Mornin', Don.
I'll make this my last best effort.
There’s a difference between being a naysayer and doing one’s due diligence. And if this were being pitched as a documentary, I’d be much less incendiary in my comments.
Part of my abhorrence to the genre of reality television is based on my personal encounters with the producers of “Extreme Home Makeover”, comments made by Clint Black after his dealings with the producers of “Celebrity Apprentice” and my regular dealings with independent film makers in my current position, managing an AV rental company – I deal with people in the business regularly.
During the “EHM” debacle, the producers came in, explained a sad-sack case of a family they wanted to help, and my employer’s company was promised high visibility if they were to donate light fixtures to the production. My employer agreed, the administrative assistants to the talking head “designers” came in, picked out a huge selection of lights, half of which were not used, and some of which were sent back opened, broken, or with missing parts. My employer's company got a one second flash credit at the end of the show on the same screen as all of the other suppliers, a press release which garnered a 2 paragraph acknowledgement in the Waukesha Freeman, a couple of counter displays which we put up on our sales kiosk, and that was about it.
During the season finale in which Clint Black was on Celebrity Apprentice, Black commented to Donald Trump about the way the editing was making people look bad. According to an examiner.com interview, gleaned from an interview in the Huston Chronicle, Black said this –
“ . . . the Texas native reports that although he knew working on the show would likely be no picnic, he underestimated the extent the program’s creators would go to for maximum drama, including misleading editing that Black thinks made him look bad and the unkind words of other contestants on the show.
"I knew it was going to be difficult," Black told The Chronicle. "But I didn't realize exactly what I was getting myself into."
Additionally, in an interview he gave Anderson Cooper, Black went on to state -
“For me, the competition ended at the end of the first episode -- I stopped trying to win, and my focus became: uphold my character, don't let anyone draw me into behaving in some way that I wouldn't be proud of later."
As to the production in question, I don’t want to besmirch Mr. Willard, but having dealt with film crews and producers, some of the questions you must ask and have firm, verifiable answers for, regardless of who is producing the show, are these:
1. Who is your customer? Independent producers are just that – independent. Is this a spec piece? What have you produced that has been broadcast before? Are they bringing their own resources to the table, or are they bankrolled by others?
2. Who intends to air this production? Who is the producer pitching this piece to? Is there a cable channel interested? Who will have final say over the edit that is broadcast?
3. Have them show you what they’ve had broadcast before. How long have they been doing it? Will they be working with the same folks they’ve worked with in other productions? How do their productions look, and how do they present the people involved in the production?
Being on television is all fine and well, but being misquoted, or poorly presented, or contextually misrepresented can sour the experience for a very long time. And once it’s shot, there will be financial pressure brought to bear on the producer to form it into something saleable, which may or may not be in the participant’s best interest.
Chris Conrad
