I was hiking on Gemmenalphorn (back in July) the night after eating an amazing dinner at this restaurant and I thought about how cool everything about the meal was. I started thinking about how I wanted to make a documentary about the restaurant. So I got down from the mountain and went to the place where I spoke with the chef, who was pretty open to the idea actually.
Anyways, so we agreed that I’d come by the next day with a camera and I could interview him and shoot in the kitchen and everything.
However, big problem: while I had brought my camera with me, I didn’t have a microphone.
I was feeling like, “Ok, there must be someone in Thun who can lend me a piece of equipment for a day, right?”
So, I get on google maps. I don’t remember the name of the first place I found, but I know it had “Speaker” in it – and that got me excited. But then it turned out it was literally a seller of speaker systems for cars. So, no.
But THEN I found on Google Maps another business in town — I didn’t have a full sense of what they did there, but it looked like a recording studio. So I called up the number on the phone and to my surprise I actually got an answer.
I say to the voice, “Hi, uh, English?”
And the voice replies, “That depends. Why are you calling?”
I say back, “I want. To rent. A microphone.”
And the voice goes, “For that, I speak English.”
Anyways, I won’t mention the persons name or this business’ name as I both don’t want to publicize them without their consent, nor do I want this to come off as a piece of promotion. But suffice to say, this person met me outside their recording studio and could not have been more helpful, with renting me a microphone and audio recorder for the following day; they even toured me around to go to another electronics shop, where I had to buy a memory card for the recorder. (Of course helping to translate as well, for store workers that didn’t speak English.)
So, basically, I ended up making this documentary about the restaurant I ate at. And without this person and the mic they rented, I literally could not have done it. Would love for anyone to watch it. I am an artist / filmmaker based in the US and this piece is a form of self-expression, I think. If not that, I do consider it a love letter to the restaurant. Here’s the [LINK](https://vimeo.com/858806388?share=copy) where you can watch it. But if you’re not interested, I hope your takeaway from the post is just about this helpful professional that who came through for me in Thun.
by ThomasBombadil