“No,” replies Richard. “We’ll put it in the written
instructions.”
At 11: 46, John arrives on the set. At 12: 46, with
several pieces of wood on the table, John begins
the scene: “First, we’ll build the rig.” There are lots
of starts and stops. A battery runs out on the wireless mic, causing a restart. The scene ends with
John saying he’s ready to drill a hole in the frame.
“Do you want to go to the drill press next?”
There’s some debate about what to do next, but
it’s then decided: “Let’s drill.” Soon a chorus of “Drill,
baby, drill!” rings out, repeating Rudy Giuliani’s infamous line from the Republican convention, which
was held in St. Paul two weeks earlier.
Sneak Peek
I pop into the editing room to review the Maker-to-Maker segments featuring Mister Jalopy.
A contributing editor for MAKE, Mister Jalopy
gets a chance to show off his garage and talk about
what he discovers from “garage saleing” in Los
Angeles. He talks about a vintage car he bought
for “a fistful of dollars and an old bike,” and why
he won’t restore it. It’s great stuff.
At 15:06, John is tightening a nylon wing nut to
join the two frames. “Now we can test out the pivot,”
he says. The servomotor moves the upper frame,
and John smiles when it works out. Michael says
this scene is the longest, covering 45 seconds to a
minute. We’ve done about 12 scenes this afternoon,
each requiring four or five takes.
In the final scene, John is supposedly looking
at the pictures on the camera that we took at the
zoo. “Excellent,” he says looking at the still camera.
“Awesome. Fantastic. Incredible. Woweee.” He keeps
riffing until everyone is laughing.
“Just say ‘excellent,’” adds Richard.
At 17: 43, we’re done for the day. John’s been
“on” for most of it, a kind of marathon. It’s about 24
hours in real time, 12 hours in actual recording time
— all of it for seven minutes of a half-hour show.
I ask Bill how long it might take a person to do the
Pole Cam project and he says: “About two hours if
you have everything ready to go, but it would probably take most people a full day.”
A full day. So, the making of a Maker Workshop
segment becomes a project in itself. Not surprisingly, it’s a group of people working together on
deadline.
Dale Dougherty is editor and publisher of MAKE and CRAF T
magazines.
Make: television
is coming to
public TV in
January 2009 —
contact your local station for
airtimes, and visit
makezine.tv
to learn more.
Based on an idea by MAKE editor at large David
Pescovitz and myself, Make: television is a
blend of “meet the makers” documentary
with a hands-on workshop that shows viewers
how to build things themselves. The show is
comprised of four segments:
Maker Profile: A documentary segment that
shows the creative and collaborative side of
making. We visit San Francisco’s Cyclecide
group that makes human-powered carnival
rides; author Syuzi Pakhchyan from Los Angeles,
who designs electronics into clothing; and many
other amazing makers.
Maker Workshop: Your host John Park shows
you step-by-step how to make a VCR Cat
Feeder, a Burrito Blaster, a Digital TV Antenna,
and many other projects.
Maker-to-Maker: Insights and tips from notable
makers, including Mister Jalopy, Cy Tymony,
and Bill Gurstelle.
Maker Channel: Videos created by makers
themselves. If you have a video you’d like us to
consider, tell us about it at
makerchannel.org.
Read bios of the Make: television team at
makezine.com/16/maketv.
Geek Squad: Take the World Apart
The Geek Squad was quick to sign onto the project
as a major sponsor. Their founder and CEO, Robert
Stephens, explains, “When I was a kid, my parents let
me take things apart, and that gave me a curiosity
for how the world works.
“This is why Make: television is important,” he
adds. “We need young people to be curious and take
the world apart to see how it works. From Wikipedia
and You Tube to MAKE, the world has an edit button
on it now. The Geek Squad is proud to be a founding
sponsor of Make: television.” We at MAKE agree!
Make: 37
