''Reality Show'' is a 2004 documentary film directed by

Colin Trevorrow Colin Trevorrow (; born September 13, 1976) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He made his feature directorial debut with the science fiction comedy ''Safety Not Guaranteed'' (2012) to critical and commercial success. Trevo ...

. It was written by Daniel Klein and Trevorrow, who also acted as producers along with Peter J. Clark. The film documents the attempted production of an unaired

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

for a

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

show titled ''Rock the Party''.

Synopsis

To achieve instant fame, eccentric millionaire Dan Sherbondy funds his own reality show. His

Craigslist Craigslist (stylized as craigslist) is a privately held American company operating a classified advertisements website with sections devoted to jobs, housing, for sale, items wanted, services, community service, gigs, résumés, and discussi ...

advertisements invite 10 women to compete for the title of "America's Craziest Party Girl". Sherbondy, his best friend, 10 women, a little person, and an inexperienced production crew travel to Baja, Mexico, but the millionaire's appalling treatment of the cast and crew causes them to rise up against him. The film is narrated by Dean Welsh.

Production

The project began production in 2003, as a self-produced

for a

show titled ''Rock the Party''. The pilot was funded by entrepreneur Dan Sherbondy, who also hosted a late-night television show in Las Vegas, Nevada. According to director Colin Trevorrow, "It's footage of a real thing that happened, which is this guy, who is kind of a lunatic, and really just the world's biggest asshole, took a crew off of Craigslist, and a bunch of women, and told them they were on a reality show. He took 'em down to Mexico, hired a bunch of guys for nothing to shoot it, and he was really just...I don't know what he was doing; he was really down there to sleep with all these women, essentially. And I was hired to direct that. It was my first thing, you know: "I'll pay you $500!" "Great! I'll do it!" And it turned into this absolute disaster." Filming locations included a hotel in the Mexican city of

Rosarito Beach Rosarito is a coastal city in Playas de Rosarito Municipality, Baja California, on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. As of 2010, the city had a population of 65,278. Located south of the US–Mexico border, Rosarito is a part of the greater San Diego� ...

. Trevorrow said, "The shoot at the hotel was the seediest, worst experience of our lives…we made the worst reality show in history." Sherbondy ultimately gave Trevorrow all the footage. The crew then filmed each other giving interviews about the troubled production. Trevorrow cut the interviews and footage together to form the documentary. Trevorrow said "I have interviews with the crew, where they discuss this preposterous bullshit that went on. It's a strange doc about how people use this reality show medium to take advantage of people."

Release

Sherbondy allowed the film to be released after securing an

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the production of media. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). In film ...

credit and any future profits. The film was first shown at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival on November 21, 2004. In 2006, the film was shown at San Francisco's DocFest and the

Milwaukee Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

Film Festival. In 2012, Trevorrow said the film was no longer available: "The guy it's about -- the movie is basically a documentary about how awful he is -- he actually lost a job or something over it, so he made us take it down everywhere and you can't find it anymore."

References

External links

{{Colin Trevorrow 2004 films 2004 documentary films American documentary films Documentary films about television Films directed by Colin Trevorrow Films with screenplays by Colin Trevorrow 2004 directorial debut films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films English-language documentary films