Saturday, October 11, 2008

Jay McCarroll Has Designs On Rochester


I went to the screening of Eleven Minutes today at the Dryden and finally seeing it with an audience was awesome. Everyone there seemed to really enjoy the film. I love the way that the film documents the creative process of putting together a fashion show. As someone who doesn't follow the world of high fashion in the least and, I'll admit it, has never watched a single episode of Project Runway, the film is fascinating! It really gave me an appreciation for how much real work goes into putting a show like that together.

Even better was the Q&A with Jay McCarroll and co-director Rob Tate that followed the film. Starting off with a presentation of celebratory birthday cake to Jay (happy birthday Jay!), the designer offered up lots of gossip on the stars of Project Runway and filled us in on the winding path his career has taken in the two years since putting the show together. Probably the most entertaining post-film Q&A I've ever been to, Jay answered every question with his trademark catty wit and even continued to take questions after poor Michael tried to wrap things up! It was also great to hear Rob talk about creating the film and setting out to make it the "anti-Project Runway" by showing the creative process warts and all, avoiding the simplified techniques of reality TV. All in all, it was a fantastic time and I'm looking forward to many more in the coming week!

Click the photos to see the full-size versions.



Photos by Matt DeTurck

1 comment:

Jim V. said...

Jay and Rob were very entertaining and provided a lot of insight into the fashion industry & the documentary industry.

I liked Jay much more after seeing the film. Project Runway didn't do a great job of accurately showing Jay's personality.