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.
