Wish me luck! Motor City Masters Car Designer Competition (Airing 6/24)

[Jamesons Viggen]

Originally Posted by Forgottenbhs

Oh I apologize, did not know he has vision problems. I wonder if they'll eventually pick the best of you to work on an awesome design. I really hope they do.

Nah, don't apologize, how would you know? It was just a bit shiesty to be promised it would not be shown.

If the show is popular, they can follow the formula of bringing back fan favorites or best of the best, things like that.

Awesome design, it does get better. It has to. Each week someone goes home, hopefully leaving the most talented with larger and larger impact. The first episode was just the tipping off point.

[ashtaron14]

Watching the 1st episode, your character is portraited as the ultra arrogant know-it-all.

LOL, your family and friends must find it funny.

Love it!

[Jamesons Viggen]

Originally Posted by ashtaron14

Watching the 1st episode, your character is portraited as the ultra arrogant know-it-all.

LOL, your family and friends must find it funny.

Love it!

Pretty much.

Everyone finds it funny, thinks I am the best part-it's hard for them to be impartial. Then half of them after laughing say, man you sounded like a Dick lol.

[jts1981]

As a fellow industrial designer and BMW nut I wish you the best. These "reality" tv shows have clever editing to create drama, bad guys vs good guys, etc.

Just keep pushing forward and do the right thing in terms of design. At the end of the day its the final product that counts, not the drama that happened while creating.

best of luck!

-Jake

[1chanc3]

coooool!! Going to watch it now.

Good luck man!

Pretty neat that we "know" someone on tv that's part of the e90 fam.

[Jamesons Viggen]

Originally Posted by jts1981

As a fellow industrial designer and BMW nut I wish you the best. These "reality" tv shows have clever editing to create drama, bad guys vs good guys, etc.

Just keep pushing forward and do the right thing in terms of design. At the end of the day its the final product that counts, not the drama that happened while creating.

best of luck!

-Jake

Thanks man!

This is the clearest example from ep1 of the power of how you can come off with editing:

I got the last line of the show(EP1), started with, "I'm the best at everything..." My wife said to me today, that sounds like something you would never say seriously. It occurred to me I had said, "Well, I can't say I'M THE BEST AT EVERYTHING". See how far that goes? If everyone is reacting to things never said on camera, but only to voice over-remember, the voice over is the easiest thing to manipulate.

Originally Posted by 1chanc3

coooool!! Going to watch it now.

Good luck man!

Pretty neat that we "know" someone on tv that's part of the e90 fam.

Thanks!

[son_of_siggy]

First episode was good. FYI you can watch it online so long as you have the channel through your carrier and can login.

Interesting seeing how the personalities are represented. I assume all the episodes have been shot and you know how it all ends Jameson

[Nkc]

Good start. Jameson, you're coming off as the evil manipulator that likes to stir the pot. I'm sure you're not like that in person but sure as hell makes it a bit more interesting to watch. Who cares if you come off as the know it all, seems like you're heading this game. Good for you and I'll be cheering for you. Hope you made it far enough for this to be worthwhile for your career.

[Jamesons Viggen]

Originally Posted by son_of_siggy

First episode was good. FYI you can watch it online so long as you have the channel through your carrier and can login.

Interesting seeing how the personalities are represented. I assume all the episodes have been shot and you know how it all ends Jameson

Its on Youtube and Google Play.

Whole thing has been shot.

It's written into our contracts that if we let the outcome slip, it's over $1m in damages. So I won't be slipping.

Originally Posted by Nkc

Good start. Jameson, you're coming off as the evil manipulator that likes to stir the pot. I'm sure you're not like that in person but sure as hell makes it a bit more interesting to watch. Who cares if you come off as the know it all, seems like you're heading this game. Good for you and I'll be cheering for you. Hope you made it far enough for this to be worthwhile for your career.

Yep, that's how I am coming across for sure.

Here is an example:

Lesson 1, the power of editing: I got the last line of the show(EP1), started with, "I'm the best at everything..." My wife said to me today, that sounds like something you would never say seriously. It occurred to me I had said, "Well, I can't say I'M THE BEST AT EVERYTHING". See how far that goes? If everyone is reacting to things never said on camera, but only to voice over-remember, the voice over is the easiest thing to manipulate.

I don't think they will keep my "character" the same through out it, that would be boring. But people either love me on the show or hate me, but many are watching ENJOYING hating me. That is what producers want and explains how I was edited.

[Roki_014]

Originally Posted by Jamesons Viggen

Update

Official finalist.

