Lights, Camera, Action: Two Days in the Lives of NCTV17 Producers: DAY ONE

Yesterday, our day began with Liz giving a one hour presentation on how NCTV17 makes a documentary as part of a joint event for members of both NCTV17 and the Naperville Heritage Society. She opened her presentation by citing her main inspiration behind her ideas: Dunkin Donuts coffee. She spoke to an almost full crowd in the chapel at Naper Settlement using clips from the many documentaries NCTV17 has made: One in a Million: The Prince Castle and Cock Robin Story, Community Building on the Great Frontier: The Story of Joseph Naper and the Founding of Naperville, The Naperville Riverwalk: The First 25 Years, Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: The Martin Mitchell Mansion Story, and A Role of Their Own in order to illustrate how pre-production, production, and post-production all work seamlessly together in the creation of a documentary.

Lots of familiar faces were at the presentation.









There was a the lovely reception afterwards that was catered by My Chef (we loved the lemon squares and cream cheese puffs). Then Liz and Laura were off to Ames, Iowa in order to interview Maureen Ogle, the author of Ambitious Brew, a highly entertaining and intelligent book about the history of the brewing industry in America, for the Stenger Documentary.

On the second half of our five hour drive we discovered that Iowa gas stations are interesting. Not only did the one we stopped at that night have very large swords for sale, but the employee working behind the counter informed us that her manager was a cross dresser while we paid for our gas.

When we finally got to our hotel, we were pleased to find that the desk clerk was a nice young man (a self-professed townie) who told us that the best breakfast place in Ames was the Grove Cafe which was not pretty but had pancakes the size of a dinner plate. His advice to us, Just order one.

Good night everyone. Tune in tomorrow to read about our second day in Iowa.