Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP21 Feat. David Miniatures!

Episode Date: April 15, 2025

Exploring Miniature Masterpieces: Interview with David's Miniatures - Good News York In this special episode of Good News York, hosts Mike and Matt welcome David from David's Miniatures for a unique 'no face' interview. David shares fascinating insights into his extraordinary work of creating scale miniatures for film, TV, advertising, and private collectors. Having made models for Universal Studios, Netflix, Amazon, and more, David talks about his creative process, tools, and how his journey began as a hobby during his recovery from kidney cancer. The discussion covers everything from his process of making custom miniatures to the importance of privacy and his decision to keep his identity anonymous. Dive into the world of miniatures and discover the meticulous craftsmanship behind these nostalgic and intricate creations. 00:00 Introduction and Special Guest Announcement 01:22 Meet David from David's Miniatures 02:31 David's Journey: From Hobby to Business 04:28 The Healing Power of a Hobby 12:09 Challenges and Triumphs in the Miniature World 21:49 Discussing Anonymity and Privacy 22:58 The Evolution of Social Media Presence 24:57 Launching a Podcast: Scale Talk 25:24 Maintaining a No-Face Identity 26:47 The Art of Miniature Making 28:52 Balancing Personal and Commercial Projects 32:02 Client Interactions and Custom Orders 38:03 Leveraging Community for Projects 39:50 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com. Hey guys, welcome to Good News York.

We've got a special, very special episode, special guest. Mike's earning his producer pay here. Yeah, finally. He got us, I think this might be one of the coolest things we've ever seen. And it's also a unique thing. We're going to do something a little different. We're going to do this as like a no-face interview, I guess. Is that the term for it?

Yeah, so we have a special guest on us today that we're going to introduce. But this guest is unlike any other guest for two reasons. One, when you find out what he does, it's just fantastic. And two, it's a no face account. And before I talked to him, I didn't know what a note, I mean, I figured it out. As soon as he said it, I figured out what it meant. It's not a complicated thing. It's a no face account means it's a social media account where you don't show your face.

But we've never had anyone on that has a no face account. So Matt came up with a brilliant idea. What are we doing? We're going to do the same thing. We're going to do this as a no-face interview. So we're going to turn around. And without further ado, we're making our coolest guest on the planet, wait. This is, you're losing your producer, Jenna.

We've got David from David's miniatures here. Yes. And if you haven't seen this gentleman's work, it's mind-blowing. Feel free to pull it up as we're talking or don't. pay attention to this, pull it up afterwards. But this is so cool. So welcome to Good News, York, David. Thank you.

Thank you, guys. Yeah, David, here's what's great for you and not for us. If you end up hating this interview, we'll never know because we can't tell. Yeah. You could be like rolling your eyes right now and we have zero clue. But I'm so excited to have you on. The reason why I wanted to have you on is what you do is so unique. and so spectacular.

It's hard to find something new nowadays. You scroll through social media, right? And you see there's something for everything, right? Sure. It's all been done, and then it's been redone. I've never seen what it is you do. And the funny part is it came across my feet is I think an ad of some sort.

And I was blown away. And why don't you tell us, David, what is it that you do? Yeah, we'd love to hear your description. Yeah, that's actually great. I've never really described it other than on my website or anything. But basically, I make scale miniatures for film, TV, advertising, and private collectors. But my niche within miniatures is typically anything retro. So anything from retro movies, 80s and 90s, I have a certain product that I have a certain product

that I do, which is called retro rooms, which are basically a slice of an 80s or 90s bedroom, and the client can actually customize everything they want in it. So whether they're recreating the room they had as a child or the room they wish they had as a child, or it's just a room filled with all their favorite stuff from the era. So that's super popular product that I offer. but the majority of my work is private collectors and film studios. So I've done work for Netflix, Amazon MGM, Sony Pictures, Ghostbusters, Back to the Future, all that fun stuff.

And yeah, I've been going on 15 years now doing this. Wow. It's amazing. What came first? Did it start out as a hobby or did it start out as a paid gig that then evolved? Oh, no, it was definitely a hobby for sure. I was in the corporate world for a while. I started out as a graphic designer,

eventually moved up to art director. I did a little stint in set design for film. When I was much younger, I did an internship, didn't like it. It was like glorified construction work. No offense to construction workers. Super hard, which is why I didn't like it. Absolutely. And yeah, I actually, it's kind of like a sort of

bittersweet story, but in 2013, I was diagnosed with kidney cancer. Oh, wow. And I had a lot of complications, was in and out of the hospital, and was stuck at home for over a year and started to get sort of cabin fever. And to the point where like the hospital, like, recommended I speak to like one of their therapists because I was like, I'm going nuts. Oh, man. And they're like, oh, you know, do you have a hobby?

