As the chilly temps here in the Hudson Valley combine with snow and wind, Steve Heller is basking in sunny Sacramento California. What a bum. Steve is with his award-winning custom, The Marquis De Soto at the Sacramento Auto-Rama.
So if you're in the area, make sure to go visit him. He'll be there with the owner of the car, Steve Luth, yucking it up and acting like the superstar he is.

When Steve returns, I will be shooting a sequence with him, as he takes a log from the forest and turns it into a stunning ten foot table for a, as yet unnamed, VIP. This will be the first sequence  which shows Steve's other passion, wood-working, and the staple of his company, Fabulous Furniture.
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Just back from the Grand National Roadster Show and I would like to reflect on what an amazing time we had. I'm a little under the weather, having returned with a serious sore throat, so please forgive me if my writing is less than stellar.

Steve's car, The Marquis De Soto, won a first place award, which was a dream of his since he was a little kid. (see photos) A perfect analogy would be that of a first time filmmaker winning an Academy Award, which is how important this award is for Steve.

After the awards show, I shot a short interview in which George Barris and John D'Agostino congratulated Steve and told him how much they liked his work. Can you imagine having one of your heroes wrap his arms around your shoulders and tell you how wonderful you are? That's the kind of thing that repeated itself throughout the weekend for Steve.

During the awards ceremony, when Steve's name was announced, he ran to the stage like a little kid on Christmas morning. He really didn't believe he was going to win anything, so it was a complete surprise for him. He was beaming as he stood on stage and raised the award above his head. I was really proud to be with him, to share the moment, and to congratulate him. The owner of the car, Steve Luth, was so gracious that he wanted Steve to go onstage and accept the award. Luth is a super guy and it was fun hanging out with him for the last two days of the show.

We had a wonderful time meeting so many fantastic people at the show. Everyone of them was kind and generous with their time. At one point we shot a scene with another of Steve's heroes -  the famous painter Larry Watson. Larry really liked Steve's car and was quite a character.

I personally got to meet great builders like Gene Winfield, Blackie Gejeian, Bo Huff, great pin-strippers like East Coast Artie, the guitarist Jimmy Vaughn, the actor John Schnieder from the Dukes of Hazard. The show allowed me to live, for a short time, in a special sub-culture of car fanatics, which includes, hipsters, beatniks, artist, designers, builders, painters, technicians, promoters and fans of the automobile in all its many guises.

Next up for the Marquis is the Sacramento Autorama (Feb 19-21, 2010)
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To quote Steve, “Oh.  My.  God!”  We are out here in Pomona, California, at the Grand National Roadster Show, the granddaddy of all custom car shows.  Steve is here with his Marquis De Soto, which we keep forgetting he doesn’t own anymore; the great guy who bought it let him pick it up in Sacramento and drive it around LA all week.  To have this car with him in Southern California has always been a dream of Steve’s… but to bring it to the Roadster Show is beyond that dream.  His foot has been tapping like some drummer on speed since we got here.

All the big names in car customizing are here---- Gene Winfield, George Barris, John D’Agostino, Rick Dore, Chip Foose, pinstriper extraordinaire East Coast Artie… the list goes on and on.  And Steve's car, The Marquis DeSoto, just being included here, is an equal to  them all. He's one of them.

Before we got here, though, we took the Marquis DeSoto on one hell of a ride.  We accompanied East Coast Artie to a meeting he had in Santa Maria, to meet Penny Pichette, who runs WEST COAST KUSTOMS.  Artie is going to put together a stripers charity auction at Penny’s event this Memorial Day.  And then Artie took us to meet Steve’s idol, Gene Winfield.  The ride itself was amazing, going over the Tehachapi Pass, where we ran into fog that made visibility non-existent.  But we made it through and got to Winfield’s shop in Mojave in early afternoon.

The great Gene Winfield, now 82 years of age and still building custom cars, greeted us and looked the Marquis over. He was impressed. Which sent Steve to the moon. Gene was busy, preparing for the show so he just let Steve wander around.  Steve couldn’t believe how many cars Gene had in his shop, all at various levels of completeness. We stopped to talk to some of his crafts people who were working on the fiberglass Chopped Mercury bodies that Gene produces. That was really something to see.

We showed up here in Pomona hours before the Marquis De Soto would be driven into the building, but Steve wanted to just be around all these amazing car builders.  He’s always so happy and humbled when people remember him, which is so funny because almost everyone does.  Martha came down to meet us and Steve insisted on showing her every car in buildings 5 and 1.  Steve just kept saying how happy he was to have her here, at this show with him.  He’s been here many times, but Martha never has.  Her eyes were glazing over by the time Steve said he was hungry.  She promises to take her time and see most of the show today.

If you’re in Southern California this weekend, please come by the show and find us.  The Marquis De Soto is in Building 5, and we shouldn’t be far or hard to find!

