filming Amazon Survivor

Working Crew on Amazon Survivor pt 6 –

Thrills and Mishaps Behind Scenes

As a member of the prestigious Dream Team, my job consisted of helping set up and rehearse Challenge Games; sit in on Tribal Councils while the film crew prepped lights, sound and camera positions; and stand-in as a contestant for long distance helicopter shots and close-up hand & foot shots.

Over the course of six weeks of filming, we rehearsed every Challenge Game before the contestants played them live. We sat-in on every single Tribal Council. And we participated in random stand-in filmings.

Usually rehearsals and filming sessions worked out quite smoothly. But not always…

Ariau Amazon Towers Hotel- Manaus - Brazil

Ariau Amazon Towers Hotel in the heart of the Brazil Amazon

4 am call time for nothing

The Dream Team work schedule varied tremendously, with starting times as early as 4:30 am and as late as 10:00 am. But as a rule, we started between 7:00 and 9:00.

Finishing times varied just as much. Our standard finish time was 7 pm, but we often ended at 4:30 or 5:00 pm. It all depended on rehearsal times for the Challenge Games and Tribal Councils.

Our most painful call time was set at 4:00 am. When I heard that announcement I was stunned. I’d never in my life had to GET UP at 3:30 in the morning. On the appointed day, thanks to my trusty alarm clock, I did somehow pull myself out of bed at 3:30 am.

walkway at Ariau Amazon Towers Hotel

The first thing I realized was that I’d just completely reversed my sleep schedule. The night before we had all enjoyed a wild dance party on the beach. I had stumbled to bed at 4:00 am. Now, just 24 hours later, I was stumbling out of bed.

Little did I know, but the most ridiculous part of it all was yet to come…

Somehow I hoisted myself out of bed, got dressed and dragged myself down the resort’s wooden walkways to the pier.

resort boat pier

All 12 of us Dream Team-ers crawled into boats and headed out to some challenge point in the jungle for rehearsal. But we never made it. Our boat got lost en route. We arrived too late to rehearse the game.

The contestants had already arrived. The film crew were forced to wing it and roll into live filming with no preparation at all.

While they filmed, we Dream Team-ers slept on the boat. Apparently we’d been ordered to wait for the Challenge to end so we could shoot follow-up helicopter shots.

Dream Team sleeping on boat

Unfortunately, the game took much longer than expected. By the time they finally finished, the weather had turned stormy. At 10 am the director had to cancel the helicopter shots due to foul weather.

We had all torn ourselves out of bed at 3:30 am for absolutely nothing. We slept in boats until 10:00 then rode back to the hotel. We had nothing else on our agenda, so we had time off until 3:30 pm.

Amazingly, we completed a full 12-hour work shift doing absolutely nothing.

Dream Team heading out to rehearse a challenge game in the Amazon

Eye to Eye with The Contestants

As I explained in an earlier post, we Dream Team-ers were not allowed to watch the real Challenge Games or Tribal Councils. It would have caused too many hassles for the cameramen & directors. Plus the company feared news leaks about the contestants, the Challenge Game winners and the Tribal Council votes.

Ideally, our Dream Team would be completely removed from the area before ‘lock down’ and well before the contestants arrived. We would return to the hotel and usually have a midday break.

But things didn’t always work out that way. Sometimes rehearsals were held just before the actual shooting. There’d be no time to remove us and we’d have to wait around silently, while the contestants arrived and they competed in the game while being filmed.

Sometimes we caught glimpses of the contestants or at least heard the game in progress.

challenge set in the Amazon

One such day, we all had to hide out in the jungle like fugitives while the contestants arrived. By chance, their entry path went right past our ‘hideout’. We knew we were bound to see them, and rather close-up.

When the contestants finally arrived, it just happened that they had to stop and wait in the forest. And that stopping point was only 5-10 ft away from us! They noticed us crouching amidst the trees. They stared wide eyed, wondering who the hell we were sitting out in the middle of the Amazon.

And we stared right back, wondering how they were holding up under the strain of surviving out in jungle camps and competing against one another for the grand prize. We make quick assessments of their physical and mental state thus far.

It was a very strange moment.

safety crew and rangers – Amazon Survivor

Sinking Canoe

One day we rehearsed a challenge involving paddling canoes individually. When I reached my canoe and jumped aboard, I discovered that it was extremely unstable. Warily, I headed out into the small lake.

To my alarm, every time I made a paddle stroke the canoe tilted crazily sideways… and I screamed. And in that manner – stroke, scream, stroke, scream – I paddled out to the middle of the lake. I felt absolutely ridiculous: big strong LASH-girl screaming away in a careening canoe.

Then I noticed that my canoe was about 2/3 full of water… Uh-oh. One minute later the whole boat just went straight down, BLAM. And there I was, floating in the middle of the lake!

Instantly, a platoon of 5-6 guys jumped in the water and swam out to rescue me. It was absolutely hilarious. I felt like the proverbial ‘damsel in distress’. And all that in a torrential downpour.

one of the Amazon Survivor challenge games

Watching a Challenge Game live

On many occasions I was assigned to assist the Art Department. One such day I went with them to help finalize a challenge game set just before live filming of the contestants. Since I was part of the Art Department crew that day, I was allowed to stay and watch the contestants play the game.

After being banned from watching the games, and even from seeing the contestants, that permission was quite a thrill. But besides getting to watch the contestants play a Challenge, observing the filming process was just as thrilling, if not more so.

hanging out with some of my camera pals

There I was watching a live filming of America’s most famous reality TV show!

I stood there in a big clump of directors, producers, camera and sound guys with all their equipment, wardrobe crew, safety man, medical and security guards.

That was one of my best days behind the scenes of Survivor.

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For more details about my work on Survivor Amazon Dream Team, check out the previous posts in this series:

pt 4 – My Job on Dream Team

pt 5 – Filming Survivor Amazon

Be sure to stop back for upcoming episodes in this series

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