hal tweets ·11:28 AM
Ghostbuster zines from the Canzine Hollywood Piracy Zine Challenge are now online! http://t.co/RoAMEQTU
2009,
21:35 GMT
Pics from Bootcamp
Posted by: Hal
the landscape around the center where bootcamp is being held
the phone basket – we all had to put our phones in the basket in order to simulate reality tv set situations, being cut off from the real world of family and friends.
peep documentary director sally and jim, the former police officer whose goal is to secure himself a spot on survivor.
breakfast at boot camp
Marcellas Reynolds addresses the group. He was the 3rd last to be voted off big brother 3.
the group listens intently to Marcellas
2009,
17:32 GMT
Reality TV BootCamp Saturday Morning
Posted by: Hal
So it’s 10 am here at reality tv camp in sunny and very hot Simi Valley. California. Didn’t sleep very well last night, and was up bright and early – 6am or so. Went for a walk. Here are a few pictures of the general area which is very dry and hilly and quite beautiful.
After my walk I had a shower and started talking to the other participants as we waited for breakfast and the morning challenge to be handed out. I got mine and shouldn’t have too much trouble carrying it out, more on that later on. We did some light stretching and bouncing then had breakfast.
The big news is that 3 of the participants who all came together are bailing out. They are leaving. There were only about 15 of us or so in the first place, so their departure is pretty much the morning drama and the organizer, Robert Galinsky, seems a bit thrown off by the development. At breakfast he tried to spin it as a new plot-line, a dramatic twist that we should take advantage of by recording our feelings regarding their departure in the “confession booth” which is a room with a video camera in it where we are invited to record our feelings 24 hours a day. Anyway, that’s the big news of the morning. Our first session is set to begin shortly: “developing our character.” I’ll be back with a full report later on in the day obviously. I’ll also try to shoot some video.
2009,
7:44 GMT
reality tv boot camp - friday night
Posted by: Hal
alright i made it to boot camp, which is happening about an hour from Los Angeles in an area known as simi valley. got there just in time for dinner and opening remarks. it’s 12:30 pst time, 3:30 est so i’m too tired to go into details right now, but i will tell you that the participants include a former crack dealer, an ex police chief, an alcoholic bartender who’s been sober for 5 years, and a dairy farmer.
when i first got here i was lead to my accommodations. the mattress in the middle is mine:
pretty sweet huh? we then went through 3 hours of introductions, shaping our personal story/brand and a group exercise involving us performing skits and singing. these people were in my group:
speaking of singing, each of us got a secret challenge we had to complete before the end of the night. my challenge was to sing a love song to one of the members of the group in front of everyone else. i ended up singing to the lady in the picture above. maybe tomorrow I’ll get around to telling you how that went down. for now, though, all i want you to know is that things are very very strange at reality tv boot camp. more soon, i promise. but now it’s time to crash in my luxury accommodations.
2009,
0:08 GMT
Rain in Minneapolis
Posted by: Hal
Quick update from the Minneapolis airport, where I’m waiting to board my flight to Los Angeles. So I’m coming from the Winnipeg author’s festival Thin Air, and I’m heading to Reality TV bootcamp, which is my weekend destination.
Winnipeg was really fun. A great bunch of people run this festival, and it really shows — everything is well organized and the vibe is a definitely a good one.
Yesterday I did four talks — 3 school talks to 9–12 graders, and a presentation at the downtown library for series called Big Ideas which saw me explaining the “big idea” of peep culture. The school presentations were fun, and I’ve already gotten feedback by way of facebook and email from a few students, a good sign!
Last night me and the poet Christian Bok (pronounced book because the o has two little dots over it) went along to the Thin Air/McNally Robinson event featuring sci fi writer Robert Sawyer live in person introducing and presiding over the launch of the ABC show based on his novel Flash Forward. (Premise, everyone passes out for two minutes and has a vision of their life 6 months ahead.) The show was fun. But the best thing was Sawyer’s commentary when the commercials were on. It was like watching the DVD version of the show with special feature — author patter.
This morning, I did a breakfast talk for business folks. The topic was privacy and social media. I enjoyed doing the presentation (even though I had to get up at 6 am). It was a chance to try out some new material and to speak to a different audience than the literary crowd. Good questions and discussion, I would have liked to find out more about what the people in the audience thought about my ideas regarding, specifically, my assertion that we need to start helping people to understand that in the age of peep, privacy is a commodity. But we could only scratch the surface as I was due at the airport to catch the 11:40 flight I’m waiting to get on. So it’s off to California to an undisclosed surprise location, site of the mysterious Reality TV Boot Camp weekend. More on that as soon as I’ve got something to share. In the meantime, it’s raining in Minneapolis.
2009,
20:28 GMT
Breaking News: Hal Goes to Reality TV Boot Camp!
Posted by: Hal
Wow. Workshops on “extreme emotional endurance” and “maintaining your pokerface”. A master class by Joshua Harris of we-live-in-public fame. 3 documentary crews (including mine), 4 reporters from various periodicals including Cosmopolitan UK, and…me.
That’s right. In her extreme wisdom, director Sally has decided that we need to head back to California for weekend boot camp, which features 15 or so reality TV aspirants trying to make it on to a show, and, once they’re on, win big. Check it out here.
The event is being put on by the New York Reality TV School (even though it’s being held in the Los Angeles area). Really, I don’t know what to expect from the weekend camp. But I do know it’ll be interesting, to say the least. Among the advance instructions we’ve been sent are to bring a “provocative” piece of clothing (just wait until you get a gander of what I’ll be wearing) and to not forget our favorite stuffed animal. Director Sally was so worried I’d bail on the clothes and stuffed animal she sent producer Jeanette over to collect the objects from me.
My goal: to stand out, to learn what it takes to get onto reality tv, and talk to the other folks who are paying one thousand big ones to attend — why are they here? What is it about Reality TV that’s so damn captivating?
So you can bet I’ll be keeping you informed. In the meantime, I’m in the airport heading to Winnipeg where I’ll be presenting at the Thin Air Authors festival. Should be a good time, more on that as well.
The Bloggist
Hey, I’m Hal Niedzviecki. I’m a writer/thinker who lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with my wife and daughter. Up till now I’ve always considered myself a private person. But at the same time I’m fascinated by people who effortlessly open themselves up to the whole world. So I’ve… more...
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