I wanted to share the experience of observing the film crew who documented Lanie Grant using HomeCourt at our house last February. At the time she was 13 years old and one of the top basketball players in that age group in the United States. While our involvement was minimal, I found it quite interesting to see how this documentary happened, and thought you all might enjoy following along.
Some of you might recognize our driveway, but notice the basketball hoop is new. Ours was leaning and covered in mildew, so one of the things the film crew did was go get a new one, cut down our old one and haul it away, set up the new one, and leave it for us. Just one example of how they "get things done", all in the course of a work day for them.
Before we get into the detail of observing the film crew, you might wonder "how the heck did they come to film this at YOUR house!?!" Good question! A number of years ago I read an article in our local paper about a photographer who did lots of work around here, and part of his role was location scout. I thought "our house and yard would look good in a Pottery Barn (or similar) catalog", so called him up, introduced myself, and he ended up coming over, taking photos, and adding our place to his portfolio of locations. Years went by, he called and came over to take updated photos, and more years went by. While I don't know Jim well, you can get a feel for his work here. Pretty impressive guy!
Last February while we were in DC visiting Katelyn (we were literally in the National Museum of African American History and Culture), Rick gets a phone call from Jim, wanting to set up a time to bring a director by. They were looking for locations to film Lanie playing basketball here locally, and since she's from Virginia they wanted a house that looked like it could be from the East Coast. They were interested in ours! Since we weren't home, we roped Brian and Anujin into hosting the visit, and Anujin must have done a great job "selling" our place because we were picked! The shoot was set for 11 days later, in late February. This was just before the Shelter-in-Place order, so we were all operating in "the old normal".
As we learned, Lanie was being featured in the documentary because she had been using the HomeCourt app, and greatly improved her basketball skills by doing so. After filming at our house, the next day the film crew was meeting with the creator of the HomeCourt app, based in San Jose. HomeCourt uses the cameras on your device and advanced motion-tracking to help improve a player's skills. We got to see it in action while they were filming, but if you're interested in learning more, read this press release.
Here's how the day unfolded:
They had rented our house from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., both indoors and out. First thing we see is a crew towing in a set of porta potties, and installing them in the field below our house. Our first sign that they would be respectful of our property!
I was working at home, and as usual had a day full of meetings, but I managed to sneak down and take photos throughout the day. This first one was taken through the blinds in our bedroom, looking down at the field. I became less shy as the day went on!
Then trucks and people started arriving and unloading. It's amazing how many people it takes to prepare and film what ends up being just a few minutes in its finished form!
They even brought food and caterers and tables and chairs to feed everyone lunch! That alone was a huge production, with tables set up on our patio, food being heated using chafing dishes, a lots of supplies. It spread all the way around from the patio to the putting green into our backyard! All those details you don't think about when you picture something like this, how to keep people fed.
They planned to interview Lanie inside our living room, which was kind of tricky because we have lots of large windows and no window coverings. Clearly used to improvising, the crew hung black curtains to provide the right kind of lighting. I was impressed with how careful they were to take photos of our furniture placement so they could get it all back the way it was originally before they left. They even took care not to scratch our floor by placing tennis balls on the bottom of the lighting contraption.
Our back TV room was used for styling, even at 13 years old they took care with Lanie's appearance and changed her hair style in between shoots. She took it all in stride, and seemed very mature for 13!
In the midst of this, I had to run out to a doctor's appointment. Rick texted me to let me know they were filming indoors, but I didn't get the text before bursting back in the door, right in the middle of filming. They didn't make a big deal of it, but boy I felt bad. Didn't stop me from taking photos as I went back upstairs to work, though! I had to be really careful to keep my phone meetings on "low" so as not to interfere with their recording, even through a closed door.
In the outdoors, there was a lot of activity. Everyone seemed to have a job to do and was in constant motion. Lanie's family was there, as her Dad is actively involved in coaching her, and she has several brothers. Much of the crew was from the East Coast as well, and they were all amazed at our weather. Lanie's Dad was taking photos of our garden and flowers and sending them back home to his wife. Everyone was very friendly, by the end of the day we felt like one of the family!
As you can see above, they had Lanie's phone set up on the driveway, and they were filming the HomeCourt app working while she was shooting baskets. I couldn't get a good shot of this as I was trying hard to not get in the way. As you know we live in a rural area, and right in the middle of one shot you can hear the neighboring donkey braying. The joys of country life!
In the meantime, they had set up monitors in the house and there was a guy giving feedback via headset/microphone to the crew working outdoors. Who knew our kitchen could hold so much equipment?
Looking down from the deck, I could see how many different angles the cameramen were shooting, while Lanie shot basket after basket after basket. I guess that's not too different from her normal day to day use of the app, but I admired her patience. They even had a drone flying overhead to get shots from that angle!
At the end of the day, they put everything back the way it was, packed up and headed out. They had another day of filming in San Jose, and the goal was to show the documentary during March Madness in March. Then the Shelter-in-Place happened, and March Madness was delayed. We never heard what happened after that, so a few months ago I went snooping and found the resulting video, or at least one version of it. So here's an example of the result of all the work undertaken at our house and the following day. Enjoy!
I am now invested in what happens to Lanie. While searching for the above video, I found this updated example of her skills. Filmed late in 2020, it was less than a year after we got to observe her at our house. It's pretty long, but pretty impressive! We'll be watching to see where Lanie ends up come 2025!
And will our house be featured in future films? Who knows, but we're holding out hope! Now that I'm retired I could be much more thorough in documenting the experience. :)
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