Tuesday, February 4, 2014
Casting Reality TV? It's Now Difficult To Find Find Real People by: Craig Tomashoff a.k.a. Tomahawk
The main goal that all Reality TV shows share is the ambition to capture
authentic behavior, ups and downs, mostly downs of real life human beings. My
article is about how reality TV has made it difficult to find true characters
during the casting stages. The author of Casting Reality TV? It’s Now Difficult To Find Real People, Craig Tomashoff speaks about how it has gotten
hard for many shows to find characters who don’t really know how the genres work
and also finding people whose sole purpose is not to be on national television
for fame. Lacey Pemberton, casting director for the show “Bachelor” says, “I want people fresh to the idea of doing this and not so
focused on being on television”. I can see why it has gotten so difficult for shows
today to find genuine behavior but it’s out of habit, for people to choose what
mask they want to put on or how they would like to be perceived once a camera
is pointed at them. Also, who doesn’t want to be on TV?
Casting directors encourage for
participants to be themselves but also emphasize for participants to look their
best. There are many steps participants have to take in order to get on a
Reality TV show. First off, one has to think about being exposed to the wider
world including family, friends, foe’s, neighbors, bosses, coworkers, your
parents! One has to be quite sure they can live knowing anyone and everyone is
going to talk about you and form an opinion about you as soon as just one
episode. Next step on landing a role on a Reality TV show is to search for
auditions and casting calls, which most Reality TV shows have and can be found
online. Applications for shows, for the most part, require photos and even videos
of yourself, and in order for you to get discovered, much editing and thinking
outside the box is required. A channel on TV that is quite successful and
totally avoids casting like normal Reality TV shows is Bravo TV. They have a
lot of Reality TV shows such as Real House wives, of Liposuction, the fakest
reality TV show ever; which I am guilty of watching an episode or two. They
require you to “have the life, the income, the home, the
means, the aspirational lifestyle we want to capture. And that eliminates a
huge swath of people who just want to be on TV”, according to the vice
president of Bravo. Besides Bravo TV, no one really can figure out what casting
directors are in search of, although we do know they want authenticity,
whatever that is. We viewers don’t perceive authenticity the same way as any Reality
TV casting director which makes me question this article, which I still don’t understand
what the point of this article was, to be honest. I personally believe they should just stop looking for the real
deal and continue looking for entertainers. I am not a person who watches
something on TV and care if it is real or not. It only matters if it is
entertaining to me.
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I can relate to this article in a few different ways. I do agree it is hard to find genuine people for reality shows. For example, I was watching a season of The Bachelorette and there was a guy who came on even though he already had a girlfriend. He came simply to try to become famous. He wrote music and played guitar, so he wanted to be discovered for that. He didn’t care about what the show was really meant for. Another example of casting issues is on American Idol. I know someone who went to try out, made it through a few rounds, and then was cut. However, the only reason they were cut was because they didn’t have an interesting enough back story.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you, that season of the Bachelor was sickening because he got so far in the competition but still had his girlfriend. I cant believe the extremes that show will go to in order to attain more views than their rival shows. I also know someone who was cut from American idol because their back ground was too “every day life”. Even if someone has more talent to surpass people on these reality TV shows they are completely over looked because they don’t have an interesting enough back story. While on the other hand there are people who just want their 15 minutes of fame that are willing to do or say what ever it takes to get famous off of these shows. Those types of people have definitely taken over our media and made it nearly impossible for the average person to get noticed.
DeleteI absolutely agree with what is said here, it's obvious that in reality tv the normal everyday person isn't appreciated even if they are the best at what they are trying out for. Now everybody thats going to be on a reality tv show has to have some interesting back story so everybody can either love them or feel sorry for them. People will say or do anything to get there time on a tv show and to gain fame. People will make up a fake back story and say things that they have never done in their life just to try to make it onto some tv show. In my opinion it is pathetic that people have to go to those lengths in order to get noticed.
DeleteI can relate to this article in a few different ways. I do agree it is hard to find genuine people for reality shows. For example, I was watching a season of The Bachelorette and there was a guy who came on even though he already had a girlfriend. He came simply to try to become famous. He wrote music and played guitar, so he wanted to be discovered for that. He didn’t care about what the show was really meant for. Another example of casting issues is on American Idol. I know someone who went to try out, made it through a few rounds, and then was cut. However, the only reason they were cut was because they didn’t have an interesting enough back story.
ReplyDelete15 minutes of fame, not really an old saying but a very true on at that. people don't really care about lasting of reality TV but they just want their faces on TV even it's only for a short bit of time. If that means acting absolutely insane on camera instead of themselves then they will do that very thing. When casting directors look for "authentic" contestants they are practically asking someone if they want to be a star because that's all they want. If "who they are" is some crazy person who likes to start of drama and give other contestants a hard time, then they'll put him on because it will boost the ratings. When you really think about it, do you really think casting directors want them to be themselves? Of course not, they want someone that they can put that will increase their audience, no one cares about the average joe on the Big Brother, they want to see a villain or a couple or anything other than normal.
Deletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/style-blog/wp/2014/01/28/unsung-heroes-of-reality-television-the-casting-experts/
ReplyDeleteYour post made me think of this article, which talks about what kind of people producers search for to cast in reality shows. Specifically, they want people who are crazy, but not too crazy. The article mentions that one nightmarish couple from Arizona that was on the show Kitchen Nightmares, and how they figured they would get a lot of views for the couple’s aggressive actions. They did receive several offers to be a part of other shows at first, but they were quickly dropped because the insane couple clearly couldn’t work with anybody. The article also talks about several people who showed up to audition for the show Naked and Afraid, the producers assuming they understood what the show was about and what they would have to do, but thirteen people dropped out immediately because they expected there to be more glamor behind the show for themselves. If people want to be a part of a reality TV show, I think they need to fully understand what life will be like for them on the show and how everything will change for them, as well as the rules of the show, if any, that they need to follow.
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ReplyDeleteSince the world of reality TV has grown so much I can definitely see how it has become harder to find "genuine people." Normal people want their big break if they are on a reality TV show. To be honest I don't know why they try to find genuine people because they are just going to create a script and a storyline for they person on the show. Networks are after ratings and since they mold these people into what they want they should just look for people that are entertaining and are willing to do the job. Also seeing how things on reality TV can be so twisted and fake turns those "genuine people" away because they do not want to be exposed to the world like that. People can form so many opinions about you because of the show and how the producers decide to portray you.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more! The shows that air on the TV now-a-days don't have any type of genuine actions from any of the characters. It is also true that many people just want to do something to catch a break and get their time to shine. To be honest I don’t feel like being famous is all that important. Besides the money I don’t see what the big deal about being famous on TV is. In my eyes, I’d rather be famous for something I have achieved in life rather than some stupid act done on TV. Yet there are many people will do whatever it takes to get famous on a TV show even if they make themselves look retarded.
Deletehttp://www.wikihow.com/Get-on-a-Reality-TV-Show
ReplyDeleteWhile searching for an article that pertained to this post, I stumbled upon this wikihow article "How to Get on a Reality TV Show". This post was absolutely ridiculous to me but also made some sense. I think that a lot of people trying to get on reality TV take number 3 into consideration, learning all they can about that specific show. Possible future contestants do this in order to change themselves into the type of person that the producers may be looking for. They want to go in knowledgeable on what they are going to experience and alter their images accordingly. In response to your post, I completely agree. People will do anything to get their moment in fame, if thats what they're looking for. Whether this be through appearance, personality or story, it doesn't seem to matter so long as the end result is the same, screen time.
Personally I think it is virtually impossible to cast a true, innocent character, with no intent on catching fame, in reality television these days. The only way that it could be done is if you found some sort of sheltered child who has no knowledge of the workings of reality television in even the slightest of ways. Even then, thats probably not a viable candidate for any type of reality television these days. Although, with shows like Honey Boo Boo out there, I wouldn't put it past producers who are hungry for the next child sensation in whatever way they can find it… Back to the point though, our society has officially come to the point where we have bred a certain group of people in this world who will do anything for the fame, and if that means fake like they have no idea how reality tv works to weasel their way onto a show, they will do it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jordin on this as well in saying it is almost impossible to cast a character or characters that are not doing it for the wrong reasons. I think at this point, the producers of these shows are just going to have to deal with these people and find the best that they can.
DeleteAfter reading this article I decided to look for myself to see how hard it would be to simply find castings for reality TV shows. So I did just that and googled "castings for reality tv" and the first article to pop up was a list of castings for MTV. I then clicked on one of the shows called "ARE YOU THE ONE?" to see the criteria listed for such shows and found that there is mainly one quality that all of reality shows have in common and that was a good looking appearance of the contestant. On this page it has two criteria the first being over the age of 21 and the second was that you had to LOOK like you were between the ages of 21 and 24. To me that sounds a little ridiculous but I guess they have a target audience and that audience wouldn't want to watch someone who looked over the age of 25 fall in love.. With such minimal criteria I can see how it could be difficult to weed out the posers, and find real candidates. I don't necessarily agree that its the right thing to do to tell someone they don't look the part of a "reality" tv show, but I guess that is just how our society works these days.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1721737/mtvs-one-now-casting.jhtml
http://www.today.com/id/26549285#.UvHS-P1CflI
ReplyDeleteThis article talks about the things people will do just to become famous or get money. Specifically, producers are having issues depicting whether or not the actor trying out for the spot is real or not. By means of that, I’m trying to say that actors are starting to go behind the producers backs and manipulate them by making up lies just to get on the show or stay on the show. The producers already have a rough time keeping the show alive, let alone being skeptical of their actors and hoping they don’t pull a random stunt that could ultimately jeopardize the show. Most people going into these reality shows have no more than the intentions of becoming famous for the rest of their lives. Sometimes its not even about getting the prize at the end but as long as their face is shown on tv than they are satisfied. In the end, we see it becoming harder to find people that are in it for the good things, not the bad.
Everyone wants to be on television to become famous. We all enjoy being the center of attention and what better place to do it than on t.v. This is why it is hard to find genuine people. People just want to be on t.v. They don't seem to care about the show just as long as they are seen on t.v. then they are happy. I agree with Jordin that it's pretty much impossible to find an innocent character that doesn't have the intent of becoming famous. Most of us dreamt of being famous as children and when we are given the opportunity it is all we care about. People only care about their profile and how people will perceive them on t.v. People are always trying to be in the spotlight.
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