When Gianfranco, an Italian colleague of mine asked if I wanted to help the crew of ONDA TV (a Sicilian TV channel) interview Brusselers during their Belgian expedition, I thought… Sure!
But you see, Sara and I are more than friends; We’re like a really small gang. So it was going to be two for the price of one.
To be entirely honest, on D-day, our feet were getting colder and colder… But too late to back down. The dreaded experience turned out to be lots of fun… and some awkwardness too, as was to be expected.
We met in Chatelain, the place to be on a Wednesday evening. Franco, the presenter/journalist, started by interviewing me.
Him and Alberto, the cameraman, gave us our first TV tips! Like, how to hold the micro and how holding it is an open sesame to pretty much everything!
We then wandered into the Market and Sara interviewed customers and vendors. The idea was to ask them questions in French and then translate it in Italian for the camera. I was totally under the Italian spell; although to me it was mostly Papadiboubi…
She was like a real pro.
My Italian is good enough to spend a weekend in Rome and not starve. I learned it in high-school and practice it like never. It’s not rusty. It’s a fossil. So we agreed that I would do the interviews in French. N’est-ce pas?
But first, I was gonna need to fuel courage into my suddenly shy self. In other words: vino per favore! Elementary, my dear Watson.
We sat at Basta cosi and grabbed dinner and drinks.
Just as the rosé was starting to kick in, the rain made its great return. We couldn’t shoot with those showers. Nor could we barge in the pubs. So I was saved by the umbrella!
We have no clue how the whole piece is going to turn out. But we’ll post it as soon as it comes out and you can be the ones to judge.
