What is Reality?

No, this isn’t one of my existential rants, it’s about a subject I know quite a bit about, actually – Reality TV.

The actual definition of “reality” is:  The world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of them.  In that case, all “reality” TV shows are lying to us, and to most of us this comes as no surprise.  We know most of these shows are scripted or semi-scripted, the people are actors or would-be actors, camera crews are hidden – but they’re everywhere, and they are not suffering, they are eating normal meals and living in reasonable accommodations.  Trust me, few if any video crews are going to live “Naked and Afraid” or “Survival” style.

Enter the “Alone” series from History Channel.  The network’s website description: Ten people enter the Vancouver Island wilderness carrying only what they can fit in a small backpack. They are alone in harsh, unforgiving terrain with a single mission–stay alive as long as they can. These brave men and women must hunt, build shelters, and fend off predators. They will endure extreme isolation and psychological distress as they plunge into the unknown and document the experience themselves. No camera crew. No producers. It is the ultimate test of human will.

Hmmm.  I wanted to believe, and started watching, keeping in mind how disappointed I felt when I found out that rugged survivalist Bear Grylls and crew often stayed in hotels after a long day of shooting in the wilderness.  My first question was - what does “alone” imply?  Alone in terms of, you can’t touch or see another person?  Because people are always around us, they’re just at various distances.   In the case of “Alone”, it quickly became obvious to me that people are much closer to the contestants than their show description implies.

For some reason it bugs me that the show “Alone” has gotten less scrutiny than many reality shows.  How have they kept their secrets until now?  If you scour the internet for even the smallest post about its fakeness, you will find little.  There are survival experts who post about where the Alone cast are situated on Vancouver Island, pointing out that most or all are within walking distance of logging and fishing camps, if not actual towns.  Basically, some of them could apparently walk into town for a meal if they wanted.  (Reminds me a bit of my problem with “Alaska’s Last Frontier” on Discovery – which implies that if the Kilcher family doesn’t kill enough meat or smoke enough salmon before the winter comes, they may starve to death.  Or, they could drive 30 miles into town and shop at the local Piggly Wiggly, or just have Chinese delivered.  Also the Kilchers are multi-millionaires who could certainly have anything they need choppered in.  But I digress.)

History Channel’s social media team is clearly doing a great cover-up job, and maybe their talent handlers too – because the contestants, new and old, have never revealed the whole story.

I maintain that the very things we see with our eyes are all the proof one needs.  I will accede that maybe these guys are actually given only the survival items listed on the HC website (although any survival expert will tell you – their situations are really not much more rugged than “car camping”.)  I will also accede that regardless of where they are located, most contestants have avoided the temptation to visit the nearest fishing lodge, probably because of a written contract. 

But any television production professional will tell you, there is NO WAY these guys shot all, or even most of the footage you see on this show.  And what History Channel doesn’t say on their website is more important in this regard than what they do say.

For creative purposes, it’s clear that many generic “scenics” or simple shots of rainy coastlines and dripping leaves and critters found in the woods up there are shot by pros, and edited into the stories.  That seems fair game.  But are all of these contestants professional videographers?  According to History, no.   And that’s where their story falls apart:

1) it’s cloudy and rainy up there much of the time, so solar battery chargers will be practically useless, especially considering the amount of shooting done over many weeks.  This kind of weather also tends to fog up lenses, or cause video equipment stop working entirely.  So somebody has to bring in freshly charged batteries and maintain the gear on a regular basis.  I didn’t say the maintenance crew brings in food or other supplies, but the video gear must be in working order or the show would be 100% screwed, and HC can’t afford to “lose” a contestant based on these problems.  This maintenance effort requires both sat phone communication, and human interaction.  Not anybody’s definition of “alone”.

2) As mentioned, these contestants are not professional photographers.  So how come every shot we see is perfectly framed?  That doesn’t happen by accident.  Also – when someone walks through the woods or kayaks along the coast or even chops wood, how many angles do you see?  I have counted 5 or 6 at times.  All are perfectly framed, and when edited together produce a very pretty, seamless, creative sequence.  It begs the question:  how much video gear is at each site?  Frankly, these guys would spend virtually all of their time setting up multiple cameras for shots and have little time left in the day to build fires, fish, tend to their shelters, etc.  One example is the story of Jose, who built a makeshift kayak out of a plastic tarp.  At one point we see him launch it off the beach, then we see him from the same beach, far off in the distance.  He is gone for hours.  So, did he just leave the beach camera rolling?  How did he know where exactly on the water the kayak would travel?  While he’s aboard the boat there are at least 3 go-pros rolling, two attached to the boat and one in the boat, pointed at his face.  Once again, all shots are perfectly framed.  Trust me, even for pros, this would be a tough one to pull off.  When shooting yourself with a go-pro, you can’t even see what you’re shooting.  You certainly can’t pilot a sinking kayak and keep all three cameras recording perfectly.  There are many more instances but I hope you get my point.

3) This is the one “tell” that is irrefutable – the audio.  Unless they completely re-track everything after the fact (and there’s nothing “real” about that, either) – how do they record all audio without a single glitch?   Too many cases to site, once again.  I never see a microphone, for one thing.  Yet to get audio this perfect, the mike has to either be boomed right over a person’s head, or captured with a good wireless attached to clothing.   Hiding a mike on someone wearing all those layers is no easy task, and there will always be problems with rustling or batteries or signal or wires sticking out that you wouldn’t notice yourself, if you were shooting it yourself.   So you say, maybe they just position microphones all over the camp.  Okay – why do we never see one (and even then, the audio would suck at times)?  And how on earth do they get shots of people talking from 200+ yards away, once again, recorded perfectly.  Who is monitoring the audio?  It absolutely requires a professional to achieve the results we see on this show.

So I don’t care if the stories are made up and the people are acting, I don’t care if they walk into town for a beer and a game of pool sometimes.  What bugs me is that these wankers are trying to fool me, a videographer and field producer of many reality shows and documentaries – and I’m insulted.  You know if I was producing this, I’d include the parts where the maintenance crew comes in to work on the gear, AND I would use all the crappy stuff these people actually shoot.  It wouldn’t be on a cable channel, it would probably be a web series because it wouldn’t be top quality video.  But it would be REAL.