The Making of "The Emerald Diamond" - Part 3

This post is part of a series about the making of "The Emerald Diamond." You can also check out Part 1 and Part 2.


If you're a member of the media and you're interested in doing a St. Patrick's Day story about baseball in Ireland, please email me. Thanks!


-John Fitzgerald
"The Emerald Diamond"
www.IrishBaseballMovie.com

***
St. Patrick's Day, 2005
2005 was a rough year for "The Emerald Diamond." I had hoped to have the movie finished sometime by mid-year, but all that went out the window when Ireland finished in third place at the 2004 European Baseball Championships. The scope of the storyline and the project had grown exponentially - I now had to follow the team another year and dig deeper into their past to create a coherent narrative. Eventually, I would come to refer to the project as "The Emerald Dilemma" because it seemed that something always went just wrong enough to push the project further into the abyss.

The year started off pretty well though... After sending a series of blind emails to media outlets across the country, I got a response from Brian Kilmeade of the Fox & Friends show on FoxNews. After several dozen emails are completely ignored, it was bizarre to get a response from Brian. What was even weirder was his interest in the project. He was determined to get me on the air on St. Patrick's Day. When I explained that the movie wouldn't be finished by then, he didn't care.

A few days before St. Patrick's Day, I drove down to NYC to meet with Brian's producer. We did a pre-interview where I told the producer some stories - both on and off the record. The off-the-record story involved players smoking on the field... It was a funny story but not something I wanted to broadcast across the country. I wasn't sure I would include the story in the movie and I didn't want people to think the movie was a big joke. This will come into play in just a minute...

The pre-interview was ok, but the producer didn't know what a mini-DV tape was... This created a problem because the movie clips I had brought with me were on a mini-DV tape. I was kind of shocked that someone working for one of the biggest news channels in the world had no idea what a mini-DV tape was. I realize news crews work mostly in Beta SP, but mini-DV is... Whatever. Moving on...

Fast forward two days... I wake up at 3am, pack a bottle of liquor, drive to Yonkers... pick up "The Photoshopper" and head to FoxNews in midtown Manhattan. It's dark. I'm tired. It seems weird to be up that early for a morning show. It's kind of creepy to be in Manhattan at 4am without at least one drunk friend and the words "vomit, cops or fight" somewhere in your talking points. We parked the car, I did a few shots in the parking garage (classy!)... On to the studio.

Being in a TV green room makes me feel like I'm part of a cattle herd... The Photoshopper and I hung out, watching the TV and trying to figure when I was going on. If I remember correctly, Marilu Henner was either co-hosting the show or she was there to be interviewed. I was still too nervous and tired to really notice.

My interview was a learning experience. As soon as I sat down, Brian started grilling me on the basics of the story. I hadn't realized it, but these hosts go through so many guests in a given day/week/month that they don't have time to really know anyone's story. They basically get the info from you as you sit down and then they wing it.

First question: "I understand there was some issue with players drinking and smoking on the field? Is that right?"

I actually saw this question on his notes as he started to introduce me.

Wow. Nice. Shoot me now.

15 seconds later, I had managed to mumble my way out of it. I felt like killing his producer.

After that, the interview was pretty smooth. Another thing I learned is that hosts typically ask a question and then immediately start reading their notes to formulate the next question. This means that you (or me, in this case) have to answer the original question while staring at the side of the host's head. And the best part is that the camera is close-up on you (me) the whole time. So nobody knows that you are talking to someone's ear. Check out the interview below and see how many times I look down because I'm rattled from having to talk to Brian's ear. Also note that I edited out the first question about smoking/drinking. If I had the time, I would edit that part back IN, but I don't, so you'll just have to trust me:




When the interview was over, Brian asked me a few questions about Ireland and indicated that he'd like to see the baseball fields in Dublin. He seemed like a nice enough guy and he has remained interested in the story. He actually arranged to have me back on the show in 2007 - that's another story for another time...

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