Being flown to LA this week where I am doing a pysch eval, on screen test where I have to do a drawing demo. I signed the contracts and passed the physical workup/blood test.

Oh, and the sponsor is GM

I should know in about a week or so if I am officially cast.

Cool show, love how u put jesse guy in place hahah btw mirrors look cool maybe too skinny but very futuristic look, red looked great and overall design really cool, i think eb2 would make it pop good luck man

[Jamesons Viggen]

Originally Posted by Roki_014

Cool show, love how u put jesse guy in place hahah btw mirrors look cool maybe too skinny but very futuristic look, red looked great and overall design really cool, i think eb2 would make it pop good luck man

The mirrors, I actually didn't want to put any time into them and have no mirrors on the car at all which is typical of an semi early in house proof of concept.

Camilo did it, but actually handed them to me and said will you do these for me. I was like considering that you dismissed my input and have not done a single thing hands on with the car-you can do them yourself lol.

They were very careful with the edit to keep Camilo looking like the amazing designer.

And the Jesse thing, that was my saving grace. But they made it like we all had open dialog when we did not. Leaders present, the rest can only speak when spoken to. Jesse slammed our idea after everyone was heard from. 10 seconds later when It was moving along, I raised my F-in hand lol. I was called on like in school, they show it from my line-Can I address Jesse.

I gave two shits about him as a guest judge. I did not have a vagina and go ooh he so handsome. I don't watch him in movies or his TV shows. If he was dead on with his comments, great. But I thought he sounded like an asshole.

[mkoesel]

Finally had a chance to watch the show and I have to say I thought the Cruze SS idea was great. It sort of annoyed me that the female judge was so skeptical about it, or at least acted as though she was. I mean GM does Chevy SS concepts all the time.

I was impressed with how well both cars came out. Props to you and other cast members for your vision. And props to the guys doing all the fabrication too - I know how labor intensive that stuff is.

I was yelling at the TV trying to get the eventual-losing guy to follow through and do the orange accents on the wheels. I think it would have looked great as a contrast color against the matte silver. And by the way the problem in my opinion with the losing car wasn't the color or even that it wasn't finished. The problem as I saw it was that the sliding roof idea was ill conceived and really they should have done something like the dual folding gate on the 5 Series GT.

I hope you make it a few more episodes at the very least because you clearly have an excellent sense of what makes a good business case and how to conceptualize a real-world product.

[Jamesons Viggen]

Originally Posted by mkoesel

Finally had a chance to watch the show and I have to say I thought the Cruze SS idea was great. It sort of annoyed me that the female judge was so skeptical about it, or at least acted as though she was. I mean GM does Chevy SS concepts all the time.

I was impressed with how well both cars came out. Props to you and other cast members for your vision. And props to the guys doing all the fabrication too - I know how labor intensive that stuff is.

I was yelling at the TV trying to get the eventual-losing guy to follow through and do the orange accents on the wheels. I think it would have looked great as a contrast color against the matte silver. And by the way the problem in my opinion with the losing car wasn't the color or even that it wasn't finished. The problem as I saw it was that the sliding roof idea was ill conceived and really they should have done something like the dual folding gate on the 5 Series GT.

I hope you make it a few more episodes at the very least because you clearly have an excellent sense of what makes a good business case and how to conceptualize a real-world product.

Thanks for the feedback.

My thing with the SS idea was, we were told design with 2015 in mind. They cut my speech about it during the brain storming, but the Cruze redesign was likely started in 2012-2013 and the body style we had to work with was on it's way out. So I figured we should do a send off for the current car which typically means a special variant. I said they have a 5dr sold in other countries, lets make an SS, and lets make it a 2dr coupe.

Now every time they tell you the challenge, they have someone read the rules like a legal document. Basically, the wheels are picked from a catalog due to sponsors and everyone had to have a signature element on the car and wheels didn't count. Sanding, prep work which we all did, didn't count either. My signature for example was lame and assigned to me, but it was the rear diffuser. I had sketches of it, that showed the lights taper down and catch the corner of my center exhaust which further tapers. It was something I DESIGNED and helped build with my tech Fish(from Pimp My Ride fame). The end result came out exactly as my sketch because I also had dimensions.

