The equipment started coming in early in the morning. Cameras were set up; windows were taped; props were brought in; and the audience was fed.
Not a typical day at St. Aidan’s Episcopal Church, but one that went very well nevertheless.
Last week, the church was transformed into a filming studio, and the stage was set for the taping of a public television special by parishioner Maura Daly Phinney, producer and writer from Mount Vernon, and Walter Rissmeyer, producer from Arlington. This collaboration between Phinney and Rissmeyer came about after he became a new dad and read a book by Dr. Dana Chidekel, “Parents in Charge.” He thought the material in it would make a good program for public television.
“Walter and I started kicking the idea around, and I approached Dana, asking if she had done any television work,” said Phinney.
It turned out that Chidekel had been on the “Today Show” and sent Phinney a tape. After Phinney and Rissmeyer saw the tape, they felt that Chidekel was a natural, and so they went to Los Angeles to meet her and discuss the idea of producing a program with her as the speaker.
The program has been in development for almost a year, longer than Phinney had originally hoped for, but at last it’s coming to a close. The filming was completed in one day, and after a few weeks of editing, the show will be sent to KTEH Public Television in San Jose, Calif. Phinney worked at KTEH for 11 years and sold the idea of the show to them. It will air there on March 15, during their live pledge week, and Phinney, Rissmeyer and Chidekel will all attend the premiere.
The program will also be sold to American Public Television, which will send the program by satellite to 350 public television stations. Individual stations will then decide if and when to air the two-segment series.
Phinney is expecting that the show to air sometime in June, during pledge week on WETA and Maryland Public Television the station where Phinney now works (The Gazette will post the information on the air date of the show).
Phinney and Rissmeyer were going to film the show in a studio, but Phinney said, “I was sitting in church one day and started looking around. I thought it would be a warm place [to film], with all the wood.”
THEY ASKED JOHN BAKER, St. Aidan’s rector, for permission to use the church, and received it. The whole thing has been a very community-oriented project. Phinney decided that she wanted an eye-catching backdrop for the show, so she borrowed the play set and some other items from St. Aidan’s preschool. “The rug is from Tauxemont Preschool, and that’s my daughter’s artwork on the wall,” said Phinney.
She also asked Heather Sanderson, a local mother and former writer and producer, whom Phinney had met and worked with in San Jose, to help out with the audience.
Sanderson sent out flyers to the local schools asking for people to “be part of the studio audience for the taping of a public television special.”
Over a hundred people heeded the call and came for the whole day or part of it. They were well taken care of. In the morning, pastries, doughnuts, juice and coffee were served. During the lunch break, Chinese food was brought in for the audience and the production crew.
Before the show began, audience members were greeted by Phinney and Rissmeyer, who explained what was going to happen. A long line ensued at the bathrooms after guests were told that they would be sitting for a couple of hours without a break.
Around 10 a.m., audience members were brought from the church hall into the sanctuary in small groups. They were advised not to play with their hair and put their hands up to their face. “Inevitably, that’s when the camera will catch you,” they were told. Janet Rixen did some minimal rearranging, just making sure that there weren’t five women in red next to each other. She also asked one taller man to move to the end of a row.
“You all look great,” she said.
Angela Sanders, longtime teacher at Waynewood Elementary School, was in the audience. Sanders said that she thought it was a great program and that she was motivated to read the book.
“She really sparked my interest. And beyond that, any child-care professional who speaks from the platform of believing parents are in charge and that it’s not a democracy gets my vote.”
The principal of Waynewood, Nancy Coughlan, was also there, and said, “Angela and I were both very impressed with the parenting program. I loved [Dr. Chidekel’s] philosophy of ‘Parents in Charge.’ It’s a good message, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
CHIDEKEL REALLY WAS a natural. In a warm-up session, she answered questions about childbearing. Both on the air and off, she was articulate, intelligent and humorous. Although most of the show was scripted, it was obvious that she could also speak very well “on the fly.”
Phinney asked Chidekel to answer some questions so that the camera crew could check out their video and audio feeds. Everything checked out.
And then there was silence.
The taping began around 10 a.m. with Chidekel introducing herself and starting to talk about her book. Early on, Phinney decided that there was too much light, so she stopped the taping and sent a couple of crew members up on the roof to place a tarp over one of the back windows.
Taping continued.
Some sections went smoothly. Others were done three and four times. Since it wasn’t a live show, Chidekel would just stop if she made a mistake and then repeat the sentence she messed up on. Several times, Chidekel would stop and say, “What’s next?”
The audience’s only participation was occasionally to raise their hands as to whether they agreed with one of Chidekel’s tenets. However, at one point, Phinney stopped production and said that she wanted to “tighten the window.”
She wanted to redo a piece in which Chidekel talked about age-appropriate behavior and said that some people start potty-training their children as young as 6 months and as late as 4 years. Phinney felt that was too unbelievable, yet when she heard Sanders say that she thought that it was an appropriate comment and that the exaggeration was correct, she said, “Well, if Angela said it, then it must be okay,” and taping continued.
At one point, they stopped production because the garbage truck had come to pick up trash, and they didn’t want that noise in the background. And when Chidekel was filmed coming back on-stage for Segment 2, Phinney decided that the exit sign needed to be taped over.
Just another detail for the producer, but fascinating for the lay people in the audience to watch.