I know it may seem like we should just be rolling in the dough - we make a TV show, we restore cars, we're rich! Well, that's the case when the network pays to have the show made, which is called a commission. That means the network owns the show, the intellectual property, make money from merchandise, and have complete control of the sale of advertising on the show. Because of all the rights the obtain and control they have, they pay high premiums to their talent and staff.
Our show is made independently - all the production staff including myself are passionate filmmakers who get paid very little in exchange to have all of the creative freedom over the show. We have fun with what we do, and seeing our hardwork on television is bigger than getting a big check that 40% goes to the government. When we made the season finale episode (it was sent to the network back in Oct.) we needed funds to help update the infrastructure of the production equipment. Tripods, cameras, jibs - you know, essential stuff to make a better season.
And because that we control the creativity with the show, and have aligned with some incredible vendors because of this, we were going to provide some awesome perks to those who donated.
Anyways, it doesn't matter because we had a network deal come through that helps with the infrastructure upgrades and so we canceled it. But all the perks we accumulated are being handed out as gifts to our newsletter subscribers for free. No donation required.
So, yeah, hopefully that clears the air.
And just so you know, I can't say how much money Velocity gives us for the show, what I can say is we make about 12% of what we should make to cover the budget of making the show. It's only because of the car restorations that help us get out of the red.
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For example, Mark doesn't actually put cosmoline on the vehicles. He has his own mixture of paint to create the "look" of cosmoline.
hthedrama:
