Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Filming at Dolphin Reef

I just returned from a TV shoot in the south of Israel. A Canadian company is making a 90 minute documentary for Vision TV Canada and Animal Planet, entitled Beasts of the Bible. The focus of the program is on mythical animals, especially as viewed in Jewish tradition. How they got to me, I don't know...
The first shoot was yesterday, at Dolphin Reef in Eilat, for the segment about mermaids (if you want to know about the Jewish connection between dolphins and mermaids, you'll have to read Sacred Monsters). I've been on television before, but only in studio interviews; this was very different and much more difficult. While wearing a hideously uncomfortable wetsuit in the 42 degree Celsius weather, we had to do about twenty different takes, mainly because airplanes kept flying low overhead at exactly the worst moments. But the dolphins were terrific!



In this picture, you can see me in my wetsuit, along with Tuli the sound man, the extra who plays Moses (the guy holding the reflector; more about him another time), and Liron the dolphin trainer, along with the dolphins.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very cool! Please be sure to post when we can see the show!

Rafi G. said...

that's really cool. great perks!

The Hedyot said...

Speaking of dolphins, have you ever seen them do this?
http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5842246