our first Reality show

My husband and I recently finished filming with our first Reality TV program this summer, and they've finally started airing episodes!

CAPTURE is kind of a Big Brother meets a game of tag with a little Hunger Games flair. All the episodes aired are available online, click the link! Lots of interesting personalities and neat tech!

A peek at base camp from the top of one of our temporary cell towers.

My husband and I were part of the tech crew that designed and built the gimmick of the show, the location devices and sonar vests. The gist of our job description was to build a temporary wifi/cellular network out in a very remote area of California.
We had to cover about 4 square miles of very mountainous, very forested terrain. Each contestant was given a location device, along with a vest that flashed LEDs, made noise, and allowed us to track exactly where they were at any given moment. We knew how fast they were running, how long they stood still, how close they were standing to their teammates, everything!

We were kept busy during the entire shoot, tweaking equipment locations day-to-day, fixing weather damage, changing the types of antennae or dishes used to bounce the internet from the town 7 miles away from the video camp location. We usually pulled 8am to 11pm shifts, so we were too tired to even really enjoy the good craft service meals. I have a hard time even remembering what happened on what day, just that it was nice to sit quietly in the command trailer for the hunt hours when we couldn't work lest we be caught on camera. As soon as the contestants returned to their base camp every day we would hop in the truck and drive around trying to improve the service and coverage for the next day.

Our crewmates were responsible for designing and writing the custom software that allowed the show to do all sorts of manipulations and punishments to the contestants in real time, it was really awesome to watch the teams live running from eachother or from the boobytraps set up by the producers. We also built the hardware that allowed each contestant to act as a walking siren and LED disco ball, which they fit into the vests custom built by the wardrobe department.

I have so many pictures, but most of them are of boring networking equipment and piles of CAT5 hidden in a huge forest. I'll get around to editing them eventually!

Of course on the last filming day we brought out one of our costumes and ran around the main stage area a little. :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dragonsquared/9603147579/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dragonsquared/9603219027/

All in all, it was an interesting learning experience! I've never been at 7000ft altitude for such a long time, or worked in such a huge production crew before. We were put up in a nice cabin in the woods, and had a beautiful 30 minute drive through the mountains to get to work everyday.

I hope it gets renewed for a second season!

Sometimes I'm a dog

Thanks to a dear friend and a very quality DSLR, the Puppy officially has some fantastic headshots.

Some specs about this costume:

 - The bodysuit is built to fit unisex, so it's rather baggy. I built it with the thought that both my studio partner and I would be able to wear it. It fits anyone between 5'8-6'2". The body comfortably fits between 145lbs-200lbs, though it starts to get tight around the tummy any larger than that.
 - The materials used were for the most part unidentifiable. I haven't found similar fur to the body since! It's made of locally sourced 2" two-tone brown, 2" tipped beige (the kind that came with a faux suede backing), and some Monterey Mill's brand fox white.
 - It has 2 sets of feet; one built on size 11 mens shoes & one pair on size 7.5 womens shoes. The feet are soled with an additional .75" rubber matting so the traction is great and they're very comfortable for long uses.
 - The tail is carved foam with 2 belt loops, so it has a great wag and will always hold it's shape.
 - The hands are 3 fingered, the paw pads are textured pleather and the pads are lightly stuffed with polyfill for a little extra squish.
 - The nose is cast rubber, tinted with commercial rubber tint and a foam core. Solid and squishy yet very light! Read how I made it here.
 - The head is hand-carved foam lined with a lycra balaclava, the ears are semi-rigid cold foam, and the eyes are CNC machine cut plastic with plastic mesh for vision. The irises are painted with high quality acrylics so they won't bleed or fade. The vision is great out of this head; even in low-light/night settings it's fantastic! This head is so light, it barely weighs 1lb!

Definitely a lot of fun to wear!