Reality + Show = Oxymoron

As I was prowling for next job last month, I got interviewed for a small TV production company that was working on their new season of reality show TV series. They just sold their first season to a cable network, so they were just waiting for the check and preping for next season. What I learned from my quick hi-bye first interview session was that these reality shows have great ROI--return on investment, compare to other production endeavors. Their margin of each episode was more like 250% as the interviewer threw numbers at me. (Why he chose to reveal those numbers, I don't know. I guess he was trying to boast that they are on solid financial foundation?) Wow. You won't make a fortune, but you get pretty solid returns, that keeps you in the game/business, keeps you growing, and allows you to aim higher. Off chance that the show is a monster hit, the channel gets the windfall, but your status in the business risen also. Fame and fortune roll together.

No wonder all TV productions are keep churning out more and more of these shows. However, as a writer and storyteller, I'm glad that drama series are coming back in big time. (Love 24, Lost, Desperate Housewives, anything from HBO)

Most of film/TV productions lose money, that's no secret. You could make a show out of all the failed pilots and premature death of TV series. (In fact, I think there was one show that dealt with this issue.) Like any other entertainment/media industry, it is a hit-driven market that successful ones plug the holes of unsuccesful ones--in terms of strictly financial stand point. I've not done a TV produciton, but I was willing to try anything/everything at my yet-on-going film and video produciton career. So I was invited back for 2nd interview, but I fucked up because I was hesitant about shooting B-rolls. Project confidence, is my new motto. Say "yes, I can!" Not to embelish my record or experience or anything, but I pride myself as a quick learner and eyes and taste for good visual flair. I was let down, but I got a gig at another, bigger, TV production doing ANOTHER reality show. This must be a sign.

Although I did sign NDA, however this show won't air until next year, and I'm here to talk about the mechanics of so-called "reality show." First of all, I'm working as a logger + transcriber, going through mountains of tapes. When they posted an ad, I thought I would be like assistant-assistant editor going through B-rolls and digitizing footage. Wrong. I'm sitting in front of a computer and a HD deck, watching all the footage and jotting what happened in the footage with timecodes and what the people said on the camera. Fun job as long as the people speak clear and articular manner, more on this later. Since it's not 'scripted' but people mouth off in front of cameras all the time, you can't get a sense of what you got until you sort through the hours and hours of footage. All this for a half hour show. Basically, this job entails you to find and mark stuff where interesting things happen for producers and editors when they start cutting this thing together.

I got a Sony HDCam deck and a nice HD monitor usually found in an editing suite. My coworker has the same deck, but a bigger and better HD flatscreen TV--no speaker on this baby though. I remember on my previous jobs that renting a deck was like $400 per day that cash-strapped producers rented it on Friday so they could use it, stretching over the weekend. The deck worked non-stop until early Monda morning. I can't help think there are many low-budget indie production companies out there who would kill to use this equipment like I do right now, days and nights. But this is a BIG cable TV company and there are HD flatscreens and HD decks everywhere. After working for low-budget productions and companies, it's refreshing to work under and care of a BIG coporate entity. Free coffee & tea flow like Hudson river. (Bad metaphor, I know.)

So, I'm watching a lot of footage, and it's like a revealing peek behind the big curtain of 'reality show' TV series. Although I only saw couple of episodes of Survivor or the Apprentice, but wow, I never expected this. For the sake of the show, there's not much reality left in actual production. Pretty much all the settings, the contestants/participants are scripted and staged for the cameras. Sure, they speak whatever that comes to their minds, but many of them are fed lines in order to make it more 'showy' or producers are directing them constantly to get some 'footage.' Basically regular, non-show biz people, are picked off the street and filmed before a live camera for contests and others purposes. Sure they will get ease into being filming them all the time, but most of the time, it's staged, if not faked. So much for 'reality.'

I'm firm believer that once you place a camera, you can't help but ignore the reality within and beyond the camera's frame. You can't see the whole world with a camera. A camera only shows you what it sees, what it wants you to see. There's truth and danger in a camera's perspective.

People first loved reality shows because of their freshness and rawness. Now, people got used to it, and looking for something more dramatic and stories and characters that ordinary people off the streets can't provide. I think it ultimately comes down to finding characters that we can enjoy their company, for TV at least. And that's why some people/actors are stars and some are not, as even these reality shows are making stars out of ordinary people.

I now know that reality shows only proved they are as good as the personalities and characters inhibit in their shows. I never realized 15 minutes of your fame was so consumable. And never underestimate the hunger for content in TV. It's the only thing that provides me with job security.