Making Reality

“Cut,” erupted the walkie clipped to Becs Aston’s hip, breaking the silence that had fallen over the production trailer.

“Well?” Becs asked Abby.

Abby was in shock. And she wasn’t sure if it was because of the question she was just asked, or because she finally was face-to-face with her idol, Becs Aston, founder of the production empire BecsWorld and creator of the world’s latest reality TV sensation, “Stark Naked.” To Abby, Becs Aston was an icon for not only crashing through the glass ceiling of Hollywood, but because she had single handedly turned the reality TV genre on its head with a string of irreverent hits.

“Well, what?” Abby asked, still spinning from the question.

“Are. You. Good. With. Nu-di-ty,” asked Becs for the second time, and from her tone, there would not be a third.

Ever since Abby was 10 years old, she had gone everywhere with a camera. Dreaming of becoming the next great documentarian – obsessed with capturing the truthful, unfiltered, and authentic drama of real life. Since getting out of NYU Tisch film school 18 months ago, she had hounded BecsWorld Production for an interview. 36 hours ago, she finally got it in the form of a call asking her how fast she could get to the jungles of Ecuador in the Amazon Basin.

Abby eagerly nodded and answered, “Yes. Of course. I love nudity.”

I love nudity? God, I’m an idiot, Abby thought, shaking her head.

“Ok. Good. Grab the Canon C300 from production. You’re with “B” coverage,” said Becs.

“Code Red. Stark was bit by a Coral snake. It’s bad. Medics on site,” screeched Bec’s walkie.

Into her walkie, Becs replied, “Keep him alive but don’t move him until we get more cameras on location. Abby, you’re with me.”

Abby snapped to attention, grabbed the camera, followed Becs out the door of the production trailer and into an idling black Range Rover, adorned with oversized BecsWorld logos. The inside of the SUV was the opposite of the Amazon in every way possible – starting with the atmosphere of the pristine white interior that was set to an unnatural 68 degrees. They drove to location in silence. Becs was preoccupied with a thick binder of notes. Abby was flying with excitement. She had done it. She was a camera person working under the Becs Aston and about to capture the raw truth of living in the unforgiving rainforest. Suddenly the SUV came to a stop.

 “We have to walk from here,” said Becs.

As Abby stepped out of the protection of the SUV, she was met by the reality of her surroundings. 96 degrees and 100 percent humidity. But Abby didn’t care. She felt alive shooting everything from the beautiful flowers to a close up of a family of tiny green spotted frogs. An Ecuadorian guide used a machete to clear a path for Becs and Abby.

“Cuidado eso es una rana de arbol venenose,” said the guide to Abby.

“What?!” said Abby glued to her camera.

“He said something like, watch out, those are poisonous tree frogs,” said Becs.

“Cool.” Abby responded feeling the rush of adrenaline from being a few feet from real danger.

Then Abby could swear she heard classical music. It was Pavarotti singing Nessun Dorma. Just as she was about to ask if Becs heard it too, the guide cut the final branches out of the way and the group stepped onto the set of Stark Naked.  

Abby had to blink a few times in an effort to clear her eyes because she couldn’t believe what she saw. It wasn’t the fully naked middle-aged man, lying on his back with his legs spread and elevated that surprised her. Or that the man had three medics attending to his scrotum that was swollen to the size of a cantaloupe with a severed head of a snake attached to it. Or that the man was singing along in a perfect pitch that would impress Pavarotti himself. It was the world that surrounded him that froze her in her tracks. There were three Tungsten flood kits being positioned by gaffers that created the ideal lighting and a craft service table where someone made paninis and fruit smoothies. And it was at least 15 degrees cooler thanks to a massive portable generator and AC units that blew cool air onto the naked man and crew.

Abby started moving but not because she wanted to. The firm hands of Becs Aston were on her shoulders pushing her forward until they were both next to the medical staff tending to the naked man, who now was trying to position a GoPro to get a shot of the snake head attached to his body. When he saw Abby, he stopped singing, and said, “Ciao, Bellissima. Who is this fresh face? I am Adrian Stark.”

“Abby.” Was all she could muster.

“Hello Abby, lovely for you to join us. By the way, while far from small, they are not normally this bulbous.” Adrian said to Abby as he pointed down to his manhood.

“Stop flirting Adrian and look more…you know…terrified. This is gold for ratings, but you need to play it serious,” Becs said to Adrian.

“He’s stable but gonna be loopy for a while. We gave him a healthy dose of Oxy with the anti-venom,” said one of the medics to Becs.

Becs didn’t break stride and started directing Abby, “I want a close up of the machete next to the snake body followed by a tilt up to the snake head,” then to the crew, “If anyone removes the snakehead before I say so, you die.”

As Abby positioned herself about eight feet from Adrian’s crotch, she felt a wave of nausea mixed with fascination come over her as she began shooting the medics tending to Adrian. Then she felt a familiar pair of firm hands on her shoulders pushing her closer, stopping when Abby was just shy of 2 feet from Adrian’s action. Abby had no words in her vocabulary that could describe the sharp waft she was getting from Adrian’s unwashed undercarriage that had been fermenting for 35 days in the humidity of the Amazon. But she was a professional now and through her watering eyes, she kept shooting.

