I had occasion to drive our Jupiter to the local shopping centre to manually post a letter last Friday. I parked it right outside the Post Shop and was just getting out of the car when a fellow rushed up and said he wondered if I had a couple of minutes to talk about my car . . . . I said sure, as I reached for the handouts I have had printed so as to be able to give a bit of "hardcopy" to those who show an interest (It helps too if it so happens you need to make a quick getaway!).
Well it turned out that he wanted a bit more than five minutes. He was a producer for a TV Station and happened to have his camera and ancillary gear in his car right there in the car park. He'd seen me and the car as I'd driven to the shopping centre and followed me into the car park.
To shorten the story somewhat (unusual for me, I know!) we spent about 45 minutes in a unoccupied area of the park with a nice shrubbery background. He had me get out of the car and yack on about the car, it's background and history, then open the bonnet to show the engine (more natter!) close it down, start the car then drive off (with a nice burbling exhaust note . . . . I hope). After that he videoed me arriving at the spot the car had been parked, and also as I turned the engine off and got out . . . all the usual back to front and out of sequence "film" shooting practice!
I hate to think how my dulcet toned voice will come over and how many errrs and ahhhs I made . . . . I was more than somewhat nervous . . . but at least when the editing is done there'll be less than five minutes "in the can" (if it goes to air at all!). He wanted still images of the restoration and it's use as a wedding car e-mailed to him as well as digital copy of the Jowett Company info., the Clubs (NZ and World wide . . . I gave the forum a plug, incidentally).
So, I should get a DVD of the results of all this in due course. And, there were murmurings of doing a bigger feature instead of this little "fill in". If this come to pass I'll have to get a bit of practice in speaking in front of a camera and ask my Daughter (who's a trained Make-up artist . . worked for BBC and others in UK) to try to "guild this lilly" somewhat (me, in case you were wondering!
I should now confess . . this isn't a glam as it all suggests . . . all this was done, NOT for National TV, but Local TV
Still, it was fun (in retrospect) and there'll be a little bit of exposure for the Marque.
I'll let you know what transpires . .
Cheers. Leo.