10.31.07

Notes from the Underground

Experiment Cave is a segment that is close to my heart.  Of course not literally, as we shot the thing more than a mile beneath the ground in Canada.  And of course the heart is a metaphor for my ego.  And ego is a metaphor for my consciousness. . . .okay, I'm boring even me.  

The idea first came across my desk(top) as an email from our fearless leader, David Axelrod.  Daivd is our Executive Producer.  Executive producer can mean a lot of things on a television show.  It can be gifted credit to someone wholly disengaged from the actual production of the show, but generally thought of as a VIP and was around when the idea for the show was first pitched (e.g. Steven Spielberg on ER) or s/he can be the driving creative force on a show.  David is the latter.  He writes, produces and weighs in on just about every frame of WIRED Science and not just because he can.  He really cares.  Which makes all of our jobs here on the show both easier and harder.  Easier because you feel a sense of collaboration and commitment from your boss.  Harder because you feel responsible to that sense of collaboration and commitment from your boss (screwing around on the internet is just not as much fun under these conditions).  High class problems, I know.  Enough smoke blowing. (He's an award winning documentarian too!)  Okay, now I'm done.  (He's also a pilot and has a plane. . . um. . . cool!)  Okay, really.  I'm better than this.

Back to the segment.  So David sends me an article about the deep underground lab in Sudbury and the neutrino hunting they do way down there.  The email reads something like:  "Anything here?"  Which really means:  "I know there is something here, get off your keister and figure it out."  So that's what I did.  

To the research cave!  Or room 205, where the researchers sit and I flit about bothering them.  Researcher Anne Lilburn was put on the case.  Anne is smart, fun, and can run ten miles way faster than you.  Oh, and she has a molecular biology degree from Colgate and a Masters in journalism from Columbia.  I'll be over here in the corner.

"The Lab Down Under" is what I dubbed the segment.  I know.  Totally a way cuter title than what we ultimately went with.  Somehow no one was on board with a Men at Work reference.  

The segment was given to Rick Wilkinson, a producer who was just getting to know me.  Or should I say, he was pretty sure he didn't want to know me?  I don't think it was anything personal (ah, sweet denial).  You see, Rick is a guy who says yes to a two month assignment producing a documentary about a military unit in Iraq.  When he comes back he can tell you about the dignity of the troops, the tragedy of the whole situation, and the wretched fear of living in a war zone without changing his tone.  And then when you ask him to go back and put his life on the line for another month he says yes again.  

When I met him he had come back from what amounted to a second tour in Iraq.  I think he's got the journalist's version of the 1,000 yard stare.  Basically, he wanted me to get out of his way and let him do his job.  Okay, my ego was a little bruised, but I got it.  I stepped out of his way.  Then a cool thing happened.  He asked for my input on his document describing what he'd be shooting.  We call it a "brief" and all of the producers put them together for the higher-ups to read before they head into the field.   I was hesitant as I didn't want to get any further onto his bad side, but then again, this is the kind of stuff they pay me to do.  We worked it out.

Rick had renamed the segment "Deep Science" which I reluctantly admitted was better than my Colin Hay homage.  We batted around ideas about what the story of the segment would be.  We both were so taken by the shear size and scope of the science in this piece that we agreed the story should be the place.  Or, better put, the story would be our adventure into the place.  Rick wrote a great brief.  That and his foursquare recalcitrance when faced with silly questions about how he would accomplish what he had on paper made me like him.  I like him the way you like someone you respect.  What kind of music they listen to or how they spend their weekends is beside the point.  It's not a feeling that happens all the time.

Rick headed to Sudbury with our correspondent Ben Dickow.  Ben is great.  He's tall, handsome and smart, yet makes you feel like you are the one with all the cards.  He's worked in science museums in various capacities and now helps with exhibition design.  He plays in a rock band for fun and is nice like you read about.  Somehow he thought I could give him some guidance on his journey. Umm, take La Cienega to airport.  Despite my failing him as a correspondent coach, we hit it off too.  In fact, the inside story at the mine are anecdotes told to me by Ben.

So here's some interesting stuff.  That far underground, the temperature is pretty warm - between 90 and100 degrees F.  The bare rock in the recently mined tunnel is actually hot to the touch.  Also - going that far underground is dangerous. Before Ben, Rick and our crew went down into the mine, they all had to sign in and take a dog tag, half of which would be kept up topside.  It's there to keep track of bodies in case of a "problem."  Preparing for a "problem" seems like an overly-cautious insurance company mandate.  Except there was one.  While shooting the guys drilling into the rock there was an almost-fire.  A soft box started burning.  Things burning is a BIG "no-no" in a mine.  There are gases that can combust and you are in an enclosed space.  You get the idea.  Everybody was pretty freaked out for about 30 seconds while it was put out.  When the guys who don't think twice about working under millions of tons of shifting earth freak out, you know it's not a good thing.

Also - it's dark underground.  Check out Ben (middle), Rick (right) and our camera operator (left) in their snazzy miner's garb.

The Experiment Cave is a great piece about the kind of big science that uplifts humanity and introduces us to the biggest questions we can ask.  And it turns out, the key to answering them might very well lie right under our feet... well, way under our feet.

Tags: behind the scenes, ben dickow, canada, cave, david axelrod, heat, production, television, underground

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