First things first-
not involved with the movie at all, just apparently was one of the believers of what another poster calls a well done, but manipulative film.
A good description.
What can I say? I guess i was wrong.
Yes, after a few more viewings and discussing it with a few friends, i believe it's not entirely real.
A lot of it must be, just not all of it. I think.
(The "Virgin Territory" show is real, so some of it must be, right?)
To be honest, I'm not sure how much is real at all now.
So, even though I liked it, I guess i was fooled.
However, as to my post and your response-
Every reality show accident i mentioned happened - and I only know because I worked on these shows WHEN they happened.
This is how I know they are real, and you do not. But with some digging, even you can find some mention of injuries on personal blogs of former contestants...
And FYI- EVERYONE who works on Biggest Loser calls them Fatties, INCLUDING the trainers and the contestants themselves - if you haven't noticed,
THEY ARE HUGE FAT PEOPLE who are trying to lose weight.
That's the entire premise of the show.
And your "tech driven world" comment shows your ignorance of how these shows work.
Ms. Spears is followed by cameras due to her making $$ off them getting great shots of her doing crazy things. Why do you think she changes outfits every 5 minutes?
Why do they ALWAYS know where she is going? Why is she in EVERY magazine?
Because, silly - she's getting a cut of the sale of the shots, so she clues them all in.
Same with Lazy Lohan- why do you think she carries products in many of her "candid" shots?
It's because suckers think that is how it "really" is and Boom! -
Somehow sales of a Nicotine Gum spike all over.
Magazines sell, money changes hands, Britney shows up in a pink wig, more pix get taken, cycle repeats itself.
A reality show is a controlled set. Very Controlled. Everyone who sets foot in our Production Office must sign a Confidentiality Agreement in case they see or hear something.
NO cellphones are even allowed on set anymore - due to confidentiality clauses and such, they can't risk something getting out.
Every reality show that exploits an accident (ie: the guy falling in the fire on Survivor) is a show that is financed for a full run and has a network order they must fulfill. If an accident is such that it fits the "story' they are crafting, and it is convenient to the show (on Survivor, it's a good 3 minutes of tv- contestants panic, medics come in, injured party is flown out, boy is this game tough, blah blah, person shows up at final show healthy 4 months later), they cut it and use it. Insurance premiums are crazy high as a result of these accidents.
if it's not good for the storyline or more importantly, the "image" of the show, it doesn't ever get mentioned to anyone and it hits the cutting room floor.
That's EXACTLY why The Biggest Loser injuries never see the light of day - it would change the public's perception about this "feel good" show.
So, HYPOTHETICALLY
(If 'American Cannibal" were 100% real), the Documentary crew probably would have signed C/A's and likely would not be allowed to air certain footage (Like the challenges) or allegations. Again, if it were all real. (For Example: the Documentary "Lost in La Mancha" which captures the collapse of the Terry Gilliam Film "Don Quixote" was only allowed to use some of their footage after Johnny Depp, Terry Gilliam and the Production Company signed off and agreed to its' use).
However, since they were only supposedly shooting a Pilot episode in American Cannibal, there would be NO WAY to exploit the injury (if she really was) as it apparently stopped filming and the agent says they didn't have enough footage for the 22 minutes required. So, her getting hurt actually killed the show's chances, and like "La Mancha" the crew was there to capture it all, but could only show certain things legally.
If it's real, of course.
Who knows?
Either way, I enjoyed it.
I think it accurately reflects how the reality business works at every level.
Which is probably why it pulled me in- I believed it all.
Sorry for the long post.
reply
share
saturnchick
16 years ago
Okay, so you bring up some legitimate points, but I still have a hard time fathoming that any reality show, if responsible in some way for the death, murder, rape, serious assault, etc., of a contestant, would be able to completely cover it up. By "responsible" I mean gross negligence. It stands to reason that if you are a contestant on The Biggest Loser you run the risk of being hospitalized with symptoms or side effects related to weight loss. If you are a contestant on The Biggest Loser and you are attacked with a sharp object by another contestant, and this leads to you hospitalization, then I refuse to believe that this information would not be discovered by the press and leaked to the public.
Yes, I know that the cast and crew of reality shows sign confidentiality agreements, but this does not excuse them from reporting crimes. Most of the examples that you cite are accidents that occur on set due to the nature of the contest that the participants are partaking in. Even then, people have loose lips. I disctinctly remember reading that two of the participants in Kid Nation were rushed to the hospital for accidentally imbibing bleach from a soda bottle during the filming of the show. The incident was never aired during the series, which means that somebody had to break their confidentiality agreement, and leak the news of the incident to media.
On the contrary, I don't agree that my comment about a "tech-driven" world demostrates my ignorance for the reality medium. If people can find ways to sneak bombs into airports, I'm cetain that they can also find ways to sneak cell phones onto the set of a reality T.V. program. Probably doesn't happen too often, but it must happen sometimes. Furthermore, my tech comment was not exclusive to the presence of cell phones. I meant to suggest that, with the proliferation of communication tools like the Internet, email, cell phones, etc., it would be pretty difficult for the media and public not to discover an incident on the level of what supposedly happened on the set of American Cannibal. I would imagine that, if you witnessed such an incident and failed to report it, you would be an accessory to a very serious crime. Any confidentiality agreement that requires you to keep mum about a crime of this nature is, in of itself, criminal.
In rebuttal to your explanation of your use of the word "fatties" to describe the contestants of The Biggest Loser, I still think it's crass that such a derogatory remark is so easily thrown about, whether on the show or off. Admittedly, I have never watched the show, so I was unaware of the fact that the terminology is used so freely. For that, I apologize to you. In my opinon, it just demonstrates how debase our society has become. Why not refer to the people on Celebrity Rehab and Intervention collectively as "crack heads" rather than "addicts"? Let's take it one step further , and we can begin calling the contestants on America's Next Top Model "bulemia cases". It's just plain demeaning to refer to people with disparaging nicknames. It's just another way of exploiting people's weakness and insecurities all the while making it appear as though they are being helped. People who sign up for shows of that nature are obviously having self-esteem/mental/emotional issues, or they wouldn't be eating and drinking themselves to death. How sad that's it's acceptable to belittle them for sickenesses.
The leaves are changing colors...
reply
share