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By
Suzanne
By
Krista

Interview with Marc and Shannon Parker of "Dream Machines" on Syfy 4/3/12
Syfy DREAM MACHINES Q&A
with Marc and Shannon Parker
April 3, 2012
12:00 pm CT
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to
the Syfy conference call, Dream Machines. During the presentation all
participants will be in a listen only mode. Afterwards we will conduct a
question and answer session. At that time if you have a question please
press the 1 followed by the 4 on your telephone. If at anytime during
the conference you need to reach an operator please press star 0. As a
reminder this conference is being recorded, Tuesday, April 3, 2012.
I would now like to turn the conference over to Stephen Cox from Syfy.
Please go ahead sir.
Stephen Cox: Hi everyone and thanks for joining us today. We’re very
excited to have Dream Machines stars Marc and Shannon Parker with us to
answer your questions. Just a reminder Dream Machines premieres next
Tuesday at 10:00 pm only on Syfy. And Press Kits should be hitting desks
tomorrow. So without further ado we will turn it over to your questions
for Marc and Shannon.
Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen if you would like to register
a question please press the 1 followed by the 4 on your telephone. You
will hear a three tone prompt to acknowledge your request. If your
question has been answered and you would like to withdraw your
registration, please press the 1 followed by the 3. You will be limited
to one question and you may requeue for follow up. If you are using a
speakerphone, please lift your handset before entering your request. One
moment please for the first question.
Our first question coming from the line of Jamie Ruby with
Scifivision.com. Please proceed with your question.
Jamie Ruby: Hi guys, thanks for talking to us today.
Man: Hi, how are you doing?
Jamie Ruby: Good. So can you just kind of start by telling us, what kind
of vehicles and that we’re going to see on the show this season?
Man: What kind of what?
Jamie Ruby: What, vehicles whatever they’re going to be like. Can you
tell us a bit about that because we haven’t really seen anything yet as
far as that?
Man: Well the vehicles that we build are really kind of out there I
guess is the only way to explain it. We don’t really prescribe to the
standard build the same stuff that everybody else is building. We try
and challenge ourselves every week to build something that supposedly
can’t be built or shouldn’t be built. And we definitely have a lot more
of a sci fi edge with the things that we build. So it’s a perfect match
for us to be with the Syfy channel, we have a lot of stuff that’s
inspired by science fiction movies and comic books and things of that
nature.
So, we build everything from cars, motorcycles, I know there was a few,
I think there was a submarine actually proposed at one time. I don’t
believe that will be in Season One but, anything that they come at us
with, we like to build the strange and unusual. So it won’t be just a
motorcycle show or just a car show, it’ll be, every week we’ll be
building something different.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Tim
Holquinn with The Outhouse. Please proceed with your question.
Tim Holquinn: Hi guys, nice to talk to you.
Man: You too.
Tim Holquinn: I have multiple questions but I’ll just ask the first one
here. You didn’t mention any flying cars although the - I hear that in
the first episode you do go up in jets and 50 cent has a jet car built.
So I was wondering if you’ll ever be getting involved with like kit
copter cars. I don’t really think that the Moller or (Terepegia) is
going to happen anytime soon. But a lot of people are into this kit
copter cars. You know what I’m talking about? Will that come up?
Man: We have actually dabbled with the idea of, flying type vehicles. It
will come up because it’s something that we’re passionate about. We want
to push the envelope with vehicles and it doesn’t necessarily have to be
on the road. So you will definitely see at least our attempts at making
things work that you wouldn’t normally think could work. I won’t always
say that they will work out perfectly but it is because it’s a prototype
and these ideas don’t always work out but we’re willing to go there and
push the limits and at least try.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question coming from the line of Beth
Beecham with Hollywood Junket. Please proceed with your question.
Beth Beecham: Hi, thank you so much for your time today. I was curious,
what do you guys think about the self driving cars? Do you have any of
those that you’ve created?
Shannon Parker: We have yet to do a self driving car but things like
that are definitely up our alley. I men, those are the things that we
like to pursue as, the things that haven’t been done, radio controlled
or computer controlled or, we’re looking into a lot of the alternative
energy source things. We’re doing electric vehicles, we’re doing gas
powered vehicles, anything like that is definitely what the show’s going
to focus on.
Like I said we definitely want to try and push and the envelope every
chance we get to do something that hasn’t been done so that, when people
are watching the show they’re like oh, what are they going to do next
because it’s not going to be the same thing every week.
Beth Beecham: Okay thank you, I look forward to seeing the show.
Man: Thank you.
Man: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen as a reminder to register for
a question press the 1 followed by the 4. Our next question coming from
the line of Krista Chain of TV Magazine. Please proceed with your
question.
Krista Chain: Hey guys, thanks for talking to us today.
Man: Sure.
Krista Chain: My question was I was just wanting to know if you could
maybe talk about - a little bit about how the concept for the show came
about?
Shannon Parker: I would say the concepts come, from all kinds of places.
