Reality TV
Collapses...Thank you Jesus
I’m going to vamp off of HCR’s lead line about the collapse of Reality TV this morning. I was all set to write about classic drama structure and heroes, villains and victims…until I just read her piece…so my vamp about Shakespeare can wait a day or 2…but my hero-villain concept does help inform todays piece.
A few years back when The Apprentice was all the rage, one of my good friends who is a tintype artist (and they are a rare breed) started messing around with concepts for a reality TV series. At first he based it on his love of creating and building vintage motorcycles and doing historic re-development. I liked the idea of re-using old factories and buildings and using biker culture to be the heroes…not the villains or anti-heroes.
The concept was using history and art to be the “saviors” in black leather jackets.
My friend Rob had a tintype studio (with a real skylight) in Gettysburg that catered to mostly Civil War re-enactors and tourists who wanted to dress in the period and get an authentic photo made. This was not boardwalk digital photos…but the real Mathew Brady wet plate process. The place smelled of toxic chemicals.
Rob became the most well know tintype artist in America through a lot of hard work and networking. He had a real horse drawn darkroom wagon that went to Civil War events (which is how I met him). He left his secure job at GM to create an authentic studio and gallery in Gettysburg. He became THE historic photographer on many historic films and TV series. Which he still does. These photos are from “Harriet”.
During this time he kept chasing the Reality TV dream and I assisted as I could. We both knew if we were successful, even for just a few seasons, it was a potential gold mine. The premise morphed and evolved mostly from feedback from folks in the biz…who were looking for the next hit…the next Apprentice or Survivor.
I won’t bore you with the details…we were self funding this effort and taking time away from our paying gigs…but in the end the whole effort collapsed. We had a good time, most of the time…and we had some real cool adventures that we created while making pitch videos to entice producers to throw some money at us to make a pilot.
In a nutshell, many of the “co-stars” in leather did not understand the hard work that it took to make a “reality” TV series. I enjoyed those guys and learned a lot from them about biker culture….( I’m a boat guy…flip flops ) But greed and lack of understanding that you need to “go back to one” multiple times and get cut away angles and B-roll was needed to document their “lives” as heroes trying to save relics mostly from “bad” developers (like Trump…with no soul) …be they buildings, ships or artifacts…I walked away…it wasn’t working for me. I told them I would sell them my footage…my creative work or license it to them for a fee and points on the show if it ever happened…but I wasn’t giving them my “art” and hard work for nothing. I had invested a lot of my time and money…I thought it was a fair approach. They declined and for awhile I was their villain.
That ended the pursuit of the reality TV goldmine for me. You can find Rob, if you look for RJ in Santa Fe (much of the time) with a ‘34 Dodge panel truck darkroom.
He is a “lone wolf” with no partners in crime…and no TV cameras following him around. But he will take a real nice tintype of you…or teach you how to DIY.
The collapse of this mostly vapid industry is VERY welcome news. The one show I like is “Lottery Dream Home”...I think David is a riot…and I can put up with a little bit of Below Decks…because I like boats and warm water…
The King is dead…Lets create real scripted entertainment like the golden age of TV…and get away from all of these competition shows. Can’t artists just be…without voting?
Yes folks “Uncle” Milty did drag in the 50’s on TV and the world did not end…as a kid we all watched and survived….and there was a VERY popular bi-racial couple…oh my…with “mixed blood”children who were the darlings of America…now that was GREAT. Let’s do that again.
Peace to all
I watched two episodes of Survivor and lost interest. I was always stunned that fake reality could be thought of as entertaining. Folks...it is fake! I guess its appeal is similar to that of "professional" wrestling. You set aside your sense of true reality and enjoy it for the "kabuki" it is.
I'd rather pull weeds while listening to great music - or the birds. I'd actually rather watch paint dry - a dry martini would add to the excitement as the color of the wall slowly revealed its true self.