(For the next few days I’ll recap our trip to Cancun and filming with the Travel Channel- FUN!)
The small crew of three arrived at our apartment on Friday morning, with six huge bags and an even bigger camera. Tom, our director, Naomi, the producer, and Peter, the production’s sound mixer, greeted us with super high energy considering they flew in from London the night before and had major jet lag. Within seconds, our small living room was overtaken with camera equipment, microphones and LED lighting boxes.
This was surreal.
We were filming a show with The Travel Channel!!
When I first started travel blogging, I always dreamed of the idea of filming my own travel show. And, here they were, filming in my house.
What is the show about?
The show is about free vacations, with our take being that we win contests to help us travel the world. (Each show will focus on a different way to vacation for free or on the cheap without cutting experiences and by discovering alternative ways to travel on the ground and overseas.) This show and trip will be focusing on a contest I won on Facebook to Cancun.
While talking about signing up for contests and sweepstakes, I quickly realized that I could come off like a complete crazy person. And, I might. The truth is, I do enter a lot of contests and winning contests have allowed us to travel around the world.
We also talk a lot about reaching out to the travel community online, through Twitter, Facebook and through travel blogs. I can’t tell you (well, I probably have) how many great deals I have found on Twitter or get by searching out the company and sending a quick tweet their way about any special promotions or deals. We really just talked about how we research any trip we go on, how we find discounts and when we spend more on activities that we think are worth the money.
Why were they filming in our house?
They wanted to film the perspective of us getting ready for a trip at home. ie., packing, researching and then leaving the house with our bags.
What are we doing when we aren’t filming?
Two members of the crew had never been to Los Angeles before, so Bob and I tried to pack a quick tourist visit into our lunch time! We took the crew to our favorite burger spot in LA, Umami. Then we drove them around to some of our favorite tourists spots. Of course they wanted to see the Hollywood Sign, the Walk of Fame, and Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
After lunch, we returned back to our apartment to shoot some master shots of us talking about Vagabond3, our travel style and how we save money.
The Crew:
Even though we had only known the crew for a few hours, I felt like we all got along really well. They were all really professional, but had a playful and silly side too. It was easy to all joke around which helped take a little pressure off filming.
It turns out none of the crew had been to Cancun before, and so this trip was going to be a new adventure for everyone.
