Wednesday, August 9, 2017

5 minutes of fame



Well, I may have just turned down the chance of a lifetime. We were contacted last week by a research director for the show How It's Made on the Discovery Channel about taping for a five minute segment on the show, that they would be in Houston the first week of October, and were interested in our glass work, initially the etched glass but I told him I'd rather it be the pate de verre. Did it have a lot of steps, he wanted to know. They like a lot of steps and we talked about the process and about how it would be filmed and that obviously we would have to have stuff prepared since it was a multi day process and they would only be filming one day, kind of like those cooking shows. He would send me another email with more details and requirements.

I started thinking about what I would, could do. It would have to be a small sculptural piece or bas-relief and to be thorough I would have to do the original model, preferably in different steps, say 3...beginning, halfway, finished... and then make a reproduction mold for all the waxes I'll need for the rest of the steps...one for making the mold, one in the mold for de-waxing, one with the wax melted out, one with the frit partially laid in, one with all the frit in to put in the kiln, one already fired in the mold to break apart, one already out of the mold and washed to demonstrate the cold work, and one completely finished. That makes 3 models (2 partial, 1 complete), 1 rubber mold, 8 waxes, and 8 plaster molds. That is a huge time investment for a five minute segment that will reap us nothing except 8 of the same thing if we completed them all, time when I could be working on new stuff. Not to mention having to clean and re-organize the shop.

The next email was cause for some hilarity around here...

1. exact product(s) to be featured on the show: pate de verre

     exact product, OK

2. full coordinates (incl. cell and email) of the on-site contact person (preferably a production manager) who would chaperone our camera crew when they arrive on site

     on-site production manager...yeah, ha ha

3. coordinates of a second on-site resource person, in case first one unavailable

     back up? would that be you or me

4. complete factory address, including zip code. If there is a second manufacturing facility, please provide that address as well and indicate the distance between the two

     by now we're laughing out loud...factory

5. start and finish times of production shift(s)

     production shifts, sniff, hahaha


The guy clearly has no idea who he was talking to.

So I thanked him kindly for his interest and politely declined to participate.






12 comments:

  1. Clearly they have NO IDEA what goes into your art, they think it is a little craft project you can try at home? WOW. Glad you turned it down!

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  2. Ha! That was a funny email. And I don't blame you for turning it down - especially because I don't see how they could cover everything in 5 minutes anyway.

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  3. Oh, Ellen. I think maybe you should do it. You WOULD get a lot of exposure. I suppose the extra work wouldn't really be worth it though. What you do is fascinating. And think of the blog fodder!

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    1. 15 years ago I would have jumped on it like a duck on a june bug, 10 years even. but I know from experience that the 'exposure' would not have generated any income. back when we had employees and were working all the time, we were filmed for a similar segment on etched glass on an HGTV show, similar to How It's Made. all it gets you is a bunch of extra work to get ready and a line on your CV. It would have taken us a month at least of dedicated work to prepare for this 5 minute segment and that doesn't count cleaning up and arranging the shop when I could be making new different stuff. just not enough bang for our buck.

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  4. Like Ms. Moon, I wonder if you should reconsider. The exposure could be good for business.

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  5. I did the same thing once. Was wanted for a magazine spread and like you said so much cleanup, demo and removal,etc. for so little. I didn't think it would help my career one bit and way to much trouble. My stuff was one of a kind and couldn't be mass produced. The point where she started calling our farm a ranch and wanted to portray it that way, I said no thank you. She wanted to find another Pioneer Woman and I ain't one. I understand what you decided.

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  6. I understand exactly why you turned it down. I would have, too. Organic growth can be slow, but when you get into the cost/benefit analysis for a project like this, it becomes pretty clear, pretty fast, that it just isn't worth it. Exposure ain't all it's cracked up to be, that's for sure.

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  7. Good for you! To quote a saying we repeat around here, "not nearly enough juice for the squeeze!" Time is our most precious commodity. Would have been foolish to waste so much for so little. We here all appreciate you and your craft. Never mind those people!

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  8. you could be in the movies, you could be a star

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  9. He clearly didn't realize that this wasn't a mass-produced article. You probably made a good decision, for your own sanity!

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    1. I think he did, the email was just a generic form. we had talked about the process and my brother, who watches the show says they often have segments on one or two persons arts. I probably didn't convey how time consuming each step is though.

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  10. Since you already had the experience and it did little or nothing for your business, turning down the exposure is understandable.

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.