Viva la French film crew!

Not long after we got back from Lake Powell, I received a call from the bishop of our LDS ward asking us for an interesting favor. Bishop Jones works for the LDS church in public relations and also in film. The church had received a request from a French film crew to locate a "typical" Utah Mormon family who would allow them to film them in their home. They have a T.V. program that airs to several million homes, in France . . . kind of a travel/reality show. They are currently traveling through all fifty states and doing the same thing in each state . . . finding residents of the state that will introduce their audience to the peculiarities and unique features of that state. The thought that ran immediately through my mind was, what constitutes a "typical" Utah Mormon family? I know all the jokes about big families and green jello but the truth is that we're not as homogenous as people think "we" are. Whatever. We told Bishop Jones that we would be happy to host the film crew. I have to admit to being fairly nervous as the day approached that they would be coming but felt better realizing that it would be 1. aired in France, where no one knows me and 2. done in dubbed over English with subtitles.
At 11:30 AM on August 19th, the doorbell rang and we were introduced, by our bishop, to two of the nicest men I've ever met, Gerard and Laurent. A third member of the crew, Gregory (the official camera man), was stuck in the Washington D.C. airport in terrible weather, and he didn't join us until the next day. Laurent, who is actually the director, took over the camera duties that day. Gerard (pictured below) was the host of the show and did all of the interviewing and questioning. The itinerary went like this:
1. Introductions and initial interviews with family members
2. Lunch with our family and then more chatting and interviewing
3. A run up to the Bountiful temple grounds to interview Andrea (recently returned from mission) about her mission, her faith and her feelings about the temple
4. A run into Salt Lake City to tour temple square and the conference center. Our family actually didn't participate in this . . . our bishop took them around these Salt Lake landmarks.
5. A quick trip back to Bountiful to do a little filming at a huge young single adult dance. Brent and I work with the young single adults in a ward in Farmington as well as the stake that takes in that ward and the crew wanted to see what was involved in our particular church callings.
6. A trip to Antelope Island (on Saturday morning) to film the Great Salt Lake and to see the buffalo herds. Just Brent, Annie and I went with them for this little excursion.

This is Gerard. He is actually a well known actor in France and has been in many films. He also had a small part in a Harrison Ford flick called "Frantic" that was made sometime in the 80's.
Gerard sat to lunch with us and Laurent filmed . . . he had his lunch, well, after lunch. As we were chatting around the table, Gerard and Laurent were telling us that they would be going to Moab and Arches Nat'l Park, the next day, and then on to Lake Powell. They were disappointed because they had tried to rent a boat to do some touring on the lake but discovered everything was already rented out. They were planning, as an alternative, to catch the ferry at Hall's Crossing and do some filming on the way to Bullfrog. Really? Brent and I passed a knowing glance at each other. That would be like going to Paris and filming the city from the train station. We couldn't have that, could we? But did we really want to offer to meet them there and take them out on the houseboat and the speedboat? After all, it would be expensive, exhausting and we would have to work out many tricky details to make it happen. OF COURSE, we offered. How could we not? They lit up like little kids. Genuine, unbridled excitement!
Laurent filming Gerard and Annie at the Bountiful temple grounds.
Brent went with them up to the temple grounds and snapped a few shots. Andrea had all the zeal of a recently returned missionary and loved talking to Gerard about her mission, her faith in Christ and her beliefs about temple ordinances.
Gerard had a wonderful, easy-going manner and put us all very much at ease. He seemed genuinely interested and touched by what we had to say about our family and our faith.


Buffalo herd out on Antelope Island on Saturday morning. The wind wasn't blowing so the lake was very still and reflective. There were flocks and flocks of birds, especially pelicans.
There were also "flocks and flocks" of these! Hundreds and hundreds of them with webs spun between the bushes by the road. There are so many flying bugs on Antelope Island that they had a veritable Spiderama buffet going. So creepy, but so fascinating.
Gregory, the camera man, finally made it out of D.C. and was able to join us at Antelope Island. It was fun to watch him work . . . a true artist.
After we spent some time on Antelope, our new French friends went on their way to Moab with our promise that we would meet them the following afternoon at Lake Powell. Which we did. Took our good friend Bob May with us to help with backing up boat trailers, driving the house boat, maneuvering both boats, etc. I'm not great at any of these things and none of our kids could come down. Thanks Bob . . . we couldn't have done it without you . . . really.
We took them out for a late afternoon and early evening cruise on the houseboat that evening and then the next day, took Laurent and Gregory (Gerard had to stay back at the hotel to do some phone business) for a trip on the speedboat to Escalante river arm. They were hesitant to go that far because they were on such a tight schedule but once we got them to Escalante, they didn't want to leave. We had to remind them of the time and keep THEM on schedule! We have no photos from that day which is something like tragic because I've never seen Lake Powell (in the 35 years that I've been going there) looking so magically beautiful. We went into a serpentine canyon called fifty-mile canyon and the water was so still and reflective that you couldn't tell where the soaring red rock walls ended and the water began. Surreal. It looked as though we might drop into the reflection and fly down to the reflected blue sky. I heard audible gasps from our film crew (actually, maybe that was me) as the ripples sent out by our boat, together with the perfectly angled rays of sun shining down into the canyon, created a massive light show on a natural rock amphitheater as we came around a bend. Magical. Time for a cooling dip in that deep green, 84 degree, Lake Powell water. Mmmmmm. Enchanting. Refreshing. I wish I was there right now. Carried away, I am. All the while that we were on this little trip, Laurent was asking us questions, once again about family, faith and life in general. We asked him a few questions of our own. We were genuinely sad to part company with these guys when it was time for them to move on to Kaneville, where they would be spending time with a guy who does organic farming on the Kaneville badlands.
We don't know how much of the time that we spent with the French film crew will actually be depicted in their show. They still had stops to make at the major national parks, etc. and most of the film will end up on the cutting room floor. It's okay. We had a grand time with Gerard, Laurent and Gregory and won't be soon forgetting them. 'Til next time . . .