So, I picked up a job last week. It was just a short gig but it was in production. No, not like manufacturing production I mean like TV production. TV production is the craziest thing I’ve ever been involved with to say the least. I got called up on a Monday asked if I wanted to be a part of this production for a week and said “Sure, no problem.”
The TV show was this home makeover type show where the hosts upgraded the tech in the family’s house during the course of the week and then there was a big reveal at the end. Leading up to the big reveal there is a hugemongus block party and that’s about where I come in. The block party showcased products offered by the show’s sponsor. My job as technical manager was to make their products look good. Without dropping names, the sponsor had high speed internet, HD programming, and other multimedia services. The production company already had an idea of what they wanted to do and I just had to make it a reality. The only catch is they didn’t have any of the hardware.
So I say to myself “It’s Tuesday I still have just over 3 days to have this together, tested and working for the weekend.” To make a long story short, I managed to get all the AV equipment and computer equipment together and working and mocked up by Thursday night despite being in meetings and going over check lists and relying on others to transport things where they needed to be. I swear it was a miracle. I did have some help from a great tech that I shanghai’d out of the tech bay of the event’s sponsor. He was indispensible to say the least.
Friday afternoon I labeled everything with it’s owner (for easy return) and where it needed to be at the block party (for easy setup). Saturday morning it rained. It rained hard. I was out of my mind trying to come to grips with bringing at least ten grand worth of AV equipment and four grand worth of computer equipment out in the rain. With enough people, some fast work and covering blankets we managed to unload the gear and as soon as that was done it quit raining and the temperature shot up to about 85 degrees. After several long hours rain and shine we loaded up the truck and took it to the second location. Yep. We had to pack up and do it on Sunday. Queue ominous music!
Sunday didn’t start out so bad. We got up and to the site with overcast skies and about 65 degree weather. It was great. Everything flowed, we knew what we were doing and things were set up in record time.The whole setup worked like a charm, at least until 2 pm when people started showing up for the block party. Then it started storming. It was storming hard and didn’t let up. After a while the electrical boxes off of the generator became submerged in water and power went out to the food tent. Then one (of four) of the tech displays lost power. We were able to get power back to that but it didn’t matter because the storm got worse. The even schedule was pushed up and the reveal happened an hour early and 40 mph winds and rain threatened to destroy the tents and the equipment they contained. In record time six people packed up televisions, game consoles, monitors, computers and other accessories and loaded them into the moving truck without damaging anything.
As crazy as it was, this was only a small production and I’m told things get worse the bigger the production is. Would I do it again? Sure, why not? It was crazy, nerve racking, fun, exciting and the fact that I pulled it off was a good ego boost.