Producer’s Blog: Getting to Know Somebody You’ve Never Met

Nadya Ellerhorst here – I have officially helped produce a segment of The Art Show, and it premieres next weekend! Tune in on Saturday, December 21, at 6pm on CET and Sunday, December 22, at 5:30pm to meet Cincinnati multimedia artist Holly Barrett and explore her life from her formative childhood experiences to her discovery of ceramics in college. This episode explores how she merges visual storytelling with the highly-tactile creation of vases, pots and other porcelain wares, as well as her recent collaboration with Cuban artist Manuel Hernandez.

Although I was on the production team, I wasn’t present for a single moment of filming – not during the interview, not during the b-roll shoot at Queen City Clay, not during a single one of Holly’s adventures throughout Cuba… Given the especially delicate nature of the porcelain Holly works with and the extravagantly clumsy nature of yours truly, perhaps this was for the best. Yet this still meant diving into waters murkier than those of the bucket Holly keeps near her pottery wheel.

As a producer, I took all of these factors in stride – before I could acquaint our viewers with Holly, I had to consciously and intentionally take the time to understand her and her work. I watched the interview conducted by Public Media Connect Director of Local Content Mark Lammers numerous times before I could stitch together a script. And, from there, I carefully reviewed and catalogued all b-roll clips, including those from WOSU arts producer Carrie Beyer and videographer Erik Delgado during Holly’s trip to Cuba to meet Manuel.

At times, I really had to hone in on context clues. Where was Holly in a given Cuba clip – Havana or Matanzas? Which footage showed the National Museum of Contemporary Cuban Ceramics and which showed Manuel’s studio? Were we ever showing a finished product at Queen City Clay before we showed footage of the process of its creation? Chronology – and communication, especially with Carrie – proved especially vital for this project.

And throughout scripting and editing, the b-roll kept coming! You’ll learn more about Holly and Manuel’s collaboration in the segment, but it’s one that involved moving artworks from place to place between the United States and Cuba. As my work on this segment progressed, I was presented with more and more footage from Carrie of these evolving projects, some of which I unfortunately couldn’t include in the final piece. Welcome to the world of production: as stories continue to grow, the piles on the cutting room floor sometimes follow suit.

My ultimate goal was to help viewers understand how Holly’s upbringing influences the intention of the art she makes and the merged media through which she executes it. Holly’s portfolio is broad and her journey ever-progressing, which also meant determining which vital visual elements were missing, even despite all the b-roll presented to me. A time machine wasn’t in the budget, but Holly ultimately provided some lovely family photos and images of her works over time that I think illustrated these circumstances perfectly.

As a producer, these sorts of visual elements gave me room for a lil’ pizazz and experimentation. I admittedly have Alabama Public Television and Monograph (essentially their The Art Show equivalent) to thank for this inspiration. When I saw how they juxtaposed their culinary subjects’ delectable cakes and pastries against funky gradient backgrounds, I felt compelled to have some fun myself. Taking Holly’s frequent use of polka dots, stripes and other illustrative elements into account, and thanks to editor Mike Schwartz, the segment features Holly’s photos cast against whimsical graphic backgrounds that channel her distinct style.

The concept of “kill your darlings” usually rears its ugly head whenever I write (these blogs are not exempt) and working on this segment made me realize the same obligation can manifest in production. Holly had many fascinating – and touching – stories about family and art she shared with us that couldn’t be included due to time constraints, but thanks to the magic of modern technology, coupled with the editing wizardry of marketing & communications strategist Mike Shea, we have a vertical video in the works that’ll allow our viewers to hear one of these stories! Not to give any spoilers, but if anyone is a fan of postcards like I am, I think you’ll be blown away by this one. 

In spite of any challenges, I couldn’t have asked for a cooler breadth of topics to dive into for my firstproduction experience with The Art Show. With themes of family ties, the power of storytelling and international artistic collaboration, Holly’s own story is just as varied and nuanced as the ones she tells on porcelain. And like those ever-unfolding stories she literally tells “in the round,” I’m glad to have been able to tune in on various parts of her journey – and fuse them into something our audience will enjoy.

Nadya Ellerhorst
CET/Think^TV Producer

Learn more: https://www.cetconnect.org/theartshow/.