We've been chosen as one of this year's digs for the 'Digging for Britain' TV series, which means that they give you a video camera & let you film over the course of the excavation and then it's all edited down into 8 minutes of airtime at the end. The designated cameraman has therefore been wandering around doing a lot of telling us he's about to start filming & not to swear in front of the camera etc. etc. These last few days we've had a real TV person with us in the form of Karen from 360 Productions who are making the series for the BBC.
She's been doing a lot of interviews with Steve & Julie, filming interesting finds when they turn up, and getting bitten by klegs like the rest of us.
I'd managed to keep out of the way & not be filmed but today I managed to find a little worked antler point so had to get filmed showing it to Julie - I don't like being filmed so am looking a bit disgruntled in this shot - that's me in the Springbok rugby shirt (got it cheap!), Julie & Karen filming:
If they do use that bit I bet they fuzz out the Springbok logo - apparently they're dead keen on not advertising anything, which is a shame because Julie was wearing her official Swandro hat with the Trust's logo on it. (I wanted to keep parading around with a board with our web address on it every time they're filming but Steve wouldn't let me).
Anyway all went ok then Karen wanted to film Julie standing in my bit & doing a piece to camera - about the Pictish building full of Viking midden, the area where we had our little bone comb a few days back. I was supposed to be trowelling in the background but my vigorous clean onto rubble was too loud so I had to move - that'll be the end of my 15 minutes of fame then!
Elsewhere on site Alan was captured doing one of his amazing profile drawings of the rubble tipping across the seaward side of the tomb - here he in action in this shot taken looking down the passageway:
He's doing a free illustration workshop on Saturday, well worth attending if you're in Orkney. The huge collapsed lintel is now revealed as an absolute monster, you can see the size of it from Alan's boot in the photo:
There's a lot of collapsed slabs tipping in there too, displaced from elsewhere but roofing or slipped flooring? Difficult to say at this stage.
Bonnie started the day doing laser scanning of the smithy, all part of her Masters degree at Bradford.
It's perfectly safe apparently as long as you don't look directly at the laser, but if you accidentally walk into its range you do get a full body scan - but thankfully it can't see through your clothes like the ones in the airport!
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