But one of the other things I was obsessed with was wheels and stance. The lowering/ride height was my determination. I also spent hours trying to do an OEM+ thing with Impala wheels but we did not have the parts we needed. So I worked with Fish again and designed the wheel center covers to get rid of the nasty tuner ten lugs and grabbed OEM Bowties to flush mount to make it look more OEM. Darby insisted on the painting of one inner spoke red, I would have done all of them but that's just me. Point is, I spent hours on wheels but knew it was not going to be counted as my signature yet Dawan did. I also took pride in making a REAL SS badge by being smart and cutting the two RS badges only to watch Camilo put his own hideous badging on the side.

People didn't know my back ground, but only judged my sketch. My specialty is taking a sketch and knowing how to make it and make it work and go the distance. I was hoping to get to work with team members who would better utilize me and exploit what I brought to the table. That didn't happen in ep1.

Would love to tell you how far I make it, just know to keep watching as it AND I get better.

[stevehecht]

hey JV,

Just found this thread and watched the show. A few comments and a question:

1) My wife (a Project Runway fan from way back) were comparing notes on the two shows and agreed that it's obvious that this type of show needs to make "characters" out of their participants. There isn't a story without characters--and character development. So after EP1 I have hope that "you" will evolve from Mr. SmartyPants to someone closer to who you are in real life.

2) I thought Brian (the team leader of the team that lost the competition in EP1) should have been the one canned, not Dawan. Dawan was set up by Brian to just do only the wheels, and then no one told him the color choice had been changed by the rest of the team. Their car failed because the concept failed because in the end it wasn't coherent and wasn't marketable for 2015--not because the wheels were unfinished. I don't think Dawan would have lasted much longer anyway, but IMO he got screwed. Brian should have manned up and admitted that Dawan was set up as the fall guy.

3) I was impressed with the two judges: Jean Jennings needs no introduction and the German fellow seems to really know his stuff. What did you think of him? That guest hosthunk was a joke.

4) Your reply to the guest hosthunk was great and more than made up for Darby's inadequate introduction. Your clarity and intelligence came through very clearly.

5) Troy is a very interesting fellow/character and I'm interested to see how he turns out on the show.

6) I thought your team's car deserved to win, but it wasn't at all clear how all the acrimony and disorganization on your team produced such a good product. Any comments on that?

7) What is your personal opinion of how the Cruze SS concept came out overall? I was pretty impressed with it. First of all it was marketable for 2015 while the other entry wasn't even close.

I'm glad to find out that my Boston FIOS network carries TruTV and I'll be watching next Tuesday at 10pm. Carry on and may the best designer get the Z28!

[Jamesons Viggen]

Originally Posted by stevehecht

hey JV,

Just found this thread and watched the show. A few comments and a question:

1) My wife (a Project Runway fan from way back) were comparing notes on the two shows and agreed that it's obvious that this type of show needs to make "characters" out of their participants. There isn't a story without characters--and character development. So after EP1 I have hope that "you" will evolve from Mr. SmartyPants to someone closer to who you are in real life.

Yeah, I think if I was editing this show, I would allow some growth for me so I don't grow stale for people. If you saw the deleted scene where I say goodbye to Dawan, even that was cut because it didn't fit my portrayal.

2) I thought Brian (the team leader of the team that lost the competition in EP1) should have been the one canned, not Dawan. Dawan was set up by Brian to just do only the wheels, and then no one told him the color choice had been changed by the rest of the team. Their car failed because the concept failed because in the end it wasn't coherent and wasn't marketable for 2015--not because the wheels were unfinished. I don't think Dawan would have lasted much longer anyway, but IMO he got screwed. Brian should have manned up and admitted that Dawan was set up as the fall guy.

Every single loss, it always comes down to team leads vs the smallest contributor. I think the judges felt Brian had great design left in him while Dawan was just not quite right for the talent pool.

3) I was impressed with the two judges: Jean Jennings needs no introduction and the German fellow seems to really know his stuff. What did you think of him? That guest hosthunk was a joke.

Jean is awesome, been reading her work for a long time. We have similar personalities and are both fighters. I have formed a bit of a bond with her and we still talk and hope to do some sit down drinking and lunches when I move to Detroit this year. Harald, I knew of his cars, but not his name. His resume is impressive. I made an impression on him, things I can talk about later in the season. Guest judge, yeah-did nothing for me.

4) Your reply to the guest hosthunk was great and more than made up for Darby's inadequate introduction. Your clarity and intelligence came through very clearly.


Thanks. I felt it was one of the defining moments, but hard for me to be impartial. It held more gravity than the way it was edited, like I said, I raised my hand, the show had moved on. And Darby's pitch was so bad they let her do it again which never happened on the shit as it was reality TV. I was so bitter about it at the end even after winning because I offered to help her with it and she turned me down while working ONLY with Camilo.

