| | How the Casting Call worked ~ My Audition for the PBS Winemaker / Winemakers Reality Series (Doc City produced for PBS). I auditioned on May 2nd 2006
Un-characteristic of me, I got up and was ready to leave before I had to. Many times I leave late and arrive late. Traffic from Novato all the way to the city was intense. I think there were more people going in to work than usual to make up for the Illegal Holiday on Monday. However we were still roughly in the area of the studio 15 minutes ahead of time... but I took a wrong turn and got lost and then couldn't find parking immediately once I righted myself. Ultimately I got there at 10:17 . That 17 minutes cost an additional 3 1/2 hours waiting inside later on.
I thought about what I was going to wear for a couple days before the show and we washed and got things ready the night before. I wore a black single breasted Brioni suit jacket over a black synthetic fiber t-shirt that hung smoothly down my torso. For trousers I had dark blue levi jeans that were long, tapered and flowed over my shoe top. The socks were black so there would be no break visually between the pants and the shoes which black Ferragamo loafers were newly polished. I asked Melinda what she thought. 'You look just like Emeril'. Funny that she got it, that was who I modeled the wardrobe after but I hadn't told her.
The guy who put this competition/reality show together worked with or for Mark Burnett when he started Survivor/Apprentice.
We arrived and there was a sign in desk,
I was number 619 (but they started at 600 so I was '19').
The building is under construction and at the same time being used for wine storage. There were construction materials and building debris basically everywhere though they had scooted many of the materials and tractors over toward a four bay truck loading ramp area. At the far end past where the auditions would be taped, was a Cafe and farther still was the bathrooms.
There was a tabled area the contestants sat and waited in. There were 30 contestants in the morning session. Things were not ready to start at 10:30 as people had imagined they might. The Pelikan cases of sound, light and video equipment were still arriving as we were getting settled. They were still getting the 'studio' area situated which was in a barrel storage room that had thick walls to keep to keep the temperature even and in this case the exterior sound out.
This is kind of a shot of the barrel storage/interview room showing where we would be standing.
The event was staged at 'The Crushpad' in San Francisco, a place that someone can bring grapes they've bought to and have them crushed and fermented and aged, then later bottled with the grape owners private label.
Here is a video walking from the Cafe are back to the tables. You will see construction material on the right and the 'studio' door will be on the left. At the far end is the tables we waiting at before moving to the staging area.
They didn't get the camera gear ready to roll until 11:30. At 11:15 they called the first group of six over to staging area prior to going in for the interview. This area had 6 chairs and people were seated in their number order. They were briefed by a fellow that never introduced himself but I imagine it was Kevin Whelan the head of the production company. During the briefing he explained the shows contestants will be making a wine that will be sold, they already have shelf space lined up with Whole Foods. The final contestants will find themselves taught on enology and marketing for a wine label/brand and the winner will have developed his own wine label and brand.
Here is a video of the first six contestants on the right and on the left we will peer in and see the judges. Courtney is the girl in the white jacket getting up at the end of the video.
This is a video of fellow group contestants Bill, then Bob and Bernie's wife in a pan and zoom toward a shot of the briefer.
In the press releases about the show, the prize was to be $100,000 to start your own wine label. Now it appears they may have figured out how they want the money spent and have made commitments as to how and where it's going.
This is a video of the briefer. Sorry about the lighting.
The briefing person carries on explaining 'to be yourself', 'don't look directly at the camera and address your answers to the judges'.
The first group went in and the next six (607 to 612) went to the staging area seats. They came back out about 50 minutes later.
Each of the next groups were briefed and let in for the interview at about 40 minute intervals with a 15 minute gap for set up.
My group went in fourth and it started about 2:30. Since the six in my group had been hanging out for four hours we had come each other. It interesting to meet people and then consider what character they are casting for. Reality shows of blended people confined together have a certain type of mix. Here is a description of the people in my group.
