Fun, Disappointment and Exhaustion

[Michele 1]

Tuesday
I receive an e-mail from Jack Gramley, informing me that there will be no jumping taking place during the ESPN taping on Wednesday...they seem to have been unable to reach a financial arrangement, or something like that. Needless to say, I am quite disappointed, but it's tempered by relief because now I won't have to worry about landings or winds or whatever. But I really wanted to jump with Joe Jennings. Sigh. Some things are too good to be true, I suppose. Maybe there'll be a last minute deal or something.

I get a call from the crew confirming time and place, and asking me to bring all my training tapes, home videos, whatever else I have, because they may be able to use some of that. O.K., whatever.

It's nearly 1am, and I can't sleep. I am so gonna screw this up. Should I call in sick or something? I'm chickening out. Fuck.
**********
Wednesday

It's hot by the time the two producer people get there about 9ish - one has done a tandem, but he will not be doing the interviewing...which means I will be discussing everything with a whuffo...no matter, that's who's going to be viewing the story, anyway. But you can see the culture shock happening to them when the language and freewheeling attitude gets through to them. And no last minute deal, either. I will be landbound until after the taping; if there's any time left or energy left then, we'll see. Shit. Oh well. That'll make some of my detractors happy.

We get introductions made, and get set up in one of the classrooms. Joe walks in, great huge grin and loud exhuberance. Makes me laugh. He comments on my Dropzone.com t-shirt, and tells me he knows Sangiro, and to send his regards. Joe is kind, and, once he realizes I am disappointed about not getting airtime with him, he promises me he will jump with me someday - maybe not today, but someday. Makes me feel better, that does. Even if it never happens, it makes me feel good. And he's a cutie, too. Something gets said about the videos from my student days, and Jack's face gets a really worried look. He says something like "you can't use them", and I retort "why not? Aren't they mine?" and Jack gets kind of mad, and walks away with one of the producers. I am still not altogether sure what that was about - or how it will get resolved. Just makes me really uncomfortable.

We go and set up under the tree outside of Sq.1, and get it all ready to go. We are going to interview Ed first, because he has to be somewhere by noon, so gotta get him taken care of first. I see Ed land from a tandem, and go get him, and tease him a little. I can see him getting all formal and tight, not nervous exactly, but really aware and somewhat cautious of language and what he's going to say. He is a doll, being this worried. He does the interveiw, and says some really cool things, both about the sport and about me. Then they have us walk through the mock-up, floating exit, level 5 stuff, and then takes us off to the creepers and we dirt dive some stuff. I'm kinda bored, because it is fake, you know? But no-one will ever know the difference. I'm getting goofy, because it's hot, and now they want me to get into a student jumpsuit and want closeups of the zipping it up, and then getting the rig on. I get the direction to walk out towards the plane, and so I do...and then, thinking I am off camera, I ham it up a tad, skipping...and then Joe calls out "that's great - do it again"...so now I'm skipping around looking for all the world like a smurf going somewhere, and feeling about as dumb as I have ever felt. Oh well. Maybe they'll edit it out...please God...

Time for Vinnie's interview, and he has forgotten the details of the mal. I remind him, and he remembers it. He is great, because he tells it like it was for me - they were never sure if I was gonna come back or not; he talked a bit about how hard it was for me, and how I "muddled" through that fear somehow. Then somehow they get to a part of the conversation where Vinnie answers some question with "oh, we just called her Michele From Hell", which is true, and now that it's preserved for posterity. Vinnie has to go back to work, and now it's my turn...

They mike me up, and we start. Then stop, because of manifest's calling a plane load. Start, then stop for the plane. Start, then stop again because a bunch of people come and are screaming and hollering at their friends who are doing tandems, waving at them like they a) can see, and b) could answer. Start again and then stop again because a group of people are packing behind me, and are being their loud, boisterous selves, lauding each other on a jump, accusing each other of "fucking funneling that one, asshole", and so forth. I am giggling, because the producer is getting a tad steamed, but there's nothing to be done - that's life at a DZ, you know? We wait until they walk off, and now we have to re-set up because the sun has moved, and I'm "hot" (whatever that means) and blasting the camera. 20 minutes later, and now we're ready to go...

