I've met some of the dudes. They're peculiar and were chosen for that reason. No one wants to watch a normal human being.
Short story longer... a friend of mine is an actress. She moved out to LA a few years ago. After catching up a little bit, she was excited to tell me she snatched a roll in some stupid wedding dress reality TV show, as the sales lady. I was a bit confused because she isn't a wedding dress expert.
This was when my world came crashing down around me. She had the misfortune of telling me reality TV is entirely fake. All the supernumerary people are actors, because they don't have all day for regular people to get "star-struck" and ruin a good shot.
Well fuck me.
Story time:
As for producers... I am in a commercial (you can all have my autograph) for Army recruiting. It was shot a few weeks ago, and I'll post it when it gets released. Anyway... My roll was a Blackhawk pilot, imagine that. We were tasked with running up the helicopter and the "actors" (other national guard volunteers) were running in and out of the helicopter. The concept is that the helicopter lands to drop off civilians, and they go off to boot camp from there. To understand the military flying process, as PIC I need to be briefed by another briefing officer, then after that I need to be approved for the mission by a senior officer. For this commercial we were briefed and approved for a full ground run only. No flying, which means the wheels don't leave the ground whatsoever.
So we're in the hanger since winter was blowing outside... We all get in a huddle and I brief my part of the puzzle, which is only starting and running up the helicopter. The producer ask's "hey I think it would make a great shot if you could fly around and land, then the pax can get out!" I explained to him, it's not that simple to just go flying, and we aren't approved for flight. Keep in mind I'm the PIC.
Many minutes later, as we are puling the helicopter out of the hangar to shoot the commercial, my crew chief and my copilot both tell me the same producer went up them afterwards and asked if we could fly, then land, just as he asked.
I guess that sort of thing worked for him as a child. If dad says no, mom might say yes. A military helicopter isn't like a family, its like a dictatorship. There is a final authority.
I despise all things media and TV.
Oh yeah, the most important part, Jessica:
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2781723/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
Jess.jpg
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