March 1st, 2007

It’s a wrap…

After 3 very long days and multiple locations, the Mystery Diagnosis segment has finished shooting. It was a great, but tiring experience. I learned a lot about the whole process and was amazed at what they can pull off. I honestly didn’t know what to expect but had expected a large crew to show up and descend on us but it turned out to be the opposite. We had the first day in a studio for the interview portion. Those familiar with the show know that the segment is peppered with dialog from family members and physician’s that’s shot in front of a colored background. For that portion, myself, Angie, her father, Dr. Bock, and Dr. Anadiotis were featured. That went from 10 a.m. until about 6:15 p.m. Saturday.

Sunday we spent several hours at Dr. Bock’s office and the rest of the day was spent at our house until 8:30. The remaining scenes were filmed at various locations around Legacy Emanuel Hospital, including the Emergency Room, the Pediatric ward, and Dr. Anadiotis’s office starting at 8 a.m. and finishing a little after 7 p.m. The studio portion had the support of some individuals from the local studio along with the three individuals from True Entertainment, the studio who films Mystery Diagnosis – Monica, the producer, Nakia, the Associate Producer, and Adam the camera guy, who has actually filmed all episodes of the show and is the one who came up with the overall look of the show. All 3 are extremely hard working, talented individuals and we are extremely grateful to them for doing what they do. They had arrived after doing a 3 day shoot in Seattle and kept up a frenetic pace during their visit with us. I was worn out with just our portion of the shoot, let alone having 3 similar days just before it, WHEW!

I learned that it takes quite a bit of setup just to get a 30 second shot and even moving at the breakneck pace that they were moving, it still takes a long time to get the shot you want. We had to recruit two different girls to play a young Ashley who both did a great job but at times proved to be a bit challenging to get the shot. Adam does a superb job at making adjustments and shooting to make it convincing, he’s truely an expert at what he does. I hope the show goes a long way to getting our message out and prevents more individuals from getting an unnecessarily delayed diagnosis and provides the exposure that is so sorely lacking with CTX.

Our shoot was the last episode of the season. It’s now back to NYC for the crew to put the finishing touches on the editing and to add the pieces that make it a segment worthy of airtime. I would expect to see an airdate within the next 3 months. We are not allowed to see it before it airs so it will be as fresh to us as it is to everyone who sees it on the program. I will make a short post when we get the air date from Monica so that everyone can tune in.

Posted in Updates.