Papert becomes HGTV fodder...
 

Last spring my girlfriend and I were the subject of an episode of "reDesign", an HGTV series which has at last reached the airwaves. As part of a year-long house renovation, we had the master bedroom designed by Kenneth Brown for the show. I had fun with the crew...after the first taping was plagued by hotspots from the skylights, they returned a few weeks later to discover I had silked the offending windows and they had nice soft light to shoot in all day!

Regardless of the curiousity factor of "let's watch Papert make a fool of himself", the transformation of the room is pretty amazing. It was exceptionally ugly beforehand (exactly as it was when I bought the house) and the production company has proclaimed this their favorite episode of the show to date. We loved working with Kenneth, although the reality was that many aspects of the design were the result of a group effort off-camera, and others that we brought to him.

The episode is called "Zen-inspired Master Bedroom", and airs on HGTV this week at the following times:

AIR TIMES:
• October 16, 2005 1:30 AM ET/PT
• October 20, 2005 8:30 PM ET/PT
• October 21, 2005 12:30 AM ET/PT
• October 22, 2005 4:30 PM ET/PT

Ladies and gentlemen, start your Tivos!

Hah, can't wait to see this! Thanks Chas,

They used different DP's for different shoots. The "important" days were shot on 2/3" DVCam, but many of the inbetweens were shot on a PD150, often by an associate producer. Such is the nature of basic cable...!

Actually, when some things were going on at the house while the show was on their Xmas break, I shot a bit on the DVX for them; a couple of shots made it into the final show.

Although I don't always agree with every action that some labor unions engage in, this is one example of why they came into existence in the first place.

Hey Chas, will be setting the PVR to catch your 'in front of the camera' debut. You forgot to mention the most important thing. How does Amy Jo feel about the finished product? Or, better yet, how long did it take the two of you to reach a consensus. That seems to slow down a lot of my projects around here because Sandy and I have two different ideas about re-modeling. :-)

-gb-

That's usually the biggie with remodeling, isn't it Greg. Amy had always envisioned herself in more of a rustic, Tuscany Villa kind of vibe, so I thought there would be difficulty bringing her around to the contemporary, streamlined look I had envisioned for the house, but it turns out that she embraced it entirely and we've had virtually no disagreements of taste in any aspect of the remodel (which has incorporated a complete gutting and rebuilding of 7 rooms and the exterior), which is astonishing.

That's awesome! What a gal.

-gb-

You said "tool"--huh huh...

Actually James, we are championing the return of the Murphy bed for our guest room; disappears neatly back into the wall for everyday use as Amy's office. As you may have guessed from the cabinets and hidden doors in the master bedroom, I have a fascination with the Ken Adams production design from the earlier Bond films; just adore secret panels and things that flip out of the walls, etc.

Charles,

Enjoyed the show and the room looks beautiful. I think a small pit in front of the fireplace would have saved the hearth size, but otherwise it is coooooool!

Mike

Imagine walking around in a dark bedroom half asleep in the middle of the night with the possibility of falling into said pit...! We examined that idea a couple of years ago (even going so far as having a 2-level room, which would have saved having to raise the whole floor) but it seemed like a bad idea pretty quickly.

The other thing about that fireplace is that it was built as an outdoor firebox and thus would always have smoked too much for indoors--it's fairly shallow front to back. And rebuilding it was out of the question, structurally speaking.

Charles,

That makes a lot of sense, especially the second part!
Best of luck.

Mike