This is Erica’s final day, she is the oceanographer from Monterey and while she has never done any kind of film production before, she has done a fantastic job. She is outgoing and dynamic on camera and after a day or two of getting used to it, totally at ease. The other two scientists are no different, both Ken and Theo are top notch and things are coming along really well.

Today we headed off in the Deepscan, our large boat for cruising around Loch Ness, and set about to film the last few sequences on the Loch. Thankfully, I didn’t have to get in the water this time and was able to stay on dry land - well - boat actually, but the effect was the same. Part of the documentary will include a few light hearted scenes enhanced by CGI or digital animation. In other words, for the end of the film there will be a digital suggestion of what Nessie could look like swimming in the Loch right next to the boat. For that, the animators will need someone in the water with white X’s all over them. This will allow them to plot the distances and scale of their animated image relative to real world sizes and location. George, our safety diver from last week was tasked with this job and with his usual cheerfulness he jumped in the water in his scuba gear and floated at the surface, for what seemed like hours, while the crew got the shot perfectly lined up. The wind was blowing quite hard and thus aligning the boat, the diver and the horizon was not an easy task.

When the shots from the boat were done we had to recreate the whole scene all over again, but this time with the camera onshore. We moored up to Urqhuart castle and set it all up again via radio. I think that a lot of people don’t realize how much work goes into making a documentary. For a total final runtime of 43 minutes, we will walk away with at least 30 hours of film footage. On other shoots I have done it has been up to 150 hours for 43 minutes!!! Just to get a minute or two of CGI footage alone took us several hours of tape and the better part of a day. By 8PM we were wrapped and headed back to town. As I mentioned earlier, it was Erica’s last day so she chose to go to an Indian restaurant, my favorite, and we all dropped off our gear as quickly as possible and headed off to eat.

I love Indian food, an affinity that developed during my days at the University of St Andrews in Scotland, and so Erica’s choice was just fine by me. After a hearty chicken tikka, pampadoms, and mango chutney, we all agreed that it was way too early to go to bed. Despite being exhausted, we felt a duty to take Erica out to a classic Scottish pub and so, off to Hootanany’s we went. Famous in Inverness for featuring local bands and traditional music they also served one hell of a pint of Guinness. Ah Guinness, that pint of black, frothy goodness I miss so much. Guinness in the states just doesn’t cut it I’m afraid, usually no more than watery black broth, it just can’t hold a candle to the UK variety. A good pint of Guinness tastes like a chocolate coffee milkshake and is one of the most delightful drinks on earth. Of course, it feels like a meal in and of itself and after a few of them, one feels as though he has eaten a three course dinner.

The pub delivered as promised and the music was outstanding. We stayed there far into the night and as I looked around at the crew laughing and dancing the night away, I remembered just how lucky I am to be here. Scotland is such a beautiful place and to spend a few weeks here with such a great group of people has to be just about the best job in the world.

After all the excitement yesterday, today was a quiet one. We have had several good days of filming and we are more or less right on schedule. The crew has been absolutely awesome and everyone is getting along as if we were all best friends from long ago. I spent most of the afternoon wandering around Inverness again while the rest of the crew was off at Inverness College interviewing various scientists. Tonight we were supposed to head out to the Loch and build a campfire by the water to hang out and discuss the past weeks findings amongst the scientists and myself, but by late evening the wind was howling and it was called off. Too bad, not being one to ever shirk the opportunity to build and spend the night by a good campfire I was quite disappointed.

Regardless, we are still on schedule for the shoot and that is the most important thing. Only three more days left and we still have a lot of ground to cover, so as they say, no rest for the weary…or is that wicked…

This morning was a bit slow, it started with interviews and filming some general scenery, but that quickly gave way to some crazy antics. One of the challenges that we are trying to figure out, is whether or not a large creature could travel from the sea to the Loch and back again. That would make it a lot easier for the myth to be real, as the ocean provides a huge abundance of food that the Loch is lacking. However, there are two ways from the Loch to the ocean and they both present considerable obstacles. The canal, while deep enough for a creature to pass through, was built in the 19th century and has a series of locks along its length that open and close to regulate the water level and allow boats through. Unless it was timed perfectly, any creature would essentially be blocked from passage. The river Ness on the other hand is very shallow, only a few feet deep at best, and it too has several weirs or shallow dams that cross it, also making passage difficult, even in the best of times. Water does flow over the weirs though, so our job today was to take a jet boat and see if we could also ‘jump’ the weir.

Safety was our number one priority and we suited up in drysuits, heavy gloves, helmets and a very robust lifejacket. After a safety briefing, Alan, the boat captain, and I jumped onto the small jetboat and cruised up the river to the weir. Piece of cake I thought, as I scanned the seemingly small rush of water as it cascaded over the rocks. Yeah right, it looked small from far away but once we got there it started to dawn on me that this was no joke. As we approached the weir, the roar of rushing water filled my ears and Alan and I looked at each other with a kind of what the hell are we doing here look. The fear was not just falling in the water and getting smashed against the rocks, that we could handle…maybe. The real problem was that if a thousand pounds of boat were to turn parallel to the dam it could easily get flipped over on top of us, knocking us out or pinning us under the water which would very likely result in serious injury or death…seeing as how neither of us found the idea of serious injury or death appealing on a sunny Sunday afternoon, we decided to take it slow.

We kept back from the weir for a good fifteen minutes, eyeing our odds, and the best approach. Then, with a roar of the motor we attacked and Alan pushed all the way down on the throttle and with a crash and a crunch we threw ourselves over the first set of boulders, right up to the base of the weir. Water came thundering over the bow of the small craft and my heart was racing. I have done plenty of whitewater rafting and canoeing before, but if you fall out of a rubber raft and it hits you in the head it’s probably not the end of the world, if I got tossed out of this vessel and it hit me in the head…well… lights out sucker.

Holding tight to the rope on the side of the boat, I braced myself as the boat lurched to the left and crashed into a huge rock. A quick glance over at Alan confirmed my suspicion; this was not a good situation. But he knew what he was doing and promptly threw the boat into reverse, the engine roared once again and we were suddenly free. I relaxed my clenched fists and took a deep breath. From that moment on we avoided that part of the weir and decided that this was probably not possible. Even on full power, the boat wasn’t even able to make it even partially over the final wall of water. A few more soft attempts and we gave up.

We returned to shore and, exhausted, and slightly disappointed, climbed out of the boat. The director was thrilled and pointed out that a failure was still a result. If we couldn’t get over the weir, it is unlikely that in this low water any kind of monster could either, at least not without crawling over the rocks, at which point it would most certainly be seen by passing boats, hikers or cars of which there are many along the river and the road beside it. After all the excitement, we packed up the gear and headed back to shore. A few more interviews and one piece to camera later we had wrapped for the day. It was 8PM by this time and everyone was ready for a tall pint or two and a good meal and we got one at a local pub. All told, it was a good day, as my father always said, “adventure is where you lead a full life” and today was definitely one hell of an adventure.