LAST EDITED ON 09-28-01 AT 02:53 PM (EST)LAST EDITED ON 09-28-01 AT 01:01 PM (EST)
This is an interesting article by a reporter who apparently visited the set during the first several days of shooting. Some old information, but also some new. He discusses some of the issues addressed in other threads...
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From: Arts and Lifestyle | Television |
Wednesday, September 26, 2001
'Survivor' Safari
Meet the 16 contestants
for the third $1 million TV jackpot
By LANCE GOULD
Daily News Deputy Features Editor
SHABA NATIONAL RESERVE, Kenya
oo many baboons on the runway — don't you hate when that happens?
I was on my way to this game preserve in central Kenya — not terribly far from Somalia — the setting for "Survivor: Africa," the third incarnation of the hit TV series.
But the small prop plane couldn't land on the tiny airstrip near Shaba until the primates cleared out. The pilot said that such circumstances were not unusual — although sometimes it's elephants, zebras or giraffes that tie up air traffic.
The baboon incident was a good illustration of how the "reality" element of this godfather of reality shows can affect "Survivor's" outcome: You never know what's going to happen. Especially when you throw 16 people into the middle of an African game park with few possessions but the clothes they're wearing, a spear with their name on it (literally), a map indicating the nearest water source and as many sundry survival items as they can grab.
'Survivor: Africa' players work to start a fire in the Boran camp. They are, from left, Kim Johnson, Lex van den Berghe and Diane Ogden.
The producers of "Survivor: Africa," which yesterday announced the names of the 16 contestants who competed this past summer for its $1 million prize (the series begins airing Oct. 11 on CBS), hope that the members of the Boran and Samburu tribes provide such exciting, spontaneous television.
"The reality is the reality," said Mark Burnett, creator and executive producer of the "Survivor" franchise, in an interview that took place in July, well before the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington so diminished the relevance of a reality game show.
The reality for the participants was decidedly less bleak by comparison. Nonetheless, the conditions in East Africa were unrelentingly hot, and every step kicked up more dust than an angry baseball manager.
Yes, water was plentiful in the Ewaso Ngiro River and in Shaba's 17 springs. But to get it meant trekking with a heavy gourd while keeping an eye out for lions, leopards, scorpions, crocodiles and malarial mosquitoes, in addition to the creature that most concerned them — the cape buffalo. The buffalo, experts said, is more aggressive and deadly to humans than any other animal in the park.
Of course, once they got water, they had to purify, and that meant they had to have fire, which, as past editions of the show have revealed, is not so easy to spark.
Sunbaked Players
On the second day, a visit to the Boran camp found eight dehydrated individuals lying down, panting, in the relative shade of an acacia tree. The earth was cracked and fairly littered with straw and dried dung of every variety. Tom Buchanan, a heavyset, middle-aged goat farmer from Virginia, looked like the "after" model in a sunburn-medication ad. Occasionally someone stood up, spritzed themselves with water, and then lay back down.
One of the women tried to lift the tribe's spirits that Friday afternoon.
"It's a weekend," she said. "Party time!"
"Yeah," someone responded, "I'm going out tonight!"
The group members tried to take their minds off the heat by breaking out contestant Kim Johnson's luxury item — paints and a brush — and decorating water bottles, as well as one another.
Things were quieter at Samburu camp, a few miles away, because the tribe was out on a "water fetch."
Lex van den Berghe (l.) and Ethan Zohn work together in the hot sun.
"They do everything together," an insider revealed.
Though there were no people there, Samburu camp still seemed more upbeat. A flowery blue bikini belonging to tribe member Kim Powers hung on a makeshift fence. Lindsey Richter's luxury item — a yellow, red and white beachball — lent a goofy spirit to the environment. Samburu camp also had a small, happy vegetable garden, adorned with what seemed to be a small gazelle skull.
Among the contestants are New York City resident and professional soccer player Ethan Zohn, 27, on the Boran team, and Florida dentist Carl Bilancione, 46, who grew up in Brooklyn, on the Samburu side. True to his profession, Bilancione brought a toothbrush and toothpaste as his luxury item.
No-Fly Zone
There is almost a military sensibility hovering over "Survivor: Africa." And not just because so many people are wearing khakis and living in tents.
For example, the producers reached an accord with the Kenyan government to establish a "no-fly zone" over Shaba, guaranteeing that pesky planes would not disturb the action. Shaba — 75% of which was rented out exclusively to the program for the 39-day shoot this past summer, an agreement that cost them 18 million Kenyan shillings, a little less than $250,000 — abuts a training area for the Kenyan military. The Kenyan Department of Defense simply extended the no-fly zone that already protected its training ground, where live ammunition is fired 5,000 feet in the air.
The producers also arranged for and imported a special blood bank to be installed in a Nairobi hospital, in the "extremely unlikely chance that someone requires a transfusion," notes Dr. Adrian (Ado) Cohen, the rugged, pinup Australian doctor who's overseen all three "Survivor" installments. The blood bank was locked in a temperature-regulated fridge, stocked with blood flown in from Florida, France and Switzerland.
