Reality tv? No, this is real tv.

I had the opportunity to work on the wrap up show for the number one cable television show, “The Deadliest Catch” produced by Original Productions (Burbank, CA) for Discovery.

The name of the production I worked on was “After The Catch II” and it was basically a wrap up show for the entire fourth season of Catch. Most of the boat captains and deck hands were there including the narrator, Mike Rowe. They also did mini features on local Gloucester fishermen and had them on as guests.

I was honest with people from the start. I wanted to get off my summer gig on the Red Sox home broadcast for just three days so I could work for Discovery for four days. I really wanted to meet Mike Rowe.

I had followed Mike’s career since his first “Dirty Jobs” episode aired a few years ago. I was always amazed at how professional and witty he was on his show and after watching a few episodes, I though to myself, I would love to work along side Mike, Doug Gover, Dave Barsky, and Chris Whiteneck on the dirtiest show on television. There was just so much talent working on such a unique show. I respected the show so much because it payed respect to the hard working people in this country who work their butts off doing crapy jobs that the rest of us would never want to do. But these jobs are essential so we can live civilized lives. That is basically the “Dirty Jobs” motto.

So I took the job to meet Mike Rowe. I did and I must say, he is exactly like he presents himself on television. A fun guy you would want to work with and then drink a beer with at the end of the day. I was so relieved that he was not a jerk. He was a true pro.

As for this gig, I was just a studio camera guy. Very easy, no stress. I just took the opportunity to network with people. I did have the privilege of working with a great mobile truck, Metrovision out of New York. This HD truck had Sony HDC-1500 720p/1080i selectable cameras and it mastered everything on Sony HDCAM. There was a super expensive Sony HDCAM SR uncompressed HD deck on board to feed some “Deadliest Catch” elements into the production stream.

The show format was a bunch of boat captains sitting around a round table in a bar. They drank like fishermen, smoked like chimneys and told fish stories from the Alaskan seas. Sometimes it got emotional, other times it got heated and in some cases they were all laughing out loud.

Mike Rowe hosted the show and kept the guys on track.

I operated a camera in the bar shooting through a small window where beer and other drinks are served. I got to use a C 40 Italian dutch head mounted on my Sac 30 pan head. This allowed me to dutch shots (throw the horizon off) as I snapped from the plasma screen out of roll-in videos. I also used the head slightly dutched about 5 degrees to the right and slowly pushed into guys seated at the table. I did not over use this, but the times I did use this unique camera shot, it really stood out and added to the production.

The show will air on the Discovery channel as 6 hour long episodes. It begins very soon, June 17th in the US during prime time.

I have posted some pictures below…

This is the Metrovision truck we used. This truck was working Fenway the next day for the Japanese feed. Mike Rowe signed the inside! It had Sony HDC-1500 cameras with sleds so that you can mount big lenses to them to shoot sports. The inside is well laid out and it is filled with HD equipment that I could never afford to buy.

Special thanks to Paul Wolf, a very talented Engineer In Charge for some of these production stills.

You can see the director, Matt, from New York pointed to a monitor as he directed Tim (right) to punch up the cameras. Every camera was iso recorded to Sony HDCAM and they also recorded the switched line cut. Editors will later tighten up the show and add shots that did not get punched into the line cut.

Inside the Bar, this is what I saw for four days of shooting. I am standing behind my camera. I am shooting from the beer taps into the main room of the building. This place use to have a pool table and some tables. Now it has a round table lots of tv gear, lights and a bunch of set props. Lobster traps, buoys, netting, rope, ect. They also added a hugh salt aquarium in the back.

I think this dolly might be a little better than my home made PVC pipe dolly system! A guy from Connecticut named Brian ran this camera. He had a dolly assist named Rick working with him. Brian and I talked tv stuff for a while during our breaks. Brian was the only guy I ever met who has shot with the RED ONE camera. He showed me some RAW clips on his Apple MBP. Amazing.

I was camera five. This Was the Sony HDC-1500 with a HD color LCD viewfinder in top and a Fujinon 22x HD lens. I swapped the lens with a sweet Fuji wide lens for a few shots during the four days. Look closely and you will see the c 40 dutch head mounted on my Sac 30. That was fun to operate!

I had some down time so I checked my email on my MBP.

This 1500 was mounted to a pipe to get the “Sky” cam shot of the round table. This camera was fixed and did not have an operator.

This shoot was like a movie set. We had art directors, props and we blocked stuff. I had beer in front of me every day and I could only watch it sweat and get warm! I used it as fore ground in many of my shots. The Letus Extreme would have came in handy here.

The show also had a jib peering through two wood trimmed windows looking into the main set. The guy who ran the jib was from New Hampshire. His name was John. Good guy. His jib moves were awesome, even with the short arm and tight space.

Mike Rowe was great. He was funny and very easy to work with. He ad libed his way through the show and kept everything under control even as the people he talked to were getting drunker by the second. He took some time off to sign a boating chart of Gloucester. I plan to get this framed. I am certain I will get to work with him again down the road. “Why does everything sound so credible when you speak into a pipe.” I asked him that, but he did not have a good answer.

Outside the bar, the crowd we building. Local newspapers where printing stories and posting pictures of the event. This was big for this small fishing community of Gloucester. The movie “The Perfect Storm” was shot out here a few years ago. This was where the Andrea Gail was docked before the tragic end.

Left to right: Edgar Hansen, Watty, Sig Hansen, TV Tim, and me after the show.

Edgar and Sig are brothers and they run the NorthWestern in the “Deadliest Catch”. Great guys. Sig was really funny with a few in him after we wrapped up.

See what I mean, Sig was arm wrestling one of the art directors. He has had a few beverages.

This show was fun. I got to meet a bunch of people from a few of the production companies who create excellent tv for the Discovery Channel.

I also met some of the top people at Discovery channel. I hope that this gig served as a stepping stone into a new career in television for me. I have always dreamed of shooting for this network. I love the content they focus the cameras on.