A curly headed lad with great blue eyes comes tooling over, and stands behind Joe, who he obviously knows. He watches for a while, and then, during a break, introduces me to him..."Michele, this is Fritz. Fritz, this is Michele. She's an up and coming jumper". And then Joe introduces me to someone named Ziggy, who is a rigger and knows Joe. Everyone knows Joe, and this is kewlio by me...'cause I get to meet them, too, and it never hurts to know more jumpers at your DZ.

We get back to taping, and we are talking about different things, when I realize that we are going a little closer than I want towards "there she was, just 4 seconds away from a grisly death, when by a miracle, she saves herself", which is far from the truth...so I stop the taping, and tell the producer I want to focus more on what went right, too...on trust and faith, in ones self, the JM's and the equipment. He understands, and we move into another direction from there. During a break, I ask Joe why it's taking so long with me, am I doing o.k., it didn't take so long with Ed and Vinnie. Joe reassures me I am doing fine, great in fact and that the producer is just looking for nuances and little things like that. he's just asking me a question and letting me talk, without interruption, with little or no coaching. I am still not sure I am doing o.k., though.

45 minutes later I am still answering questions, yammering on, and I am (amazingly) getting tired of talking - I have been "miked" for over 2 hours. Not that it's boring, I just can't think of much more to say that will add anything of import or value to all this. It's coming close to 3:30, anyway, and we've been at this since around 10, and we take a quick break for lunch. That's when I finally figure out who Fritz is. Joe makes the comment that he'd like to read my stories and I tell him I'll e-mail him the link to them here.

Time to go back to work, and now it's just harness room stuff, and since there is no instructor available, it's Jack's turn. They strap me in, and flash photos in front of me, and I so hope I'll have the right response. I am supposed to take a good hard look at the photo, and then take the proper action - we're in the harness room looking for cutaway procedure stuff - so I suspect I will be having to look, reach, pull. Jack flashes a photo in front of me, and I take a hard look - and then reach for my toggles, and do a control check. He's flashed a pix of a perfectly good canopy....Thank God I didn't cutaway, that would have been horribly embarrassing. We go on to some other photos, which call for responses, and I get them right. Phew.

We tromp out to the school again, and now they have me play with this purple and pink canopy (Stewie's)...it's a Stiletto, and I point out I would not be jumping that, but the producer thinks the colors are good, and whuffos won't know. And then, then...then I get my cardboard box. It's my canopy!!!!!! I yank it out, and am standing there, kinda fondling it, and Joe says flake it out, but it's hard because there's no rig to balance it against, so it keeps sliding to the floor. It's sooooo cool to see my own canopy...it's pretty and new and sliding all around and I will never get it into the D bag, and Joe is laughing at me trying to get it back into the box.

Day is over, and we are done. ESPN has 3 hour long tapes, and seem to think things went well...I sit on the patio with Joe, waiting for Arizona Vengeance to be finished training, because I have a home cooked dinner for them. He and I chat a bit, and he is just the nicest guy. He reminds me of our future jump, and my promise to send him the stories link. I ask him to sign my log book, and he does - with a very sweet message of encouragement and compliment. Fritz and I chat a bit, and he tells me to come to his camp in two weeks...I tell him I've only belly flown and have only 38 jumps, and he says "So? Come anyway!". I dunno if I will, though, but it would be fun.

I get hugs from everyone, and walk over to AZV, and lay out on a bench, and wait for them to finish. I am so damned tired, and it's all I can do to remain cheerful and chatty while I am getting their dinner together. I get the guys fed (I love cooking for large groups), and then start the 90 minute drive home at 8:30 p.m....I am so tired I fall asleep in the bathtub.
********
Thursday
I am elated, sad, and worried, all at the same time. I had a lot of fun, even though it was really hard. I hope I did o.k., I hope it comes out o.k., and I really wanted to jump with Joe, but that was not to be. Maybe some other time. Would I do this again? Most likely, if it came my way again. But it was supremely wierd, too, even having been raised around this stuff. Everyone associated with ESPN has been so very nice to me, made me feel secure and competent and capable of doing this. But it still was just simply like spending the day at the Twilight Dropzone...

