Reality Show (film)

Reality Show
Reality Show
Directed by	Colin Trevorrow
Written by	Daniel Klein; Colin Trevorrow;
Produced by	Peter J. Clark; Daniel Klein; Colin Trevorrow;
Starring	Dan Sherbondy; Greg Garcia; Joe Gnoffo; Justin Lee; Austin Meredith; Chris Anderko;
Narrated by	Dean Welsh
Cinematography	Matthew C. Boyd
Edited by	Matt Thiesen
Music by	Brandon Krueger
Production; company	The Gravity Collaborative
Release dates	November 21, 2004 (New York International Independent Film and Video Festival);
Running time	55 minutes; 72 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English

Reality Show is a 2004 documentary film directed by Colin Trevorrow. It was written by Daniel Klein and Trevorrow, who also acted as producers along with Peter J. Clark.^[4] The film documents the attempted production of an unaired pilot for a reality television show titled Rock the Party.

Synopsis

To achieve instant fame,^[5] eccentric millionaire Dan Sherbondy^[2] funds his own reality show.^[5] His Craigslist advertisements invite 10 women to compete for the title of "America's Craziest Party Girl".^[5] Sherbondy, his best friend, 10 women, a little person, and an inexperienced production crew travel to Baja, Mexico,^[2] but the millionaire's appalling treatment of the cast and crew causes them to rise up against him. The film is narrated by Dean Welsh.^[4]

Production

The project began production in 2003,^[5] as a self-produced^[6] pilot for a reality television show^[7] titled Rock the Party.^[5] The pilot was funded by entrepreneur Dan Sherbondy,^[2] who also hosted a late-night television show in Las Vegas, Nevada.^[6]

According to director Colin Trevorrow, "It's footage of a real thing that happened, which is this guy, who is kind of a lunatic, and really just the world's biggest asshole, took a crew off of Craigslist, and a bunch of women, and told them they were on a reality show. He took 'em down to Mexico, hired a bunch of guys for nothing to shoot it, and he was really just...I don't know what he was doing; he was really down there to sleep with all these women, essentially. And I was hired to direct that. It was my first thing, you know: "I'll pay you $500!" "Great! I'll do it!" And it turned into this absolute disaster."^[8]

Filming locations included a hotel in the Mexican city of Rosarito Beach. Trevorrow said, "The shoot at the hotel was the seediest, worst experience of our lives…we made the worst reality show in history."^[6] Sherbondy ultimately gave Trevorrow all the footage. The crew then filmed each other giving interviews about the troubled production. Trevorrow cut the interviews and footage together to form the documentary.^[8] Trevorrow said "I have interviews with the crew, where they discuss this preposterous bullshit that went on. It's a strange doc about how people use this reality show medium to take advantage of people."^[6]

Release

Sherbondy allowed the film to be released after securing an executive producer credit and any future profits.^[2] The film was first shown at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival on November 21, 2004.^[3] In 2006, the film was shown at San Francisco's DocFest and the Milwaukee Film Festival.^[2]^[9]

In 2012, Trevorrow said the film was no longer available: "The guy it's about -- the movie is basically a documentary about how awful he is -- he actually lost a job or something over it, so he made us take it down everywhere and you can't find it anymore."^[8]