And I was like, not really. And they're like, well, maybe you had a hobby as a kid that you can maybe like spark up again. And I was like, well, I used to like making scale models and stuff. And when I was a kid, they sucked, obviously. Right. But, you know, through time, you acquire experience in things without realizing it. You know, like, by the time I hit my 30s, I had like partially renovated my own house. and built certain things and whatever.

So you can take those skills. Sure. And I decided to, you know, because I was stuck home, binge watching stuff, I had just watched the Back to the Future trilogy, which was one of my favorites. So when this whole model making thing came up, I was like, oh, maybe I'll make a scene from back to the future. And so I went online and I bought a little car and then I built the scene. And I was like, huh?

that was fun. I'm like, I'm better at this than I thought I would have been. So then I did a scene from the second movie and then I made a scene from the third movie. And then after that, I was like, I didn't want to stop. So I made a scene from Ghostbusters. And then because I had a background in graphic design and web design, I decided to just share them online. Sure. And see what happens. and I remember where they got shared at the time. I don't know if Reddit was even a thing back then, but it ended up getting reposted by other people. And luckily I had put like my name at the bottom of each image.

And I started getting contacted and messaged about like, hey, can I buy this? Like all these kind of questions. And like it wasn't even a thought in my mind. For me, I had made these for me. you know yeah um and then it kind of like i've always had like a entrepreneurial spirit i guess you can say i've never been able to have a hobby that doesn't turn into a business this is just the pattern i've had in my life i have a similar curse it's not a bad problem yeah so i went straight

from like oh this post got a lot of attention to like well now it's a business and i created a website and I created an Instagram. I love it. And I just started making stuff and selling them way cheaper than I should have been selling them. And it just kind of snowballed from there. And then it kind of got to the point where I don't know exactly how it works in the States. I'm in Canada. So when you're sick, you have like a certain amount of time that the government will like pay you to like get better and stay home.

Yeah, we don't have any of that. Yeah. And I was I was reaching my. I think it was like one year or something like after one year they're like you need to figure it out and I was sort of at that point where like okay do I follow this or do I just go back to my job sure which was waiting for me and I took the risk I had just gotten my first sort of big gig if you want to say it was for Universal Studios they wanted universal pictures I should say they wanted me to recreate the McFly House from Back to the Future.

And it was for, they were doing a big anniversary event in L.A. And they were going to auction it off for the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Oh, wow. For Parkinson's. So, yeah. And that was like sort of my sign of, okay, like my name's already getting out there. Like, this is like a good way to start. And the highlight for me at the time was I had gotten an email from Bob Gale.

And for those that are not familiar, Bob Gale is the co-producer and co-writer of Back to the Future, along with Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg. And I got an email from him saying, like, hey, he's like, I saw the miniatures you made. And he's like, they're absolutely amazing. He's like, they really brought me back, blah, blah, like, just all this nice stuff. Yeah. And for me, that was like, you know, between that and universal, it was like a big sign that like I was on a good path. Not going to lie, though, from that moment on every time I got an email and the sender was like MGM, Warner Brothers.

I was always like, well, I'm getting sued. And it was always the opposite. It was always like, hey, we saw your stuff. We'd like to work with you or we'd like to hire you to make this. whatever. So it's all been super positive. And yeah, so back in, I would say, 2013, 2014, I went full time. And yeah, it's been great since. That's amazing. Long-winded answer, sorry. No, no, that's fantastic. Just when I thought you couldn't get cooler, you also, you know, are cancer survivor and turned something so negative into

something so positive. On a personal note, did you find that before? You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're in a podcast, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your.

sign. Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com. For this scaled into a business, did you find that the hobby actually took your mind off of your illness and did it do anything for you personally? Till this day, it's hard to describe how isolated my brain gets in a good way when I'm working. I could get like the worst news ever or whatever. And it's just like, you know what? I'm going to go down to the shop and just work. And it's,

it's, it's my Xanax. It's my melatonin. It's my, you know what I mean? Yeah. You're able to just pour yourself into it. I think it's because it, it uses so much of my brain.

