Cue the Tile!

So yesterday I produced my first real shoot for television. This doesn't count my pilot of "Extreme Enthusiasts," which was all about the fascinating and bizarre sport of Model Warship Combat.

Yesterday was about producing a 2:00 minute segment for a home/lifestyle show on cable. The topic was Custom Imaged Tile Murals. Here's an example. It might look painted, but the art is in each tile.

The assignment was for me to meet the Director of Photography, drive about 2:30 hours to a town, interview the makers of the tiles, some home-owners who used it in their home, and then shoot it applied in the most spectacular house I've ever seen. This was a 20,000 square foot manse, and likely one of the finest homes being built in America. More on that later. Here's a picture of the outside. It's bigger than it looks.

At each location, we shoot interviews and what is called "B-roll." B-roll is simply footage used to cover up edits in the interviews. It's also comprised of the images used to tell the story. It's an old film-editing term derived from the process of A-B rolling the film. This site has a decent explanation.

At the end of the day, I was to FedEx the tapes, tape logs, and releases. Then, I'd drive the 2:30 hours home.

Word was, these jobs never pay anything. This proved to be true. I got about 1/2 my day rate (for a 10 hour day), for what what turned into a 17 hour day (including travel).

The Schedule:

When I got the schedule from the production company, I immediately saw a problem. We were given about 4 hours to shoot about 5 interviews at 3 locations. What you have to realize is that with a 2-person crew, it takes a good 1/2 hour to load in all the lights, cases, monitor, camera, tripod, and other equipment, and get it set up. That's hustling. Then, it takes about 1/2 hour to load it all back out and into the van. So, that's 1 hour per location right there. Times three. That's three hours of just loading and unloading gear.

Then, I noticed that they had us working on location from 10:30 a.m. through our last set-up at 1:30 p.m. Add at least the hour of loading/unloading time at location #3=no lunch.

So we went down early to get a jump on the day. We left at 6:00 a.m., and ate a big breakfast at a McDonald's at our destination. This was at 8:45 a.m. We got to our first location about 9:15 a.m.

The Shoot

We get to the tile manufacturer. When I first read the story idea I thought, "How cheesy." But their product is really cool. They can take any image--hand drawn, digital photo, painted, computer generated, and transfer it to ceramic or glass tile. Then, you can make a wall or floor mural, or swimming pool liner, fountain--whatever you can dream up--out of it. Here's an example of it on a bathroom floor. It looks even better in person. The detail is amazing. And you can use weathered stone tiles, regular old ceramic tiles, or "space age" glass tiles that give the image a 3-D look. I was afraid to walk on the glass tile, but it's stronger than ceramic.

And the folks who perfected this are a really nice, down-to-earth husband and wife team.

Here they are waiting for tiles to come out of the press. They were the nicest people to work with. They do installations around the world, most of them quite large. Look for their work at Sundevil Stadium, to be announced, and on The Best Damn Sports Show Period. Look for a Dr. J. mural on the set sometime soon.


So we hunt around the shop, pick a place for the interview, and commence to setting the shot. This was the set for the interview. When we do the interview, we have to kill the A/C, and shut the big garage doors. This is in the Midwest in September, so it's hot and muggy. The interview subject began sweating immediately, poor guy. It was hot, but this is TV. Only professional athletes and reality show contestants are allowed to sweat on TV. So we had to keep stopping the tape and dabbing this guy off.

But, he was very good. He gave us some good soundbites. The background wasn't great, but it was what it was. There wasn't time to be picky, or to make "art."

We then shoot them printing out some large images that are used to transfer the images to the tile, and them making some murals in this giant heat and pressure press. (The inks on the paper become gasses and permeate a coating on the tiles). Here's one of the presses and a just-finished mural.



Then, these folks helped us carry all of our gear out to the van. Not only that,but they gave us their whole day--taking us to the other locations, trying to help move gear, offering to get us lunch. We would have had them get us a sandwich, but there was no time to sit down and eat it.

