Reality TV

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Reality TV

• Producers are interested in working with you.
• Should your department be interested in working
  with them?

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Alaska is a REALLY INTERESTING location for
producers of Reality Television programs.
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In 1976, science fiction writer Kate Wilhelm
wrote a short story titled Ladies and Gentlemen,
This is Your Crisis. The story was about a
television show in which contestants attempt to
make their way to a checkpoint after being
dropped off in the Alaskan wilderness, while
being filmed and broadcast around the clock
through an entire weekend.
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32 years later Reality TV is a . . . . reality.

• North Pole, Alaska
• Move that Bus!

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Deadliest Catch, in the Bering Sea And,
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Near Tok, the finish line for The Amazing Race 1.

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• However, this seasons Bear Feeding Frenzy
  doesnt go over quite as well.

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Bear attack video raises some hackles By CRAIG
MEDRED / Anchorage Daily News ANCHORAGE, Alaska -
Put a TV soap star in a plastic box in the bear
pen at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center,
tie a dummy alongside, turn loose the bears, roll
video and what do you get?            A whole
lotta controversy. A storm of it has been
building since a program called "Bear Feeding
Frenzy" first appeared on the Discovery
Channel. State wildlife biologists call the
self-proclaimed "documentary" misleading and
worse. The bear authority who worked with the
filmmakers says he got snookered. And some
average citizens - taken in by the show's
appearance of having been filmed in the wild -
are outraged that television producers would be
teaching grizzlies to attack lifelike dummies,
tear into tents and break into SUVs.
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• Reality TV is "the liveliest genre on the set
  right now. It has engaged hot-button cultural
  issuesclass, sex, racethat respectable
  television... rarely touches.
• -- VH1 executive vice president Michael
  Hirchorn.

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Reality TV shows come in many categories. A few
include

• Professional Activities.
• Special Living Environment
• Fear-centric
• Sports
• Renovation
• Special living environment
• Instant celebrity
• Hidden camera

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Reality TV or Documentary?

• Documentaries present actual incidents and
  statements which can be tested against reality.
  They offer a representation of reality and use
  narrative techniques more often associated with
  fictional forms.
• Reality television presents purportedly
  unscripted dramatic or humorous situations,
  documents actual events, and usually features
  ordinary people instead of professional actors.
• Documentaries and nonfiction programming such as
  news and sports are usually not classified as
  reality shows.

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The Alaska Department of Corrections Our
Experience with Reality TV and Lessons Learned
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DOC chose to participate because we anticipate

• Positive media for our institutions and
  corrections professionals.
• A way to open the inside of facilities to the
  public, recognizing the department works for the
  public.
• Interest in Alaska among potential visitors
  (tourism).
• A potential to boost recruitment.

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The Department has worked with three production
companies to date.Our experience has been
largely positive.
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The Department has worked with

• Lockup on MSNBC (44blue) filmed at Spring Creek
  Correctional Center in Seward.
• Inside on Court TV (44blue), also filmed at
  Spring Creek
• Lockdown on National Geographic (Wide Eyed
  Productions) at Yukon-Kuskokwim Correctional
  Center in Bethel.
• Hard Time on Discovery (Towers Productions)
  also at Spring Creek.

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Lockdown Alaska Bush Troopers premiered on
Sunday, Jan. 11. The department is viewing the
program as a success. Along with DOC, State
Troopers and VPSOs were positively portrayed.
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Our prisons director once said he supported
anything that showed the public and our state
legislators what it's really like inside our
prisons for staff and inmates - because so much
of the public's perception is based on what they
see in pop culture. We've not always been
completely happy with every one of these reality
programs and how they depicted us, but if they
portray most things accurately then we generally
consider them a success. -- Keith Acree,
Public Affairs Director, NC Dept. of Correction
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• South Dakota is approached to do these shows
  frequently, but we've never approved a request to
  do so.  
• The main reason is the commitment of staff
  time.  Being a small state and small prison
  system, we don't have staff that can spend the
  entire duration of one of the shoots with the
  camera crew.  I've seen a lot of proposals and
  don't remember a single one that was less than
  ten days of shooting.
• Michael Winder, South Dakota Department of
  Corrections, Communications and Information
  Manager

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Reality TV production companies are frequent
callers.DOC chose not to work with
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The Steve Wilkos Show.