100%. And so much of my, my physical. Like it's almost difficult to think of anything else. Yeah. Um, it's, uh,

I experienced panic attacks my whole life. And early on before I got a handle on them, the only way to truly get myself out of a panic attack was to play guitar. I didn't even want to play the guitar at the moment because I'm in the middle of a panic attack. But you're physically making your brain do something different. Focus on something else.

And so that's why that kind of you connected with me there when you said you had this illness. And so they asked if you start a hot. I just think, you know, obviously this whole thing that you've created is cool, but I look at it from a different angle of like, hey, this this, this actually might have saved his life in a way or at least gave you a better quality of life. 100%. 100%. You know, like I said, it's been like, I lost count, like somewhere between 13 and 15 years. And I, you know, there has been times where, you know, like society. has made me feel like this isn't a real job, you know, and I've worked a couple of months, like went back into graphic design for a couple of months and literally like day three on the new job with, you know, the cushy salary and the, you know, the health benefits and all

that. I'm like, what am I doing? This is horrible, right? This is horrible. And yeah, like my, my happy place is my shop that you see me in here. And it's like, you know, I'm, I either have music on or I have a movie on and I'm just working away, you know, I can literally, you know, see the day go by and like forget to eat or forget to like, you know, like I have to set alarms for everything because they're all just zone out. Well, that's how you know you, you love what you're doing when, you know, that old saying time flies. I didn't realize that until, you know, I started editing, you know, video or, you know, recording music or all of a sudden you blink and it's been four hours and you're so hyper

focused and it just takes you away yeah you know David I got to ask you so obviously it's david's miniatures and in their small models why so small why did you not go with something maybe a little bigger little easier to work with what what drew you to this tiny size you mean bigger within the world of miniatures or just yeah just just like a larger figure you know just something that Maybe a little easier to work with that he didn't use as many tweezers. Yeah, so I actually work in pretty much any scale that's requested. Okay. So I've done up to like one sixth scale for movies, one eighth scale.

Wow. It just gets a little bit harder to work in the shop when they're that big. Sure. But usually I'll determine the scale either with the client or typically like the bigger, the thing is in real life, the smaller scale I'll choose because it's easier to display. It's easier to I see. You know, so, you know, example, I did Michael Scott's office. Yeah. From the show the office. And that was a 124 scale. So about that big. Wow. For the whole office. But I had someone commissioned the building, like the exterior of the building with the parking lot and everything from the office.

So that I did 164 scale, which is like Hotwheel side. for those six four scale. And even at 164 scale, it was like two and a half to three feet wide. Wow. About 13 inches tall. So it was quite big. So that building at like 112 scale or 12th scale would have been bigger than this table. Right.

So that's how I determine the scale. And obviously, whatever the client requests, the same request. So like the studios, the big companies that come to you for this work, is it, what are they using it for? So is it a gift for the performers? Is it something they use in a production? Like what are they looking for? All of the above.

Okay. I've made stuff for Amazon that was online promotion. So to promote like the new season of a show or a movie, sometimes they get gifted to like the star of the show or the director or whatever. A lot of times it's for promotion. of a series or a movie, like the majority, that's what it is. Gotcha.

But a lot of times, I'll also ship it out to them. So, like I did a bunch of sets from Stranger Things for Netflix. So that was for online promotion, but now they're on display at the head office. That's amazing.

Like in the Stranger Things section of the head office. You know, one thing... So neat. I know. It really is, man. There's many things I love. about you and what you do. One, the obvious, we're clearly around the same age because everything I've seen on your site is just,

I mean, you have hit such a nostalgia nerve with me from Ghostbusters to back to the future. I mean, it's all 80s, 90s stuff. Yeah. But one thing that I really connected on is, so I have, you know, a handful of tattoos. And when I first went to a tattoo artist, one of the things I learned is like,

and I'm not disparaging tattoos. artists that do this but you know you don't want to go to the tattoo artist in Myrtle Beach and go I want that thing on the wall you know most tattoo artists take pride and like tell me what you want I'll design it and I'm never going to do that at least my tattoo artist a one of a kind it's a one of a kind I'm never going to do that once I put it on your body I'm never doing it for anybody else and when I was reading through your site you kind of go along with that same model if you want to talk about that I really respect that and I know it's as a customer kind of bums you out because I I I saw like 10 different models on on your website where I'm like, I want that one, I want that

one. And I want. Yeah. But, but, but from an artist standpoint, from a creative standpoint, I really think that's, uh, unique and special. Yeah. So there, there's several reasons why I do it. Um, the first and foremost reason why I do it is I hate making things twice. I get it. I get it. That's, that's the first reason. Uh, each build is such a challenge. has its own ups and downs and things to figure out. And for me, that's the fun part, like figuring it out. It would be easier for me to make something I've already made. Sure.

