april 08, 2009 12:17am
July 18, 2008 Perley Rideau Veterans Hea
July 18, 2008
Big Day At Perley and Rideau Veterans Heath Centre.
The day started with a somewhat humid sunrise at the West homestead in Constance Bay. Kevin and I had a coffee together and we both started our individual day of work.
The first phone call of the day was to the Perley and I talked with Carolyn Vollicks who is the entertainment coordinator for the hospital. We talked about the legalities of interviewing the patients at the hospital and she told me that I would need the approval of each individual veteran for an interview. I told her that anyone she could line up would be great. I asked if we could invite the local news station, CTV Ottawa, to do a story on the FOV. CTV isn’t the only news outlet that I contacted but they were the only ones interested in a veterans video gathering story such as mine. I would recommend watching their broadcasts.
Carolyn didn’t have any objection if it was all right with the veterans to be interviewed. We made arrangements to video-a-veteran between 2pm and 4pm at the hospital.
Kevin and I decided that the brakes on the Blue Bomber needed to be bled one more time, so I got a 7/16 wrench and crawled under the bus. I proceeded to bleed to brakes while inside the bus, Kevin pumped them. After successfully bleeding the brakes Kevin went about his business for the day as I prepared the Blue Bomber for the trip to the Perley. I filled the gas tanks thanks to our gas sponsor in Cambridge called "Journey’s by Jerry Van Dyke". I drove into Ottawa to the Perley for a 1:30pm pre-interview appointment with CTV and upon my arrival at the Perly the CTVnews crew was already there. The camera man Mark Dunlay was filming me as soon as I got off the bus. He was getting his shots together for the story to be broadcast on the six o’clock evening news that evening. The funny thing about shooting a news broadcast is that they shot an hour of video for 2 minutes of air time and I was glad to get it and bring awareness to the “Friends of Veterans Canada”. We set up a shooting location inside the hospital with a proper background. For all you would be videographers out there, a background of war memorabilia is very important to the final video shot because it gives the testimonial a professional look. After finding a good spot in one of the hallways in the Rideau wing of the hospital, I did an interview with Kate of CTV for my segment of the story. When I finished my segment I had the opportunity to meet the two veteran subjects for the “Online Veterans Video Library”. I was introduced first to Paul St Pirre, a colonel in the Signal Corp in WW2 and then I met Gord Donald, a corporal in the Canadian army who survived the Battle of Britain, and D-day.
The producer/cameraman from CTV, Mark Dunlay, started getting his shots of my interview with the veteran’s. Paul and Gord didn’t even flinch when camera’s were set up all around them for their interview, but I guess when you have been through a war and a life after the war a little thing like a bit of media attention is a drop in the bucket.
The day went great with the final shot Mark made for his broadcast being Gord, Paul, and I walking down the hallway together. Mark was very professional and it was a privilege to learn a couple of filming tips from a pro like him.
Before I left the Perley I stopped in to drop off a copy of Harry Watts’s book called the "Dispatch Rider" at Paul’s and Gord’s rooms so that they would have a memento of my visit.
I started the trip back to the West’s home to spend the night in the Blue Bomber and have a good meal, with thanks to the 616 Legion in Constance Bay, since it was their BBQ night. I asked Sharon, Kevin’s wife, if I could record the news broadcast off of their TV, she agreed, so I sat in front of the TV with my camera waiting for the story to start. Not five minutes went by when the story started and I recorded our segment with Kevin’s dog Chester’s tail waging in the picture. After the segment was over I retired back to the bus and watched it over and over again to see where a can improve my interviewing skills. One thing I noticed is I look really big (fat) on camera. If you need to get some incentive to lose weight then get a look at yourself on TV. Believe me if you need to go on a diet, it will show on TV.
After all the excitement of this great Friday I made it an early night.