By now we're about an hour behind schedule. It will only get worse. The only way to make up time in a situation like this is to start cutting content, and there's no way to do this.

Location #2, Dentist's Home

At this house, the parents had made customized wall and floor murals for the bathroom of their 2-10-year-old-boys. This was a custom job, and the theme was the local high-school bulldog mascot engaged in a number of sports. The kids are into sports.

It was a very nice home, and the people were great. The Mom wasn't going to be in the segment, but I took one look at her and realized she did want to be in it.

Young Producers Take Note: Whenever a lady has clearly been to the salon, has perfectly styled hair and make-up, and is wearing a really nice outfit when a camera crew shows up at her house--she wants to be on camera. The only problem was, she clammed up when I asked her questioins. And we shot the interview as a 2-shot, or the husband and wife together. When that happens, you're stuck with them both on camera. He was very relaxed and talkative. She was very nervous and quiet. So, try to anticipate and avoid these situations.

But keep in mind that splitting up the interviews means you know have to set-up and light two areas. It just adds time. (This is William wrapping cable in a kid's room.)

So we shoot the interview, and then we shoot b-roll of this bathroom, with and without the kids. Did I mention Tile doesn't move? For those of you who don't know, tile is inanimate. We tried to get creative with a mirror and the mural in it, but it didn't work. We shoot every possible angle of this tile: snap zooms, swish pans, rack focus, dutch angle--you name it, we tried it. Fast cutting TV shows eat through b-roll like bacteria in a septic tank. We shoot wet kid feet walking across the floor. We shoot the kids throwing a football. We shoot interviews of the kids outside. The light kept changing because of moving clouds. More time passes.

Childen are generally very hard to interview. They don't often get that you're really trying to sell something. Why? Because they're inherently honest. They are going to either tell you exactly what they think, they're going to try to please you, or they're going to get really nervous and give you one word or vague answers because they don't understand what you want.

These kids actually did a good job. They were nice kids.

We didn't get to shoot enough b-roll here. And now, we're about 3 hours behind schedule. The Tile people are getting a little nervous. The Dentist cancelled some appointments. But, everybody's being cool.

Young Producers: When you get behind schedule, make every effort to communicate with the next people in line. At least call and leave them a voice mail to prove that you tried to get ahold of them. Apologize profusely. Be nice. Hurry. Luckily, the Tile Guy kept calling the General Contractor waiting at the Mansion.

We pull away from the Dentist's house at 5:00 p.m. The producers probably think we're almost home by this time.

The Mansion

Out of respect for the owners' privacy, and to avoid getting sued, I can't say too much about this home. I can say it is 20,000 square feet, and that is not a typo. It is extremely tastefully done. I expected it to be garrish and over the top but it felt homey and inviting. It was a genuine privilege to be invited inside. The general contractor was our main contact. I'd like to provide his name, but won't for privacy's sake.

Here's a picture of a closet. There is mahogany crown molding and trim like this throughout the entire house. This crown molding is probably about a foot across, and is heavily carved. Every corner was hand cut and carved to match. It's made by Alpine Woood Products of Marionville, Missouri--no web site. You just don't see fine wood craftsmanship like this in residential construction any more. There is a domed study that is finished entirely in burl walnut.

There is marble everyhwere. The lady's master bathroom has a couple of 900 pound marble columns and other detail work imported from Spain. The Master suite has what appears to be an alabaster mantle sculpture from China. I think it weighed 1,400 pounds. It has a huge bar and billiards room. 2 guest suites. It has an exercise pool and wet and dry saunas, horse barns, and a tiled garage. It also has a custom built waterfall that must be 30 feet high, if not higher. The waterfall is outside. Everything's computerized, including the fountain out front. It is self-cleaning.

And it had one of the nicest theater rooms I've ever seen. A lot of theater rooms in modern homes don't feel right. They tend to feel cheap to me. Here's a couple of shots of it. The tile mural is in the back.
This one featured lots of wood trim, carefully hidden speakers, and plush, elevated and monogrammed theater seating. It was elegant, comfortable, and perfectly realized.

