Jason Guy BB3 - carrière de directeur de casting
Entering reality: 'Big Brother's' Jason Guy never left reality TV, and plenty of others are trying to get in on the continuing phenomenon
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
By MIKE BRANTLEY
TV & Media Editor
After a stint on a reality television show three years ago, Mobilian Jason Guy admits the experience made him a more humble man.
"What people don't realize is that a reality show in a lot of ways is a very humbling experience and a very eye-opening experience," said Guy, now 28 years old and working in the industry that has sprouted up around the reality show phenomenon. "You have allowed America into every nook and cranny of your life. Everything is out there for everyone to see."
He missed out on the "Big Brother 3" big money -- the winner got $500,000, the runner-up got $50,000, but third-place finisher Guy didn't get any dough.
Still, Guy has no regrets and no complaints, and he did come out of the deal with a career. Guy has followed his on-screen time on "Big Brother 3" on CBS during the summer of 2002 with work as a casting associate or casting director on such shows as "Survivor" and "The Amazing Race" on CBS, and NBC's "The Biggest Loser."
"Five years ago I could have never seen that I would end up where I am now," Guy said during a telephone interview earlier this week, while he was wrapping up casting work for the ninth season of "The Amazing Race." The eighth season, "The Amazing Race: Family Edition," is unfolding in prime time at 8 p.m. Tuesdays on CBS.
Guy was a casting associate on that show, too.
"Five years ago, I was living in Mobile, Alabama, watching some of these shows with my folks at home, never imagining that I would be in one and then that I would be working in the industry," Guy said. "I am very humbled and very honored."
A heightened sense of humility is something that comes with having been on a reality show, Guy said.
For three months on "Big Brother 3," Guy was locked away in a house with other contestants and had no privacy as cameras and microphones followed his every move and his interactions with the other players. As television viewers and Internet surfers kept a vigilant watch on his activities, Guy -- that show's nice guy who was determined to do nothing to shame himself, his family, his church or his community -- played the game.
The cameras watched as Guy formed alliances with other players, competed in challenges and even developed a noticeable crush on a fellow contestant. Everything he did -- seemingly everything he thought -- was under public scrutiny.
The first thing you want to do after spending so much time under the microscope, Guy said, is to "reestablish some privacy."
Being on a reality show allows you to see yourself the way others do, he said.
"It's this mirror you look into to see the good and the bad," Guy said. "In a lot of ways it is very, very life changing and humbling. People who don't admit that maybe still have their head in the clouds or are not being honest with themselves."
Often, a reality show contestant may be vilified by TV watchers when all he or she is doing on TV is playing the game to win. Such activities as forming alliances or even double-crossing other contestants may be perceived by reality show participants as good strategy, but viewers aren't always so understanding.
Guy was perceived as "Big Brother 3's" good guy, but other players on that show were seen as the villains in the cast. The same thing happens with all these shows, Guy said.
"They go back to their hometowns and people speak ill of them," he said. "In a lot of cases, it makes people change who they once were."
Matthew Robinson, author of the book "How to Get on Reality TV" (Random House, $14.95), believes people watch reality TV shows because "it's fun to watch yourself."
"Everybody watches these shows, and they see somebody they know or they see a personality they know or they see themselves," Robinson said.
Seeing themselves on TV is a prime motivating factor for many people who want to be on a reality TV show. Every season, thousands of applicants try to get on reality TV shows by attending open casting calls, submitting audition videotapes and filling out online applications.
"Each show is pretty different in how they go about casting and what they are looking for," Robinson said. "You want to know the show. You want to be prepared, to be a fan of the show. It really helps to have seen all the past seasons. And the producers want to see that you are a fun person."
Robinson said reality show producers want contestants who fit certain types of personalities -- almost as if they are casting actors to play characters in a scrïpted TV show.
"You want to bring to them a certain type of personality," the writer and self-described reality TV show fan said. "If you are the Iowa farm boy or you are the cutthroat lawyer from New York, you want to bring something that they can sum up in a few words. You want to sell them a product. You want to sell them yourself. They build the show around how they think people will react to each other and to different situations."
