The project that almost was.....
Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2016 12:05 am
I want to tell you all about an experience I had recently.
Over the course of paring down the order process, you eventually bump into a ceiling of what is practical, or what the leather shop will do vs. what is more of a 'wish list'. I suppose, I am more of an idealist, in that sense. Anyway, I had approached Wested in order to help them standardize their Last Crusade jacket, similar to the Hero. I later realized, that like Elsa, a few had already been down that road. It was told to me that the previous had been too "greedy" and led to some ill feelings, or possibly some fallout. I was hoping to turn the tide, and get a better offering to fans, even to suggesting the type of leathers, a choice of thinner cow or thicker lamb.
ToD was the first to be standardized. Another member here, had previously helped Peter to standardize the Raiders Hero jacket, whom I know. The Last Crusade remained, and in many ways, it is possibly the post difficult to get right, because you have size and placement of the specs., thickness and texture of the skin and the distressing. All three of these need to be present to reproduce the desired effect, accurately.
A bit of a twist of fate, but I have usually specialized on the RoLA and sort of minored on the LC, so it was a bit ironic that I would be working on such a jacket, since others had been down this path before. Rebecca and I began to work on the jacket, and must have exchanged maybe a dozen emails or so. She expressed her desire to finally reign in the Last Crusade jacket, because it was the final hold out in the trilogy, in terms of bringing to market an accurate repro to fans. The chance to work on such a jacket was appealing, considering this was the original maker. It was to be the LC Hero, and I was 'offered' a discount on the first standardized repro for 145 GBP plus shipping. At this stage of the game, we had pared it down to a tee. Wested would have offered the best repro of the LC Hero to date. In the midst of it, I had hoped to help standardize the LC Hero and the RoLA jacket, which would have been a no brainer, from my perspective. Certainly, it would have been easier to do than the LC. The RoLA is the older style, more OTR fitting jacket, but would have had more accurate specs built in, for those who prefer a better fitting jacket without the quirks.
I could tell after a short period of time that she was really engaged in the process because she began to sketch diagrams, especially where it concerned the pockets and yoke. After a few revisions and tweaks, it was close to being a 'go'. Finally, I approached her with a counterproposal, asking for a 'free' jacket, and detailing what all had gone into this process just to get us here. Ideally, if you are interested in such, you literally spend hours and hours in front of the computer, looking at stills and reading old threads, in an effort to get a better perspective on some of the most iconic jackets in film history. I could not count the number of people who have received their jackets in the past, only to complain about how their jackets did not look like the film jacket. These repros have not really been reproduced faithfully and accurately in more than 26 years, by the original maker, and the chance to work on a standardization for fans was a welcomed challenge.
I thought at the very least, a free jacket to the collaborator (one jacket for each contributor for each of the movies) or whatever you wish, was fair...? Or am I totally off base here? I didn't feel as though a free jacket to each contributor was entirely that far out of line, all things considered. This was before Christmas, and we have not communicated since. I assume the project was killed.
This was the project that almost was.
I tried.
Over the course of paring down the order process, you eventually bump into a ceiling of what is practical, or what the leather shop will do vs. what is more of a 'wish list'. I suppose, I am more of an idealist, in that sense. Anyway, I had approached Wested in order to help them standardize their Last Crusade jacket, similar to the Hero. I later realized, that like Elsa, a few had already been down that road. It was told to me that the previous had been too "greedy" and led to some ill feelings, or possibly some fallout. I was hoping to turn the tide, and get a better offering to fans, even to suggesting the type of leathers, a choice of thinner cow or thicker lamb.
ToD was the first to be standardized. Another member here, had previously helped Peter to standardize the Raiders Hero jacket, whom I know. The Last Crusade remained, and in many ways, it is possibly the post difficult to get right, because you have size and placement of the specs., thickness and texture of the skin and the distressing. All three of these need to be present to reproduce the desired effect, accurately.
A bit of a twist of fate, but I have usually specialized on the RoLA and sort of minored on the LC, so it was a bit ironic that I would be working on such a jacket, since others had been down this path before. Rebecca and I began to work on the jacket, and must have exchanged maybe a dozen emails or so. She expressed her desire to finally reign in the Last Crusade jacket, because it was the final hold out in the trilogy, in terms of bringing to market an accurate repro to fans. The chance to work on such a jacket was appealing, considering this was the original maker. It was to be the LC Hero, and I was 'offered' a discount on the first standardized repro for 145 GBP plus shipping. At this stage of the game, we had pared it down to a tee. Wested would have offered the best repro of the LC Hero to date. In the midst of it, I had hoped to help standardize the LC Hero and the RoLA jacket, which would have been a no brainer, from my perspective. Certainly, it would have been easier to do than the LC. The RoLA is the older style, more OTR fitting jacket, but would have had more accurate specs built in, for those who prefer a better fitting jacket without the quirks.
I could tell after a short period of time that she was really engaged in the process because she began to sketch diagrams, especially where it concerned the pockets and yoke. After a few revisions and tweaks, it was close to being a 'go'. Finally, I approached her with a counterproposal, asking for a 'free' jacket, and detailing what all had gone into this process just to get us here. Ideally, if you are interested in such, you literally spend hours and hours in front of the computer, looking at stills and reading old threads, in an effort to get a better perspective on some of the most iconic jackets in film history. I could not count the number of people who have received their jackets in the past, only to complain about how their jackets did not look like the film jacket. These repros have not really been reproduced faithfully and accurately in more than 26 years, by the original maker, and the chance to work on a standardization for fans was a welcomed challenge.
I thought at the very least, a free jacket to the collaborator (one jacket for each contributor for each of the movies) or whatever you wish, was fair...? Or am I totally off base here? I didn't feel as though a free jacket to each contributor was entirely that far out of line, all things considered. This was before Christmas, and we have not communicated since. I assume the project was killed.
This was the project that almost was.
I tried.
