Well, I showed up to Rehab at 0830, earlier than expected. Before long, the Fox TV crew showed up and met with me and my therapist and some of the big wigs at the hospital. I didn't mind that the news woman was a beautiful blond, and her camera woman was hot as well. First she interviewed me one to one, then they switched to filming me working out some. Her questions were good, but I wasn't able to steer things toward PC as much as I wanted, but got in my plugs where I could. They are suppose to air the segment 3 times this evening (Channel 12 in Greenville, SC) and post the film clip out on their web site. They will provide me with a copy later. That was that, I thought.
After they left, my PT session went on as normal. While doing the walking portion with my therapist, the head hospital person tracked us down, and was all excited. Channel 4 News, which is our NBC news affiliate, got wind of what was going on, and she said that their news crew was rushing down, and she literally begged me to stay and do a second interview. I was already tired from getting up early, and going through my PT routine, but she convinced me to stay.
After some delay, Channel 4 showed up, this time with a male anchor and male camera guy. Now this time, I had no hint at the direction or angle of the interview, and not even a hint at the questions. After some minor filming of me in "action" (for show at this point), he and I sat down and had a serious discussion about prostate cancer and oncology rehab. This time, since his interest level was so high, I just let it all out, held nothing back. We discussed PC in general, screening and awareness, my particular journey, treatments etc, etc. I don't know how much will be shown on tv, as they have to edit for time. What was interesting, after the camera was turned off, he wanted to know more about PC and how I was dealing with it. He took pages of notes along the way. We probably spoke at least another 20 minutes on the subject.
When it was all over, he gave me his card, and told me he was inspired to do a full feature piece about prostate cancer, and wanted me to work with him on the project and have me narrate the piece. This blew my mind away to be honest. I didn't really talk about anything different than what we disucss here. He gave me a chance to plug HW by name on the air, but since I didn't have the owner's expressed permission to do so, I didn't feel comfortable doing so. I don't think Peter would have minded, but felt it was his decision to make, and there was no time to ask it in advance.
I ended up being there for 4 hours, and to be honest, it wiped me out in the end. But I felt good about doing it. If he does the feature piece later, it will really get the word out.
Tonight, I still have to go to the formal presentation program for St. Francis Rehab programs, they said they were expecting 600 people. I put a link below, of the finished film clip they will be showing tonight at the presentation. This is the piece they filmed a couple of weeks ago for the hospital. You may or may not like it, but I was impressed that they did not edit any of it out, including the last segment, where I got to speak freely about PC. Fast forward to the end if you dont want to see it all.
I always considered myself camera shy, but to be honest, never felt nervous and never paid any attention to the cameras. I was much more passionate about our favorite subject here.
As soon as I get links for the two television pieces, I will provide them here. All in all, it was an amazing morning for me, as I live such a dreary life most days.
David in SC
The link: http://vimeo.com/27572733
This is for St. Francis Hospital's STAR program, "Suvivorship, Training, and Rehab".
Post Edited (Purgatory) : 8/18/2011 11:44:52 AM (GMT-6)