...a nice conversation ..
... siting there at the reception desk of a fabulous hotel in the centre of Paris... (sometimes wondering where it is, the centre of Paris? Does anyone know?.. cause.. it seems to me that nowadays, everything that isn't a suburb is the centre.. It's like if every organ of your body within your skin was your heart..). Had a nice conversation with a manager, he is also the co-owner of this masterpiece decorated by Jasque Garcia. Don't worry if you have no idea who Jasques Garcia is. It seems to me that not many people do know who he is, but if you pronounce his name with certain intonation and a special tone in your voice, people normally are very pleased to be surrounded by the creation of a great artist.
He is really great though :)
After a ten-minute conversation I do understand now why...
Why some things that the French call exquisite and unique look so simple and sometimes even tasteless to our eye. The thing is that anything that is hand-made is reeeeeeaaaaly expensive in France, especially if you have about ten years of experience of "hand-madding" :) I totally agree, that everything that you do well with your hands should be expensive, and I do understand that it isn't still that expensive in our country. But the thing is that it's so rare here, this hand made, that.. that it seems to me the main idea of it is to be different from machine work, not really to be of a better quality. On the other hand, it always depends on what you call a "good quality"...
So, sitting here surrounded by walls of false marble... yes, I've just leaned, that it's quite expensive to imitate the pattern of the real marble, so it took a painter about three weeks to paint the walls.. and I didn't want to ask the owner how much he payed for that... as I had learnt that they payed one thousand euro for a plastic column, which was then covered with the plastic tape, that, as you may have quessed already, imitates the marble. So.. sitting here, surrounded by fake but expensive.
Back to my idea. In Ukraine, people who manufacture smth with their hands used to do it properly because we had a very big competition: nearly everyone on the countryside knew how to make this or that, or how to paint a fence. There was always someone who did it what we call a bit better. Here, there is only five people in France who are still doing that, so by default they are brilliant and expensive. CAUSE THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE! and that it why I'm so critical about all what they call excuisite. It's excusite because it's rare, not because it's of good quality...
Yeap...
Another thing.
I've talked today to one model, who stayed in our hotel. I suppose she is not that wide known, as I couldn't find much about her in the Internet. The thing is that she is from Australia. So she took her flight from Australia to France, we assume at a least first class sit, she stayed one night in our quite expensive hotel. She did nothing as her shooting was planned only for this evening.. in Saint-Tropez. So she stayed at hotel, checked out, and went to the train station to take a train to Saint-Tropez. All that is for ONE photo.
By all this I mean her flight from Australia, her staying in a expensive hotel, her trip to Saint-Tropez, her coming back to Paris, her staying again one night in Paris, and her coming back to Australia. I don't really how much she earns.. the thing is.... How much a cosmetic company is willing to pay for ONE photo.. one photo to make US BUY a new mascara or a lipstick etc.
I mean, isn't it ridiculous?
From a point of view of marketing, probably, it's not, but..
From the point of view of common sense? Guys, common, you probably don't earn a year an amount that is spent on creating an ad!!!
That's probably it for today.
But I have so much to tell you...