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As a project manager and superintendent for CDI, I have done many of these
news and cable show interviews. We do try and include the contractors we work with. We maintain not only business relationships with our contact partners, but many are long time family and business friends.
Unfortunately we do not have total editoral control over these shows. We can not control who hits the cutting room floor.
As for our Las vegas project it was, as always, a pleasure to work with LVI and we look forward to many years of working together with them and all contractors in the industry.
I have been there a couple times before. It's just like when you write up a press release or an article for a newspaper or magazine, you can't control what is printed you only hope they print everything.
Well, you've now entered into my particular arena of expertise, gentlemen, and I feel compelled to shed some light on, what appears to be, a rather befuddling issue...media coverage in the demolition industry.
As a 3rd generation family member, full-time with CDI for nearly 15 years now, I have been involved in the negotiation of literally dozens of different production agreements between our firm and various production entities, networks, major motion picture studios, etc., over the years. One thing I learned VERY early on, is that there are no "guarantees" issued from such entities...nor will there ever be.
Through countless discussions with producers and, more often, their legal departments, we've developed an in-house production agreement that protects us to the fullest possible extent under the law...however, the ONLY things we can truly negotiate for and DEMAND, with regard to editorial matters, is protection of our family name, proprietary information and matters of OHSA compliance (in other words, the camera can "lie" to the audience by distorting distances from leading edges and such, and we’re permitted to review the rough footage under these terms).
What you CANNOT negotiate for is editorial "control"...in other words, as my co-worker, Thom Doud, very smartly mentioned...we have no legal means of controlling what footage is or isn't used in the finished segment or, as he put it “hits the cutting room floor.” All we can do is "plug" our client whenever possible and hope it makes the piece...and that's IT. Beyond this, The Today Show falls under the category of "news programming" as opposed to a documentary-style production, therefore, our rights were even MORE restricted on the piece. We operated largely on trust and verbal agreements as their legal staff refused to sign ANYTHING that might set precedent for future media involvements.
The more media savvy contractors out there, such as LVI, fully understand this. They also understand that WITHOUT the “more flashy” implosion aspect of the project, that same media interest would more than likely NOT be there!! Typically, only trade journals are interested in the complete story....how many machines, weeks of preparation, total debris removal time. Trust me, as a frequent subcontractor, we MORE than understand that THIS is the BULK of the work...unfortunately, it's not the "glamorous" part of the work according to the viewing audience. As a side note, here, you should know that LVI and CDI are currently co-authoring an article on the project for submission to Demolition Magazine. Of course, our part of that story will be remarkably small in comparison to LVI’s, in direct proportion to our level of involvement on the project.
As one of the main "characters" in The Today Show segment, I can personally attest to having mentioned LVI on numerous occasions throughout the interview process. In fact, my client’s wife and daughter were at the blasting machine with me during the implosion which, I’d hoped, would nearly GUARANTEE their appearance on the show…but, no…not so. For those that saw the segment, you’ll recall only a very tight shot of our hands on the machine…c’est la vie.
You must also keep in mind that over the course of two (2) full days of filming with our crew on site during loading/wiring operations, they used about 30 seconds of that footage in the final piece...and that's pretty darned typical of this type of program…less technical…more “fluff.”
Hopefully, this will help clarify just WHAT goes on behind the scenes of such productions. To reiterate Thom’s sentiments, we continue to enjoy a wonderful working relationship with LVI and many others in the industry and look forward to continuing to do so.
First off, thank you for joining Demolition Forum.
Great post, I hope that our readers find it interesting. As you and your colleague Tom mention that we all can’t control the press and they can turn almost in situation to make them look good and/or people look bad at times. It’s what makes for interesting TV and ratings.
As you stated with 2 days of taping for a 5 minute section some things are going to get “missed” and most people outside our industry are more interested in the implosion than the “behind the scenes”. This is why so many spectators show up for the implosions.
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As one of the main "characters" in The Today Show segment
Okay, the only thing we are missing here is LVI's response. "More savvy media contactors....." That's an insult. What do you do with the "less savvy media contractors"?
Do you really edit for OSHA compliance? Why don't you just work safe? It seems to me that is just subterfuge to cut anybody out of the program that you don't want in it.
...try re-reading my post DemoDave...clearly, you missed several points.
I'm not sure who you are or what your agenda is in here, but I think I'll depart the forum altogether operating on this tidbit of advice I was given by a dear friend many years ago:
"Never argue with an idiot...they'll only drag you down to their level and beat you with experience."
I didn't miss anything. By implying that there is a certain subset of demo contractors that are media "savvy" you are also implying that there is a class of demolition contractors who aren't. Maybe some contractors don't need all the media attention and would prefer to perform their work out of the spotlight.
I am still waiting to hear LVI's take on it.
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