The television channel AMC Break has released a new talent show with the explicit title Crazy about chainsaws, which may lead many to think that it is a contest, either for fans of horror movies, or about workers of country houses in need of a lot of firewood. However, its title refers to the tool used by a group of carvers to turn large logs into true works of art. Saw, gasoline and motor to create wood carvings in record times and all kinds of added difficulties.
In the tradition of niche reality shows like Forged by Fire, this new contest is created by the same producers of Blown Away. It has a similar format of 12 episodes of less than half an hour, and the contestants, instead of competing to become the best glassblower or the best forger, seek the title of an art form that had not yet had its own program. In fact, not many know the chainsaw sculpture, so the series itself serves as a dissemination of an unusual work, but that leaves spectacular results.
Challenges involve turning old logs into works of art of varying sizes.
The candidates are 12 of the most skilled carvers from around the world, from Canada to Germany, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, the United States and Zimbabwe, faced week by week through challenges involving rapid modeling and painstaking embossing. As in the cooking competitions that have made the format popular, participants must work against the clock to avoid the weekly elimination and reach the final, where a grand cash prize of $ 50,000 awaits them. The difference is that, instead of creating a delicious dish, the challenges involve turning old logs into works of art of different sizes, which implies a control of the spatial dimension that is not learned on the fly.
The group is diverse, from style to personality, leading them to take very different approaches to testing. In the second episode, they are asked to make a sculpture depicting either hope or fear, and the results range from a disturbing embodiment of loneliness to a comedic image of one of the show's judges getting punched in the face. There are really no bad vibes, of course.
Ryan Cook is the technical judge and Katharine Dowson, the artistic judge, two experts of this art with great reputation in live events of carvings with the motorized tool, who objectively evaluate the works while explaining their criteria to the participants, so that it is fun for the viewer.
Sometimes their role is reduced to advice such as better decision-making when the piece is still with all its possibilities or indicating how they would have had more time to complete rough seeds of good ideas. In most cases the interaction seeks to entertain joking with the results and accompanying the presenter Adam Beach. The Golden Globe-nominated actor and member of the Anishinaabe Nation explains his role like this: "It seemed like an easy job, I would just be the host, smile and say hello. I didn't realize that it would connect with the empathy that all these carvers put into their artwork. There's always a personal story told and you can't help but fall for it."
Beach begins the first episode with a recognition of the Squamish Nation, as the series is set in natural settings of British Columbia, which leads to some days of the show being rainy and cold. There, the production has created an impressive scenario in the form of a circular platform separated by stepped planters and surrounded by logs on the ground. Producers have made donations to reforestation and carbon offsetting to make the use of cedar wood and fuel emissions the real protagonists of the series.
More than 30 chainsaws are available to participants in a shed where dozens of other power tools are stored. The carving process is not done in detail with the main machine, which is relegated to the "locking phase". That part is the initial cut to obtain a basic form on which to work and is where the balance between proportions and brute force defines everything that will become the sculpture. Then, the artists use smaller and smaller saws to undermine the wood and polish the shapes of their figures. Step by step they create more details and end up burning, sanding and painting the wood.
A finished work can take more than a day of work, in 'Crazy about chainsaws' they have only hours
A finished and complete work can take more than a day of work, so candidates must be quick and accurate, but it is also a process that requires strength and security, because if it goes wrong they cannot recover the piece. The tests of Crazy about chainsaws get more difficult, and there are two challenges in each episode: a quick two-hour felling, whose winner gets a seven-hour masterstroke advantage, which involves the elimination of the worst of the jobs.
The artists work each chosen theme with time limitations and certain essential requirements, but there is enough wide sleeve for creativity, which makes the variety of the results have a value beyond skill or experience and the inspiration of each contestant is evident, so that the interest for the viewer goes beyond the academic and can enjoy varied and beautiful works, and maybe get some idea for the decoration of the garden.
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