Talk back to Blogging Top Design!
First time commenting? Click here for BTD comment guidelines.Please respect our request for NO LINKS in the comments. If you have something you'd like us to feature, Email the team at BTD to send us the link. Thanks!
It is great to have this insight. And it brings up the point that the judges should include the carpenters in the "white room." Or at least interview them on site. After all they are as important to the process as the models are to Project Runway. Moreso if they are working independently!
Thanks for your message. I'm curious about the process. In particular, who gave you the directions/designs for "the storage cabinet in the back, the sliding ladder on the front of the loft (that no one seemed to notice was designed to access all parts of the loft storage space) and the benches for the theatre audiences" ? (All of which, by the way, were super cool.)
Why is it that the carpenters are getting such short shrift on this show? I agree trixie - they are as important as the PR models.
Where are the bios for these talented people? Why not have some incentive for their contributions?
Excellent insight, thank you Carl!
This just reinforces the feeling that the judges don't
have a good handle on things.
Very interesting behind the scenes details, thank you!
Great to hear that side of things, thanks Carl! I think the problem with the judging is that they (the judges) are really too removed from the actual process. I think Margaret mentioned in her blog post that they had no idea about the over-stuffed condition of the garage - till the show aired! So too, they probably have no way of knowing what the carpenters are doing, who they are working for, etc. So, they comment on what's right in front of them and have no context. It's also possible that the carpenters weren't initially intended to be more than background help, but in the actual process of shooting the show and then editing it, it became apparent how important they really are. Plus, we as the audience are enjoying the eye candy!
Again, the time constraints cause so many problems. Paint, stain and glue need time to dry; and while that's happening, almost nothing else can happen. So, they end up probably skipping steps or making decisions based on time vs. quality and aesthetics. Large sewing projects (window treatments, bedding) are also very time consuming. While they do appear to have sewers available, it's not clear (to me) how much help they are really getting in that department.
Carl addressed something I had been wondering: How was Ryan suppose to add more floor graphics if people were walking around on the floor working? Makes no sense.
This show seriously needs to work out the kinks in their production before season 2. Otherwise I'll have no interest in watching anymore. I'll stick around through the end of season 1 just because I want to see more work from Andrea, Erik, and Goil, but I already feel like I'm wasting my time.
"This show seriously needs to work out the kinks in their production before season 2."
Must concur. I think it's a big bump that the judges don't know what they're looking at until they're looking at it - I don't remember the PR judges being that much in the dark about the circumstances designtestants were facing - and it makes me think that it's the PRODUCERS that might not have a sufficient clue about the genre they're working in.
BTW, was it here that someone called Les Judges Femmes "Betty and Veronica"? I think THAT'S going to stick.
Hee.
Yeah, I couldn't understand why Carisa was getting such a hard time for doing her assigned task. And it was completely unfair that Ryan was blamed for not painting a floor that was covered in junk. This episode sucked.
It really did. I tried to watch it again and ended up feeling so sorry for all of them. I thought it was hard on Andrea too, the way they second-guessed her win at the end when Jonathan told her she could stay but they weren't convinced she had the top design. How petty and rude!
I think it is to the designers credit that they are coming off as well as they are because the producers look like they do not know what they are doing.
Hi again, Carl. Could you please comment on the process (see my earlier message above). Are you guys only supposed to listen to your own designers (looking at the previerws, it appears that that might've been tough during the episode to air this week). How much input were you asked to/able to give? Was is designer-dependent (i.e., were some designers more open to input from their carpenters)?
Thanks, BTD, for getting input from such a wide array of sources.
To answer some of your questions, Megan: This episode was different in that we were all one huge team. So everyone pretty much looked to Andrea for direction. The ladder was something I threw out and she liked it. The cabinet was conceived by Andrea and Robert and I engineered and built it.
At this point in the show, we were all just doing our best to get this thing done. It truly was a team effort. One didn't hear things like "Well, MY designer said we should do it this way". Andrea delegated and we all pitched in to the best of our abilities.
As you saw in previous episodes, each designer was effectively a three person team: Designer, Carpenter and Seamster. In my cases of working with Carisa,Erik, Andrea, Micheal, Goil and Ryan it was always a collaboration of vision and application. They see it and we make it real. OR, as is often the case, they have to adjust their vision to accomodate the inherent restrictions of the design.
Case in point here: Carisa's rolling table. Great idea, impossible to make real in that situation. And, go figger, look how that turned out!
So, you can imagine this kind of communication between the ethereal and real is tricky at best, and potentially catastrophic given time, money and space limitations. And, yes, some are better at it than others, as you have seen. But, it's overcoming that challenge that I think makes this show interesting and, frankly, the very foundation of what is "good" design.
I offer this caveat though: try to see past the editing and give people the benefit of the doubt. As an example, Jared was portrayed unfairly during the student pad ep. Did you see the finished product? It didn't suck, it was hot. The editing made it look like a disaster unfolding. I think every single carpenter had at least one "oh, crap" moment in every episode. I, for one, routinely had several screw-ups, that, thankfully, haven't aired. Goil was quoted right at that particular low-point and that quote made the show, what you didn't see was the high-point when they figured it out and finished the project beautifully. So, I guess what I'm saying is, read between the cuts and you'll get a pretty good idea of what's really going on.
Thanks so much, Carl!! What a great perspective and fantastic detail! I could never be on a reality TV show...I already worry too much about what people think about me; I can't imagine how weird/twisted it must be to have to worry about what people think about the Bravo-edited-and-created-not-me.
I doubt that you and the rest of the carpenters thought too much about how you/they would be portrayed when they signed on for this gig: Jared now pegged as the pretty boy who can't add; Sarah as the pretty girl who can't build. Thanks so much for commenting speaking up about that.
As I've said before, I'm very grateful to the BTD folks for providing this forum for extra voices. So, thanks again for your input, Carl, both on the show and here.
Return to Blogging Top Design
Commenting by HaloScan