We were here because the owner incorporated two original paintings into tile murals. One is in the theater room. The other is in the kitchen. It's above the cook top in the back.

The original paintings used to make the tile murals are by artist Jeff Legg. He was there at the home, and was very nice.

Here he's pictured with William Fambrough, the DP, as he shoots the kitchen mural. His art is beautiful. The use of a tile mural as a cooktop backsplash lets you add beauty and art in place you could never hang a painting. It was very well done, and added warmth and color to an already beautiful designer kitchen.

Jeff brought a friend. I think his name was Lee Graham. He was a tall, grandfatherly man who admitted he was just "snooping." After a career designing fabric for the neck-tie trade, Mr. Graham turned to building models for architects. We talked about still photography, and his eyes literally lit up when I handed him my 35mm Nikon N-50 to take a couple of snapshots, even though his camera of choice was an Olympus. "Film?" he asked. His eyes danced as he took the camera in his hands.

I've noticed lately that elderly people have interesting, almost prescient ways of parting. While I might say, "It's nice to meet you," or maybe, "See you around," older people tend to say, "It was a pleasure having met you," or "I'm pleased to have had the chance to meet you." It has a sense of finality to it, like they realize that time is short and that you might not ever meet again. It's very subtle. Listen for it. If you ever part ways like this, take it as a genuine compliment. After parting with Mr. Graham, I realized it's not often anymore you get to meet a true gentleman.

We wrapped out of the Mansion at about 6:30 p.m. Then, the mad dash to Fed Ex. We barely made it to FedEx, and forgot to include the audio recording information on the tape labels because we were rushed.

We finally sat down to dinner at 7:30. It was bad Mexican. I returned home a little after 11:00 p.m.

Reflections:

Custom Imaged Tile Murals are cool if you start with good art.
I knew what I was getting myself into; at least I had a pretty good idea.
People are generally very nice. There were lots of opportunities for people to get upset when we got behind. No one did.
If anyone ever asks to use your home for a film shoot or TV show taping, just say no.
Always get signed releases, even for artwork used in a shoot. Copyright is a right. Respect it.
You get to meet the nicest people doing what I do. Some days it beats working for a living, even if the job turns into a beating.

Jeremy's Weblog

I came across this blog tonight. It was a "Blog of Note", or something like that, on Blogger's homepage. I know I aspire for my blog to be noteworthy, but nobody reads it. Anyway, I thought it was very funny and genuine. He invites emails if you like his blog. Here is what I wrote.

"Yeah. I like it. Your blog, that is. And I didn't go to law school. I often consider going to law school because I hate my job
as a freelance writer/producer of corporate videos. But it beats working for a living. I have lots of time
to read other people's blogs. Is that apostrophe in the right in the place? I was an English major, but that one always gets me.

It seems to me that if you're a lawyer, people will actually pay to listen to your advice. And then, they'll generally do what you say.

If you're a freelance corporate video producer, people hire you for your expertise, and then do the exact opposite of what you advise.

Tomorrow I'm producing a segment for an (cable network deleted) show. The subject is tile. It doesn't move. It doesn't do anything.

Other producers get to do segments on vibrating home theater chairs, and nifty garage organizers, and really expensive
swimming pool toys. I get tile. That should be some great television."

I'm actually excited about doing this segment. I like the production company. And the show is great. It should be fun. But I was serious about no one ever listening to your advice if you're a video producer. Maybe I don't charge enough?

Check out Jeremy's blog.

Those Who Can't, Blog.

"Those who can, pierce. Those who can't, blog."
My Favorite Video Editor

This conversation arose from an image I sent to said editor from the intriguing HooptyRides blog. Scroll down a little to "In Praise of Custom Vans: Part 1 of 100" and look for the photo of the Nevada van driver.

The image somehow spawned a discussion centered on piercing, tattoos, and self mutilation. We decided the can/can't equation extends to vanity license plates.

I'd love to post the picture here, but I can't.