So I’m sitting here watching Born Survivor: Bear Grylls. “Bear” (is that really his name?) is some kind of born explorer who’s essentially a more gung-ho version of Ray Mears, except he’s ex-SAS. In this first episode of a new series he begins by leaping out of a helicopter in just a pair of trousers and shirt, water canteen and knife. He parachutes into some the thick jungle and there my problems with the programme start.
He says he’s just accompanied by a camera crew, but there is evidently more than just a single person following him. There’s a parachuting camerman, and but with cutaways and wide shots it’s evident that the crew is more than a single person. At least two or three camera operators I’d have said as well as sound recordists and so on.
Even with light kit, they’re going to need some help to move around in the humid rainforest with Bear who’s unencumbered. When Bear climbs down a waterfall, one of them is already at the bottom filming him, while he’s also be shot from above. Is there another way around, or are all the camera crew also ex-SAS? We see Bear paddling a canoe. Yet the crew obviously also have a boat. Did they fashion theirs too? And when Bear finally comes ashore at some random beach, the camera team have a techno-crane in place to pull up with showing him walk off into the sunset.
Now I don’t doubt that Bear does all the things he says he does – we get to see him puking in shaky nightvision – but we’re all media literate enough to realise that TV is not always quite what it might seem to be.
[UPDATE]
Sam Wollaston in this morning’s Guardian seems to share some of the same thoughts as me:
Bear parachutes out of his helicopter, above the Costa Rican jungle, and apparently gets tangled up high in the canopy of the rainforest. Happily a cameraman has anticipated exactly where Bear is going to come down and is already in place, 60 feet up a neighbouring tree, to film Bear’s arrival. There’s someone else on the forest floor below, to catch Bear abseiling down (wearing a harness that looks quite different to the one he jumped out of the helicopter in). And then does he just leave that parachute up there, with all its strings, for the monkeys? Could it be that the whole arrival thing was just a little bit staged? I think we should be told.
Born Survivor
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11 responses to “Born Survivor”
This programme is getting to be more and more of a comedy, Bear finding his way out of the water and last night the poor little frog that did not do him any harm!. If I was just about to die from starvation, would i really be bothered if my next meal was on the rare species list and preserved? Please somebody give him a phone so he can dial 999 at the biginning of his next programme!!
You’re absolutely right. Plus he’s still basically lying to the viewer. After he’d sieved his water through his shirt, he then had to boil it. Anyone notice him previously carrying around a cooking pan which he made magically appear at this point?
And when he was at the top of the tree that was bending over, he decided to be all macho and swing across. He told this to a little hand-held video camera that he must have carried up. The next shot was him swinging. No sign of any video camera at that point.
Then there was the bit where he decided to cross the river swimming underwater. He dived underwater while a camera stayed alongside him all the way across. The cameraman must have been awfully skilled at swimming to hold the camera steady while not using his arms to swim, and staying under the water like our Bear. The shot could have been achieved by having someone simply walk alongside Bear holding the camera in the water. But on the other side Bear claims he’s never been so frightened and he’s glad to be out of the water. So I’m sure that they didn’t do that. Oh, and Bear didn’t seem to be nervous of finding an Alligator on the other bank either.
The programme really is more comedy than survival. Much of the so called advice is dangerous is followed and in many cases incorrect. When he landed in the Sierra Nevada he remarks after discovering a poisonous berry and then immediately discovering another nearbye which according to him was an antidote. “Whenever nature makes a poison it always provides an antidote”. Rubbish!! I think the ‘survival consultants’ (listed in the credits) have all been studying ancient boy scout techniques. I’ll keep watching it. It is funny.
I quite agree!
He obviously remembered stinging nettles and dockleaves. It’s amazing what you get taught in the SAS!
The recent episode that saw him swim ashore to an island was especially funny. He demonstrated how difficult it is to come ashore near rocks as they come crashing ashore, only to discover, a few minutes later, a very pleasant beach with no rocks to avoid. What a shame he couldn’t swim a little bit around the island before he chose the dangerous rocks to come ashore near.
