“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