My ride-along with the Ghost Hunters

Keith McDuffee/CliqueClack

I think at this point it’s safe to say that Sci Fi’s Ghost Hunters is no longer a guilty pleasure of mine. I mention it so often that it seems pretty silly for me to feel “guilty” for watching it, but the “pleasure” is still there.

Earlier this month I was extremely lucky enough to have the chance to tag along with the Ghost Hunters on one of their investigations in New England. Being a New Englander myself, and seeing as the team is headquartered in nearby Rhode Island (isn’t everything within New England considered “nearby?”), I knew that I’d eventually get my chance to see them in action. And what better time than two crisp, autumn October nights?

The Investigation: Night One

Keith McDuffee/CliqueClack

The location: Portsmouth Harbor Lighthouse and Fort Constitution, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

I was told to show up on-location at 3PM for the first day/night, as I’d have time to talk to the team while things got set up. There were about 20-25 people involved with the production here, including the camera and sound guys, production crew and cast.

Most of the time spent in the afternoon was setting up what we see in the finished product, with the team approaching the location for the first time, getting the tour of the buildings and beginning setup. As you can imagine, much of what you see on TV is the result of structured, set up shots that give the convincing appearance that everything happened in real-time. In actuality, the ride-up, tour and set-up took until 10 PM!

Keith McDuffee/CliqueClack

It was interesting to see how the vehicles are set up for production. When you’re watching on TV, you might imagine the in-car cameras to be tiny, unobtrusive things attached to the corners of the windshield. In fact, the cameras are pretty significant in size, suction-cupped to the windshield at several angles. If you’re thinking they drive the entire way with the cameras attached, you’d be wrong. Hell, it’d be damn unsafe! Each of the team shows up in his or her own vehicle (at least at this shoot they did) — a Mustang, Mini Cooper, whatever — and then they shoot the approach within the official vehicles later.

During the first night of setup, I was able to get some time with each of the Ghost Hunters in attendance: Jason Hawes, Grant Wilson, Steve Gonsalves, Dave Tango, Amy Bruni and Kris Williams. You may not know who Amy is, as she just joined the Ghost Hunters and hasn’t appeared on the show yet. I’m told her first episode will be October 29. I’ll get to what each of the team had to say later.

Everyone on the team and with the production crew was very cool and accommodating. I was initially afraid that I’d be constantly told to stay the hell out of the way or go sit in a car somewhere while things were being shot, but that wasn’t the case at all. I was able to walk along with the camera crews during the walk-through with lighthouse historian Jeremy D’Etremont and everything else leading up to the actual investigations.

Keith McDuffee/CliqueClack

Here’s the thing about the investigations. Yes, I would have loved to have been able to tag along with any of the groups, but it’s simply not practical or possible unless I was actually going to appear on TV. The team splits into groups of two (in this case it was Jason/Grant, Kris/Amy and Steve/Tango) and brings along just one camera person, perhaps one sound guy as well. At any moment the investigators might point to something off-camera that they saw or heard, and the camera quickly snaps to where they are indicating. If I was standing behind the cameraman, there’s a really good chance I’d be in the way.

Keith McDuffee/CliqueClack

I did get to explore the entire fort and lighthouse on my own. The lighthouse was very small and I couldn’t imagine how the team would investigate it or find much of anything in there. I didn’t get any sort of strange vibe in there at all. The fort was a different story, though I was surprised that it had very few roofed buildings to explore.

Keith McDuffee/CliqueClack

As you’ll see on the show, the fort has two bricked rooms and one upper lookout room to investigate in, besides the wide-open fort itself. The two small bricked sentry rooms were a little disturbing to stand in, mostly because they seemed to absorb all of the outside sound. One of the sentry rooms, which I was told used to be a jail of sorts, had a rusty gate door. Just walking by that room would give anyone the creeps.

Clacked by Keith McDuffee
on Oct 29, 2008 @ 12:00 EST5EDT