The TV shoot: A few quick thoughts.
– Hetal and her two cameramen from Headlines Today & Aaj Tak, landed up at my home at 4:00 p.m. I quickly realised that her cameramen and the camera weren’t flexible enough to adapt to her different ideas. Then Hetal herself doubled up as a camera person.
– I changed the top image from “Kiruba Shankar” to “Kiruba.com” in the hope that it’ll catch the viewers better. Alas ! That was not to be. Hetal was interested in all other sites but mine!! Hmmm… so much for cheap hopes !!
– While showing a demo of how to open a new blog, I clocked myself. It took 3 minutes 37 seconds!
– My Mom stood engrossed thru the entire one hour “shooting”. She thinks her son is now a TV star! Little did she realise that the camera was always pointing at the screen and not my face!!
– I helped Hetal, the TV correspondent, create her own blog. Her first post gave me an inkling that there’s a small chance this story may get snipped by the editor who knows jackshit about blogging.
– From my home, we went to the highly impressive Amethyst, a cafe with idyllic surroundings, to join the rest of the bloggers. What a place!
– The snooty aired lady who owns the place had initial apprehensions about the camera in her place but finally condescended to allow the filming. I had half a mind to show her my middle finger and move to another joint ….but then, the place was just too good.
– Most of us got our two minutes of true-TV-style interviews taken. In one such interview, Divya gave a long answer and from the look on her face was pretty much satisfied. After she finished her answer, the cameraman casually said, “Ok, camera ready. Start”!!!
– There was no interviewing done in Hindi, though we had a couple of guys who could speak the language. I’m just thinking from the ‘Aaj Tak’ angle.
– By the end of the shoot, I was kicking myself for not bringing along the still camera. Thankfully, I spoke my mind aloud. That’s when Abhimanyu oh-so-matter-of-factly says he has a digicam. A few of us gave him a “what-the-fuck-are-you-locking-the-camera-in-your-bag-for?” kind of look. Expect a few snaps soon.