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Delivering Art 01/17/2010
 
Whew....just returned from being on the road for two days, shooting with Steve, and meeting some of his clients as he made deliveries. We had two in Pennsylvania and one in Manhattan. And in between, we visited a new client named Alex who invited us to see his amazing home and fantastic car collection. He met us at his automotive shop, a garage so clean, you could eat off the floors, literally. His men actually mop them every night before closing. After meeting every one of his mechanics, who he calls family, Alex brought us to see his car collection. Holy crap.....a garage full of super cars. A Ferrari, two Lamborginis, and other exotics. We were in heaven. And he was very gracious. Alex is a passionate man who loves to work and who lives life in a large way. He wants Steve to build him a dinning table and a kitchen counter for his massive "play room." It was a good time and the shoot went well. Before returning us to his shop, he took us to see a favorite spot of his, the Croton Reservoir. Here are some pictures of us. It was fun being with Steve but I think I wore him out with too many questions. But I learned something about Steve that bodes well for the future. We both like the same fast food....two Whoppers in two days...uh oh......
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Yesterday, Wednesday the 13th of January, I had two fabulous conversations about the show. The first was  an amazing, eye opening, phone call with one of the heads of a big network cable station.  We spit-balled a potential new direction to take the show in and what was astounding to me was that it was right under my nose all the time. But I never thought it could be an important part of the series. Until now. Of course, I can't discuss it because that would be giving the surprise away! The great thing is that it feels perfectly organic to the story and eliminates some potential story and production issues. It means a little more work now on my part, shooting new sequences, and cutting a mini pilot to show to this executive in a few weeks. The fortunate thing is that I have the perfect story in which to follow, to demonstrate this new direction. On Friday I will be shooting Steve as he delivers some finished pieces he built for two clients and on Saturday, talking to another client about a commissioned dinning room table. This person also has a garage full of exotic cars and he invited us to come for a visit. Poor me, having to spend the day shooting in a warm garage full of Porsches, Lamborghinis and Ferraris!

The second call I had was with a producer I know who I worked with on the History Channel's  WWII in HD. I was one of 14 editors on that show last year. I am thrilled to discover he wants to come on board and help me with developing the show. He has great integrity, he's a good guy, and he "gets it." We're going to make a great team no matter where the show ends up.

Regarding the idea that 13 is an unlucky number.....here's an interesting story... my grandfather Abe was one of the first electricians in the country. He started out working for DW Griffith, the film director, at the age of 14 and eventually became a projectionist for him. In fact, he toured the country projecting Birth of a Nation with Griffith and showed it to President Wilson at the White House. Incidentally, that was the very first film ever shown at the White House. Later when he started his own business as an electrical contractor in Newburgh NY, he was a charter member of the local electrician's union. My father, who also became an electrician told me that because Abe was Jewish, the building department issued him a permit to work as an electrician with the unlucky number 13, so he would fail. Abe made good and left his sons a thriving electrical contracting business many years later.
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Today I spoke with the creator of a hit television show who is interested in pitching Heller On Wheels to his executives. Wow! Funny thing is they  just happen to be the same executives at the same company that is already interested in the show. Double WOW! Send good thoughts...
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Today I have to get tickets to fly to LA to cover an important story and figure out how to pay to hire a crew to shoot it.
Steve Heller's car, The Marquis Desoto, is being shown at the granddaddy of all car shows, The Grand National Rod and Custom Show in Pomona at the end of this month. The current owner of the car is flying Steve out to be there and since this is Steve's first custom car to appear at this show, I think it is an important story point for the series.  I just hope the weather is nice in LA because this winter in NY has been a bitch so far.

I sent the promo out yesterday to the head of one of the biggest Cable Network stations. It would be a great home for the series, and I will not pretend to be excited, but I also realize the odds are against having the first submission being the one that wants to pick up the show. I still went to bed with my fingers and toes crossed!
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Well it has been almost a year since the shooting began and today we finally finished the promo. And it looks great!

I spent several hours last night cutting in the new graphics which really make the promo come alive and focus the story telling. Then early this morning - 5am to be exact - I began conforming the new color corrected footage into the old session and preparing to do the sound mix. By about noon I was finished and set up the session to be output using H.264 compression and finally uploading to vimeo.

I have been editing and shooting and editing and shooting this promo for many months now. Discovering the right story to tell, and how to tell it,  took time to evolve.   And just when I thought it was finished, something new developed and needed to be shot to help tell the story in a more succinct way.

Thanks to Steve, Martha and Mike for putting up with me. Now I can say, this is finished and it's time to move on-- to selling it and producing the show this spring.
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Yesterday I shot a sequence with a client of Steve's, a fellow named Bob Schluter, who hired Steve to design and custom build him a great trailer out of a 1962 Cadillac. He and his girlfriend came up to see the progress of the trailer and they were really happy with it. I took some photos of it and you can see them on the photo page. Included is a model Mike built of a Corvette and the trailer. Bob brought up a decal and an ornament from a 1936 Caddy he wants Steve to fabricate into the trailer. His Corvette is going to look really cool pulling this trailer down Route 66!
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Besides adding a page to the website, today I will be figuring out what stories we want to tell for the first season and integrating them into a 13 week shooting schedule. I met with Steve yesterday to discuss all the options. This first season is going to be soooooo cool. We have several cars to talk about including doing either a Chrysler Crossfire or the new Cadillac Station Wagon. This week I have to begin contacting Chrysler and seeing if they would be interested in coming on-board as an advertiser on the show and donating one of their cars for Steve to customize.

One of the coolest projects Steve is currently working on is a trailer for a client named Bob Schluter. He asked Steve to build him a trailer that he could tow behind a recently restored classic Corvette on a trip he and his wife are taking on the old Route 66. He originally wanted the trailer to be made from a 1959 Cadillac but after Steve and Mike thought about it, they recommended the rear end of a 1962 Cadillac. Bob liked the suggestion. On Monday I am going to shoot a sequence when Bob visits Fabulous Furniture to see the progress made on his very cool trailer.
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