You know, I'll already have, like, certain files already done, the blueprints already done, whatever. And it's not to say that I never will. That's my, like, my insurance plan. Like, if ever business isn't doing well, I can just open up the floodgates and be like, Hey, I'm willing to remake anything you've seen on my website. But for the time being, I don't need to. I have a one year plus waiting list of stuff. And I don't really need to make five of that thing to survive.

I do have this thing I've been doing for the past couple of years where once a year I'll make a limited edition item that I think. that I think will sell well. That's more affordable because not everybody could afford my larger pieces. And it gives people that like my work a chance to like buy something. Yeah. That's like under $1,000, you know? Sure. So every year I release a different thing.

So this year it was like this little retro TV and it plays a bunch of like movie trailers from the 80s and it has like a VCR and a Nintendo. That's awesome. And the client and the client can choose like the poster that's on the wall behind the TV. and I sold over 200 of those in two weeks. That's amazing. Now I have to make them. But yeah, and they're all like handmade each one. But yeah, to go back to your question,

the main reason is I just don't enjoy making things twice. But I also, you know, through the years dealing with collectors, collectors that have that budget that are willing to spend that amount of money on something that's unique and handmade. First of all, there aren't that many of them. Yeah. And something that they value is knowing that they're the only ones that will have that piece. That's awesome. So, you know, and I always tell them the same thing.

I'm like, if ever in X number of years, I decide to make this again, either for myself or somebody else, I will check in with you. and make sure you're okay with it. If you're not, I will not make it. That's great. And I've done variants of certain scenes, especially back to the future because it's my biggest demand.

You know, I've done the DeLorean coming out of the truck. I've done that like three different ways. That's so great. The Mcfly house I made twice, but it was two different scenes. So same house, but one was the scene where the,

basically the end of the first movie beginning of the second, where the Dolorian comes in and crashes into the trash cans. And then the second one I made was the scene where Biff is waxing the cars. Yes. So again, same house. But, you know, and that one... You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog.

If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com. I kind of agreed to do it because the McFly House, the first one I did was my first thing I

ever made that went viral. But it was also one of the first bigger projects that I did. and it was over 10 years ago. Wow. And I just, it was almost like a challenge to myself to see, you know, did I get better?

Did I get faster? Did I, you know, because like it's essentially the exact same house. And I think it took me a month and a half to make it the first time. The second time took me two weeks. Wow.

That's so. We're going to be showing, as you're talking, by the way, we're going to edit in. We'll cut in some. All through this. We're going to cut in pictures of all that. I got one more question. I want you to do your thing. I want to talk about the obvious.

Now, you're a no-face account. We talked about that. And in solidarity, Matt and I are also doing a no-face interview. Kind of liking this. Is this to just you want to keep your identity anonymous? or is it kind of like a puppeteer type deal where you're like, you know, the allure of this is that I make these things.

You can see what I made, but, you know, it's almost like a creative choice. Like I'm the, you know, I'm behind the scenes. I'm the puppeteer. Or is it maybe a mixture of both? So it kind of, it was never on purpose. Smart. Because of the nature of what I do,

most of the pictures are like, of my hand holding something or my hand in the picture. picture of something. I feel like the scale of my hand is more relevant. Sure. Do like if I if I do a full body picture of me holding a miniature like you'll barely be able to see the miniature because the camera would be have to be far away enough to see like my face and my torso right. Um, so at the beginning it was just like a logical thing. It wasn't like I'm hiding myself. Um, but as my social media accounts grew and everything, um,

And I had like, you know, I had a kid and things like that. And I was just thinking about like privacy a little bit more. And, you know, I had a, I had another business a while ago. And I had at the time, like, I'm not going to get into it too much, but I had a competitor that went a little bit cuckoo. And I had to deal with some crazy shit like, you know, slashing my tires. Oh, my God. sending shit to my house and like it it's crazy and you know it taught me that it only takes one

crazy person to like ruin your life and you know when you start having like 10,000 20,000 30,000 50,000 followers you don't know who those people are that's right and you can never assume like oh but they follow me they're all fans they're all like nice people that like my work. Like, no. That's not the case at all. Every celebrity stalker was a fan. That's right.

