Lake Rescue Shootout, August 24-26
07-11-2007, 04:13 PM
#13
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Griff, I'm with you. Why would you pay $2500.00 to a production company to put their camera in your boat. Then they turn a round and make money on the other end from the advertisers. Don't people usually get paid to do interviews and put their stuff on TV? I would think that if the production company wants to put on a good television show, they would pick the boats they want to put cameras in to get their footage.
I'm not trying to be difficult Shootout, but maybe I'm misunderstanding how this is supposed to work.
I'm not trying to be difficult Shootout, but maybe I'm misunderstanding how this is supposed to work.
07-11-2007, 05:05 PM
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Jayhawk, you are not being difficult, so let me try to explain some things. In just about every television show on Cable, especially shows on SPEED, VS, OLN, etc. the series, event, etc. PAYS to put the show on TV, so to get this event televised, we have to Buy time on SPEED and pay for production company to shoot the event. From there we try to do everything we can to sell a commercial or two, sell a "billboard" which is the lead in or out of commercial, and sell in-car/boat cameras. We could have raised the entry fees to the competitors, but we wanted to keep the traditions of the event with the $50/entry fee. The costs to film an event like this are very expensive, and there is no way to re-coop the costs from just selling commercial's. In racing, from Indycar to Formula Ford, the teams are BUYING the TV time, paying for the in-car cameras, and basically writing the check to make it all happen. In return, the teams hope the TV exposure helps them sell sponsorhip for their race car, or if they already have a sponsor, it gives them greater exposure to be on TV. You could expect a standard 2 hour auto race to cost between $200,000-$500,000 to produce, with a 30 second commercial selling for $5,000-$10,000. Now the shootout will cost much less since we are not live, but it is not cheap either. If this show was being taped in a studio, we could do it very very cheap, but we have to fly 20 people to MO, put them in hotels and feed them, pay their salaries, pay for "talent", pay for a editting, etc. etc. Plus we need 5 cameras, vs. 1 or 2 if it was inside. It's actually quite a big operation.
So, although it does not make any sense, that a auto or boat race team would pay for TV or even pay an entry fee for that matter since we are "putting on the show" we pay $3500/race to enter our cars in the Grand-Am Series, plus we pay a few grand a weekend if we want an in-car camera. I have paid $5000/race on numerous occasions for my cars because my sponsors wanted the TV time.
I hope this answers some of your questions, but to think ANYONE gets paid to do an interview is not true. You don't get paid to go on Letterman, The Today Show, or even on radio. Most of the time, you are paying a publicist a lot of money in hopes just to get picked to be on TV. We have publicists on salary for the race team, to "schmooze" the TV crew in hopes that they will talk about our car.
Finally, you are right, about wanting the best boats on TV to have in-boat cameras, but it usually doesn't happen. Do the top 6 cars at every NASCAR race have the in-car camera or are they scattered through the field? We will get the best boats on TV with the cameras that we have, and we will get the interviews on the docks, but if a team has a sponsor that is paying big$$$$ to sponsor a race car or boat, they will usually try to pay a little more money to get their name on TV.
I hope this helps you understand a bit more about how all this works. Jeff and I have worked very hard to get this event televised, and at the end of the day, we will lose money on the TV aspect which is just taking money away from the fire department. We hope the teams and fans appreciate everything we have to do to make this work to get this great event and it's sponsors much more exposure.
Mike Johnson
So, although it does not make any sense, that a auto or boat race team would pay for TV or even pay an entry fee for that matter since we are "putting on the show" we pay $3500/race to enter our cars in the Grand-Am Series, plus we pay a few grand a weekend if we want an in-car camera. I have paid $5000/race on numerous occasions for my cars because my sponsors wanted the TV time.
I hope this answers some of your questions, but to think ANYONE gets paid to do an interview is not true. You don't get paid to go on Letterman, The Today Show, or even on radio. Most of the time, you are paying a publicist a lot of money in hopes just to get picked to be on TV. We have publicists on salary for the race team, to "schmooze" the TV crew in hopes that they will talk about our car.
Finally, you are right, about wanting the best boats on TV to have in-boat cameras, but it usually doesn't happen. Do the top 6 cars at every NASCAR race have the in-car camera or are they scattered through the field? We will get the best boats on TV with the cameras that we have, and we will get the interviews on the docks, but if a team has a sponsor that is paying big$$$$ to sponsor a race car or boat, they will usually try to pay a little more money to get their name on TV.
I hope this helps you understand a bit more about how all this works. Jeff and I have worked very hard to get this event televised, and at the end of the day, we will lose money on the TV aspect which is just taking money away from the fire department. We hope the teams and fans appreciate everything we have to do to make this work to get this great event and it's sponsors much more exposure.
