Writing Prompt: The air was still.

Morning all, another week not at home starts. Let’s see how it goes. Timers set (with appropriate silence) and off we go.

No clue what the story will be but I might be thinking about this most of the day to figure it out. Sort of let it sit in the back of my brain and marinate.

Monday, March 17^th: The air was still.

The air was still.  It was clear no one had been in this place for a long time.  Any dust in the space had long since settled and The air was clear.  With a single footstep into the tomb, dust swirled through the air.  It caught the sunlight from the newly opened door to the chamber and sparkled. 

“Still please,’ the camera men called.  Everyone froze not wanting to ruin the shot.  It was a strange thing for Harold.  This recording for an at home audience.  While he was accustomed to recording everything he and his team did, it was generally done as part of the historic record.  With the recordings and the photographs they could go back and see things as they were before they were disturbed.  They could monitor changes and even provide valuable insights to the restoration teams if the site called for it. 

The camera crews had developed in the time Harold had been working.  They started with still photography and moved to video.  Digital was often a godsend allowing them to pick up details on camera that the human eye could not spot.  He loved watching the ultra violet and infa-red lighting show different aspects to what he was looking at. 

Then there were the drones giving aerial views of sites and lidar giving images that put satellites to shame and letting him see below the growth covering a site.  He knew some grumbled that the old ways of digging were changing, but Harold was always thrilled with more information no matter how he got it.

But those recording mechanisms were nothing compared to the television camera crews now following him.  The 5G Hi Def whatever the current term was, and the operators running them were a different breed.  Filming for an at home audience instead of professionals was an entirely different beast. 

While Harold could reconcile this as a part of the job, an educational aspect that would hopefully lead to more funds to continue his work, he was having a hard time reconciling himself to Skyler.

Skyler was the host of the show, breaking down the details for the at home audience in easy to swallow sound bytes.  He had hosted many shows prior.  There were talk shows and the television equivalent to gossip shows.  There were a few behind the scenes type of things.  Sometimes they went behind the scenes with musicians and sometimes with actors. 

Harold wasn’t entirely certain why Skyler was chosen for this show, but chosen he had been.  He smiled toothily at the camera and Harold spend a great deal of his evenings breaking down many of the words used phonetically so Skyler could pronounce them for camera.  Skyler seemed to appreciate him being so helpful.  Harold didn’t tell him he was ‘helping’ because he found Skyler’s pronunciation an assault on his ears.

‘And if I give him the pronunciation guide ahead of time there are far fewer takes. 

Harold had not anticipated how many times he would be required to perform the same actions so that it could be properly captured. The camera crews got the shot they wanted and Harold felt some of the tension ease as he was able to move forward again.