Yeah, so it kind of evolved into that. Like at the beginning, I just felt there was no need for like, what does my face have to do with any of this, you know? Yeah. And it's funny because I made friends like, you know, in the sort of miniature community and influencer community, whatever, at the beginning. And a lot of them were telling me, this is, of before influencing was like a legitimate profession.

And a lot of them were telling me like, oh, no, you have to show your face. And people like, you know, they respond to that and like blah, blah. I'm like, I don't like I'm like, I don't see how it's relevant to what I do. Yeah. And yeah. So in the end, I never did. And I'm I'm super glad that I did. I now have a podcast, which is filmed the exact same way.

this is filmed. Scale Talk is the name of the podcast? Yeah, Scale Talk podcast. And I interview like different artists and miniaturists and things like that. Like I've had people on that, you know, worked on Star Wars and Terminator and all this. That's so cool. I saw you've been, you talked to Freddie Prins and Jr. Yeah.

A bunch of different celebrities. Yeah, because he's into like model making and stuff. So I had him on. Do you find that you have to regularly like go get manicures because your hand is always in frame? Do you have like take extra care of your hands? episode of Friends or you get the hand model. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, I'm pretty good.

Like, I clean them up every day after. I literally have some pictures where, like, I have still have paint on my hands and stuff. I mean, that's real, though. It is real. Yeah. No, but that's why. That's how it all kind of started. It was never really intentional.

But I'm glad that I did just because, you know, and like I was saying before, like for my podcast, it kind of comes. in handy because sometimes if I have like a bad connection with the person, it'll seem like I'm talking over them, but I'm not. It's just because there's a delay. So I'm able to just like scoge my audio over and you can't tell that it doesn't match my mouth or not. So it's super handy for for podcast. That is brilliant. You know, the other thing I like about it, I mean, you're just like clobbering me with nostalgia. You're reminding me of Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget. So I think It's kind of cool, too.

Like, I have no idea. I was going to say, are you, are you, I'll get you gadget. I didn't know if you were petting a cat or not. Yeah. Oh, man. David, I just, I got one more quick question for it. I was going to ask you about your podcast. I already told us about that, which is awesome.

One of the last things I just want to know is, you know, as you're building these things, obviously you have to fabricate so much of it. You know, you could maybe buy a matchbox delorean, but how do you go about that? Do you use, do you custom make everything? And what type of materials do you use to fabricate these different pieces? Yeah. So nowadays, it's much different than it was. I would say like, you know, for the last three years, I have a lot more tools at my disposal.

So I got into 3D printing. I got into laser cutting. Mostly for time reasons and speed. You know, if you go on my website, I don't think you'd be able to tell, you know, which products, like which models I made prior to owning those tools. It's just a question of time. And everything I 3D print, I 3D model myself. Wow.

So I'm lucky again because I come from sort of graphic design, visual background. Sure. I knew a little 3D modeling. If ever I have to 3D model people, I usually outsource that to an artist that I work with. Oh, cool. And he 3D models people or I work with, a good friend of mine who's an amazing sculptor. And he'll do that for me.

But yeah, most of the stuff is handmade, mostly out of like either wood, MDF, resin. And a very common material we use in model making is called styrene. Okay. It's a plastic. You can buy it in textures. You can buy it in strips. You can buy it like I just used yesterday one that has like a stone effect.

Cool. So you can, like at your hobby shop, you can basically buy, like, if you want, like, a stone wall, you can buy it. Like, it comes in, like, different scales. I see. And you just buy the one you want. And it's, like, a plastic that you can, like, weld together instead of glue. I see. So it's very common.

And that's all, like, all the Star Wars movies were made. It was all styrene. Do you think you'll, speaking of scale talk, your podcast, do you, do you think you'll ever get to a point where you have to scale the business and hire employees and maybe use a 3D printer? Or do you always just want to keep it you in your workshop and just kind of do it at your own pace? Yeah. It's funny you say that I was talking about that with someone else. And I'm kind of getting at that point. I figured.

