When HGTV Extreme Homes of The World Visited my house
Back in 2013, a film crew visited my house to film it for an episode of HGTV's Extreme Homes.
It was an interesting weekend with a hardworking crew of 3 who worked from dawn ‘til dusk filming myself and the house. The crew were very friendly and professional and my wife and I really enjoyed the whole process and were very happy with the finished product - it was great to see our house on film in the polished format of HGTV as an episode of Extreme Homes of the World.
Filming Process - HGTV Extreme Homes of the World
Each shot was done a few times. At first the room as a whole would be filmed and then close up shots were done whereby I would highlight and discuss particular details. For example in the shot below to the left I am firstly talking about the deck area as a whole but I also mentioned the detail of the shuttered concrete marked with boards. The they filmed me close up pointing out the shuttering in detail. Presumably then when it came to the editing stage they would piece it all together.
Can you spot what it underneath the deck in the pic below?!
Plywood Cladding in the PIGSY Art Studio
Here’s another example of me being filmed talking about a space which is my studio which is clad in plywood. After the room as a whole was filmed with me talking, they then went on to do a close up of the plywood cladding.
Creating art on film
These are shots of me "painting". I had an empty cup and paintbrush and had to act like I was painting while they were filming. That was fun! It was a lot of big movements and brush strokes.
Staging Scenes in the Hot Tub
The hot tub in our house is sunken and set under the deck with a lid that I designed that is opened using a pulley system. The crew wanted a scene of the hot tub and they asked us to feature and to be filmed chatting in the hot tub. We waited until the sun went down and Enid and I hopped in to the hot tub and we were then filmed talking to each other and enjoying a drink I didn’t get a picture on the day of the exact set up at the hot tub, but we staged the area in the exact way that you can see in the photo below. This was for a photo shoot for a feature in The Sunday Independent (My Favourite Room by Mary O’Sullivan). Filming in the hot tub was done quickly but just before we got out, the producer asked us to do a little acting where we clinked our glasses together and then took a sip of our cocktails. When we saw ourselves on the broadcast TV show you can see us smiling as we do this as we thought it was a little bit cheesy but a bit of fun at the same time. And it made for good TV!
Two cameras
There were two camera men which helped get through the filming promptly. While I was being filmed and interviewed downstairs, the other camera man was filming upstairs in the bedrooms and other rooms that didn’t need me in those scenes.
