'Amazing Race's' Phil Keoghan is a gearhead
— -- Phil Keoghan, host of TV's The Amazing Race, travels the world to tape his pieces for CBS' hit reality show, which has its season finale Sunday.
The New Zealand native is a gearhead who hauls his considerable tech collection with him on shoots — to record, edit and then transfer his work back home to Los Angeles and the producers.
We met with Keoghan at his home in Los Angeles, in his spacious living room, which was decked out with gear from one end to the other.
Why such a gearhead?
"I always had this fear that if I didn't embrace technology … really cool things would pass me by. I feel technology enhances our lives."
What he totes on the road
An Apple MacBook Pro laptop, Sony PDWF800 camera, recordable Blu-ray discs, the new Sony 3-D binoculars ("not sure what I'm going to do with these, but I'm sure I'll find a cool use"), an audio recorder, noise-canceling headphones, iPad, Nikon D700 camera, 85mm 1.4 lens ("magic for portraits"), Sennheiser microphones, a sound mixer and a teleprompter (which connects to a small Sony video camera) and his iPhone.
The most important tool
A $225 Temptu airbrush makeup kit, which he uses to apply his makeup on the road. "With the advent of HD, it's kind of unfair. When I started in television 26 years ago, I was younger … I had a lot less lines. The irony is, TV had a lot less lines." He travels without a makeup artist, so he pulls out the airbrush sprayer, douses his face, "and it maybe reduces 1,000 lines."
Culling his best video takes
From his hotel room, he transfers the Race video footage to the MacBook Pro and Final Cut Pro 7 video-editing software (he prefers the older version to the new, more consumer-friendly Final Cut Pro X) and selects the best takes of the day. He then ships his selections to the producers via the hotel Internet connection. For this process, "We used to take paper notes … there were lots of opportunities for error." Making the visual selection himself has "allowed a more effective, precise way of working."
Other favorite: His Ford Focus
He owns a souped-up Focus, which was featured on Race showing off its parking assist and in-dash navigation. The car is decorated with blurbs for a local cycling team that he sponsors. "How could you ever get lost? Everything is voice-activated."
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