A camera swap gone wrong. A questionable motel. And the real story behind our name.
In celebration of our tenth birthday, throughout July we’re sharing the stories behind WordBirds, starting with the three questions we get asked most.
Why the name “WordBirds”?
We’d been rattling off corporate-sounding, SEO-friendly names, like ‘presenter’ or ‘prompt’ and everything fell flat.
Then one day Dani called: “I’ve found our new name”.
She’d been on a corporate job, walked up to the Technical Director and said, “Hi, I’m your autocue operator”. He replied, “Oh, so you’re the word bird!”.
‘WordBirds’ became a playful way to take ownership of being women in a mostly male-led AV space.
Any horror stories from the job?
Bum-cheek to bum-cheek: Dani drove to a regional tractor factory for a political event, only to hit cable issues the night of the rig. I wrapped my own show, grabbed replacements, and drove 3 hours to meet her – arriving past 10pm, too tired to drive home.
The only motel in the area was a relic of the 1980s: faded floral bedspread, questionable carpet stains, and a mattress that sagged in the middle. Qne slept one-eye open. Bum-cheek to bum-cheek. And swore never to speak of it again.
Meet the Hitachis: our first year running I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here (UK) solo. Expectations were high, so we prepared thoroughly – then discovered over breakfast that the Sony cameras our rig was customised for had been replaced with Hitachis, with zero warning. We got to know the construction department intimately over the next 3 days. A crash course in teamwork under pressure.
A Bris Vegas all-nighter: Dani flew into Brisbane the night before a show, rigged, and —having a rare evening to herself with no room service on offer—grabbed takeaway from a decent looking place nearby. Within an hour, she realised her mistake. She spent the night on the bathroom tiles, alone, in another state, and somehow still pulled off the show the next morning on willpower and black coffee.
Which celebrities do you like working with best? Any divas?
The good news: Aussie celebrities are usually humble. Exhibit A: Grant Denyer, a masterclass in professionalism, and not taking himself too seriously. In many cases, the so-called ‘diva’ is just a presenter trying to get the job done.
We’ve worked with an incredibly broad range of people: running promo lines with NRL players, following the Umbilical Brothers’ stage antics, rolling lyrics for Katy Perry, and sliding over while Prince Harry tweaked his lines.
But it’s often not the celebrities who leave the biggest mark. It’s the CEO who insisted they didn’t need autocue, until a couple of rehearsals in, they were hooked. Or the journalist who stumbled on a line, until we reformatted it and they nailed the next take.
Everyone on our team has a favourite moment though:
Dani? Joh Griggs. From House Rules to the Olympics, her down-to-earth humour (and daily updates on the cows on her farm) always puts Dani at ease.
Sylvia? Kylie, obviously. At World Pride Sylv danced behind the desk, one hand still on the scroll.
And me? Johnny Young, from Young Talent Time. Don’t judge! My inner-8-year-old was star-struck by his kind presence.
As we celebrate ten years of WordBirds, we love nothing more than swapping stories with the people who’ve been part of the journey.
Got a question you’ve always wanted to ask us? Get in touch and we’ll do our best to answer it.
