Sandworms of Dune
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Saturday, March 31, 2007

Filming the Interview

This week I am staying with Brian Herbert at his home in the Seattle area. Our publisher, Tor Books, flew me up here so the two of us could record a detailed interview and profile for the web-based show "Expanded Books," featuring SANDWORMS OF DUNE.

We met the "Expanded Books" crew at the ferry terminal, five people including the two producers, the hostess/interviewer, the makeup artist, and cameraman -- as well as a car full of equipment, and we escorted them back to Brian's house. We had done an Expanded Books feature last year for HUNTERS OF DUNE, but that was down at the actual studio in LA; this time they would film in Brian's house.

After the mob arrived, the camera man Clyde and the producer Todd worked to find a proper place to film, then began staging the area, setting up lights, blocking reflections, moving clutter and arranging books and props from the "Dune" Sci-Fi Channel miniseries. Then the makeup artist Jennifer began her real work, trying to make the two of us look presentable. Jennifer's case of makeup was as large as the whole suitcase I had carried for my trip to Seattle. Brian and I each sat in a chair while (seemingly) pounds of makeup were applied. Because I'd just had sinus surgery, and my nose was technically broken, my face was very sensitive to all the brushes, but Jennifer had a light touch. Maureen, the interviewer, practiced her questions while sitting on Brian's front porch. Skye, the other producer, used the household wi-fi to upload some recordings.

Finally, two hours later, we were ready to go. Brian and I took our places, recorded a special introduction for the version of the interview that we'll make available here on the dunenovels.com website, and then Maureen asked her questions. We were relaxed enough that we went well beyond the sound-bite answers and ad-libbed on many topics, enough so that we finished with nearly 40 minutes of tape. "Expanded Books" will edit that down to 3-5 minutes of finished interview for the actual program; however, they said they could give us the audio to do a podcast of the whole thing. I'll try to make that available here as well.

By the time the crew packed up and left, they had spent five hours to get five minutes of finished product! Then Brian and I devoted the rest of the day to continued work on PAUL OF DUNE.

-- KJA