The idea for the show came from us, we started out making vehicles for
ourselves but we were making things that were really out there. And I
guess it just kind of took off from there that people saw that we could
build these outlandish vehicles. And, they wanted to see if we were
interested in doing something like that on a fulltime basis. And, next
thing you know here we are.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question is a follow up question coming
from the line of Jamie Ruby with Scifivision.com. Please proceed with
your question.
Jamie Ruby: Hi again. So out of everything you’ve created so far what’s
been kind of your favorite after, you finish the creation?
Man: Our favorite build?
Jamie Ruby: Yes.
Marc Parker: we’ve been asked that so many times and honestly it’s
almost impossible to answer. We get so passionate about each one of
these builds because they’re so unique and so different that every time
we build something it’s our favorite until the next build. every - every
one that we’ve built we’ll go ah, we’ll never be able to do anything
cooler than that. And then the next thing we build we’re like oh yeah,
we just blew the last one out of the water. So I don’t know if it would
be possible to give a definitive this is absolute favorite because I
couldn’t really choose. I’m not sure Shannon, how do you feel about
that?
Shannon Parker: For me it’s like we love what we’re doing at the time so
each build is our favorite at the time. And then, once we - once we
realize that we can actually build that one, I think, then our passion
goes to the next project, what is the next thing that people think can’t
be done and let’s try to tackle that. So for us I think it’s - we love
what we’re doing at the time. And after that we want to move onto the
next thing.
Jamie Ruby: All right, thanks, thank you.
Man: It’s the power that drives us.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question is a follow up question coming
from the line of Tim Holquinn with The Outhouse. Please proceed with
your question.
Tim Holquinn: Hi guys, me again. Last week there was a clip that hit the
Web of two Batmobiles racing, the classic ‘60s and the Tim Burton
version. And I don’t imagine that the majority or even many of your
builds focus on speed but I was just wondering to what degree they do
and if you ever like quarter mile time your - have records of how fast
or what is your fastest creation ever?
Man: I would say, we don’t necessarily focus on speed but there are
plenty of builds as you’ll see this season there are things that go
really fast. We don’t really test to the limits because they are
prototypes and one offs, we don’t want to - we build show vehicles but
they are capable of doing a lot. One vehicle in particular has upwards
of 750 horsepower. This season that you’ll see, there are plenty of them
out there that have speed capabilities. It’s just a matter of who wants
to take them out and test that?
Tim Holquinn: Are they street legal by and large?
Marc Parker: Almost all of them are street legal. We’re doing one for
Universal Studios for a new movie they have coming out this summer
called Battleship and it’s kind of an alien vehicle. And unfortunately
there are no headlights or taillights on it and it’s kind of - I think
it would scare the hell out of people if they saw it coming down the
road. So that one won’t be street legal but pretty much everything else
this season is street legal.
Shannon Parker: And we try to make these things street legal to a point
just because we want people to understand that these are drivable,
rideable vehicles and most of the time people think if it’s not street
legal then it can’t actually be driven. These - all of these vehicles
can actually be driven and driven, to a point. But a lot of times the
design doesn’t bode well for, headlights or turn signals or things like
that. So for the look, we would keep those off for the overall look of
the vehicle to look what it needs to be.
Tim Holquinn: Okay and if I just fit in one last question. Being a child
of the ‘80s I grew up loving vehicle centric shows like Blue Thunder and
Knight Rider and then my brother who, a younger age group after me loved
Transformers and a cartoon called Mask. And I was just wondering if you
guys had any inspirations that (unintelligible) in your childhood --
that’s my phone beeping, sorry. But what - who were your childhood
inspirations that first got you thinking about vehicles?
Marc Parker: I think you just - you just named about half of our
inspirations right there. I mean, Shannon has always been a big comic
book buff. You’ll see in the show his entire office is covered in comic
books and he’s always been more into the - he was into Knight Rider and
things of that nature and comic book based stuff. And I’ve always been
more into the science fiction things like Star Wars and Battlestar
Galactica and things like that. So yeah we’re definitely from the same
era and we’ve always been really interested in the things that are more
fantasy based.
Anything that’s a - that people are into because they look at it and go
oh, that’s so cool, I wish it was real. That’s when we kind of step in
and go hey, let’s see if we can make it real.
Tim Holquinn: Right. And what about like battle cars like James Bond --
this is my last question I’ll get off after this -- but do you do any
super cars that have like fake weaponry, smoke bombs and oil slicks,
stuff like that?
Man: We would gladly take on stuff like that if someone approached us
with one of those kind of builds. I don’t think we have anything like
that in this season. Although the thing that we’re building for
Universal Studios is pretty much a battle - a battle ready vehicle that
would pretty much take out a building if you wanted it to. But it’s just
- like I said, every episode’s going to be so different that it’s hard
to just say oh they’re all going to be like this or they’re all going to
be like that. Anything that people want to approach us with we will
gladly take on.