5) Troy is a very interesting fellow/character and I'm interested to see how he turns out on the show.

The deleted scene with him and Darby gave more insight to Troy. The car he builds, to be a shop owner of builds of that caliber at the age of 30 is amazing. Him and I got along real well, to the point where people joked it was a Bromance lol. His editing made him seem like he wasn't a team player and just a complainer. He had his reasons to disconnect and it was all Darby and Darby+Camilo.

6) I thought your team's car deserved to win, but it wasn't at all clear how all the acrimony and disorganization on your team produced such a good product. Any comments on that?

I am going to take some credit for it because I fought and fought to have some organization to this whole process, much of it cut out of the edit. Doc was a huge reason as he did so much of the body work. The key was, even if I didn't like what was done in the front or side of the car, the back which was 80-90% mine looked related intentionally, the word cohesive is a big one. And even when we didn't get along, everyone kept their head down and kept working.

7) What is your personal opinion of how the Cruze SS concept came out overall? I was pretty impressed with it. First of all it was marketable for 2015 while the other entry wasn't even close.


I wanted more from it. I hated the color choice and spent days on trying to make color choice a vote and lobbied for Chevy Atomic Orange(metallic orange copper). The red they chose was nearly an offered production color and the judges did not like the lower black element.

Troy and I hated the hood scoops, the car began looking too much like a Pep Boys Tuner than an in house proof of Concept.

I wish we had not been wussies and made the car a two door coupe, the right color, no hood scoops, but more of an OEM raim air into the bumper, and had the OEM Impala wheels grafted on. But again, it was the first build and we all guessed at what was achievable.

The reason you felt it was marketable though, that was part of my whole SS idea and was cut down from my explanation that it would make the most sense as a send off for 2015. I got flack that it wasn't concept enough from a couple team members, so that is why you hear, 2015 is still the future-we weren't asked to design something for 2027.

I'm glad to find out that my Boston FIOS network carries TruTV and I'll be watching next Tuesday at 10pm. Carry on and may the best designer get the Z28!

Thanks!

I promise not only will the show get better, but so does my work/ideas etc.

[son_of_siggy]

I was a little weary for Harald when they announced he was the designer for the Batman and Robin batmobile. It probably captured what the director wanted in terms of design, and in and of itself was cool to see, but was totally off-character and really just an impracticable and jokey design where it shouldn't have been.

/End Nerd Rant

[954Stealth]

I'm glad to read that you are in "real life" not as you are portrayed on the show. Great episode and now that I have read this thread will be happy remain a supporter as you progress through the show

[Jamesons Viggen]

Originally Posted by son_of_siggy

I was a little weary for Harald when they announced he was the designer for the Batman and Robin batmobile. It probably captured what the director wanted in terms of design, and in and of itself was cool to see, but was totally off-character and really just an impracticable and jokey design where it shouldn't have been.

/End Nerd Rant

Umm yeah, why not advertise that he was the designer of the Lexus in Minority Report? Oh yeah, probably because it was a Toyota product lol.

Originally Posted by 954Stealth

I'm glad to read that you are in "real life" not as you are portrayed on the show. Great episode and now that I have read this thread will be happy remain a supporter as you progress through the show

Thanks!

[Jamesons Viggen]

The Transformers episode is tonight!!

[stevehecht]

Originally Posted by Jamesons Viggen

The Transformers episode is tonight!!

I didn't enjoy the second episode as much as the first, maybe because it overlapped the re-broadcast of the USA-Belgium World Cup game. I was sorry to see Troy go, but this venue was not his cup of tea. I definitely see you as the "stealth" participant as your skills are still unrecognized.

I wonder how the challenges will change when there are less people per team as the show goes on. This is not like Project Runway where the challenges are either one or two person affairs.

[Jamesons Viggen]

Originally Posted by stevehecht

I didn't enjoy the second episode as much as the first, maybe because it overlapped the re-broadcast of the USA-Belgium World Cup game. I was sorry to see Troy go, but this venue was not his cup of tea. I definitely see you as the "stealth" participant as your skills are still unrecognized.

I wonder how the challenges will change when there are less people per team as the show goes on. This is not like Project Runway where the challenges are either one or two person affairs.

It gets better each week as the quality goes up and they can focus more on describing what's happening with each person. They didn't show all my sketching this episode which stinks as they were solid.

[Itgb]

What a small world... I work with Chunner.

Looking forward to seeing more of the show.