It was May, the sun was shining and I was strolling through Rome with Angie; I love my video production job! Well, technically the strolling wasn’t a part of the job, but it was camerawork which brought me to Rome in the first place.

Large corporations hold various meetings all over the world to periodically bring the company’s movers and shakers together. These meetings are a perfect time and place to record video interviews. At home we often kill an entire day for a chance to spend 15 minutes interviewing a top-level executive, but at these meetings we can grab half-a-dozen interviewees in an afternoon. Even when you factor in travel this is a cost-effective strategy.

The Rome trip was for Hewlett Packard Enterprise and it was fairly typical. To save money we hired a local gaffer (lighting tech) and audio person. I did double-duty as cameraman and director and I brought my own camera. This ensured visual consistency (same camera and cameraman as at home) while minimizing travel cost (only one person traveling). I actually enjoy working with other crews abroad, we can learn from each other. Language has never been a problem because English is so universal these days. Besides, as long as I work with a professional crew, we all speak the language of video production.

It was my second trip to Italy, but my first to Rome, a city which should be on everyone’s bucket list. Angie came along on her own dime to play tourist for a week before my 2-day shoot. Of course we “did” the Vatican, the Forum, the Coliseum, but we also had a chance to see the Roman chariot ruts still on the Appian Way and to marvel at the simple, genius design of the Nasoni, the Roman drinking fountains. And to totally geek out I had to see the Cloaca Maxima, the world’s oldest sewer. Even the same old crap is so much more fun abroad!