Mike Johnson
07-11-2007, 05:12 PM
#15
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For those of you that have not attended the race before, the cost has always been $50 to enter, and $500/day if you want to rent a slip at shooter's so there is nothing new. You would likely pay similar costs if you tried to reserve a slip at similar docks across the lake, although the costs might not be as high. However, when trying to film a show, there must be some sacrafices. I have been involved in professsional auto racing most of my life, and with TV comes exposure, but you also have to work on their schedule. If we set up cameras and a crew at Shooter's to film post run interviews, highlight some of the boats, and film the victory celebration, it would be very difficult to do that if all the "Top Gun, Cat, Vee" boats went to different Marinas. How would the show look if we were not able to interview Callan Marine or Budweiser Select after their run? Jeff and I are doing everything we can to incorporate a successful televsion plan without harming the integrity of this event which has gone on unchanged for 19 years. We did not raise entry fees or anything, and the water is still open for all the other classes that compete each year. We are just trying to make a better show for the fans and for TV. As regards to the John Force comment, NHRA does charge them for the space he "rents" in the pits, which is included in the entry fee. Also, there are many marinas all over the lake, which is not like a race track, so John Force does not have the choice to go to another pit area after his run.
I think this year will be the best ever, and we are doing everything we can to capture the excitement for the fans on the water, on the docks, and at home, but more importanty we want to maintain the spirit of this event, which is a "run what you brung" race to see who has the fastest boat on the lake.
Hope to see you there
Mike Johnson
I think this year will be the best ever, and we are doing everything we can to capture the excitement for the fans on the water, on the docks, and at home, but more importanty we want to maintain the spirit of this event, which is a "run what you brung" race to see who has the fastest boat on the lake.
Hope to see you there
Mike Johnson
Mike,
Is anything changing for us small fish
who run ?I know last year,for the first time, they bunched all the canopy boats together and ran them at the top of certain hours.
After reading the schedule on your site, it sounds
like there are going to be certain times certain classes
of boats will be allowed to run, is that correct ?
07-11-2007, 05:43 PM
#17
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JaayTeee,
Nothing is changing for the "small fish" or any other boat for that matter. If you don't want to run for the Top Gun, Cat or Vee, nothing will change. Last year was the first year they "posted" times for the boats they thought would win the Top Gun. We are doing that again this year with posted hours on Saturday, and posted hours on Sunday. It worked very well last year, and we have to do it this year to make a good TV show, and of course to keep the costs down. We will only be filming during the 3-5 time slot on Sunday, because, well....that's all we could afford. We are going to try to stage it like a mini Indy 500 bump day well all the Top Gun, Top Cat, and Top Vee boats will be able to go head to head at the same time. Hopefully each boat can take 2 runs in the afternoon. Just pray for NO RAIN.
Mike Johnson
Nothing is changing for the "small fish" or any other boat for that matter. If you don't want to run for the Top Gun, Cat or Vee, nothing will change. Last year was the first year they "posted" times for the boats they thought would win the Top Gun. We are doing that again this year with posted hours on Saturday, and posted hours on Sunday. It worked very well last year, and we have to do it this year to make a good TV show, and of course to keep the costs down. We will only be filming during the 3-5 time slot on Sunday, because, well....that's all we could afford. We are going to try to stage it like a mini Indy 500 bump day well all the Top Gun, Top Cat, and Top Vee boats will be able to go head to head at the same time. Hopefully each boat can take 2 runs in the afternoon. Just pray for NO RAIN.
Mike Johnson
07-11-2007, 09:12 PM
#18
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I still think that you should have a pre-shoot out party at shooters. The party at dog days and frankie and louies is filled. There is ENOUGH people that would like to party at shooters-21. It would also be a extra nite for some of the vendors to show off some of there stuff before the madness begins.
07-11-2007, 09:55 PM
#19
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Mike,
Is anything changing for us small fish who run ?
I know last year,for the first time, they bunched all the canopy boats together and ran them at the top of certain hours.
After reading the schedule on your site, it sounds
like there are going to be certain times certain classes
of boats will be allowed to run, is that correct ?
Is anything changing for us small fish
who run ?I know last year,for the first time, they bunched all the canopy boats together and ran them at the top of certain hours.
After reading the schedule on your site, it sounds
like there are going to be certain times certain classes
of boats will be allowed to run, is that correct ?
It worked pretty good with all the OSS cats, callan & Bud Sel. Plus it got em back to the docks to mingle quicker so they weren't waiting hours to run.
Just tape the hatch down and let er rip JT!!!
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