Here is a video of the group just before us and of us. We pass behind Brian wearing glasses in a white shirt. Then the camera sweep to catch Melinda (who is laughing) and Bill who is wearing glasses and a light blue shirt. To our left is Bernie, in the brown shirt. To the right of Bernie is his wife and beyond her is Bob for just a moment.
619)Frank - We all know me
620) Bob - lives in Fairfield and Works as an insurance auditor for the state of California. He is in his end thirties or early forties, as I recall stands about 5' 9" and weighs I guess 215. His wife sells bottles into the wine industry for California Glass Corporation in Oakland. Bob, is nice guy. doesn't know a lot about wine. It's not his passion, his kids are and he is here just to see.... what happens.
This is a shot of Bob on the right and Bernie's wife on the left.
621) Brian - Lives in Los Gatos and is an organic vegetable farmer by day. He is also one of seven or people in a wine making co-operative and is the winemaker among them. He is 5 foot 11-ish about 55 to 60 years old and has a full beard that is longer off the chin and shorter on the sides. He also wears glasses and has a well receding hair line. He is from Wales and has the full Richard Burton voice, accent and inflection. He is knowledgable on wine and mild mannered and soft spoken.
This is a shot of Brian looking toward the interview room.
622) Bill - is in his late 50's. We talked at length in sitting area. He has been a wine maker on and off going back 20 years. More than once in conversation he mentions his high water mark in wine making as winning the Sonoma County Harvest Fair or the Marin County Fair (he doesn't know which and says so each time it come up) Blue ribbon (first place) for his Petite Syrah. Bill has highly effeminate mannerisms and mentioned he lived with his mother for many years until she died. He lives in San Francisco. His face is long like a race track on end and shows fully his age with gravity pulling his jowls and recessed lines permanently marking his once boyish face. He is clean shaven with dark hair and a dark brown moustache. He wears glasses. As you talk to him you can see that his much older parents probably stood in the way of him becoming fully accepted by kids his own age. He never quite overcame that awkwardness even in his adulthood. He is knowledgable but it is difficult to see him as a contestant on the show. Would you ever forget where you received your first Blue Ribbon?
Bill is on the right in the light blue shirt.
623) Bernie - is from the East Sonoma area. He is contractor/carpenter by day effecting remodel projects for people. He owns a 3 acre vanity vineyard that grows Cabernet Sauvignon grapes which are sold to Schug Winery. He gives the impression he is a home wine maker. His wife has come to the casting call with him and when she is asked separately if they are home wine makers she responds, 'Well,... not now...'. So it's been a few years it sounds like. Bernie is affable, originally from Chicago but moved to Sonoma County abut 25 years ago and knows the area and what it used to be... quite well. He is clean shaven, late forties early fifties with boyish chestnut hair that doesn't even seem to be thinning.
Bernie and his wife.
624) Courtney - is from San Francisco also. Apparently she doesn't live far from the audition location. She appears to be 23 maybe 24. She has the whole look package worked out. She has a floppy beach bag purse aver her arm with the requisite Louis Vitton gold logo's on cocoa brown plastic. She is wearing a cashmere tan neck scarf draped carefully to accent her brown eyes that are made up for any close-ups that might occur. Her hair naturally is probably a shade of brown but has been yellowed up and has highlights in that style so popular in the early 21st century. She is wearing blue jeans cut low but not *really* low riders and medium width Black belt with a silver colored buckle that your eye is drawn to. Is it an american indian piece?
Courtney is the girl in the white jacket passing by on the left.
There were four judges from the wine industry that presented the questions. One was Tina a write for 'Wines and Vines', the next two were writers from The Chronicle and a Minneapolis people both writing on the wine industry and both were also contributors to Wines and Vines. The last was Tim, a chef at a restaurant in San Francisco named Tim. They explained we would asked some but not all of the questions in the suggested questions we had been sent by email. We stood in a semi-circle each of us with our toes near a taped mark in the floor so we could appear in a wide master shot. I was number 619 and the first to answer.
This is a closeup of the judges at their table in the interview room prior to taping. (They were sipping while judging.) Tim, the chef is wearing the glasses.