Still, you can’t help to love his boyish enthusiasm: he leaps around everywhere he goes like he’s drunk a Coke too many. And he does take great delight in killing small (or not so small) animals in the same way a small child might use a magnifying glass on an insect.
Sadly I missed this week’s episode because it clashed with both Dr Who and Harry Hill, and you can’t record them all. Fortunately, I’m sure that next week’s Harry Hill will fill me in with anything I missed.
Most of the above comments echoed my own growing suspicions that the events were highly staged. And that there must be a *large* supporting crew. But I just googled my way to http://forums.digiguide.com/topic.asp?id=20250 where I learned that apparently there are ony two camera crew. Here’s a paste:
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You had a camera crew with you. Did they have luxury tents and food and things?
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Well, I should say that the camera crew are the real heroes in my eyes in all of this. It was basically the same two guys, Simon and Paul, for the whole series. They’re strong and they’re reliable and 90 per cent of what I’ve done they’ve been there with me, and they’ve carried all their kit around. Obviously they’ve got waterproofs and proper food and that sort of stuff, but in my eyes they’re the unsung heroes of all of this. They might get helicoptered out for a night to recharge camera batteries and put back again in the morning, but they’re great guys, and really they’ve been a rock for me in much of this. They’ve become real friends.
———
However, I remain very sceptical. Last night I switched on half way through the Moab desert piece. He was climbing up a ‘chimney’ he’d apparently just discovered as a way out of a dead end cave. Yet there was a shot of him from above, as he emerged 😉
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Terry, West Sussex, UK
Unfortunately I missed yesterday’s episode. I think the programme is enormously planned and not nearly as random as it’s made out to be, and that’s one of its biggest crimes.
Having said that, it is immense fun, although I’m not sure I’m learning anything too useful in the way of real-world survival tips. Ray Mears’ old shows were much better for that kind of thing.
Still, Bear did have the good grace to show up to sing the “Bare Necessities” on Harry Hill’s TV Burp last night.
[UPDATE] Bear’s got a blog!
Just wondered why your all bitching about the guy when he’s probably achieved so much more than any of us ever will. Perhaps his show is a little bit cooked up, but watching him is entertaining, he is full of good advice and he is trying to show us how to survive if any of us idiots get in to that situation. Maybe we should get in to one of his survival situations and see how well we cope, or don’t cope. Just give the guy a break
Dave,
If you read what I say above, you’ll see that I don’t actually doubt that he does what he says he does. It’s just that we’ll all really media-literate these days and any kind of fakery is just not on now. We just know what’s happening.
Since I saw this show, I’ve subscribed to Bear’s blog, and he’s just managed to fly a motorised parachute device over the top of Everest.
The guy’s undoubtedly got guts. Much more than I do.
But we live in 2007 and you’ve got to be careful how you present your programming on TV. Sadly he, or his producers, aren’t. And that leads only to ridicule.
The show is fun to watch, but only because it’s fun to see such a fraud. I’ve read many survival experts describe much of his advice as terrible. I think what is so bizarre is that he clearly is someone who is capable of doing impressive things, yet still feels the need to add such fakery.
By the way, his Everest stunt may be half feat/half fraud as well. Seems to be his SOP. Here’s a link for all of it here:
http://www.mounteverest.net/news.php?news=15998
the funny part: “As soon as he did, he shouted in English, ‘I did it, I did it!’ I replied to him, ‘what did you do?’ He said, ‘I flew as high as Everest.’ I thought to myself at the time, I am not sure how high you flew, but, you didn’t fly over Everest, because you never left the area above the Pheriche plateau, as far as I could tell, and anyway, I already saw someone do that, very loudly, in 2004,” Dan said. “Then, the pilot asked me if I would please get out from under his parachute.”
There would have had to be insurance in case of accidents, and stuff to comply with the tele company’s health and safety regulations. So I guess a lot of it is staged to make good tele. The crew wouldn’t be allowed to go anywhere unsafe as this would not comply with all their union rulses, etc.