Becoming a TV star!
Posted in Blender Institute, Production by Ton
Yesterday morning, the talkshow producer from “De Wereld Draait Door” (DWDD, or “The world revolves”) phoned me if we were interested to be guest in the monday show. Surprise!
It especially was good news for our project and for Blender because the show is very well known in the Netherlands. It’s prime-time from 19.30 and 20.30, broadcasted on the quality public TV channel. Usually it hosts a varied mix of entertainment and information. Items typically don’t last more than 5-10 minutes. About half to a million people watch it daily.
The nice thing was also that the studio is literally around the corner, a few minutes walk away from the Blender Institute. So, we were there in time, got our make-up, drinks as much you wanted and excellent dinner. As groupies we could get Margreet, Campbell and William in.
Apart from getting surrounded by the obligatory Dutch tv celebs (the show host, a famous radio DJ, a political commentator, some actors), it was interesting to see how smooth and well organized it all went. For a daily show that already runs a couple of years quite logical though!
On the moment supreme it all went so fast that I’m still surprised a bit… it was overwhelming to suddenly have the talkshow host and cameras turning to you, and firing the first question to Sacha while you expected a movie fragment to be shown. You also clearly feel that the program makers are in extremely tight control, you’re merely a puppet that acts when they want you to say something… and please don’t be boring!
If you click on the image above you can watch the interview with subtitles on BlenderNation.
Thanks!
-Ton-
April 22nd, 2008 at 4:56 pm
On DWDD? Wow! That’s *the* TV show in the Netherlands of today :)
I’m going to watch right now, and don’t be worried if it went to fast, as I suppose that’s the case for everybody at that show :)
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:43 pm
The media exposure was good for Blender and BBB, but the hosts of show were idiots! They weren’t being critical, they were trying to be funny by mocking the development efforts (i.e. grass, etc.); and what’s up with animated porn – fire that guy!
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:00 pm
BlenderBoy – that’s what’s makes the show so popular. It’s a feel-good show, without critical interviewers ^.^
(Don’t worry, there are shows with critical interviewers in the Netherlands)
Anyway, I thought you made a good appearance, and I was surprised Giel knew about Linux :)
April 22nd, 2008 at 6:50 pm
@BlenderBoy
I understand exactly what you mean, and felt similar. Although I would not worry too much. Every minute people has less to criticize about Blender. If the grass *movement* is the worst critic, that’s a very good sign.
I don’t think people take that “porn” comment too seriously. The grass movement is a fact (minor one from my point of view), but the “usage in porn” is just a comment trying to be funny (not much laughter in the studio anyway).
I think people is not stupid, when they see quality they don’t need a hoster to tell them what to think.
The important thing is that the main hoster was very respectful, so this was great publicity for Blender. Everything was really fast, Ton and Sacha could handle it very well… questions, jokes, critics, all in 5 mins with lights, cameras (not the ones they are used to handle), and thousands of people on the other side. A hard situation well handled.
I personally want to thank Ton, Sacha, Campbell, Bretch… well all in the team who expose themselves to different kind of hosters and help promote Blender. They don’t only code, they do many other things that help us all to reach this dream (every day more true) about Blender being a mainstream 3D package.
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:33 pm
I agre with blenderboy, they hosts were being a bit stupid.
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:04 pm
Awesome interview guys. I think it went really well. I can’t wait to see the movie.
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:18 pm
Congrats guys, that went really well and the more exposure BBB, and especially Blender, gets, the better it is!! Blender FTW:-D
April 23rd, 2008 at 1:49 am
Hehehe the complaint about the grass was actually surprising me. I thought it looked very decent :)
But those details like wind are usually the first details to be cut out when it’s not a 3 zillion dollar deal.
Good show guys!
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:41 am
I missed it at 19:30 but saw the late rerun, you did fine guys. Those commments about the grass though, they should watch the entire movie!
anyway, great publicity for Blender!
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:59 am
really…the grass didnt move…
well that surely beats my complaints for importance…the grass didnt move…hmmmm…seriously?
I guess you open your self up to being a walk on rating booster with a show like this…perhaps this was really not the best exposure opportunity to agree to – a little too compressed and as Ton says tightly formatted/controlled… still people hear the name of Blender and BBB so maybe some more will see it
April 23rd, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Good show, people! A shame you did not get to mention the blender site…
I think the ‘grass-movement’ question was the result of in-depth research by reading the item in ‘Parool’, see previous post.
April 24th, 2008 at 5:49 pm
That’s really awesome. SO like the equivalent of appearing on The Tonight Show in the US?
April 26th, 2008 at 1:26 am
right, the aim of the interviewers is to score; had a similar feeling when I was on the show last year. anyway, first time I heard about blender, might have to take the course and see how it fits in with my fcp experience and underwaterfilming…
April 30th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Grass movement in blender is super easy. Just add an empty and make it wind. My point is that they could have done it very easily, if they wanted to. Its not really a matter of budget, I think.
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:06 am
zimbloggy, moving grass is indeed super easy. But to make it look convincing, that’s a completely different story. It takes a LOT of time. Which we didn’t always have.