I'm going to give these questions another try, because maybe I just didn't have the right thread title to attract attention. I've gotten over 100 views, but no answers. I know you're busy though, so if you really don't want to answer them just let it drop out of sight again.

Dave and any other crew members, I have a few tech questions that I hope you have time to answer.

How many hours of film do you shoot for a typical 12-15 minute segment? I know you are on-site for at least 8 hours, and you have two or three cameras going. I wouldn't expect them all to be on all the time - it would take months to go through all the footage! But you still must have tons more than you can possibly use.

How long and how many people does it take to edit all that film? It's got to be a huge undertaking to decide what is important to the story and to go through all that footage to find the "one shot" that everybody remembers would be the perfect 15 seconds to incude. Who makes the final decisions on how the segment comes together, and how is it done -- do you start with a storyboard, or just gather the "good bits" together and create the story from them?

Are Mike's voice-overs added as a final touch after the other editing, or does he do them on-the-fly while the segment is being taped and the sights/sounds/smells are fresh in his mind? Either way they are well-done, because there is no change in tonal quality in the final cut like I would expect if they were done in a sound booth while the show was being taped live (and often outdoors).

And finally, are the segments edited as distinct units that can be plugged into any show, or do you decide before editing which segments to put together to make a single episode and edit to fit?

Thank you,
Julie S.