Dream Team hanging around a film set on Survivor Amazon, waiting for things to get rolling

Working Crew on Amazon Survivor pt 7 –

Cruising on Crew

It was hard to believe we had only 10 more days of filming. I knew the remaining days would just fly by. Once filming was completed we’d have a big wrap party. And the very next day, Dec. 13th, BLAM, everyone would be gone, including me. (unlike the end of Thailand Survivor when I stayed to help pack up containers)

Meanwhile, I & the rest of the Dream Team continued having a great time in the Amazon working on Survivor TV Show production crew. Our schedule followed that of the Challenge filming crew, so we had somewhat lax work hours.

A common pattern was to help rehearse a Challenge game in the morning then sit-in on Tribal Council in the evening, just before the contestants arrived. In between those two events there usually wasn’t much for us to do, so we’d have afternoons free.

filming Survivor Amazon challenges in the jungle

setting up all the cameras to film one of the challenges in the Amazon jungle

On top of our leisurely afternoons, during active work hours we often ended up just waiting around for directors, producers, cameramen and the art department to make final touches on the sets. The poor camera guys often fiddled around for ages trying to position all their cameras effectively for the challenge games. It regularly became a long drawn-out ordeal.

Generally about 10 cameras were set up around a challenge area. They all needed to stay out of each others’ shots. It usually took lots of shuffling, re-setting, then moving again before every camera was out of every other camera’s field of vision.

Simultaneously, the directors had to decide what kind of shots each camera should make (wide or narrow / long or short), who would shoot which positions, and whether to use roving or still cameras for each angle.

Meanwhile, the art department usually had to finish or alter minor details of the challenge or tribal council set. Sometimes, despite their best efforts, they were behind schedule and would need a chunk of time to complete everything.

hanging out with some of my camera pals while waiting around a Challenge Game set

So we Dream Team-ers would sit and wait. The camera guys often ended up waiting around with us. Waiting was just part of daily life on the film set. The good thing about it was that I befriended many interesting and fun film makers.

Because we were ‘officially’ waiting around, it was surprisingly easy to get bored, to slip into a mind-set of “I’m just sitting around waiting. Hum-dee-dum”. We’d turn our brains off and vegetate.

That, of course, was pretty pathetic! After all, there we were making one of America’s leading TV shows. And in fact, there was heaps of interesting, exciting stuff going on all around us.

grips setting up camera tracks on an Amazon challenge set

We had the opportunity to learn how camera shots are set up, how directors make decisions, how lighting and sound is prepped, how sets are built. We had the chance to befriend, assist and learn from some of the world’s most sought after cameramen and film makers.

And, besides all that, we were in the heart of the Amazon, for God’s sake. Talk about missing opportunities!

Here’s a perfect example of the lame mindset we slipped into:

One day we had an early 4:30 am call to ride a boat 2 ½ hours up river to stand-in for helicopter shots. Pathetically, we all slept on the boat en route to our location. Never mind the gorgeous Amazon jungle around us.

After we arrived, we had to put on contestant costumes (standing-in as the real contestants) and climb aboard the double-decker Amazonian boat ‘set’. Our ‘job’ was to hang around on the boat: lay in hammocks, sit on boxes and so on.

Dream Team bored and sleeping on boat set

Once we were all situated, we had to wait for the cameras to be set up properly. Then we had to wait for the helicopter to arrive. So what did we do? We slept.

I woke up to find show host, Jeff Probst, rehearsing the show’s opening lines just five feet from me. Then the camera men promptly filmed him making those opening lines.

I suddenly realized, “Hey, here we are right beside Jeff Probst making the opening of the next Survivor show!” We were witnessing it live, in the making. How many people get to do THAT?

Well, in actual fact, only the twelve of us who were there – a dozen people in the whole world.

And there we were, bored and sleeping! Strange how you can start taking things for granted.

me dressed as contestant on Survivor TV Show production crew

me dressed as contestant on Survivor Amazon

That realization gave me a jolt. I took it upon myself from that day onward to appreciate the excitement around me: watching the directors, ADs and camera guys setting up, exploring the amazing trees and nature all around us. It was the Amazon! And we’d be gone in less than two weeks.

Meanwhile, I had at least been taking advantage of our afternoon breaks.

With the more lax work hours and all the sitting around I was not exactly getting any exercise during work, like I had on Survivor Thailand. So I took advantage of the fewer work hours and idle time to make a regular exercise program.

I took to dancing along the hotel walkways during our long midday breaks. I also started going to the gym (provided by the production company for all crew) regularly for weight training and pedaling the stationary bike. Later I took up dancing in the jungle with my CD headphones whenever we were waiting around a set.