Archive for September, 2007

The Summer of Tony

Wednesday, September 5th, 2007

I know that I’ll always remember the summer of ’07 as the “Summer of Tony.” This appellation is fitting because for the months between May and September I had three shows on network television; Big Brother 8 on CBS, Age of Love on NBC and Hell’s Kitchen on Fox. Big Brother 8 was on three nights a week and won its time slot more often than naught. Hell’s Kitchen and Age of Love both aired on Monday nights at 9pm with Hell’s Kitchen shellacking Age of Love according to the faceless suits at Neilson.

This was my fourth season of directing Big Brother. To save you from ripping out your hair in frustration as you try to guess what a director for Reality TV does, I’ll tell you straight out what I do: each week there are three multi-camera events, which normally include two competitions and a nomination ceremony. For each of these events I stage the set pieces and direct the cameras in order to capture certain shots and tell the most compelling story possible. In addition, I direct a segment of the Thursday live show which feeds real time to the East Coast.

I must say it was thrilling to see my hard work on television 4 times a week. It was quite challenging to keep up with it all. Of course, just having three network TV shows on the air doesn’t necessarily denote success. Instead success is gaged by something else out here in Hollywood, and its not money, or accomplishing goals that you’ve set out for yourself, or even making people happy. No, success for a reality TV director is when The Soup on E! decides to make fun of your TV show. You know you have reached the height of your career when Joel McHale uses your show as a punch line, and I’ve had the honor of having all three of my shows bashed by the Soup almost weekly, all summer long.

Now that The Soup has insulted my work, I can receive no higher honor in television (well, maybe an
Emmy).

Summer is over, and The Soup will have to ridicule someone else’s shows. I on the other hand will go back to the festival circuit to screen “Over the Wall,” and continue to work on my screenplay.

Thanks for the good times, Joel McHale.

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