• The producers wanted Steve and the mother of a
  murdered infant to confront the inmate convicted
  of the crime, now housed at our contract facility
  in Arizona. We said before any decision was made
  the producers must have written permission from
  the inmate.
• There was no follow-up.

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The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Producers wanted to place a Sociology Professor
in a DOC prison posing as an inmate and film his
interactions over a set time period. The
department declined.
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We were also contacted by

• A British production company which began its
  conversation with Were a production company
  based in London. Do you have any serial killers
  we can talk to? The answer was No.
• Langley Productions Youve seen em do the
  crime, now see em get the time. From John
  Langley, producer of the groundbreaking Cops
  The show is Jail. We agreed to any of our
  facilities but Spring Creek, but they wanted a
  max facility, so no agreement was made.

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• Optimum Productions wanted to contact Manfried
  West, an life-sentence inmate at Spring Creek
  convicted of killing Joe Vogler. The purpose of
  their show, for the Discovery Channel, was too
  vague.
• And, I get a number of calls from producers
  anxious to arrange an interview with inmate
  Robert Hansen, the infamous butcher baker.

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Arkansas was the first state to have its entire
prison system declared unconstitutional and the
only one to have "Brubaker" draped all over it
and to be labeled in court as a "dark and evil
world." If I let one of those shows in, I could
count on at least a 15 minute rehash of the sins
of the past. And there probably wouldn't be a
single second spent on our full accreditation or
the Golden Eagle Award or any of the gazillion
other ways we are miles away from what we used to
be. Dina Tyler, Arkansas Department of
Corrections
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In my view all they end up doing is perpetuate
stereotypes about the scary, dangerous, world of
corrections, and all of this is done for purposes
of entertainment. A television crew who comes in
for those purposes has absolutely no commitment
to you, your prison or your agency and will
present whatever their view of world happens to
be to sell the program to A and E or whomever. I
would much rather spend my time with the local
media. In my view we are obligated to the
citizens/taxpayers of our states and not the
television viewers of America. Brian A. Garnett,
Director of External Affairs, Connecticut
Department of Correction
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What happens when you decide to go forward. Your
job as a PIO

• Step 1. Arrange a meeting (teleconference is
  fine) between the commissioner and the head of
  the production company. Make sure everyone is on
  the same page particularly when it comes to
  access and who has on-site authority.
• Step 2. Set a schedule. Start date, how long,
  how many in the crew (usually 4).

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• Step 3 Make sure everyone at the film site is
  on board. It will be important to identify a
  liaison staff who will escort the film crew and
  who has on the spot decision making ability.
• My experience crews are professional and
  respect limits. They will ask for exceptions
  sometimes it makes sense to agree, other times it
  will not.

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Filming Lockup at Spring Creek Correctional
Center. The production company is 44blue.
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The film crew interviews Spring Creek
Superintendent Turnbull in the control room.
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The crew follows a correctional officer as he
checks on a prisoner.
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At the Training Academy.
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Lessons learned

• Some Reality TV fatigue set in at Spring Creek
  after two shows were filmed in two years.
• On-duty time must be dedicated for staff to
  accompany film crews.
• The field producer will push a little. Be
  prepared to compromise or say no.
• Check with ethics supervisor before you let the
  film crew buy you lunch.

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• Victim notification This must be addressed. In
  one show filmed at Spring Creek, a child-killer
  was interviewed and bragged about how well he was
  doing. The program aired just before Christmas,
  and it didnt go well with the victims family.
  We consider who film crews can interview with
  this in mind.
• Crews are generally conscientious and sensitive
  to your requests. That said, you do not have
  editorial control over the final product.

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We allowed a group of comedians access to one of
our facilities this past fall. They were there
for about a week, interviewing offenders and
staff, taping skits and auditioning offenders for
a talent show. This culminated in four one hour
shows at the facility, which in my judgment, were
wildly successful. The group is currently
marketing this effort to HBO, Showtime, etc. for
development as a reality-type show. Douglas S.
Garrison Chief Communications Officer Office of
the Commissioner, Indiana Department of
Correction
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In conclusion
With proper planning and oversight, reality TV
can be a positive and effective way to get your
departments message to a wide public audience.
There are pitfalls mainly because you have no
control over the final product. Good advance
planning, open communication and strong oversight
will be important.
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