Becs directed Abby to tilt up to Adrian’s face and said, “Ok…give us the line Adrian.”

Adrian looked deep into the lens of Abby’s camera and yelled, “You can try again tomorrow death.”

“And…Cut. Nice work Abby. Adrian, more stoic, less excitement. No smiling,” said Becs. “Let’s do the line again but from overhead. Abby, straddle Adrian and tilt up from the medic trying to remove the snake head to Adrian’s face for the line read.”

After sixteen more takes, the footage was not only captured on tape, but also firmly cemented in Abby’s mind for eternity. Before Abby could slip into a confusion induced shock, Becs was directing her to get extra footage of the surrounding jungle. A small crew had gathered around Adrian giving him a Cliff bar, banana, and a “Stark Naked” branded energy drink. One of them was rubbing some extra dirt on his face as if it were make-up. Becs was speaking with the art department, “I want designs of the snakehead with the line ‘You can try again tomorrow death.’  ready to go to the t-shirt printer by this afternoon.”

Then Becs shouted to the rest of her crew, “People, let’s start setting up for the hunt. In this scene, Adrian hasn’t eaten in 23 days, is super weak and needs to find food fast. What is he catching?”

“We have a nice 12-foot black Caiman sedated and standing by,” said a production assistant.

Becs nodded, “That’s perfect. Abby, you’re with me.”

Becs and Abby walked back to the idling climate-controlled Range Rover and drove away from the set. Abby was grateful for the quiet moment so she could process what she just witnessed. As Becs reviewed the script and shot list, her iPad signaled she had an incoming video call.

“Go for Becs,” said Becs as she answered the call. Abby watched as Becs reviewed footage of Adrian gutting an Amazonian-sized reptile and smear the blood of the animal on his cheeks like warpaint.

Becs shook her head and gave direction to the team on the iPad, “He looks way too healthy in these shots. Can we drain some color out of his face, maybe thin him out a bit? I want him gaunter. Our numbers are way down with women 35-50 and I think it’s because Adrian is losing sympathy.”

Abby watched along with Becs as the scene magically changes before her eyes. Adrian suddenly became paler and lost 15 pounds. Abby couldn’t believe it, but she instantly felt a strong compassion for Adrian wash over her and wanted to keep watching to see if he survived.

“Yes! That’s perfect. You are a rockstar,” said Becs into the iPad.

Becs ended the call and returned to her script, making notes.

Abby, stunned from the day’s experiences, finally broke the silence, “Is is is it always like that?”

Like what?

Abby lost her cool, “Like, doing all those takes, the freaking catch phrase, tweaking footage…and giving him food and energy drinks…I thought the rule was that he only ate what he caught? And…”

“And there is no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny Abby,” Becs looked up from her papers. “Reality is not reality. Reality is a story, and our job is to help the best stories become reality.”

Becs softened her tone and put a hand on Abby’s arm “I know this isn’t what you thought it would be, I get it, but we stream Stark Naked 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to over 4 billion…that’s billion with a “B” …across TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and now Threads. Advertising revenue has broken all streaming records. Adrian Stark has a net worth of 45 million dollars. Merch alone brings in 125 million a year. It’s a delicate ecosystem. And delicate ecosystems need to be protected or they die.

Abby already knew the answer but asked anyway, “Are they all…I mean…even “Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid.” the same?”

Abby was referring to BecsWorld’s global reality show phenomena about a group of teens who are drugged, dropped into a cult, and then filmed as they try to decide whether to stay or escape. It sparked the viral and controversial TikTok challenge called, “Jonesing,” named after the cult leader, Jim Jones, who on November 18^th, 1978, convinced all of his 909 followers living in Jonestown to drink cyanide laced Kool-Aid in an event he termed “revolutionary suicide.” During the TikTok challenge, a group of people pour six shots of Kool-Aid. One of the shots contains a “roofie”. The shots then are scrambled so no one knows which has the drug. The one who gets roofied is dropped off in a strange location and has to try and get home.

“Abby, most people’s “reality” is deathly boring. If reality TV was real reality, the only saving grace would be that it would be canceled before the viewers killed themselves from boredom.”  

Becs suddenly has a look in her eyes like she had a great idea. Taking out a small recorder she said into it, “New show idea. We film people watching actual reality, like dishes being washed and office workers in finance meetings. The one who stays awake wins. Show name, “Surviving Reality.” Becs thought to herself for a minute and gave her idea a half shrug.

The Range Rover pulled up to a helipad where a helicopter, decked out with BecsWorld logos, idled, and waited to take off. Becs got out and walked to the helicopter. Abby followed but didn’t know why. Becs stepped up into the helicopter then put out her hand to help Abby into the cabin and said, “By the way, are you good with satanical sacrifices?”