The first question was easy enough. It was to get us comfortable with the camera. We were to tell them our name, where we come from, what we do for a living and why we were there.
The fact is I can't remember what I told them as the reason I was there but it was something to effect that I have ideas about wine marketing that I would like promote and try. I did say I was computer programmer and assisted people with marketing on the internet. Everyone else gave the pertinent information and in a short way said something rather similar about why they were there. Except Courtney. It was fast and it was voluminous. If I can recall it correctly... she mentioned as her job that she was a sommelier at a restaurant in town and had started 3 businesses in the wine industry since she graduated from UCLA last year. Besides the sommelier gig, she had a business advising people as a personal sommelier for a fee and had some type of wine events business she had started and also if I got it right she put together a business with her acting as a consultant to restaurants to make selections for their wine list/cellar. It was all overwhelming.... *until* you let reality bitch slap you in the face and realize there is not a chance she could go to school, really apply herself to that *PLUS* learn about wine with any deep and stable knowledge at her age. Her position as she described it didn't fit the knowledge base her life would have so far...
The next question was one of the ones that had been emailed to us to prepare for. 'If you were launching your own wine label, what are some of the sales and marketing strategies you would develop to promote your wine?' Again I was to answer first. I laid out my ideas of marketing and internet marketing for the new brand. When you are asked specific questions under the gaze of an audition before a TV camera, *and* you care about the answer you give your memory can get fuzzy. However I recall saying many of the things I outlined in answer 4 of the questions I prepared for. I brought up the concept that a new label could do more risky and controversial things. I specifically mentioned I would develop little videos that were amusing enough to justify emailing them among friends to build a word of mouth cult following. I said that I would make video podcasts of how to make wine because making the process and knowledge of wine making more 'egalitarian', by de-mystifying the process would gain you street credibility with the customer. It would help build the cult relationship, and even though they knew the steps almost no one would actually make it. They just want to know how its made.
I was able to include the on-line order taking aspect, and then went on to mention by name, 'I would use Venue-value, Bottle Value and Eco-Value in marketing the wine'. I gave quick details of wanting restaurants to reduce the margins they charge, saying I would work with the restaurants to encourage it. I didn't say what I was really thinking, 'put a price on the bottle to force it' because these judges work in the industry the way it is now and they could never visualize restaurant sales being different.
I mentioned Bottle Value and described what I meant, that the cost associated with a 750ml and a one liter are nearly identical, I would give the customer the added 1/3 product. As I described it to them, I could see I was loosing them, I may have been tedious on this point.
I went on to the Eco Value aspects, how the label should be gummed and state to recycle the bottle. How the winery would use green tags to purchase and use wind based electricity *and* that I would devote space on the label for important environmental thoughts that could be easy to implement and world changing.
That was about the point where I genuinely felt I should stop. I got the impression I had exceeded their time budget and interest.
The question moved on to Bob who basically said, 'I agree with Frank, I would market on the internet.' Brian also started in agreement with me and had a couple of other things to say, which I can't remember. Bill also started with the internet, but it seemed to be more traditional thinking. Bernie commented on the internet as I recall then went to traditional marketing means for the industry.
Courtney was charged and she went into a well delivered set of ideas that again largely conformed to what the industry does at the moment. She wanted to use in store shelf talkers, but didn't know what they are called and thought it might be good to have them in pads on the shelf edge so a consumer could take one with them, to... evaluate and make a purchase later. (If the talker was engaging shouldn't it convert a shopper to buyer on the spot?). She also liked the idea of selling/marketing wine on a box. The judges were more skeptical of the idea and said so to her. She defended the box concept saying while she used a Vino Vacuum ( a device that that takes the atmosphere out of a partial bottle so the wine will last a few days) religiously herself her, even though she had gifted friends with the Vino Vacuum, they never use it. The idea of the interior bag emptying and leaving no oxygen was the concept she liked. This has been used in the past successfully by Franzia wines. (Fred Franzia, convicted of fraud in the wine industry is the President of Bronco Wines, the maker of the Charles Shaw brand. Bronco was the subject of a recent Supreme Court hearing on the use of the Napa name for wines Bronco manufactures using no Napa grapes). The box concept needs to be elevated up market was Courtney's thinking. It is being used by a few wineries in some instances at the moment.