But yeah, I would love to build like a spy car that, had all the cool
gadgets and everything on it. I mean, yeah James Bond, I’m all over
that.
Tim Holquinn: Thank you so much for talking with us today.
Man: No problem.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question is a follow up question coming
from the line of Jamie Ruby. Please proceed with your question.
Jamie Ruby: Right. This season what’s been kind of the hardest creation
that you’ve worked on (unintelligible)?
Man: Anything that I have to work with my brother on is pretty difficult
to begin with so all of these have been pretty tough. But I would say...
Man: Filming a TV show is definitely the hardest part.
Man: Yeah, yeah, filming around some of these builds was pretty
difficult but, there were several that have serious issues as far as
making it reality. I would say probably the Shredder which is the final
episode is probably our most time consuming, tedious process. But I
think it’s going to - I think it’s going to overwhelm people when they
see it so it will be worthwhile.
Jamie Ruby: Okay great, thanks so much.
Man: Absolutely.
Operator: Thank you. Our next question is a follow up question coming
from the line of Beth Beecham with Hollywood Junket. Please proceed with
your question.
Beth Beecham: Hi, hello again. I notice in the trailer you had built
something for 50 cent. I was curious as can you give us another example
of a machine that you built for another celebrity?
Man: For this season’s builds, we do a car for 50 cent, we do a vehicle
for John Cena, we’re doing the thing for Peter Berg’s new movie for
Universal Studios.
Man: We built a vehicle for Autotrader.com.
Man: Yeah. We’re building or we just built a vehicle for the Susan G.
Komen Foundation so that they could auction it off to raise money for
Breast Cancer Awareness. So, pretty much we kind of cover a lot of
spectrums there from music to television to movies to charities.
anything that - anything that anybody wants that’s not normal, we’re
into it.
Beth Beecham: Okay, I’m also curious what your backgrounds are. How did
you get into this? One - I know you both worked together on different
aspects of building the cars.
Marc Parker: Yeah, we pretty much just grew up - we’ve always been
interested in building things and tinkering. So stuff that we liked
wasn’t available on the market, you couldn’t go out and buy the things
that we were interested in having so we kind of had to learn from an
early age how to create (unintelligible) that hadn’t been created
before. And so, it was kind of necessity thing. When we were kids,
Shannon would want to do different stuff (unintelligible) go karts or
things like that. And so we just had to learn to do it on a small scale
and as we grew up we continued with it and I don’t know, it just kind of
evolved.
Beth Beecham: So there’s no education or formal training? Is it just
something you learned on your own?
Man: Yeah, we’re self taught. We’re graduates of the University of Hard
Knocks.
Man: We kind of have to, figure out things on our own and a lot of times
on a budget as well which always made it, there’s no school out there
that would teach you the kind of things that you need to learn for - for
these builds. It’s just an every day learning process. And we had to do
it on a budget when we were growing so we figured out that there is no -
no that can’t be done kind of thing. Which, you would run into that a
lot if you had plenty of money and you were just going to big companies
asking them to do things for you. They’d say oh, that’s not possible.
Well what we realized was when we did it on our own and we just found a
way to do it, it made it to be possible when everybody else said these
things are impossible to do.
Beth Beecham: Okay great, that’s quite impressive. Thanks guys.
Man: Thank you.
Operator: Thank you. We have a follow up question coming from the line
of Jamie Ruby. Please proceed with your question.
Jamie Ruby: So, you two mentioned obviously you worked together and
you’re brothers. How do your techniques (unintelligible) different from
each other?
Shannon Parker: I would say I’m obviously more into the design. Marc is
more into the functionality. And somehow or another, we have to find a
middle ground on all these builds to where they look like, what I
envisioned to begin with and they actually function so that Marc’s
happy. So it’s a little, give and take on both our parts to make things
that actually work and look good at the same time.
Jamie Ruby: And have you guys - you ever create things for yourselves
and then you keep them or has there ever been maybe one you made for
somebody that you really wished you could have kept because it was so
cool?
Man: All of them.
Shannon Parker: Yeah, there’s a lot of times, that we would love to keep
some of these things for ourselves. Honestly, we can’t afford most of
things that we make for other people. I drive a Honda Civic, Marc drives
a Ford Focus so we’re not, we’re not wealthy by any stretch and most of
these things are just way out of price range for us. But we enjoy the
build more then we would enjoy actually having the vehicle anyway. So
it’s, it’s good for us and it’s good for the client.
Jamie Ruby: Okay great, thanks so much.
Operator: Thank you. Mr. Cox there are no further questions at this
time. I will now turn the call back to you.
Stephen Cox: Thank you much. Thank you again everyone for joining us
today. Marc, Shannon we really appreciate your time. And just a reminder
Dream Machines premieres next Tuesday, April 10th at 10:00 pm. Hopefully
you’ll all tune in. Thank you very much. Have a great day everyone.
Man: Thank you.
Man: Thank you.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen that does conclude the conference call
for today. We thank you for your participation and ask that you please
disconnect your lines. Have a great day.
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