All in all, I believe I did o.k. Now it's up to post production to see the end product. I'm told it is set at the moment for September 16, but will know more for sure in short order. I jokingly asked for "final edit approval" and they said "no". They weren't joking.

And for all of you who have been so amazingly supportive, and wonderfully sweet about this, I thank you so very much! It has made a difference to me!

Ciels and Pinks-
Michele

~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek
While our hearts lie bleeding?~

[Shark 0]

Michele,

That's just Episode I. The future ones will feature you in the air. And who knows... maybe filmed by Joe himself! Tell them to film at the Chicks Rock Boogie at Elsinore. Only then will they know why we (dudes) skydive.

• Quote

[fasterfaller 0]

Since Jack would not let you jump maybee you edit out the name Perris Valley . That just sucks . It would have been good advertising . Greedy bastard .

[Viking 0]

jack is a member of these boards so maybe he will explain himself. I won't pass judgement on him until i know why he did what he did. Anyway congrats Michele i am so proud of you and extremely envious seeing as you got to meet Joe and your gonna be on tv and stuff!! Hehe i hope they keep the part of you skipping around that would be so funny!!!

I swear you must have footprints on the back of your helmet - chicagoskydiver
My God has a bigger dick than your god -George Carlin

[GiaKrembs 0]

Hey Michelle, How very cool for you!!! I have to ditto Shark - they must come and do the boogie @ Elsinore. What a blast!!! Take care, and come visit us some time!

Quote

Raddest ho this side of Jersey #1 - rest in peace brother
Beth lost her cherry and I missed it
.... you want access to it, but you don't want to break it.

• Quote

[BonnyBN 0]

sorry to ask but, why were EPSN interviewing you ?
peace out,
Bonny,

[Michele 1]

Hi, Bonny

The truthful answer to your q is "I still have no idea", lol....

Try running a search with keyword as ESPN, and you should be able to get the whole story. To read the original stories and stuff, pop over to the front page here, go to "columns", and scroll down a bit. there are several articles by Michele Lesser (me), and the ones which they were really interested in were "Man, I owe so much beer" and "I went to Perris today". That should give you background.
If you still have any questions, pm me, and I'll try to answer them.

Ciels and Pinks-
Michele

~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek
While our hearts lie bleeding?~

[kingbunky 3]

just guessing here, but if they wanted to film a jump, they would have basically taken over a plane, had to rig it up with cameras and likely do more than one take. maybe he didn't want a plane tied up for half a day.

"Hang on a sec, the young'uns are throwin' beer cans at a golf cart."
MB4252 TDS699
killing threads since 2001

[skymama 35]

Very cool, Michele. Even though it wasn't really what you had expected, you still have done something that you will be able to cherish and show your kids some day. And, don't worry about looking like a goof-ball from skipping to the plane. Hell, I just did that last weekend!

She is Da Man, and you better not mess with Da Man,
because she will lay some keepdown on you faster than, well, really fast. ~Billvon

[FliegendeWolf 0]

That's a bummer that you didn't get to jump. Do you know whether any footage of you jumping will make it on TV? Or just the interview and training footage? Again, we're all looking forward to the airing. I think it'll be neat to watch TV and see somebody that I've been chatting with online!
Congrats again!
Steve

A One that Isn't Cold is Scarcely a One at All

[TEB6363 0]

What a great adventure for any one of us to make!!!! I'm glad it went well, even with the resulting changes in plan.

You're a great girl Michelle

Once the plane takes off, you're gonna have to land - Might as well jump out!!

[nws01 0]

Quote

Fun, Disappointment and Exhaustion

I thought this thread was going to be sex related. Everytime I have sex with a female I ask her what she thought about it afterwords and they always say..."It started out fun, then I was dissappointed and then finally just exhausting."

