Night falls on the Main Stage at Bosque del Apache
Wildlife Refuge. This site was home to the Live Telecast for the
BBC and The National Audubon Society of "Wildwings, Heading
South". The National Wildlife Refuge straddles the Rio
Grande approximately twenty miles south of Socorro, New Mexico.
Control room "home" for the
team of producers & directors assembled from the UK and US
for the project.
Director for the project, Martyn Suker, and producer, Hilary Jeffkins,
put their heads together many times during the seven
day project.
Three live shows daily to the BBC & PBS meant
many
long hours and lots of rehearsal.
......................................
13,000 acres of moist Rio Grande River bottom land provides a
stop for Greater Sandhill Cranes, Snow Geese, Whooping Cranes,
& many other migratory birds on their flight from the cold
Nothern winters.
BBC wildlife photographer, Alan Hayward, manned one of the six cameras used for the project. All cameras were equipped with RF transmission facilities to get the digital images and sound back to the control center three to five miles away.
Crew entertained themselves during a break
from the long hours of televised production
that included 3:30 AM
crew calls. All techs had to be in the field with
cameras, sound,
& transmission gear by dawn each day.
Keeping the crew of over 100 well feed with three meals and
plenty of "hot" food received a "well done"
vote of
appreciation from all.
"Field" Chef, Steve Cooper, at the controls of the
massive "Ten Burner"
preparing "whatever you
want" breakfast for the crew.
An early morning "briefing session" in the mess hall.
Recon missions at 4:30 AM
supplied information about the roosting
areas for the birds and guided the
camera crews to the best
possible locations.
Production Assistant, Stephanie Alton, at the controls of the
wireless "Goose Cam".
"Goose Cam" had to be deployed wherever the birds were
going to be. A guessing game and usually a "wet" job.
Break time in a
cargo bay.......
Chief Engineer puts his
"high tech" skills to work on
a "low tech"
trench in the New Mexico desert.
The morning sun catches the top of the RF transmission
tower.......
....as dawn breaks over Bosque del Apache and the production
compound, home for two weeks
to all the very
talented production professionals who pooled their talents to
make this project such a pleasurable reality.