UnREAL: Episode 8

SPOILER ALERT!!

Uh-oh, Rachel done crossed the line!

In Episode 8 of UnREAL Rachel finally fucks bachelor Adam.  The show's been hinting at this happening for a while, and using her on-again flirtation with/fucking of DP Jeremy to distract us.  But now it's happened and, for those not in the know, this is something we in the industry call "crossing the line."  

In general, fraternizing with the Talent is discouraged.  That includes everything from hanging out with cast members outside of work to having sex/a relationship with them.  Which isn't to say that it doesn't happen.  I can think of numerous cases off the top of my head.  There was the producer on The Real World who crossed the line with a cast member and was fired. Then there's Todd Tucker, the Line Producer on Real Housewives of Atlanta who started dating cast member Kandi Burruss and ended up a regular on the show (which, I suppose, is punishment enough). On yet another series, the 40ish Showrunner quit after starting a relationship with a 23 year-old cast member. (Sorry, an NDA keeps me from sharing that one.)  She later moved into his RV and started working at a nearby titty bar.  No word on how that relationship is holding up.

It's easy to understand why line crossing happens.  For one thing, we spend a lot of time with cast when we're shooting.  We see them more than anyone else in our lives and, just as office romances happen on regular jobs, so too they often happen on set.  We are also tasked specifically with befriending them (or seeming to, anyhow) with a view to exploiting that relationship for story.  So lines do get blurry.  

However, there are plenty of good reasons why crossing the line is frowned upon.  For one thing, as is by this point (I hope) abundantly clear, we are manipulating these people.  And it is hard (if not impossible) to manipulate someone you're having a bona fide emotional relationship with for work purposes.  (Everyone knows that manipulating your partner is strictly a recreational activity.)  Additionally, crew members possess information that cannot be shared with cast.  For instance, we may be planning a series of scenes with a particular goal in mind, that will not work if some idiot shares that information with a cast member they're in lurv with.

Finally, and maybe this is just me, we shouldn't cross the line because we're in a position of power over these people; especially on a Competition show (like Everlasting) where cast are essentially our prisoners and we have access to (deeply personal) profiles compiled by show psychologists.  So, to me, crossing the line feels like a teacher taking advantage of a student or a doctor taking advantage of a patient   Don't get me wrong, power is a powerful aphrodisiac.  But only losers abuse it.

All that being said, I expect our girl Rachel will find a way to make this dalliance work to her advantage in acquiring the Showrunning position Chet is dangling before her.

So you go, you bad girl, but Jeremy's gonna be pissed.

UnREAL: Episode 7

Episode 7 of UnREAL deals with the fallout from cast member Mary's on-set suicide. The story line initially bugged me because it didn't seem believable. The only suicide I could recall was that of Sinisa Savija, who appeared on the first version of Survivor, a Swedish show called Expedition Robinson. His suicide provoked such a scandal that the network almost canned the series (as the Survive! format was launched with this show, one might well wonder how it might have fared after that).

However, as I discovered when Googling “suicide” and “Reality TV”, the words appear in close proximity with alarming frequency. There's even this handy-dandy slide show of reality cast members who have died, and a fair number of them killed themselves. You may note that Kitchen Nightmares has been particularly lethal, clocking 2 suicides; Russell Armstrong, a member of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills cast, killed himself after fearing how he was to be represented in an upcoming season of the show; not mentioned on this list is the suicide of Kellie Williams a participant on Extreme Makeover.

It is this final suicide that most closely resembles what happened on UnREAL, where there is little doubt that some combination of Rachel and Shia -- both Field Producers -- were responsible for Mary's suicide. Basically, Kellie Williams' sister Deleese was selected to appear on Extreme Makeover as a plastic surgery candidate. As part of the show, Kellie was interviewed about her sister's looks. According to family members during that interview producers “goaded” Kellie into saying negative things about Deleese's appearance, things that Deleese overheard. As it turns out Deleese's surgery was canceled at the last minute (her recovery time apparently “wouldn’t fit the show's schedule”), exacerbating the issue between the sisters. Because now Deleese knew her sister considered her ugly, and she couldn't even have the corrective surgery to address it. Four months later Kellie, overcome with anguish, committed suicide. The family filed a lawsuit holding the Producers culpable.

