Traci Hahn, Associate Producer Says...

Posted by on 15 January 2010 | 0 Comments

“Hey, I have an idea, let’s do a green reality show” says Suzanne.  That’s literally how it all started.

Everyone seemed to think it was a great idea.  I was somewhat skeptical.

After a few minor bumps, like both original families and one coach bailing out at the last minute, we got up and going with the families and coaches that you see on the show now.

Suzanne made the decision to shoot the show in High Definition which meant a new process for us.  Instead of shooting onto tape, we were now shooting straight to a special hard drive, called a firestore,.  After every shoot we copied the footage from the firestore onto a terabyte (1000 gigabytes) hard drive and then backed that footage up onto another terabyte drive, cleared the firestore and went back out.  After all the shooting was complete, I think we ended up with about 11 terabytes of raw footage, that’s 11,000 gigs of footage.

We were running pretty crazy during the actual shooting of the show.  Even though I knew the families were willing participants, it still felt awkward, at times, invading their space.  Audio was a constant challenge.  Suzanne even resorted to stealing from the children. (It was a kazoo and she did eventually give it back.)

While we were shooting the show, we were going so fast that we really didn’t have time to start any of the editing so when we finally got to it, it was daunting.  How to organize and cut down 11,000 gigs of footage into six - 1/2 hour episodes (We ended up extending it to 9 episodes part way through the editing).  It took us a lot longer than we thought it would.

I can’t finish this blog without saying how much fun it was to work with all the people involved with this show.  Even though it, definitely, had it’s stressful times, we really did laugh a lot.

Traci

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Behind The Scenes At The Rally

Posted by Suzanne on 14 October 2009 | 0 Comments

Now this Family vs. Family Challenge was a huge endeavor that involved a cast of...well, tens, really. Not including the bystanders who participated all over town. But logistically, it FELT like thousands.

We had a crew of about 60 working that day; we had to be prepared in case the teams split up, so we had a total of 7 camera teams as well as chase drivers for each of the crews. We had an advance team whose job it was to stay ahead of the action and make sure that things were set at each of the locations. Let me tell you, at the end of the day, it wasn't just the families who were completely wiped, we were, too.

People ask me what it was like and the best answer I have is "It was the most." The most challenging, the most terrifying, the most exhilarating, the most fun I've ever had working on any project anywhere. I think it would be fun to make it a yearly event, actually. Anyone interested?

Suzanne

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Gettin' Ready To Roll

Posted by Suzanne Blais on 3 October 2009 | 0 Comments

If you're reading this blog post, you're going to get some insider information.

This episode contains a lot of information on how to get around town, because we were getting ready for the Alternative Transportation Road Rally-- the second Family vs. Family Challenge.  I designed it to challenge the teams to use the bus system, their bikes, and other forms of transportation in order to reduce their impacts, but I couldn't throw them into that Challenge without giving them some tools first. So we recruited some folks to come and help both the families learn more about options -- and got a lot of the content for Episode Two (thank you, Ellen and Charlie and Kirsten).

However, the insider scoop is this ....it wasn't the second challenge. The Alternative Transportation Road Rally was actually the third Family vs. Family Challenge. When we got into editing it became clear that the ATRR was more immediately compelling in lots of ways. It took the families out into the community, the challenge really forced them to face some of their fears, and try new things as a group. I wanted to focus on those elements earlier in the series, so we flip flopped the challenges. It posed some issues as far keeping track of who was ahead...but I'm hoping that it all still makes sense for the viewers.

And because the ATRR was such a big event for the famlies, we realized pretty early that it needed to be by itself. We knew we couldn't cut it down much more than we did, so that meant we needed to move it to Episode Three and that gave us plenty of opportunity to focus on getting the teams ready, along with the hilarious trip to the starting line. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed Episode Two, and maybe learned a few things about getting around in this area...maybe even you'll get inspired to dust off your bike or add a bus ride to your commute.

Thanks for watching!

Suzanne

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The Back Story

Posted by Suzanne Blais on 28 September 2009 | 0 Comments

Making A Different Kind of Television

It's amazing-- I still can't believe Episode One took just 30 minutes to watch on television; it took almost two years to create. I hope you enjoyed it--and remember there are eight more! Most of the questions people have asked are about the families. Is it real? Are they really like that? It's common knowledge that there isn't much 'real' about reality tv these days. There are written scripts and 'characters' are set up, there are story editors and line producers who make sure that you-- the audience-- are getting all the juicy bits that they are convinced you want to see. So, let me start this blog by saying.... Yep. It's real. Really, truly real. Now, because we didn't have a Hollywood-sized budget (oh, dear, far from it) we did occasionally have them re-ask a question, or walk back into the room once, or twice. But where it counts, what you see is what you get, baby. Carrie is that quick and witty, Todd has got that sly sense of humor (and is a whiz on the home camera, too), Jaelyn is really that warm and funny, and Mark is that sweet. You'll see more of them, and more of the kids, too, as the show goes on.

It took us over a year just to find the Edisons and the Falcones. The whole show started from an idea I had about how to do an educationally-themed tv show in a different way; a way that would be fun and help viewers forget they were learning anything. The learning thing would just be an interesting addition. But we couldn't seem to find the right families, and things were starting to look grim. We had so many folks who offered to be our guinea pigs-- but we had a specific kind of family in mind. Families who were, frankly, like mine. Interested in going green, but didn't know where or how to start. Luckily, we got some generous help on the casting side-- Shenandoah, you know who you are-- and even though we were horribly underfunded I knew that if we didn't move, we'd lose our window of opportunity for making the whole thing happen. So, I jumped. Miles Electric Vehicles/MC Electric Vehicles (Jim Johnson of MCEV in Seattle is a visionary) came on board with the awesome grand prize, which helped encourage the families to open their doors to our cameras. Anitra Accetturo, Joy Monjure and Dick McKinley of the City of Bellingham thought the approach had merit and supported us, Kristina Daheim of Built Green of Whatcom County was an amazing help, Mark Asmundson and Laura Curley of the Northwest Clean Air Agency made sure we actually had the funding to edit everything we shot, and Ellen Barton of everybody Bike was also key in helping us make it all happen. These were the folks who put their money on the line. And on top of those folks we had lots of generous help from Barron Heating (thank you, Wes Diskin and John Barron), from Don Dawson at Sullivan Plumbing and from Robert Stockmann at Pinnacle Inspections-- these guys comprised the tech team that helped both families understand how to do what they needed to do. We also had tons of help from lots of other folks who provided prizes to help keep the families motivated-- TOTO USA, Fairhaven Bike and Mountain Sports (or are they Ski?), Necky Kayak, Heating Green and Lehmann's Appliances, to name just a few. And really, that's just the tip of the production iceberg.

If this show works for you, if you laugh a little bit and learn a little bit, too, please see it for what it is--- my love letter to Bellingham, to the Edisons, to the Falcones, and to those organizations and people who paid more than lip service to their values by spending their money and time and who believed in this project enough to throw their lot in with me based only on my vision. If it's entertaining to watch, please thank them, and believe me, it takes a village to produce good television.

Suzanne

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