I'm just at a point where like logistically, I don't know how it would work. You know, my shop is in my house and I don't want to change that right now. it's it's very hard because for me each piece is so personal sure even if you know even if like someone I'll give you an example like right now I'm making a motel that this guy's family owned when you know it's a motel in L.A. like nothing special but they sold it not long ago the dad retired and he wanted a miniature of the motel to give him as a gift sure um so I personally have no attachment to this place as I would if it was like one of my favorite movies or something like that yeah but the time you invest in it like the research the all that stuff goes into like oh what model air conditioner is that and like you know you go down this rabbit hole just figure everything out you become attached to it and I've tried in the past to like get people to help me and oftentimes it's faster for me to do it myself than to explain to somebody.

Yeah, yeah. How to do it. Like right now, I'm working on a project. When I work on bigger projects, I sort of pause in between just because I don't want to like work on one thing for three months. Like A for my brain, but B, it sort of like messes up my waiting list. So I'm working on a reproduction of the Carousel of Progress, the Disney ride. Wow. And it has like a motorized base and everything.

And because it's the ride is four acts, I'm doing like one act and then I'm going back to my to do list and then do another act. And that one like each act has like between three and five people in it. They're not real people in real life. They're electronic. So I hired this super talented like 3D artist to model the people. But just to work with him, it took me three days of researching like all the images finding different angles of the people

and then let's just sort of like writing out a document of him like how much detail do I need how much do I not need how are these models going to interact with my model like do I need a peg and a whole system or like how is that working and you know it worked out fine but you know it took me three days just to prep him to do that that thing and the only thing I did it is because that's something I can't do myself. Yeah. And one of the things that blows me away, too, and I know we've got to get you out of here.

I'm sorry. Just one more, a couple quick things. David from David Ministers. The thing that caught my eye, I mean, obviously, and again, we're showing all this right now, but, you know, the models themselves are spectacular. But there's another element. You add, like you were talking about, like movement.

And the first thing I saw of yours was it, was a television set that had like the, like, had the Super Nintendo or the Nintendo hooked up. And like, you know, when the, the squiggly lines. Yeah, yeah. Like, it literally does that. Yeah.

So it's not just modeling. You're, your engineering. It's absolutely spectacular. And I'm telling you right now, we're going to be on that waiting list starting tomorrow morning because we're going to come up with something that we'd love for you to make. So you obviously don't just do movie.

You said you're doing like the retro rooms you do. You're doing a motel that was near and dear to somebody's heart. What else do you do? So for those that are watching and listening, and while you're on that, do you want to just take us through the quick process of somebody comes to your site and they want to purchase something? How does that all work?

Yeah, sure. So to answer the first part, anything that's manager I can make, like whatever it is. I've made miniature fire departments for like city buildings that want to display like the new fire department they just built or whatever. Like, you know, so I do a lot of commercial work. I've done real estate stuff for people. You know, it doesn't have to be movie and TV based. So because of my portfolio, that's the majority of work I get is that.

But I do commercial stuff all the time. And to explain the process, it's pretty simple. usually people reach out either through a forum on my website or through social media. And because the demand has gotten so high lately, I usually just send people back to the website and fill out the forms because it asks certain questions that I need to know. And then it just kind of goes from there. Usually if it's a private client, there's just like a lot of back and forth about what they want, the scale, the size, the budget, that kind of thing.

then they pay me a deposit. They go on the waiting list, usually about a month before I begin production. I usually reach out to them, confirm that they don't want to change anything. They don't want to add the budget, reduce the budget, that type of thing. And then I get going. When it's more of a commercial job, let's say it's like a Netflix thing or whatever. Usually there's a lot of meetings involved, a lot of Zoom calls with the directors or whatever. So that's a little bit of a different process.

But it's essentially the same in the end. And you, I mean, that is just outstanding the whole thing. Do you see this going to a next level? Or do you feel like you're just going to ride it out, keep this, you know, the way it is, do your thing? Is there a next level to this, a next step? I mean, the only next level I see is I think eventually I may have to either stop or limit like private orders from collectors. Because every year the demand for my commercial work goes up. And those projects, not to get in too much detail, but pay way better.