Guy said casting directors such as himself aren't necessarily looking for preconceived personality types, however. They are looking for great personalities, said Guy, whose other credits include casting work for UPN's "Amish in the City," "Nightmare on Elm Street: Real Nightmares" on CBS, and The WB's "Beauty and the Geek."
"My job as casting director for a reality TV show is to find great people for a show," Guy said. "It does not matter if they are going to be a good guy or a bad guy. What I am looking for are great people and dynamic personalities. Whether it's on an audition tape or if I meet them in a live audition, you know. There is something. Some people call it the 'it' factor."
Putting together a reality show cast is like assembling a puzzle in a way. Guy helps find the pieces that are likely to fit together, but ultimately it's up to a show's producers and network executives to make final decisions, he said.
Mobile's James Miller, who was on "Survivor: Palau" this past season , advises hopefuls trying to get onto a reality TV show to "be yourself" when auditioning.
Or, better yet, "be the sexiest thing that ever walked the planet," Miller said in June, when local CBS affiliate WKRG-TV5 played host to "Survivor" auditions. The affiliate videotaped dozens of "Survivor" applicants, who showed up to make their case about why they should be chosen to be on the show.
The videotapes were forwarded to "Survivor" producers. Last spring, WKRG similarly sought out families to audition for "The Amazing Race: Family Edition."
While those particular auditions failed to net a local reality show contestant, a growing number of people from the area and the state have made it onto the airwaves. Some have enjoyed their 15 minutes of fame, while others have achieved a more lasting celebrity.
Besides Miller, last spring's "Survivor: Palau" featured Alabamians Bobby Jon Drinkard of Troy and Ibrehem Rahman of Birmingham. None of the Alabama "Survivor" trio came close to winning the game, but CBS surprised viewers this fall when it brought Drinkard back for the new "Survivor: Guatemala."
On the Fox singing competition "American Idol," which Guy classifies as a reality show, Alabamians Ruben Studdard of Birmingham and Bo Bice of Helena have been prominent participants. Studdard won the contest in 2003, and Bice -- who entertained a Mobile audience during BayFest Saturday -- was runner-up this past season.
Reality shows aren't new, though the term "reality show" has only been around since the first edition of "Survivor" became such a ratings phenomenon during the summer of 2000. Guy believes radio quiz shows that predated television and the early TV game shows were reality shows, and Robinson points to such examples as "The Gong Show" in the 1970s and "Star Search" later on as being forerunners to "American Idol," and MTV's "The Real World" in the early 1990s as being a forerunner to such programs as "Big Brother."
They are so popular now partly because people like to watch them but mostly because they are relatively cheap to make, Robinson said.
The writer said, "It is so much cheaper for networks to make these reality shows. They can do a whole season of 'The Apprentice' for the cost of doing a single episode of 'Law and Order' or whatever."
Guy and Robinson agree the genre is here to stay.
"I think people are so enthralled by reality shows because of the sheer fact that people just like themselves are put in these amazing circumstances, like the adventure race around the world or being stranded on deserted island in the middle of the ocean," Guy said. "They see people like themselves in extraordinary circumstances, and they see how people would react."
Offered Robinson, "The idea that the drama you are watching is real gives it all that much more excitement....You never quite know what is going to happen. It's the illusion of reality."
Why so many people want to be on a reality TV show is more difficult to figure, Guy said.
"Truthfully, it's hard to say why people do reality shows," he said. "For me, I auditioned for 'Big Brother' having been a fan of the show. I think that's why people audition for reality shows. They are fans of the show, and they say, 'I could see myself doing that. I would like that kind of experience.' There are obviously people who are looking for fame, and they go after whoever will have them. Some people have been found that way."
Where is reality TV headed? Robinson believes the genre will become more celebrity-based, as it embraces shows that will mix celebrities with real people. Reality TV will move away from shows that are "about getting voted off each week," he predicted.
Guy believes reality TV already has moved away from the shows that are mean-spirited, and viewers aren't tuning in as much as they used to for the "gross-out" shows.
"They don't want the shock value," Guy said. "They don't want something that is trashy. I think America is looking for something that makes people feel good."
That's why programs such as ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" and NBC's "Three Wishes," have been so popular lately, Guy said.
"The feel-good show right now is where that trend is headed," Guy said.
