Prime Time

Last week I wrote I don't have much desire to be on TV.  Although this is true, I have appeared on the small screen a few times now.  My debut was in second grade when I gave a very moving and eloquent interview to the local news station about how we should save the bunnies living in a future demolition zone.  I believe the speech went something like, "We should save the bunnies because they were there first."  Very moving, I know.  

My second time was in fifth grade (possible forth-they mix together in my head) when our class went on public access television to give speeches for our Toastmasters class.  My monologue was on what my three wishes would be.  

There were a few other times, mainly for jump rope team and band (yes, I'm aware of how cool I was), where I appeared on the news during parades.

Back in 2011, I worked off and on for a nonprofit called Adventures Without Limits (AWL).  The company specializes in taking people of all abilities and backgrounds outdoors.  Two of my coworkers at my other job were also employees there and asked me if I wanted to help out in filming an episode of a TV show.  I was initially fairly confused but found out that, in short, this guy Zach Anner got his own reality show by winning another show on Oprah Winfrey's TV network, OWN.  Zach had cerebral palsy and was wheelchair bound, having no use of his legs and limited use of this arms.  The show was him traveling around the US and proving that even though we was in a wheelchair, he could still partake in things everyone else could do.  It sounded like a fun experience so I was all for it.

For the episode we would be involved in, Zach was coming to Portland.  The theme for Portland was putting him outside his comfort zone.  For him, in one of the segments, he wanted to rock climb.  For us, that meant figuring out how to get someone with very limited mobility up a cliff.  Coworker Nolan did almost all of the logistical planning so props to him.

View from French's

On the morning of the shoot, the AWL crew headed over to French's Dome, a fairly small crag near Mt. Hood.  After a team brief, we started to set up a complex system of ropes and pulleys before the film crew got there.  My job for the day was to hang at the top of the route, managing ropes, giving Zach a backup belay, and making sure one of the cameraman who was on a ledge halfway up the wall didn't die.  This would involve a lot of time in my harness.  If you haven't spent much time in a harness, they are not the most comfortable things in the world to be in for hours on end.  I can't remember the total time I was putting weight on mine but my legs were not very happy by the end of the day. 

When the crew arrived and finished their setup, filming began.

I headed back up the face and waited for Zach to get down to the rock.  It took a lot longer than I was expecting but once everyone made their way down and Zach was hooked up, he started to climb.  There was a point where Zach was feeling lots of pain, most likely from the positioning of his harness, so we let him down.  At this point I was thinking to myself "oh great we just spent all this time setting up and he may not be able to do it."  After a pep talk and some readjustments, he was able to finish the climb.  It was one of the most inspiring things I have ever seen.  Almost all of the AWL crew and production got a little teary eyed. 

After 14 hours from the start of the day until finish, we headed home.  It was an exhausting day but fascinating to watch the production side of filming a show.    

The biggest questions people ask are:
1) Did you meet Oprah?
2) Was it scripted?
3) How did the show compare to what actually happened?

My answers:
1) No
2) It was not scripted at all.  However, production would tell people to say something again, possibly in a different way.  They would also have people move to certain places for certain shots.  This was the most annoying part for me.  Being at the top of the wall anchored into the rock does not make moving around easy.  With climbing, when you try and take a picture or video of someone up the wall from below, the point of focus may not be the most appealing thing for an audience.  Understandably, the producers wanted to see my face.  I was able to adjust a bit but you can see in the final cut that it wasn't always possible.  Production wasn't as important as safety. 
3) What was seen in the episode was pretty much exactly what happened.  The only thing that was fibbed a bit was at the end when the audience sees the shot of Mt. Hood.  You can't actually see the mountain from the climb we were on so production had one of the AWL staff put on a GoPro and climb another route to get the shot.  The other crazy thing was of a 14 hour day, it got condensed to only a 5 minute segment.  That's a lot of cutting.

Unfortunately, the episode is fairly hard to find online.  I know it's out there if you know where to look.  I have a copy but I don't want Oprah to sue me by posting it on here.  I can show it to you sometime if you want to see it.

That's all for now.  Bye.