After the application process and planning with the producer, they set a date for the film shoot in Calgary. Of course, it being November in Calgary, the day they arrived it was suddenly -24C (-29C with wind chill) and snow was on the ground. Note: the prior weekend it was +10C and so was the following weekend. I guess they got the "Canadian winter"shots they expected for the show. Our crew (1 sound guy and 1 camera guy) were local but the director flew in from LA so he was in for a shock especially since most of our shoot was supposed to be outside i.e. playing with kids in backyard and going to the park at Rocky Ridge Ranch and then going to the Calgary Zoo. So they quickly changed plans to allow for more indoor filming.
We still ended up going to the zoo and filmed mostly indoors at the gorilla habitat and also the river otter habitat. It was actually really nice to have a last visit at the Calgary Zoo as we had spent many many days there over the past 4 years-- it was our go-to spot in Calgary for sure. They got a few shots of us all bundled up and walking outside in the blowing wind, but we have no idea what will actually make it on the show. They figure that after editing, our 3 hours at the zoo would most likely turn into 1-2 minutes.
The other part of the day was spent in the house with us giving a bit of a tour of our place and interviews about what we would like in a home in Geneva. We weren't expecting to show the whole house as many rooms were full of boxes and a complete mess in my opinion, but they assured me that we won't look like slobs on TV (let's hope!) . The director (who had an uncanny resemblance to our friend Bernie Minute) kept asking the kids tons of questions as well and they quickly got used to the camera and just acted naturally--- not sure that is a good thing. Again, we have no idea how it will be edited but hope that they show us in a good light! Overall, it was a good experience. A bit hard not to look at the camera when speaking but we might have movie stars in the making!
Part Two of filming is slotted for January and they hope to air the show by May.