Just joking with you I am not that bad!

[TEB6363 0]

Quote

finally just exhausting

[slapping sound]Nathan, wake up Nathan[slapping sound]

Nathan you were sleeping and saying, "Baby, I'm sorry I'm soooooo good."

[slapping sound]Nathan, your mom says you have to get up and go to work...[slapping sound]

Once the plane takes off, you're gonna have to land - Might as well jump out!!

[JakGramley 2]

Sorry it took me so long to respond to this posting. It seems that some of the DZ activities aren't fully understood by all jumpers. At Perris we are primarily a skydiving operation, both for students and for experienced jumpers. We also do quite a bit of production work for the entertainment industries. This is another source of income for us. As part of this we are paid for the use of our facilities, for the use of our aircraft, for the use of our staff and for the interruption of our operation.

ESPN contacted us about Michele's story. We immediately said that we would like to assist both Michele and ESPN and asked what would be required of our facility. They basically told us that they wanted to do 3 interviews, taking about 2 hours of our time and that all of the filming would be done on the ground, away for the operation. We explained that we normally get a significant amount of dollars for this type of production. They assured us that they had no budget for the location, and that Michele's story needed to be told. We volunteered to allow the filming at Perris at NO CHARGE. None, zero. Trust me, ESPN is going to make a VERY nice profit out of this show. However, as a courtesy to one of our jumpers, we offered to do it for free. It was at that point that we learned that they also needed to use two of our instructors. Again, they don't want to pay anything for their time, even though one of them had to drive in from the N. LA area for this. Again, we offered to do that for them. We did explain to all parties concerned that if we did need to go up in the aircraft, we needed to charge for that. It's how the production end of our business works.

The production company arrived at 9:00 am and stayed until 6:00 pm (so much for the two hours). They needed to use a room for their equipment. We had to interrupt our operation to accommodate them on several issues. Since they need a DZ coordinator, I volunteered my services, free of charge, on my day off. Interesting that after all of that, we are being cast as bad guys. Michele got her story told, and did a great job of it. All of the production people got everything they wanted. ESPN has a nice piece to show on their show, and that show WILL turn a profit for them. What do we get out of this? If we are lucky, we get a small credit at the end of the show. Ever stick around long enough to watch them? Nope, most people don't. Will we get our name mentioned during the interviews? Hopefully, but quite often that part ends up on the cutting room floor. Did the segment producer get paid? Did the cameraman get paid? Did every other business involved with this get paid? Did Michele get her story told? You do the math. Please don't make us regret volunteering our help with this.

Jack Gramley
Computer Consultant

[Michele 1]

Thanks for your taking the time to respond, Jack. I do appreciate it. And I sincerely hope you don't regret being involved with this whole adventure. As I was not part of the negotiations in any way, I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes. Sorry you found this experience draining.

Hoping all Perris jumpers remain safe and sound this weekend -

Ciels and Pinks-
Michele

~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek
While our hearts lie bleeding?~

[drenaline 0]

Hey Michele congrats on the filming and glad everything went out ok and fun!

Cool you got to meet Joe Jennings, he is one of the famous people I would like to meet someday.

I think this is the first time you do something for ESPN right? that means BEER!

Hey now that you are famous, can I have your autograph?remember not to leave us for showbiz hehe

HISPA 21
www.panamafreefall.com

[Michele 1]

Quote

Hey now that you are famous, can I have your autograph? [Smile]
remember not to leave us for showbiz hehe

Not bloody likely, drenaline....not bloody likely! Although I have somehow promised to sign Lummy's boob, and I follow through on my promises! I just hope it's not similar to Clay's manboobies....

