It is the second day of ATVfest and you step through the grand doors of SCADshow. As you enter the theater in hopes for a seat with a superior vantage point, you spot Ellen DeGeneres standing at the end of the room … on a gigantic television panel. You’re at the screening of “Ellen’s Design Challenge”!
Image courtesy of Kara Robson.
In this reality TV competition, ten artists with industrial design backgrounds come together to design and build furniture under a time limit. The artist with the best piece of furniture — in functionality, reproducibility, and design — wins. For the ATVfest screening, the audience was shown a prequel to the first episode that was aired a few weeks ago. In this episode, ten designers’ portfolios were reviewed. Two would be kicked off right off the bat. After the screening, there was a short Q&A panel with some of the show’s production people and SCAD alumni and former contestant on the show, Bradley Bowers.
Left to right: Bradley Bowers, Chip Wade, Freddy James, Loren Ruch and Leigh Seaman (moderator). Image courtesy of Kara Robson.
Bradley Bowers was eliminated on Week 2 of the show. Image courtesy of HGTV.
“I received an email from a SCAD alum that said …’would you [want] to submit your portfolio to a guy who is casting a show?’” Bowers said after being asked how he applied for the competition. “After five mysterious Skype phone calls … Ellen called me!” He also said that it didn’t hit him that this was all real until he got to the hotel and ordered room service on someone else’s bill. That’s one way to know you’ve made it big!
An audience memberasked if any of the dialogue was scripted. According to one of the producers Loren Ruch, the only script was the guidelines the judges tell the contestants before they begin a challenge. “You cram 9 episodes in 35 days [of filming]. It’s intense.” Ruch said.
Watch “Ellen’s Design Challenge” on HGTV on Mondays from 9-10 p.m.!