It was an early Saturday morning. Groggy I shuffled to the washroom and splashed water on my face. “Oh!” I thought to myself. “7am on a Saturday, I’ve not seen you in a while. It’s Shaw day!” Today was the day we had been planning for, for months. My uniform was freshly washed. As I dressed, I could feel butterflies in my stomach.
Mum dropped me off at the Shaw Cable building and I opened the big doors to the building. Boy they were heavy!
“Hi Aime! Good morning! Nice to see you this early!” Marcy was welcoming us all into the lobby of the Shaw building. Once we all arrived the Shaw Cable host showed us where we could put our coats and bags.
“Hi everyone, welcome to the Shaw cable building. We’re excited that you are all here today. My name is Karly and I’ll be the one helping you with your show today.” Karly had on a short sleeve blue Shaw polo button shirt with the emblem that said Shaw on her shirt in white. The hallway was big and wide. Slate grey tile on the floor was shiny. On the walls were photos of Shaw workers doing their jobs in the community, photos of the different TV show they produce, and of the building. Karen and I knew of Shaw because they had come to video record our ballet recitals and show them on the television.
“Here’s where magic happens!” Karly brought us into a room that was full with lots of screens and panels of buttons and slides. “This is the control room, this is where we mix the sound, the camera angels, and cue everyone. These 2 fellas here will be assisting you today in creating your show. Please meet Phil and David. They have lots of experience, have been working at Shaw for approx. 15 years combined. They will wok with me to edit your show too at the end.”
“Nice to meet you girls. We have read over the script and how this show is going to play out. We are excited to help you make it awesome. We think it’s a great idea, that helps promote Girl Guides and what you are all about. We each have a daughter in Guides in a different district here in Pickering.” Phil said to us with a smile. “Who of you are doing the camera’s?”
“Karen, Amy L, and Sunni.” Marcy said as she pointed to each of them.
“Perfect, you 3 will have direct sound and communication to us here in the control room and we’ll direct you to when your camera will be hot. Which means turned on to be filming. We’ll take turns with the cameras so not everyone is on each moment. Karen you maybe filming the 3 contestants and then switch off when Amy L goes to the board of questions for example. Sound good?”
“Yes!” Karen, Amy L, and Sunni chimed in all together at once.
The studio was ginormous! There were 3 cameras’ in the studio. We all worked together and put up on one of the walls the first round of questions for our jeopardy game we were going to play.
“Okay, Emma, you as the host will stand behind this podium”. Karly was directing us all into place.
“Aime, Jayda, and Harmony please go over to the other larger podium. That is where you will be for the show. When you know the answer to the question raise your had, and Emma you choose who gets to answer the question.”
We went into our positions and waited.
“I hope I remember the answers, we did write the questions a few months ago.” Jayda said to us grinning.
“Harmony do you remember any of them? I do a few.” I asked Harmony with a curious smile.
“Not really, my head is too full of science and the periodic table now. We have a test on Monday.” Harmony laughed and scratched her head while tilting her head to one side.
We started the game with Emma welcoming us and the viewers to the show. She was reading from cue cards that Marcy was holding.
“I’ll take Emblems for 100 please Emma.” Jayda was in control of the board.
“Has a plant on the window.” Emma said.
I have no idea what got into me…. I looked down at my sash. On camera! I heard Jayda raise her hand though as I was looking at my sash.
“What is the Home Emblem? Emma.” Jayda responded.
“Frick! What was I doing looking at my sash? Bad Aime.” I thought to myself.
“Yes, that is right. So far, we have Jayda with 2000 points, Aime not far behind with 1600 points, and then Heather with 1000 points. We’ll be right back after this commercial break for round 2!” Emma smiled at the camera as she spoke.
“Cut! Okay girls’ great job, we’re doing well. Phil and David are now going to play the first commercial and we all have to be quiet, as they splice the commercial into the video we are filming here.” Kayla said to all of us.
Kayla got a message in her headphones from the control room. “They are about to play the commercial. Quiet on set!”
Karen’s camera’s red light went back on. All three cameras had the big Shaw logo on them. “Welcome back everyone, we’re ready for round 2.” Emma said to the camera.
The day went on as we filmed the rest of the show. It was a lot of fun. Jayda ended up winning the game.
“I was looking at Emma’s sash.” Jayda said.
“Oh, good! I wasn’t the only one who was attempting to cheat! I don’t normally do that, it was a knee-jerk reaction to see what was on my sash.” I said to Jayda with a laugh.
“I was at the end of the row, so I was looking at your sash Aime when I could.” Harmony said too.
“At least you all were peeking at someone’s sash’s all along the show. Thank you all so much for coming into Shaw today, I’ll walk you all to the main doors and lobby.” Kayla smiled at us as she came over to us.
As we were waiting in the lobby for our parents to pick us up Marcy smiled “Great job girls! Everyone did awesome at their roles. And Congrats Jayda for winning the game. Kayla will be helping Phil and David to edit the show, and it will go to air in a few weeks.” Marcy was beaming at all of us. She was so proud.
Now that the show was done, I had to focus on my Gold Camp emblem to finish so I could get my Canada Cord.