The Extreme Makeover suicide is exceptional, however. Reality-related suicides generally seem to occur after the show has aired, and this isn’t a coincidence. Field Producers—while wily (and often evil)—can seldom rise to the level of unabated cruelty practiced by Post Producers. To clarify: when a show is shooting it is usually in the edit at the same time. So there are producers shooting in the field (Field Producers), and producers in Post (Post Producers) working with editors to craft the story. While Field Producers see cast members as human beings (and require the good will of casts to perform their jobs), Post Producers tend to view cast members as characters in a script they're writing. Their intent isn't to represent people accurately but, rather, to present the most compelling version of a person (even if that version is less than desirable to the actual person). If the cut reflects the reality, great, if it doesn't reflect the reality, they don't care (much). They just want to get their fucking cut past the network, and they will do whatever it takes to make that happen. If Kellie Williams was upset with how her sister reacted to her words in an interview, god knows how she would have reacted if Post had gotten their claws on it.

There is no overstating the havoc that can be wrought on an individual by an adept Post Producer. And cast members aren't the only ones whose characters are impacted in this process. Because in the process of coldly transforming people into often inaccurate, or at least incomplete archetypes, Post Producers are themselves transformed.  Spend enough time in Post crafting people's words against them and creating conflict out of whole cloth and even the nicest and most well-meaning among us can devolve into arrogance. After all, we are godlike, creator of worlds. And with such arrogance comes a loss of empathy for the real people whose real lives we impact.  Because, whereas Rachel and Shia have literal blood on their hands and are plagued by the awareness of their sins, a Post Producer kills from afar and without consequence.   

Long story short: Post Producers need to occasionally get the fuck out of their chairs and head into the morass that is Production, lest they lose their souls entirely.

UnREAL: Episode 6

On episode six of UnREAL, Rachel invites the abusive ex of cast member Mary to spice up the date she and her child are having with bachelor Adam.  Things go (predictably) south when the ex becomes violent, tries to attack Adam, and, ultimately, has to be held down by Rachel's ex, Jeremy the DP, and a random sound dude (I think).  Sadly this kind of violence is all too common on Reality sets and, while I have never actually encouraged cast members to go at it, cast are well-aware that this makes for good TV so they tend to go there themselves (particularly if they're wasted, which we generally ensure they are).  The only thing that leaps out about the situation on UnREAL is the lack of Security.  These days, we tend to have Security on hand for any brawls that might occur.  

That being said, I strongly disapprove of these kinds of set skirmishes.  Take this fer instance: I once worked on a show where a male cast member (drunk) was getting into it with a female cast member (drunker), and ultimately ended up grabbing her by the wrists and shaking her.  This guy was built like a brick shithouse and had this woman by the arms and Security did not step in.  Nor did they step in when the female cast member started saying (clearly to production) "He's really hurting me, he's really hurting me!" When the Producer on the ground tried to step in she was stopped by Security, who were hired by the broadcaster, because—they informed her—they are "trained" to know when to intervene.  When I later relayed this little training factoid to the Producers around me we had to shoehorn our eyes out of the backs of our heads.  

WTF is the kind of Security training doesn't require that you help a cast member when she's saying that she's being hurt?  Even setting that egregious error aside, what training provides you with the skill to know exactly when some drunken mess is going to pop off? How do you learn to read the intent to become violent?  And even if you read that intent, how do you know where it's going to go?  Will it be aimed at the other cast members?  Will it randomly involve someone not even connected to the show?  Will it be focused on a crew member, as it was on Rachel when Mary's ex went batshit?

Even if such "training" is plausible and you have well-trained Security on set, there is no way to assure that cast and crew are 100% safe (or even 90% safe).  Drunken brawls are not controlled situations.  How do you protect a cast member from getting struck with a stray fist that makes it between the muscled arm and bulky torso of Security?  How is it possible for a camera operator to be safe, when the footage shows someone slamming into his lens?  How do you protect a camera operator with Security, if that Security isn't in front of his lens to stop someone from slamming up against it, when you can't have security in front of the camera operators lens because, you know, footage.  At least the sound guy doesn't have a huge piece of metal jammed up against an eye socket.  And yet a sound guy is usually lumbering around with shit-tons of equipment, making it hard to maneuver in the best of circumstances, let alone a fight.  

The fact is that no one is particularly safe in these situations including members of the public who, while they may have tacitly agreed to appear on camera, did not tacitly agree to physical assault.  These shows are accidents waiting to happen, and the fact that a major accident hasn't occurred yet doesn't make it permissible for so-called "adults" to continue to play the odds.  Because that's what they'll do.  And anyone who argues against them will be called a troublemaker. 

