to the ITN live location we drove past many bars filled with people enjoying the Rio atmosphere after the games had finished for the day.
After the heat of Manaus Rio's night time felt a bit cooler.
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| Sean once again on the block in Rio ready to broadcast |
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| Dave, tonight's engineer doing his techie thing |
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