How is it, being a journalist?..

A few words about the production process of my UWO TV doc on windmills.

When I finished writing my proposal and started setting up interviews, my potential (desireable) contacts' list looked like this:

1. Ontario Minister of Energy Donna Cansfield;
2. Some farmer guy;
3. A wind power protester;
4. Someone from the municipal government of an area where people are against wind turbines;
5. Someone from a wind power company.

Well, the Minister apeared to be too busy. Well, of course, between signing documents and going to meetings it's hard to find 15 min (all I was asking for) for an interview. So, she sent my demand to their parliamentary assistant, Jeff Leal, one of Ontario's MPPs. That was good enough for me, and the interview went great.

Now, a farmer... My farmer was amazing. He would do whatever I asked him to. I filmed him around the cattle, then he got on his tractor and we went to look at his pride--the turbine. He did give some good quotes, but man, it was hard to just make him admit that farming is in crisis now and that his turbine does help his wallet a lot. Finally he did say it though.

The protester was great too, no comment on that. I got a great interview and some great action of putting a Stop Wind Turbines sign on someone's property.


(Source: http://www.bhcc.ca/roadside_signs.htm)

As for the municipal government of the area, I met with the mayor. She was... interesting. She would say a sentence and then start laughing. And laughing. And laughing. In the end, all I got was a 20 minutes of political terminology and laughs. Oh well, I guess she was in a good mood. It was, after all, a Saturday.

And finally, my favorite part of this story. A guy from a wind power company! But that deserves to be a separate story.