The next question asked was, 'What varietal do you like, how should it be prepared and how do you shop for wine when you are shopping in a store?' The question rotated back around to me again. I think I was good here, in part from a couple of other people. My reply was 'I like Sangiovese for my everyday wine and I like it aged 6 to 12 months in a neutral barrel. I also like Zinfandel and it should be aged 12 months in relatively a new oak barrel to impart some flavor. How do I make my selection when I go shopping...? I tend to shop based on region and what they are known. If I were looking for something from Tuscany, I would think Sangiovese and a Montalcino. Something from Spain.. a Rioja. Dry Creek.. Zinfandel.'
On this question most of the others had different favorite wines. One agreed with Red Zinfandel, Brian said Merlot was his favorite and then was grilled by the judges as to whether he had seen the film Sideways. He hadn't (odd) and they had to explain Merlot got an un-justly bad reputation because of a remark made in the film. Bill the ribbon winner liked Petite Syrah, someone liked Pinot Noir (right answer according to the film) and someone liked Sauvignon Blanc. The others said they shopped by price, which is a good answer.
At this point... two objects were presented to the group and we were asked if we knew what the first one is. Made of grey painted steel, it had a 3 foot long spirally taped handle that was welded to a piece consisting of semi-circles spaced 3 inches apart leaving four points with an inch gap. It looked like a cart handle that might be used to manipulate the stainless steel picking gondolas used during grape harvest. I offered that. They tried to draw a better answer from me but I couldn't come up with one. But I kept thinking and muttering because I couldn't find the word 'gondola'. No one else made an attempt. Smart. The judge then revealed it was a 'barrel pick and if you win you better get used to seeing this'. Apparently it's used to grip and maneuver the barrel by the edge.. I had seen it before in one of my wine books. The next object was two hinged semi-circle that closed around something round and has a wing-nut/bolt cinching system. It was clearly a hose clamp but I wasn't going to touch another answer on something I wasn't sure of at this point. Brian was the only one familiar with it saying that it was a clamp borrowed from the milk industry to join two hoses.
The next question wasn't among the ones sent to us and I had overheard the production people in the hallway say they were going to get the judges to be more difficult with the auditioners. Looking back on it, what I think they wanted was to have them generate conflict so more personality or character might be seen. Remember reality shows thrive on character conflict so I think they were hoping to get reactions.
'How important is food wine pairing?' As I remember it, this was Tina's question to us. As she was going to ask it, the battery in her microphone failed. The sound man mentioned we needed a battery change in her mic and my mind wandered to 'I wonder what brand of battery they use?'.
They went to start with me again and I was completely unprepared for the question... in so many ways. Have you ever known me to cook? With Melinda so interested and able? What on earth was I going to say and give as an example? Thinking quickly, I brought my head up, looked at the judges, smiled heartily and said, 'Isn't it time for Courtney to go first now?' and they agreed with it and looked over at her to answer first....finally.
Courntey said food and wine pairing was critical and went on to say she liked to use very opposite flavors specifically a Sauvignon Blanc and a strong cheese. She was articulate and again very cute. Bernie agreed that food and wine pairings were important.
Let's put it this way, the question was silly on the face of it considering who the judges were, and one was a chef. It wasn't a question of 'if' it is important or really how important since you can't exactly measure importance as a verbally conveyed concept without raising your voice or shrieking. Bill explained it was important. Brian stepped fully into the question by saying that wine was a food and you can't dis-associate the wine from the plate. They are the same experience. He also gave a couple of pairings he likes and emphasized his Texas bar-be-que Brisket in his his final pairing. The judges were receptive to that. Bob didn't come back with anything I can recall except basic agreement to the importance of pairing.