Don't get me wrong.  I get it.  These brawls make for amazing television.  Sometimes, when you're producing a fight in Post that doesn't culminate in physical violence, there's a sense of letdown.  In the case I mentioned above, for example, we couldn't include the male-on-female violence because it violated the broadcaster's policies (although apparently letting it happen doesn't violate their Security's policy) and, as a result, the scene didn't climax in a satisfying manner.  An argument culminating in violence provides a release, it appeals to the part of us that would like to see a particular character smacked in the head.  It appeals to our sense of Justice: we think they had it coming.  But we really need to leave that shit to narrative TV.  Because the Marys and Adams we work with, not to mention the Rachels, Jeremys, and Sound Dudes, are real people who can get hurt, and no great climax to some shitty scene is worth it.

#UnREALLifetime #BachelorABC #RealityTV #BadGirlsClub #SafetyForSarah

UnREal Episode 5

By Episode 5 of UnREAL viewers are no doubt growing accustomed to the kind of in-depth discussions producers have about the cast: who has an eating disorder, who is blowing the bachelor on the side, who might be gay.  These conversations are presented as work—which they are—but, in another context might easily pass for something else, that is, gossip.  And this illustrates a fundamental fact about story producing for Reality: to be good at it you need the instincts of a gossip.  In fact, it isn't a stretch to say we're paid to gossip.

At base gossip is fueled by curiosity (generally considered to be a laudable human trait in any other context), and good story producers are compulsively curious. For instance, brunch simply isn't brunch if I can't eavesdrop on the people seated in my vicinity, noting that the four individuals at the table to my left are most-likely work mates, stymied as they are by anything to talk about other than work. I also can't help but note that Man Bun is so displeased with/distracted by his Eggs Benedict that he is missing out entirely on Neon Cardigan chick maligning an absent co-worker. While the desire to ferret out dirt in even the most banal exchanges may be (is) annoying to those with whom I break bread, it is invaluable while pursuing multiple hours of footage or, as in Rachel's case this week, shooting a seemingly blah trip back to a cast member's hometown.  It's amazing what material you can unearth simply by being truly engaged.

However, in both Reality and gossip, snooping out revealing moments is not sufficient in and of itself.  A series of fact fragments without context could function as a Surrealist statement (à la "the chance meeting of a sewing machine and umbrella on an operating table") but fails as a story.  Gossip takes moments that are true and combines them to create a story that may or may not be quite as true. For instance, the week of April 13, 2015, there was a flurry of tweets about Ben Affleck in Halifax, Nova Scotia, with some reporting that he was with a not-his-wife woman. Barring a photograph of the alleged side piece, and hesitant to run with that story, gossip sites nonetheless found a way to use the information nonetheless by combining it with another fact: Jennifer Garner's birthday was April 17. The story thus became one of a neglectful husband ignoring his wife's birthday. Similarly, were Man Bun and Neon Cardigan characters in my footage, I would play a good deal of Neon's shit talk against shots of Man Bun looking disapproving (even if was only about his runny eggs), and then have Man Bun seem to cut in on her trash talking to shut it down. Now we have a story instead of random "facts."

Gossip and Reality also share, for lack of a better (or real) word, a kind of judginess.  Both forms tend to focus on what isn’t socially acceptable.  We don't gossip about the fact that our neighbor donated to Médecins Sans Frontières; that would only make us feel like shit for not doing the same. No. We gossip about the harpy mom of tantruming twins who should probably be reported to Child Protective Services, the domestic dispute that spilled out of an apartment and into the public hallway, or the smell of weed coming from yet another (my?) apartment.  Of course fiction is usually similarly preoccupied with the less appealing aspects of human nature. The difference is that fiction is fictive: it doesn't reference real people.  

The fact that we deal with real people means, of course, that real people may be damaged by the stories we tell.  Gossip may tag Ben Affleck as a Bad Husband but it doesn't (nor does it seek to) provide a nuanced portrait of the guy.  Maybe he's a great father, possibly he has an understanding with his wife, we wouldn't know and nor do we seek to find out, because none of this is viable fodder for gossip (well, maybe the open relationship part…).  And yet it is precisely that we are dealing with real people that makes it possible for them to, ultimately, become the author of their own story. Because, with real people there is the ongoing-ness of life.  Ten years ago Brad Pitt was a scoundrel who broke another Jennifer’s heart.  Now, ten years later, he’s the consummate family man.  So is he a Betrayer?  Father of the year?  Both and neither?  For that matter, what will we think of Ben Affleck ten years from now?

#UnREALLifetime #BachelorABC #RealityTV #BenAffleck #Gossip