Ciels and Pinks-
Michele

~Do Angels keep the dreams we seek
While our hearts lie bleeding?~

[Dumpster 0]

It all sounds super cool Michele! Can't wait for it to air! Hope your having a really good time with your 15 minutes of fame!
C-Ya!
--Lenny

Easy Does It

[JohnnyD 0]

Well said. Thanks for the insight into the business side of a skydiving operation. Please don't become jaded because the overwhelming majority of skydivers have no concept of the fact that the DZ is someone's livelihood. Bitching about manifest, jump ticket prices, and slow planes are as common and expected as repacking after a jump. We certainly appreciate your time and we hope that all skydivers will in some way benefit from getting Michelle's story out there.

[sangiro 4]

Quote

Greedy bastard.

This is unsubstantiated and uncalled for. No personal attacks! C'mon people.....

Safe swoops
Sangiro

[Shotgun 1]

I just want to point out that Perris Valley Skydiving is one of the most professionally-run dropzones I have ever been to. And Jack Gramley plays a huge role in making it that way. I have seen Jack go out of his way countless times to help people out in situations that were "above and beyond the call of duty".
In this case, it sounds like Jack devoted an unpaid day of his time and Perris allowed unpaid use of their facilities for this taping, which is something you should be HIGHLY appreciative of - so to tell this whole story and not even THANK them, much less make them sound like they kept your show from being everything you wanted it to be, is disrespectful and highly UNappreciative.
I do congratulate you on your ESPN show - I'm sure that it was a great adventure for you... But when writing stories in a public forum like this, it is not really cool to name names such as Jack's (or several others I've seen you mention in the past) and show them in a bad light (no matter how briefly you mention them). Please do not forget that not only the person you mentioned, but many people who know that person may be reading this forum and may be offended by your remarks, or worse - might mistakenly believe that what you say about them is true.
If you want to tell stories about your adventures, either ask permission from people whose names you want to use, or change the names, because remember these are YOUR stories based on YOUR perspective - not necessarily the way things "really" happened. Please be careful about slandering names on a public forum, unless that it what your intention really is(?).
Sorry if this sounds mean - I just got a little upset to see Jack's name shown this way because I know it is not accurate.

[Shotgun 1]

One more thing...
Michele, just wanted to point out that I am not trying to "attack" you or anything like that, and I realize that most of the things you say on this forum are very nice - I don't think you have meant to offend anyone, so hopefully you will take this as constructive criticism. You are an excellent writer and this makes your stories very believable, so I just wanted to point out the effects of saying anything negative about particular people or places.
Congratulations again on the ESPN show - hope it turns out great! ;-)

[skycat 0]

You know, when I read it I read it the opposite way. The first thing I thought of was that ESPN was the reason they couldn't make the jump. I was like, figures that the people who were going to make the money were being stingy. Now I'm even more disapointed in ESPNs conduct knowing how much Skydive Perris went out of their way to accomidate them and they didn't have to pay for one little thing.

Fly it like you stole it!

[Iflyme 0]

Sounds like you got screwed by a representatives of a big wealthy media company, Jack. I think you were far too accomodating... sorry you kinda got stuck in the middle of this, Michele.

[JakGramley 2]

Quote

Something gets said about the videos from my student days, and Jack's face gets a really worried look. He says something like "you can't use them", and I retort "why not? Aren't they mine?" and Jack gets kind of mad, and walks away with one of the producers. I am still not altogether sure what that was about - or how it will get resolved.

I almost forgot about this part. Actually, I need some help here from the videographers that lurk this forum. At Perris we have always tried to protect the videographers that work hard to make us look good in the air. Standard skydiving video is normally shot for private enjoyment, not for broadcast. We have always asked that skydivers wishing to use video for broadcast purposes seek permission from the videographer prior to broadcast. In some cases that can also mean some form of compensation. What Michele had stated in the pre-production meeting was that she was going to give the producers footage from some of her fun skydives. When I asked her about the right to be able to do that her comment was, "I paid for them, they are mine and I can do anything I want with them". I was trying to protect the videographers involved. I am asking videographers how they would feel about having their footage used in a situation like this, without their knowledge, permission and without compensation. Perhaps I am overstepping my role as a general manager in doing this, but I do want to see ALL parties at our DZ treated fairly. Any opinions?

Jack Gramley
Computer Consultant