Filming on the Road For “Home Strange Home”
Working on a special for HGTV has been a dream! For the last several years, outrageous characters have been all the rage and as a producer, it’s not always easy to top the last cast. But HGTV continues to do what works for them while only raising the bar on production value. They’ve stayed tried and true to their core, faithful audience without resorting to bad taste. Very refreshing! And Home Strange Home delivers.
We quickly realized that eye-candy was king. So, soon after we shot the first house (the Rotating Home), we realized the importance of hauling six HUGE jib cases to each destination – in addition to the seven HUGE cases of gear. There were 5 people on our traveling crew and 2 of us (me and our great Associate Producer, Rachel Kuykendall) were not much help in the muscle department. But it was of the utmost importance to get the most breath-taking shots we could regardless of inconvenience.
Check out the gorgeous sunset images from the Malibu House (jib shots by our lead DP Taylor Witt and freelancer Scott Wilson), or Elvis’ tiny blue suede shoes, beautifully rack-focused in the Shoe House segment (shot by AMSer Andy Whalen) and you’ll see why it was all worth it.
Having worked on so many shows, we all knew how lucky we were to be rowing canoes after shooting at the Hobbit House in Montana, driving through scenic Northern Idaho, having lunch in historic Tombstone, AZ, and getting to photograph a herd of wild Elk in Golden, Colorado – who were so close we could almost touch them.
So it wasn’t just meeting the gracious home-owners and shooting their extremely unique houses, it was the over-all experience that made Home Strange Home one of the highlights of my career.
Home Strange Home will premiere on HGTV on November 24th, 8pm ET and PT.