Film We’re Dying to See: ‘Masters of Dreams’

Whenever you watch a red-carpet show that features celebrities showing off million-dollar necklaces, rings, and earrings, do you ever find yourself wondering how craftsmen took a small pile of gold, silver, diamonds, pearls, sapphires, rubies, and emeralds and then turned it into a piece of stunning jewelry? Perhaps it never crossed your mind, but if you have an interest in jewelry and jewelers, you can now take a look behind one of the most intricate industries in the entire world with the film “Masters of Dreams”, a documentary that takes viewers into the secret operations of jewelry companies that dominate a global market and demand seven- and eight-figure price tags for their products.

Thirteen Brands

Whenever you intend to spend a significant amount of money on jewelry, the odds suggest that one of thirteen different jewelers created that specific piece. The global market for gems and jewels includes far too many production labels to count, but a baker’s dozen of these companies control a good quantity of the jewels produced for high-price consumption each year. The big players like De Beers, H. Stern, and Buccellati opened up the doors of their facilities for “Master of Dreams” camera crews to capture the process of turning precious metals and stones into a dazzling display. Some of the company operations show the viewer the process of manufacturing works of art fit only for the most important of VIPs, while others show the process of creating brands to be distributed across the seas.

Four Parts

“Master of Dreams” has four separate parts that focus on the jewelry industry by geographical area. The first takes a look at the oldest jewelry-producing region in human history, where tens of thousands of years ago our ancestors created simple ornamentation from sea shells: Italy. The second part focuses on the relationship between the jewelry industry and the fashion industry in France — a relationship marked by anything but smooth sailing as companies leverage assets and capital in order to generate a better market share. The third installment features South Africa, the world leader in production of precious metals and stones, where viewers can see the process of gold and diamonds mined from the ground only a few miles away from some of the production facilities. Finally, the last part of the documentary focuses on American jewelry production and the American demand for luxury goods.

The Fascination Of Gems

How do millionaires and billionaires get the jewelry that they show off at every turn? Designing and creating necklaces or rings made of the most valuable material on Earth requires much more work than it does to create any other piece of fashion. If you want to see how companies go from sketches to three-dimensional mock-ups to the final product of some of the most precious artifacts in the world today that retail for tens of millions of dollars, “Masters of Dreams” shows how many countless hours go into the production of jewels that have no equal in all the world.