"I know we can't talk, but c'mon, you've been filming me for a month!"

October 10, 2016 3:40 AM

In reality TV shows where there is unavoidable ongoing contact between contestants and production staff (particularly camera/sound crew), how are the inevitable human relationships managed?

I'm thinking of shows like Survivor and The Amazing Race, where self-sufficiency of contestants is part of the show, and where there is inevitably ongoing contact (often isolated from the rest of the production in The Amazing Race) between contestants and their assigned camera operator.

Presumably crew are not meant to assist contestants, but humans gonna human, and if you spend a month in close proximity with someone you're going to form some sort of relationship. Are the crew meant to minimize all interaction with contestants? If so, how well is that enforced? Is there a bunch of hanging out on planes/trains or the beach and shooting the shit that just never gets filmed? Does the production company rotate crew around contestants to reduce opportunities for ongoing interaction?

posted by russm to Media & Arts (13 answers total)

As far as TAR in particular, I've read that they switch the camera crews assigned to teams between legs precisely so a crew doesn't become attached to "their" team.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 3:51 AM on October 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

There was a dude who was kicked off the Real World once for that, like fifteen or twenty years ago.
posted by kevinbelt at 4:46 AM on October 10, 2016

I don't recall a male cast member being kicked off for this specifically, but when the idea of The Real World was still somewhat novel there were many think pieces published about the arc of the first season and the fact that a relationship between cast member Becky and a director resulted in the director's firing (and, well, a lot less footage of Becky getting aired vs. the rest of the housemates).

It seems super likely that this event led to actual no-shit clear rules before they set up for the second season, because the whole POINT of the series was pretty clearly about on-air drama; hooking up with your roomies was expected, but hooking up with the other behind-the-curtain staff you see all the time wasn't useful for TV, and so was forbidden/discouraged. (Editing pre-post, I see now that this is confirmed on the director's Wikipedia page as well.)

Finally, in the "we old" department: the first season of TRW ran over the summer of 1992, 24 years ago. I remember watching it that summer in part because I lived in Tuscaloosa at the time, and had friends in common with cast member Julie, which made it super weird.
posted by uberchet at 7:12 AM on October 10, 2016 [4 favorites]

Survivor camera crews switch out every few hours.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:26 AM on October 10, 2016

Fictional, but the TV show UnReal deals with this a lot. It's about the behind the scenes filming of a Bachelor-type reality show and focuses on the crew/producers' manipulation of contestants and the conflicted feelings that follow.
posted by incountrysleep at 8:05 AM on October 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

You will prob enjoy this article by a RW/RR cast member who married a camera guy
posted by rmless at 8:13 AM on October 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

The person kevinbelt mentioned was David from Boston who was on the Seattle cast who started dating a female director of the show.
Jeez why do I know this, rethinking priorities...
posted by rmless at 8:15 AM on October 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

I also remember that David had different colored eyes, like one green and one brown or something. And it was the crew person who was kicked off, he got to stay.
posted by rmless at 8:18 AM on October 10, 2016

I recall reading part of an interview with Kate Gosselin wherein she said that they'd had the same crew for so long they became like family, and that footage of the kids' interactions with them is just edited out.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:07 AM on October 10, 2016

On The Island, where people have to survive on a desert island, they get round this by having a few members of the cast who are camera operators. We've just had Celebrity Island, where the crew weren't celebs but were made part of the cast. They took part in the tasks and were seen moaning about how hungry/tired/constipated they were.
posted by essexjan at 11:11 AM on October 10, 2016

On Teen Mom OG, they have begun to include producers and camera operators in aired footage. Sometimes it is the relationship of a news reporter and subject, other times it is a friend who has known the cast member/family for several years. Sometimes you see the cast members refusing to be filmed or refusing to talk about a particular topic. I find it very interesting. They have not done this on Teen Mom 2.

Morgan J Freeman, producer, says "There's not that much stability in a lot of their lives. You realize this relationship has spanned through crucial [parts] in their lives, highs and lows, and it is a unique and interesting relationship that only develops when a show can go this long and when a show can keep all those people. The producers want to keep telling these stories."
posted by rubster at 5:55 PM on October 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

The one time I observed the setup and filming for a reality tv show the contestants were kept pretty separate from most of the production staff - they traveled in separate vehicles, etc. And the directors took many takes, including instructions, "ok, now walk back to the rock and head our way, trashtalking more". And the camera crew was large and rotating through different locations.
posted by ldthomps at 8:02 AM on October 11, 2016

There have been at least two crew members (named Ryan, no less!) from the Bachelor franchise who got a little to close to female contestants.
posted by pitrified at 9:09 AM on October 11, 2016