While all the other contestants had been giving their ideas I kept wondering what I was going to say. Even though I can appreciate a good meal I am not the kind of guy that remembers these things. I really have very little recollection of the best or most expensive meals I had. And if the meals are served with wine, well what do you know about me? I'm going to be drinking the wine and therefore remember even less.
While the others were giving their ideas, I came up with the idea to mentally serve a quick meal by describing it.
I started, 'Imagine an organically raised lamb chop cut extra thick the way you like and seasoned right...' and then heard from the cameraman, 'We have to make a tape change.' It was the contestant camera. I don't know if they got the line on that tape, or not. But potentially my continuity was lost. The change out lasted a minute and a half and I began again.
'Imagine a organically raised lamb chop... cut extra think, cooked just right... with it... Italian green beans and cherry tomatoes sauteed together as a side dish served with your favorite Zin.... Goood. Now the tossed green salad with Italian vinaigrette as dressing and then for dessert we are having fresh cut peaches. See how the Zin works with the entire meal?' This also added consistency to as to why Zin was my favorite varietal. The answer was well received.
At home we actually have dinner like Italians and have salad after the entree. I don't know if the judges felt awkward about the order, it was a natural flow to me. Or maybe they got the palette cleaning aspect of salad after and it seemed natural to them too. However two of them commented that... 'maybe.. it was time for lunch'.
I think I did well on that question and the answers came from recent meals I had.. well sort of. A few weeks ago Melinda's Aunt Mary had given us some lamb chops from her organically raised sheep. It was flavorful and also extra thick, just un-believably amazing. The night before we had the italian green bean dish. I always like a green salad and peaches are my favorite fresh fruit. So I was able to build this in my mind while the others were answering.
The sixth and final question was, from the list. 'What makes you an ideal cast member of THE WINE MAKERS?'
I had actually been rehearsing my answer to this the entire time I was driving down. I considered this the most important answer and had been specifically going over one passage. They started with Courtney on this one and she explained that she knew a lot about the retail part of the wine industry which would be a benefit to the show and cited the three businesses and her day job as reasons for inclusion. The others, the four B's cited their high interest in wine or what experience they had in life with wine.
I was actually able to say with relative conviction the reason I would make an ideal cast member is 'I am an articulate and knowledgable....' pause for William Shatner as Kirk effect, 'professor type that is youthful and down to earth with real world experience that would be of real benefit to the show.'
That concluded it. We were let out and I caught up Melinda. She said one of the staff came out and casually said this group was doing very well.
I was mentally drained. After preparing for it the past two days, I was now in a silent relatively somber mood. I ran into Brian back at the original table area and we spoke for a minute or two. I was and still am hopeful my ideas will find their way into use. I think the wine industry would benefit. I had actually printed 5 copies of my prepared answers and gave one to Brian saying, 'I hope one of us makes it and if that happens here is fuller set of the ideas I was trying to present today.
I gave him a bottle of my 2003 Sangiovese, he gave me a card so I could email him.
I believe Courtney has a good chance, chiefly because to make the cast interesting to an audience you would need to include someone in her age group. The 23 to 28 year attractive female is a staple in reality shows. (They are calling this an experiential show.) She conducted herself well. On the other hand about 80% of the people I saw coming in as contestants middle aged white guys. From the 1400 auditions they will be doing that means 1120 will be in the middle age white guy category. There might be places for *two* of them in a six member cast which means the odds are pretty long.
Things that may make a difference are
- being in the Courtney group might get me more visibility as they play it back more than once.
- I am at the beginning of the second tape with with food pairing. I will get noticed as they look at the next group.
I don't know how the selection is done. If I were them I would make a quick judgement to keep two or maybe 3 people each day and let the rest from that day drop. When leaving they said they will select fifty from the 1400. Then they will derive a list of 20 to 25 that will be invited to a second casting call which will occur in San Luis Obispo. Well... they actually said somewhere nearby that starts with 'S' . I volunteered San Luis Obispo and they nodded their head yes. That second casting call will be in June.
Keep tuned here I'll let you know how it turns out.
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