The Hometown Shoot....

About a week prior to leaving, we were required to do a “Hometown Shoot” which would be used to give the viewers a little background on each of the cast members.  For each of our shoots, they would send a producer, director, cameraman and a soundman and we would spend two days doing a bunch of different shots, to try to cover the main aspects of our lives.  For my shot, it would include a lot of footage of our family hanging out inside the home, pretend packing of a suitcase, playing music in the play room, having a picnic across the pond, skipping stones, and so on.  Along with that, they also filmed me showing a home to clients and friends (If you didn't know, I'm a Realtor here in Indianapolis).  For fun, I decided to show them a $1.3 million dollar home, which is not the average home here in Indiana.  After showing the home, they had me do a costume change and head over to a local basketball court to play 2-on-2 basketball with three friends.  Along with all of the “reality-style” shooting, we also did several interviews and I was taught how they like the cast to respond.  Whatever the question was, you would always restate the question in your answer, so that it looks like you’re the one coming up with the information.  (Example:  Q: Are you excited to go to Norway?  A: I'm really excited to go to Norway because....)  Pretty weird stuff and something that I’ll definitely have to train myself to do.

To end everything, they had us do a fake, final goodbye, where I would kiss my two daughters and have a nice long moment with my wife, Megan, all on the front steps of our house.  This was especially tough, due to the fact that I actually had to walk away from the girls, who had just turned three, but they didn’t really understand what was going on.  In fact, we did our first take so well, that Logan was in tears and crying really hard!  (Sweet Zoe was playing with the doorbell!)  Then, to rub salt in the wound, Kristopher, the director, looks at us and says, “Great job!  We need to do it again.”  Poor kids.  They had no idea what was going on and we had to make them do it all over again!

After that final scene, they had everything they needed.  This was our first steps into this whole TV thing.  Everything is very strange, but it should be a lot of fun!  Off to officially start the show in five days!!


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Producer Kristopher and Soundman Vinny getting things set up.

 

Producer Kristopher, Soundman Vinny and Cameraman Chris.

Adjusting the lights to make me as blind as possible!  A lot of makeup had to
be used to keep the light from glaring off of my huge, fair-skinned forehead!

If you ever want to be real up and personal with someone, become a soundman!

Almost ready to shoot!

And the interview begins.  (This is about three seconds before I pull a
Christian Bale and start yelling at the light guy!)



My wife and I asked to borrow all of the equipment for some bedroom shots!
(Actually, it was just for the packing of the suitcase scene, but that wouldn't
have been such a bad idea!)