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Wheat ... as far as the eye can see
Published 6/16/2009 in Local News
By STEPHANIE FARLEY
Rosie Thomas and Robin Smith wanted to see wheat — nothing but wheat.
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Stephanie Farley/Telegram — Robin Smith speaks Sunday to Rosie Thomas, left, and Jeremy Harrison, right, as they operate the "Jimmy Jib," a television, movie or film camera support that allows the camera to extend out, to the sides and up, in a wheat field in Lane County. Thomas and Smith are working on a 10-part series for the BBC (British Broadcasting Corp.) and came to Kansas to shoot wheat for a segment on plants.
The two, from Bristol, in southwest England, are in the United States filming a 10-part series, "Life," for the BBC (British Broadcasting Corp.) and needed footage of wheat — the kind that goes on forever.
They've been in production for about three and a half years for the series and will wrap it up in about three to four months, Thomas said, adding they're "near the end." Thomas' quest for wheat she and Smith could film led them Sunday to a field owned by Vance and Louise Ehmke in Lane County.
"We'll keep our fingers crossed," Smith said as the Ehmkes stood with he and Thomas beside the field the two were trying to film. Smith and Thomas, who arrived in Lane County on Thursday, decided to stop filming and hope for better light. They were hoping for some sunlight to peer out from behind the clouds.
The series is all about "Life," Thomas said, including fish, birds and plants. As part of the program on plants, Thomas and Smith have shot prairies, and bamboo, which is the fastest-growing plant, and "we're here filming wheat," which she and Smith found more people in the world eating as a staple product than rice.
"We wanted big fields," Thomas said of what they were looking to film.
So Thomas' search for "big" took her first to North Dakota. Fields in the United Kingdom, she said, are a fraction of the size of U.S. fields. She originally had been looking for a shot of a field that would give the film crew one to two miles of continuous wheat.
But the wheat in North Dakota wasn't going to be ready by the time Thomas and Smith needed to film. State officials in North Dakota suggested trying Kansas or Nebraska, and Thomas ended up contacting the Kansas Wheat Commission, which led her to Finney County Extension agent Dean Whitehill.
Whitehill was trying to think of fields that were not only big but also would provide a clear, clean horizon. He suggested trying the Ehmkes, so Vance contacted Thomas, showing her several fields, including the one they filmed on Sunday.
This field, Thomas said as she stood next to it, has a slight slope, which allows for a stronger shot as Thomas, Smith and Jeremy Harrison, with Midwest Jib Co., worked the "Jimmy Jib" Smith and Thomas had rented from Harrison.
A Jib is a television, movie or film camera support that allows the camera to extend out, to the sides and up. The Jib acts as a crane for the camera. One shot, among several Thomas and Smith were taking, was starting with detail as the camera moved through the wheat -- showing the detail of the wheat heads -- and then moving the camera up to reveal nothing but wheat in a field. Plus, with the slope, Thomas said, they don't need as much wheat to shoot.
Thomas and Smith also were dealing with rain on Sunday, with the three having to cover the camera and Jimmy Jib as the rain started to come down harder. While they waited, the three set up a makeshift computer station with their laptops in the Ehmkes' office, which is a converted grain silo.
Thomas said the series is planned to air sometime in the fall in the United Kingdom, but she's not sure, yet, when "Life" will start airing on the Discovery Channel in the United States.
On Sunday, while waiting for the rain to subside and the light to come out, Thomas said she's filmed a lot in the United States but the closest she'd been to Kansas before this trip was Texas.
"It's flat," she said of what comes to mind about the state — that and the fact everyone in the state has been "so incredibly helpful."
Louise Ehmke had 4-H'ers coming Sunday night to watch Thomas and Smith film and said she and Vance had taken in the two like family while they were here. Thomas and Smith planned to leave sometime today.
On Sunday, Louise gave Thomas a hard time about turning to North Dakota first before coming to Kansas.
"Kansas is the place to go," Ehmke said. "Because Kansas is the wheat state."
"We appreciate that they appreciate Kansas," Ehmke said, adding that if she and Vance can help market Kansas and Kansas wheat, "we're glad to do it."
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