I'm home again from my TV thingie - and as expected, it was great fun! Everybody was really nice, and it did go very well. We did the three little scenes that were planned over and over again to get shots from all directions, so now I can almost repeat the dialogue in my sleep... maybe I'll mumble it tonight.
Apart from the "yay TV!" thing, I vastly enjoyed the afternoon for another reason as well: I'm always fascinated by stuff happening behind the scenes. For a few minutes of screen time*, there's a lot of logistics and work happening beforehand (such as scenes being done several times). There's lights and audio stuff involved (fancy microphones!), there's huge cameras and gear and many other things, of course, though none of that can be seen later on. It's a little like textile work, really - a lot of time, effort, and know-how goes into the finished product, though it all stays hidden to most people.
But the best of all the TV work, at least for me, are the people. All the TV folks I've yet had the pleasure to work with were not only totally nice, but also really happy with their job. They were also really, really good at said job, and very professional and efficient... which made it an utter joy to work with them. Today's audio technician, when I chatted with him, told me that it feels more like working among family than just colleagues - which is very much of how it feels to work in Living History. (I'm also really happy I didn't kill him by accidentally hitting the microphone, hidden inside my dress, with something making lots of noise!)
The scene will be part of the children's quiz show 1,2 oder 3 (which has been running since forever - I used to watch it when I was small), and it's planned for being aired on May 27, ZDF, at 8:10 in the morning. So if you can receive that programme and want to have a look at my part - you can!
*To give you an idea: the whole thing today took a bit more than three and a half hours, including setup time. (Fortunately, my Great Wheel wasn't as fiddly to get to run smoothly as it has already been - setup wasn't perfect, but it did spin well enough for the purpose. (I've also done much, much better yarn on it; it really makes a difference whether you can get into the flow or not.)) Screen time resulting from this work will be... drumroll... two minutes.