24-Oct-2011
Camera Crew Hire for ESPN TV Show
If you thought we we’re a little quiet last week, that’s because we were trapped in the space between Birmingham and London where you don’t GO, you GO THROUGH! The Phink TV camera crew hire was stuck in the badlands of Milton Keynes producing the UK leg of ESPN show “One in a Billion.” Which is the hunt for the next Indian Formula One Driver to join the Force India Team.
Previous episodes had taken 1000 (not a Billion!) Go Kart drivers and whittled them down to 10 hopefuls who now have to come to the UK for media training, physical testing, without rice!
Monday:
The executive producer and ESPN presenter Mohit Lalvani decided it would be best to break the 13-17 year olds in and take them and our London based camera crew up trees and elephants at “Go Ape,” Woburn Safari Park… which is sort of like a huge outdoor Ewok play crèche with lots of signs and safety rope. So we thought it would be a good idea to strap a Go Pro Head Cam to one of the boy’s craniums with little warning and get the action from tree level! That evening we filmed the boys being given a tour around the Force India factory (previously Team Jordan…famous for erm... JORDAN!) 
Tuesday:
This was the first day at the Daytona Go Kart Track, where the guys competed in 2 heats and a final race. This time with slightly more warning we strapped 4 Go Pros to their heads! After the race we were joined by the official judges, Robert Fernley (Formula 1 pundit) Nico Hulkenberg (Williams / Force India Driver) & Anthony Hamilton (not the RNB singer!! Lewis’s dad and Force India’s Driver Manager). Once we wrapped for the day we did a proper recce of the track at 1:20m a lap..if you catch my drift!
Wednesday:
This was the fitness assessment day at the Porsche Human Performance Centre. Where the contestants where split into 2 groups. 1 camera crew had to cover the activities in Body Composition, Strength, Reactions and Aerobic Fitness, while the second hired camera crew sat through a seminar on Nutrition and Driver preparation. All very interesting stuff but I never got a go on the reaction wall! 
Thursday:
Was a full day of Media Training and assessment from veteran motorsport presenter Louise Goodman. We filmed the guys learning how the media work in motorsport, preparing for an interview, what makes a good story and identifying the interviewers agenda… I think the main point that really came from the day was that a Formula 1 team isn’t necessarily looking for a quick driver, but someone who is marketable! (As with everything these days!)
Again this was all over seen by the 3 judges as well as Eddie Jordan who briefly swung by to give an inspiring talk on what it takes to win the competition.
Friday:
Now we had the main event back at the Daytona Go Kart Track! The 10 drivers were again racing in 2 heats and a final but this would be decisive in helping the judges pick a winner of “1 in a Billion.” So for this we put together the best camera crew hire in London if not the galaxy covering the track with 7 XD Cams, 4 Go Pros, 1 crane and a roaming camera catching reactions in the pits. Luckily the weather held out and stayed quite flat, so we weren’t battling with different exposures in the edit!!!
I phink we can officially say Milton Keynes is OFF the bucket list!
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sDIUKbyBdnchXDyotyc (08 Jan 2012):
What an awesome way to explain this-now I know everytihng!