Of course. And they're usually, how can I explain this? Like, I can't tell Netflix like you have to wait a year. Right. Yeah. You know what I mean? And the problem is like these companies, you know, and because I've worked on the corporate world, I understand like, you know, like they're having a meeting and somebody

in the meeting is like, hey, it'd be cool if this was miniature. And like their project is due in three weeks. And then they call me and they're like, hey, can you do this? So most of these commercial jobs are very quick turnaround. like usually within 30 days. So, you know, the amount of money I make in 30 days for those versus the amount of money I make and someone has to wait a year for it, it kind of doesn't make sense. But right now I'm very much in the middle of both of those.

So the private collector world is still pretty viable for me. And I have a lot of regular clients that, you know, they'll order like two, three at a time. Wow. Just wait for them. And then they order like two, three more. And I have a client just reached out to me last week. And he's like, and I like, I forget who I make things for sometimes.

Right. And he sent me a picture of his office. And he must have had like maybe six or seven of my pieces. Oh, wow. And in my head, I'm like, man, I didn't even realize these were all for you. No kidding. And he's like, hey, he's like, can you build me like a custom shelf to display these? And I was like, I'm like, first of all, you're like in Chicago or something.

And second of all, like, I don't build furniture. Right. If you want, I can, like, design it. And then you can, like, give that to like a carpenter or something. And you can build it off of that. But that's about as best as I can do it. So, yeah, the regulars is fun because they. And those are always the people that trust me the most.

They're always like, hey, I want something. from Goonies. I'm like, cool, what do you want? They're like, whatever. They're like, whatever it is. And I'm like, all right. And then I just do like whatever scene I think is the coolest. Is there a lot of, like, do you give people a specific set of like, I need these kind of pictures, these dimensions when they want to build something that's not from a movie scene? Like to send you ahead of time. The more I can get the better. Yeah. Right. So a lot, The advantage is, like, a lot of times they're real places that still exist. So Google Street View is like a huge resource for that.

And sometimes having a large following is super useful for that as well. And I'll give you an example. I had to, I made the Vic Theater in Chicago for Sal Volcano. Okay. Impractical Jokers. Yeah, impractical jokers. So he was doing his first like TV special at the VIC and they wanted to sort of commemorate that with a model of the VIC. But like the marquee and stuff had his name on it and everything.

And obviously I'm not in Chicago and I there was a lot of pictures of the VIC online and it was very like inconsistent. Like it had gone through renovations at one point. The street view was like three years old. So I just reached out. I went on my stories and I was like, hey, if anybody's in Chicago, like, I need help with something. Let me know. One of my followers reached out. He's like, hey, what's up?

And I'm like, hey, I'm like, are you far from like the Vic? He's like, no, like five minutes. I'm like, would you mind like just going there and just snapping like a bunch of pictures? He's like, yeah, no problem. So he went over to the Vic and he was like live sending me pictures on Instagram. He's like, what else do you need? And I'm like, oh, I need that like that sconce and I need like a close up of the sign on the door. And he was just walking around, like, snapping pictures of his iPhone.

Phenomenal. So that's a street team. Yeah. Literally. Yeah. Just deploy people all over the world. That's awesome. I love that.

David, we are out of time, my friend, and you have been so incredibly generous with your time. So much. Yeah. No problem. It's really been incredible talking to you about this and learning about this. And the best part is you're a fellow podcaster. So for folks that want to dig even deeper. he peels back the onion on all kinds of things.

Incredible channel that we were going through all over YouTube. And his website, you can also tell that he's got a background in web because he's got an actually nice, nice, clean, well-organized site where you can check out everything he's doing. David's Ministers. David Ministers.com or David's? David Ministers. I own both domains just in case, but it's David Minatures.

David Ministers, Scale Talk is the podcast. Anything else you want to plug, my friend? No, best place to be. visit me is Instagram at David Miniatures. If you want to contact me there

or through my website if you're interested in anything or have questions or want to learn or anything like that. And we'll definitely be tagging you on all of our posts

and on a personal note without getting into it I wanted to let you know here at Good News York we absolutely love and respect Canada so God bless. I'll leave it at that

my friend. All right. All right. Have a good one. Thank you David. Thank you. Hi guys. Wow.

So we just did a no-face interview. We did. I don't know if we'll ever do that again. We might do it every day now. I like not seeing your face. I like, yeah. You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog.

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