latimes.com: Monica Martino had filmed tornadoes in the Midwest, ship collisions in the Antarctic and crab fishermen in Alaska's Bering Sea. But those experiences didn't prepare her for a terrifying nighttime boat ride in the Amazon jungle.
In February, the 41-year-old co-executive producer was thrown into a murky river after getting footage for "Bamazon," a series for the History cable channel about out-of-work Alabama construction workers mining for gold in the rain forest of Guyana.
6 comments:
I had always assumed that cast and crew members of crazy reality TV shows were provided with insurance in some way. It is disgusting that television shows are having their crew members sign non-disclosure forms and then go on to risk their lives. I would never sign one of those forms. That is just not a condition I would ever agree to work under. Also, you know it's bad when the insurance companies are refusing to sign with TV shows due to the severity and danger that the shows entail. Maybe those shows should be re-thinking their morals and at the very least treat their employees fairly.
To play devil's advocate with Jess's comment, these companies are technically treating their employees fairly in the companies' eyes. When someone signs up for a job on the crew for a show, they are told what the job will entail. It's not like they sign a contract saying that they'll be shooting in a studio in LA and are then sent out to the Amazon rain forest with no warning. The crews know what they're getting themselves into. The article also states that these companies are compensating them in pay for the danger they put themselves in. If a worker signs up for a job because the pay is so good, they can't really complain when they don't like their working conditions. If you take a union job, you know going in that the company is not going to be held to union standards. If you don't like what you're being asked to do, then leave. No one forced those camera crews to accept the job. It's up to those crews to take their own precautions. If you're not getting health insurance through your job, but you're getting paid $1,000 a day, you can afford to buy your own health insurance. Those crew members should probably invest in life insurance as well if they're going to be putting themselves in dangerous situations often. The article even says that the crew member who broke his jaw while filming "The Deadliest Catch" was compensated $13,000 for it. At some point, people have to start taking responsibility for the decisions they make.
It's sad that people feel the need to go to such unnecessary extremes for the sake of "entertainment." I love a violent, thriller movie as much as the next person, but there is a world of difference between that and reality TV. Movies use stunt doubles, CGI, and green screens to capture the images of danger they require, but reality TV is just that... Real. People are desperate for jobs in this failing economy, and will sign their lives away to make money, despite the risks. But it is unfair to even ask it of them, no matter what their situation, to go through such unneeded perils simply for the sake of American entertainment.
I think the real problem here lies with the American, television-watching public. The reason these violent reality shows have gained so much popularity and the number of them on the air has gone up to sixty, is because the public is watching them in large quantities. People choose not to think of the consequences of their actions. If you choose to watch a reality show every week where people blow up mines or do dangerous things on shooting ranges or drive ships roughly for the sake of it, then you have to accept that these are real people doing these things, and that there are real people behind the camera. I can completely understand how the camera operators aren't insured for their jobs. The entertainment industry has never provided large scale insurance, and most likely never will. The reason it seems so terrible now, is that the watching public ignorantly wishes to see violence and can't think beyond their TV Guide magazine to realize that real people are in danger.
Okaaaay, but we really can't put blame on the American public for what they're interested in watching on TV (go watch South Park's episode "Raising the Bar" for a discussion on this topic). The plain truth is that these reality shows (caveat: usually) feature real people doing their real jobs, which they'd do regardless of whether there was a camera on them or not, and the fact that people are watching and networks are buying the shows is just proof that the they have incredibly interesting stories to present. So if you can get Kirk Cameron to raise the bar (http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s16e09-raising-the-bar), all the more on you. I don't see it happening.
I'm on Jess Bertollo's side of the fence here. If you want a cushy soundstage job, you'd take a cushy soundstage job. The people out on the boats or in the swamps following the crazies of the world are doing so because they are getting paid a lot of money to do it, and because they agreed to do it (and to take care of themselves healthcare and insurance-wise). You're never going to walk into a job like this blind. So it's a judgment call - are you willing to put yourself on the line for a high-risk, high-reward job, or is that not your thing?
Reality TV in general makes me sick, I'll admit that there are some shows I've enjoyed but in most situations I've never really thought about how the crews are effected. Well, with the exception of the camera guys that had to follow Bear Grylls, those guys were put in some really crappy positions.
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