Yesterday afternoon at a press conference, the Peyton Anderson Foundation announced a $1.5 million one-year grant to promote Macon to the rest of Georgia and around the U.S. (Here’s the Macon Telegraph story.) The project, which is called the Gateway Initiative, includes a video featuring performing artists in iconic and beautiful Macon settings. Two of the performing artists in the video are Daniel and me! How cool is that?
Tuesday morning we got a call from Paula East with the news that Elliott Dunwody of Bright Blue Sky Productions had called her looking for dancers to appear in a video that would be shooting early Friday morning on the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail, and she had very generously recommended us. Fortunately, Daniel works at night and I am off most Fridays, so we were both available and very excited to be involved with the project. I called Elliott that morning to make the arrangements. One trip to Target for false eyelashes later, we were ready for video stardom.
Promptly at 8:15 Friday morning (we are not the kind of divas who turn up late to a shoot) we were waiting in the parking lot at the trail entrance, not quite knowing what to expect. Elliott D. drove up on his four-wheeler/golf cart and introduced himself by saying “Are you walking or dancing?” He picked out our outfits–white tie with black shirt, pants, and vest for Daniel and aqua practice dress for me–and we got in the cart to ride over to the location. Thus we learned that on a professional shoot, “the talent” (i.e., us) does not have to do anything except show up and perform their part. At a picturesque bend in the trail, two producers (Stephanie & Tabitha) were waiting for us along with Maryann Bates, a local photographer that we’d met a few times. She was taking still photos that will also be part of the Gateway Initiative projects.
When we got there, I was still in yoga pants and a tank top with no lipstick on. Granted, dancers are not modest, but stripping down and changing while walkers, joggers, dogs on leashes, and babies in strollers went by might have been a bit much. Elliott had found a tarp in his van which Daniel managed to rig into a curtain for me to stand behind and put my dress on. After some setup time during which we practiced and the producers made inscrutable adjustments to a pair of large square reflectors on stands (Daniel: “Can I help?” Stephanie: “No! The talent doesn’t have to help!”), it was time to dance for the cameras.
The strangest part of the process was dancing with no music. The production team will add the music separately, and Elliott didn’t have a power supply for a CD player or similar, so we just counted to ourselves and went without it. The second strangest part was dancing on concrete instead of a wood floor. Our technique probably would not have won us any ribbons. Nevertheless, it was exciting and we definitely felt like stars. We did our waltz routine at least a half-dozen times at different spots on the trail while the camera rolled and Maryann shot stills. Hearing her shutter clicking was like affirmation that we were looking good. The setting was gorgeous and everyone who went past during the shoot was very interested and complimentary. Elliott also showed us some of Maryann’s photos taken during other segments of the video and they were amazing. If our part looks as good as that, I will be totally blown away!
Everyone will have to be patient for a while until the finished video comes out. Because of copyright and so forth, we could not take any personal pictures or use our video camera. Producer Stephanie said the video would hopefully be done “by the end of the year” but the Telegraph article said November. Let’s hope for sooner rather than later. Stay tuned for our big debut. As soon as I get a copy or it’s up online, I’ll post it for all to see.