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Kendra Schmid, Ph.D., outside Harpo studios after she taped an episode of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” The episode featuring Dr. Schmid will appear today at 4 p.m. on KMTV Channel 3 in Omaha. |
Less than a year later, her travelogue includes entries from television studios in Los Angeles and Australia as well as an appearance on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” that will air today at 4 p.m. on KMTV Channel 3 at 4 p.m. (The show will air at 3 p.m. on KOLN/KGIN in Lincoln and on KNOP in Dr. Schmid’s hometown of North Platte.)
Turns out Dr. Schmid’s research project was of big interest to a worldwide audience.
It all started when her research was published in Pattern Recognition magazine. Then, UNMC’s Public Relations department produced a YouTube video about her research that compared the faces of last fall’s presidential candidates.
That video was picked up by The Associated Press and subsequently by media outlets around the world. Since then, Dr. Schmid has been flown to Los Angeles, Chicago and Australia to talk about her research.
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Below, Dr. Schmid reflects on the past few months in her own words.
About Oprah:
“Oprah is very easy to talk to. It didn’t feel like an interview but more like a conversation with a friend. The producers did a great job of preparing me for the show so I wasn’t very nervous. But, now when I think about it, I think, ‘Wow, that was Oprah.'”
“People are disappointed to hear that I didn’t get to spend a lot of time with Oprah backstage. She likes to enjoy the show along with the audience so she doesn’t meet or interview the guests ahead of time.”
“The hair and makeup experts in the green room were great. In fact, the makeup artist jokingly said, ‘Dr. Schmid, I’m trying to make sure your lips are in the right proportion.’ It was clear that the staff enjoy meeting the guests and having fun with the show’s topic.”
The Discovery Channel taping:
“The most interesting part of the taping was the opportunity to watch the behind-the-scenes production. The other researchers were filmed at their institutions. But, my segment was shot in the Los Angeles production studio. I got to watch the crew and actors film several of the scenes in the documentary.”
“When I first walked into the studio, the producer said, ‘Is that how you’re going to wear your hair?’ Then, he screamed, ‘Makeup!’ And just like you see in the movies a woman came running up to me to touch up my makeup and re-style my hair. In between takes, she would run in and powder my face.”
“At one point in the interview, the producers asked me to recite the names of several celebrities and their attractiveness score. But, I was sitting behind a fake laptop and couldn’t remember all of the names and numbers. So, a production assistant had to lie under the desk and whisper the name and scores of each celebrity for me to recite. At the same time, another group of assistants were painting the floor underneath the desk for the next scene. I still have white paint on the bottom of my shoes.”
On media attention:
“I’m still not used to all of this media attention. I’m not that far along in my career to get this much media exposure. Every time I get a request, I am taken aback. It still surprises me that reporters want to interview a statistician.”
“Whenever there is a media report about my research, I get random e-mails from people asking me to evaluate their face. One guy offered me $50 to analyze his and his fiancee’s face.”
“At some point, we want to make the software public, maybe something similar to iTunes. I keep every request so I can let people know when we have the software available.”
Next steps:
“After being asked by an international company to develop a software program to analyze lips, including lip size, shape, color and texture, I have thought about other applications for the software. But, I’m pretty busy with my day job, which I love, so we’ll have to see what develops in the future.”