Ok, so in my first post on the Empty Chamber Indicator, I referred rather cryptically to the television production Behind the Scenes, indicating I might report back later. Well, it’s later.

Yesterday I returned to my office to find a phone message from a man asking me to call Michael Alexander, the producer of Behind the Scenes, which, it turns out, produces short informational documentaries to fill a three-minute space on PBS between the ending of one program and the beginning of another. On commercial TV, that space is filled by commercials.

As I mentioned yesterday, the list of people who’d been featured on Behind the Scenes was pretty impressive, including Colin Powell and G.H.W. Bush and many similar personalities from the world of government, business, medicine, you name it.

The phone message said that Mr. Alexander wanted to talk to me about doing a short documentary on estate planning in general, but more particularly on gun trusts (also known as NFA trusts). I was impressed. First, how did they find me? My blog? My Facebook page? LinkedIn? Other sites I’m listed on? I was also skeptical.

And then Mr. Alexander returned my call. Apparently the company’s legit. And they were interested in talking to me about doing a short documentary on gun trusts. Oh, and as part of the bargain, I needed to fork over some dollars.

Now I don’t say this disparagingly. I don’t think I was being scammed. You see, not only did they distribute their short films through PBS–some 300+ stations, according to Alexander–they also would make sure even shorter versions of the PBS documentaries were shown 50 times on any five TV stations I chose in Utah and Wyoming (I’m not sure whether that was 50 total or 50 x 5 or 250 times). And, they would also “narrowcast” the programs to targeted audiences in the Internet. That’s a lot of publicity.

But it wasn’t free. I won’t disclose the terms here because, well, because. Suffice it to say, it wasn’t cheap, though for the right firm at the right time, doing the deal with Mr. Alexander could be a good decision.

Fame is fleeting. Imagined fame even more fleeting. Oh well.