we didn't need dialogue. we had faces.

This morning I was able to leave my desk for 2 minutes to go get a coffee. As I was enjoying the beautiful crisp morning air and sunshine, basking in my refusel to wear my large parachute VANOC jacket and instead sporting my peacoat, I thought, if I were famous, this would be a good paparazzi shot.

Never would this thought have occured if it wasn't for scripted reality TV.

Now before I get into the theory and specifics of that last statement, let me start by breaking down reality TV.

First of all, get over it. To the people who still complain TO THIS DAY about the "demise" of society and our generation because of reality TV, sit down. TV is a choice, either watch it or don't. If you're a parent, turn it off. Of course your kid can sneak away and watch it online and blah blah but honestly, it was the same issue 20 years ago with scripted shows. There is always some show, some song, some movie that is too violent. Reality TV is the same, except it's mindless, stupid entertainment. And just cause MTV is showing a 16 year old who's a teen mom, doesn't mean your duaghter will be pregnant at 16. If she is, I hardly think Jersey Shore is what influenced her. If anything, I watch reality TV and go, lord I hope I am never one of these people. Also, the argument of how we have no art left on TV and this is it blah blah, EXCUSE YOU. There are wonderful shows still on TV. Friday Night Lights, Lost, Big Bang Theory, 30 Rock, Community, Mad Men, Dexter, The Wire (even though it's done now). Remember in the 70's when all they played was game shows? 70's had game shows, we have reality TV.

Now what my statement above refers to is SCRIPTED reality TV, and trust me, there's a difference.

Reality falls into 3 categories for me. These categories come from working in reality tv for the last 5 years and knowing the difference from raw footage.

SCRIPTED COMPETITION REALITY - Survivor/Biggest Loser/American Idol/So You Think You Can Dance/The Bachelor.
These people are in it to win it but mostly have boring personalities so to spice things up, producers will tell them what to say in the interviews so they can build a story. Yes they do get "reality" moments, but if you believe anything that is said in the interview clips, think again.
*** the amazing race is an exception to this. The producers are actually not allowed to talk to the contestants because it's considered cheating, therfore what you see on the amazing race is what you get. which is why it deserves every emmy it has. also, there's no need to try and create drama when you put two people together in a high stress sitaution (ps working for the amazing race was, no pun intended, amazing. wonderful team to work for).

REALITY HELP TV - Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew/Intervention/Extreme Home Makeover.
Shows that try and help and bless em'. Sometimes it's good, something it's a grey area, like with Dr. Drew. Yes he is truly trying to help people, but why would he exploit them by putting them on TV? Oh right cause he gets money. These help shows are... you feel bad for watching someone else's pain and struggle but you can't look away. Most of these are what you see is what you get, but it's scripted in the sense of, lets build a scene. Aka, all those Ty Pennignton moments of "MOVE THAT BUS!!!!!!!!" or Dr. Drew's group sessions.

SCRIPTED REALITY - The Hills/Jersey Shore/Laguna Beach/Peak Season
The creme de la creme of Reality TV. Meaning, why am I watching this showit'ssostupidnothingisactuallyhappeningBUTICAN'TSTOP. Everyone has one of these shows on their guilty pleasure list. It's harmless and honestly, there is nothing to be ashamed of. I feel like scripted reality tv is the sitcom of the 2000's. And why not?

And this is where my statement draws from. Lets get one thing straight, Laguna Beach is what started this, it's the head bitch in charge. It created the term. But what's funny is, IT DIDN'T USED TO BE SCRIPTED. I can say this confidently because I worked on season 2, back when the most involvment a producer had was "hey guys, can we have you walk through that door, we missed the shot" or "hey you guys gonna talk about the party from last night?" after filming them talk about fucking clothes for 3 hours and they are running out of tape. But along came the spin-off The Hills and the producers realized if the show is gonna be focused on only one chick and her bimbo friends, we gotta spice it up. And that's when it got really, really bad. And now, it's painfully obvious that all the people are hired to be standing at this party while reading off a script of "oh my God I can't believe so and so is at this party, what a bitch". It's lost most of it's appeal cause THEY'RE NOT PROFESSIONAL ACTORS, but we still watch.

But back when it was still teetering on being half real, there was a craze where everyone started thinking, man they should TOTALLY do a show about me and my drama. Brent and I would talk about this all the time in Film School. "Fuck the Hills, they should do a show about film school". People started to THINK that other people cared what they did during the day. And then came facebook, and twitter, and countless gossip blogs with minute to minute updates of where Ashton Kutcher was getting coffee from. Granted, I feed into it. I check out gossip blogs and when I'm in LA I can't help but look out for celebs when I'm at said coffee shop that I saw in a picture a couple of days ago. Hence why I'm swaying my hair in the wind thinking, this would be a great paparazzi shot. AM I HIGH?????!!!! No, no one cares who I am or what I do. No one would care what my life would be in film school. No one cares what I'm doing AT THIS SECOND (I refuse to get a twitter account). I have to remind myself of this every day. It's so easy to feed into it. We are accesible to everyone.

AND this is my problem with Scripted Reality TV. It's not the "demise of society" that I have a problem with.

IT'S THE DEMISE OF HOLLYWOOD.

There is NOTHING private about hollywood aymore. It has no mystique. Celebs post pictures of inside the fucking golden globes on their twitters now. Now I know what it's like to stand beside Tom Cruise on the red carpet, or what they serve as food, or how bored Jack Nicholsan looks. All these things that were the mystery of being a none famous person getting the privelege to see a glimpse of the stars when it came to award show season, GONE.
Hey I wonder what Ryan Gosling is doing? Oh he is at a rock show, there he is standing in a crowd. Uploaded instantly from someone's phone to a gossip blog. I know what celebrities are doing 24/7. I see inside their houses. Christ this morning someone posted pictures of Hilary Duff getting PROPOSED TO on a balcony. One of the happiest moments in her life, now public.

Also what defines being a star these days? NOTHING. Fucking bitches from Jersey Shore were at THE GRAMMY's. Why? Who knows! Hey they are on TV, put them on. Popular blogs are invited to discuss things on CNN. lord. Anyone can be fanous now. You got a million hits on your youtube video, well then, lets get you a TV show.

I know what movies studios are making, what scripts producers are reading, who had lunch with who, etc. I know who made out with who at the club last night. Nope not a rumour, here are the pics!!! NOTHING IS PRIVATE.

When celebs from back then write bios or tell all books, they are awesome. Just cause we had NO idea what was going on back then in Hollywood's mystery party machine. Now, don't even bother, I just read about it on TMZ.

It takes the fun out of it. Growing up, wanting to be part of Hollywood, all I wanted was to pearce that bubble into their world. Now though, it's open 24/7.

That being said, I could easily point the finger at reality tv for all of this, but at the same when i sit down on the couch and america's next top model is on, I'll watch it. So I cant stay mad at it for too long.

http://www.thevine.com.au/entertainment/articles/top-ten-most-memorable-reality-tv-moments.aspx