Welcome to Grumpsville

Wow this is going to be a long 2 weeks…

As explained in the last blog, the feed goes out at 3:45 with me commentating but the trucks have never finished by that point so I had to do a second feed later that evening. I had literally been non stop since 10am when we landed.

BTW the plane we are traveling in is a Hercules. We sit, lined up as though each one of us is about to go on a parachute jump sitting on stretchers. More hang above our heads acting as a sort of luggage compartment but at 6am, all I wanted to do was go back to sleep and the netting was not really supporting me.

During the feed commentary there was an almighty banging outside, it really put me off and once that section was over I quizzically looked at my audio editor… rain! Eh? What? I knew the cars had had some on stage but this was serious golf ball style. Regardless we continued (I wonder if you can hear it on the feed?) and while there was some silly errors I was satisfied.
It really is a ridiculous way of working, making a magazine style show without well prepped voice over. I had never seen the pictures of the main car and bike feeds and although I thought I knew an order it turned out, It didn’t correspond….and as for how long each subject is up!?! 24 hours later, on feed 2 I was presented with some scribbled numbers whilst voicing the cars….this was my script for the trucks which was FAR to long. There was no story at all and whats more the script wasn’t even a resemblance to what I was voicing.

There is a power struggle, everyone is concerned the script is right and I work on this all morning but I NEED to sound like I know what I am taking about. People in America and Australia will hear me. Its embarrassing to transmit something substandard, and winds me up no end but as long as the script is ok and they tick the boxes its fine. I 2 days no-one has mentioned anything about the VO, just bugged be about sending my script before even the pictures are decided.

You might be able to tell I am a bit grumpy, I hardly slept in my tent thanks to the constant commotion in the Bivouac (and the fact my tent was sodden – oh btw, they forgot to even supply me with one so that was interesting.)

Interesting I found a few bits of feedback on the internet….my love affair with South Africans continues “Although the rally has yet to get underway there has been one casualty – Toby Moody the commentator for the last ten years. The replacement is Ben Constanduros. Very ap surnamet Ben… I Can’t Stand U.”

This was posted after the first feed! I mean come on!

Plus points – haven’t yet stopped eating awesome steaks, I think I have had one every day… it might get boring but right now its all good! Also the shower wasn’t quite as bad as expected, quite refreshing after a sticky night. Oh and also making friends with a few English speakers….the team from Versus (US tv) and great to see Joe from Monster again, one more day in Argentina as we fly to JuJuy tomorrow morning… Best go put up the tent before it gets too dark, oh and early bed.

Over the rally I will be blogging on this site and on my new website www.benconstanduros.com where I will give you an in depth look into the workings of the rally and also keep up to date on the race itself at Dakar.com, I am at twitter to @Benconsty