For two days, the ICT shop floor doubles as a TV studio. The gray exterior of the 120-inch customized sleeper will be painted later.
On a rainy afternoon, as Amish buggies rattle past on state Highway 9, three people walk onto the shop floor at Indiana Custom Trucks to admire a new sleeper – over and over and over again. “Bonnie, be like a couple feet ahead of them,” says director Todd Lewis. “Rod, you should be laughing at Rob. Action!”
Once more, Bonnie Amaden of ICT leads two stars of “Trick My Truck” into the shop: Rod Pickett, the tattooed, Goth truck customizer, and Rob Richardson, the rumpled, amiable audio expert.
“OK, let’s get one more, just to play it safe. You guys should be like, ‘Yeah, all right, that looks cool!'”
Just off camera, they’re watched by a dozen ICT employees and friends. ICT President Elwin Eash has the same wide-eyed expression as 11-year-old Nelson Grate, whose dad drives a wrecker. Watching every minute of a TV shoot isn’t always exciting, but knowing that 21 million CMT network viewers will see the result certainly is.
“My work force is just electrified,” says ICT’s Mike Baxley. “Todd just has to whisper a request, and they say, ‘Oh, yeah, we can do that,’ and jump to it. I told him, if he was here every day, our productivity would go through the roof.”
When the scene is finally done, Baxley asks Amaden, “How does it feel, being on camera?”
“It doesn’t really bother me,” she says. “Except when I have to say the same thing five times, and make it sound as if I really mean it this time.”