As with the previous two shows, information about "Survivor: Africa" is closely guarded, and the contestants and crew — as well as visitors — are contractually forbidden from revealing secrets.
"Security here is tighter than the CIA," says Burnett.
There were also some cloak-and-dagger manuevers behind the scenes, too. The producers established a shelf company — Mwandiga Pictures — to disguise the activities of Survivor Entertainment Group (SEG, Inc.), the show's production company.
"We were just covering our tracks," says Robin Hollister, the Redford-esque, Kenyan-born location manager, "because anybody who wanted to investigate whether ‘Survivor' was here could go to the Ministry and could pull a file and find out that SEG has been licensed to shoot a film here."
A tree provides little shade for (from l.) Brandon Quinton, Linda Spencer, Carl Bilancione and Teresa Cooper.
Mwandiga is the Swahili name for the poisonous desert rose.
Before being stranded in Shaba — the national park that earned notoriety as the place "Born Free" author Joy Adamson was murdered in 1980 — all 16 participants were given a three-day quickie course in East African survival techniques by a couple of veteran naturalists. The survivors were instructed in how to build a boma, a protective enclosure of acacia thornbrush that, remarkably, should keep most animals out the camps. (There's no guarantee against deadly puff-adder snakes slithering through, but that should at least keep things interesting.)
The contestants did not gather their own brush for their bomas — the producers gathered it for them.
"We don't want them to cut the foliage within the reserve," said Hollister, "so part of it has been arranged for them."
The show came under fire last season because it employed stand-ins during scenes in from the Australian Outback. But Burnett, whose staff gave him the nickname "Mark de Sade" during the first "Survivor" (it was affectionate, one insider swore), vowed not to change his approach to the show. When asked specifically if he would use stand-ins in "Survivor: Africa," he said, "I'm not going to do anything different than every other year."
Who's Who
The first set of "Survivor" candidates became household names. Who among the new cast of "Survivor: Africa" will become the next Richard Hatch, the African Rudy Bosch?
Here's a first look at the Class of Fall 2001:
Carl Bilancione, 46, from Winter Springs, Fla.; dentist.
Clarence Black, 24, from Detroit; high-school basketball coach.
Tom Buchanan, 46, from Rich Valley, Va.; goat farmer.
Jessie Camacho, 27, from Orlando; deputy sheriff.
Teresa Cooper, 42, from Jackson, Ga.; flight attendant.
Silas Gaither, 23, from Germantown, Tenn., now living in Los Angeles; bartender.
Frank Garrison, 43, from Odessa, N.Y.; telephone company technician.
Kelly Goldsmith, 22, from Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.; behavioral research analyst.
Kim Johnson, 57, from Oyster Bay, L.I.; retired teacher.
Diane Ogden, 42, from Lincoln, Neb.; mail carrier.
Kim Powers, 29, from Conshohocken, Pa.; freelance marketer.
Brandon Quinton, 25, from Dallas; bartender.
Lindsey Richter, 27, from Portland, Ore.; advertising account executive.
Linda Spencer, 44, from Cambridge, Mass.; career counselor.
Lev van den Berghe, 38, from Santa Cruz, Calif.; marketing manager.
Ethan Zohn, 27, from Lexington, Mass., now living in New York; professional soccer player.
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Some observations: "...when you throw 16 people into the middle of an African game park with few possessions but the clothes they're wearing, a spear with their name on it (literally),..."
This sounds like the picture of Lex carrying a spear/torch is standard issue for each survivor, so probably not a picture of a challenge.
"...a map indicating the nearest water source..."
Sounds like they are not camped near the river and probably get their water from a spring that can only be found with a map. They carry it back to camp in a gord and need to purify it. So, fire is needed to drink...MB won't leave them without fire for long.
"...Kim Johnson's luxury item — paints and a brush — and decorating water bottles, as well as one another..."
Sounds like Clarence's war paint could be applied by other members of his tribe.
"...Samburu camp also had a small, happy vegetable garden, adorned with what seemed to be a small gazelle skull..."
Does this mean that each tribe site comes complete with a vegetable garden, since they can't hunt or fish?
"...The contestants did not gather their own brush for their bomas — the producers gathered it for them. "We don't want them to cut the foliage within the reserve," said Hollister, "so part of it has been arranged for them."..."
So, the picture of the pile of thorn brush is showing a pile that was gathered for them...
"...The producers also arranged for and imported a special blood bank to be installed in a Nairobi hospital, in the "extremely unlikely chance that someone requires a transfusion," notes Dr. Adrian (Ado) Cohen, the rugged, pinup Australian doctor who's overseen all three "Survivor" installments. The blood bank was locked in a temperature-regulated fridge, stocked with blood flown in from Florida, France and Switzerland..."
Burnett was ready for what? Blood born pathogens, parasites, animal maulings, etc?
The pictures are also new aren't they?
Krautboy
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