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Beyond Inc.

I was contacted last week by an Australian television production company. They were looking for a termite-damaged house and they’d read about us in the Times-Picayune. They were interested in shooting a segment about us for a special on real estate disasters which they’re producing for The Learning Channel.

I told them if they wanted to see what Xy and I looked like on TV, they could watch ROX #93 online. They did, and they liked it a lot. In fact, it seemed to seal the deal. They’re headed down here today and will be shooting us over the next few days.

I suppose I should be kind of excited about that, but I’m not really. In fact I’m a little apprehensive. We’re letting them use some of our video, and I didn’t like the dickering over the accreditation. I want an on-screen credit saying “rox.com” at the time the video is used. They say that Discovery (TLC’s parent) just won’t allow that. I probably should have told them to kiss off. But the producer said they’d make it clear who we are (and where we are on the web) through the actual production. Plus I have a hard time saying no. We may actually get some good publicity out of it, but is it worth the stress of dealing with these strangers coming into our lives and making a TV show?

Published inOur HouseRadio & TVROX

14 Comments

  1. I did actually raise the tee-shirt possibility, and the producer said Discovery might let something like that slide by, or they might blur it out. We don’t have any such shirts, though, and I actually feel sheepish about making one. I guess our days of “shameless self-promotion” have passed us by.

    I’m really surprised at all the emotions this has stirred up.

  2. Despite the intrusiveness, you’ll be doing everyone who is in your position a favor. The more the folks impacted by the storm are humanized, the better. And what’s more human than a blogger/filmaker and his lovely and brilliant wife?

    After this airs, you’ll definitely need to morph into Celebrity B. You can sell autographs and such…

  3. Those of us who watched your show on local access cable at midnight can sneer like culture snobs that we “watched you when” – haha!

    I think this is great news – congrats.

  4. I want a b.rox t-shirt. Anything you make up will be fine, you know, as long as it’s black, size large, maybe number 13 on the back. Do you think you could put my name on the pocket, or maybe on the sleeve would be better? If you want I’ll come over late tonite and spray paint b.rox on your house, or Rox.com, whichever you prefer.

  5. My advice: silkscreen or paint a t-shirt with ROX.COM on the front of it. Maybe even set up sheets of paper in the house that say “ROX.COM”. 🙂

  6. You know, I didn’t even read anyone’s post before I wrote mine, then I realized I’ve restated the t-shirt sentiment. ha! Sorry guys.

  7. Let us know when they tape, and we’ll all show up as extras wearing rox.com t-shirts. We can have one guy dressed up like a fleur-de-lis, and I know a mime…

  8. Smoke a lot before and when they’re filming. As a result, the whole film crewe will get into it. Then you can put it on the web. It could be a very good thing for you and all the people who are trying to make it happen in NO. I’ll be watching. The whole world will be watching. Adrastos said it better.

  9. LML LML

    You’ve finally made it big Mr. Celebrity B!!!! 🙂 j/k

    I hope they make u 2 look like real people and not losers, like I’ve seen on so many shows. Vive la ROX!!!!

  10. Oh FUCK yeah fight for it. Don’t sign anything without a guarantee of onscreen “rox.com” above the sig line. They are flying from OZ, so they WILL agree. I do like the idea of having your own krewe shooting simultaneously. Can you get J out to orchestrate the antics?

  11. No, J won’t be on the scene — the production crew is already here! Although they are Australian, they have offices in DC (or somewhere out east) so it isn’t quite such a big deal for them to get here. They did make clear that if I took the hard line and demanded what I asked for, they would simply not be able to use our footage.

    I still haven’t signed anything, so they’re here on faith.

  12. Editor B., there must be some law that says that a network is required to display a credit when they use footage that belongs to someone else, unless the owner waives the rights…isn’t there? I don’t watch a lot of TV, but you see “Video courtesy of (whoever)” on programs like COPS and other “reality” shows.

    I just did a Google search for “site:tlc.discovery.com video courtesy” (without the quotation marks) to see if the TLC website gives credit for images they use, and got a few results. They seem to be credits for still pictures, not video, but still.

    But also: it’s awesome that they’re interested.

  13. […] This dream of having a camera crew in my house appears to me to be directly inspired by the occurrence of just that very event for a blogging friend, who recently described some of the experience here and here. (The main page of his very interesting blog is right here). […]

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