REAL-LIFE TRUMAN SHOW
From the Sunday Herald
http://www.sundayherald.com/48038
By James Hamilton
Germany's version of the Big Brother TV show takes a giant leap on Tuesday with the opening of a small town mimicking The Truman Show.
In the Jim Carrey movie a man called Truman is unwittingly the subject of a 24-hour TV programme that monitors his every living moment for a worldwide audience.
In the new Big Brother village, the only difference will be that contestants willingly participate in this next-generation leap into voyeurism, and it will run indefinitely.
Fifteen people will move into the set of Big Brother – The Village complete with market square and stables.
The “village” includes three different types of housing: a “poor” home located right next to the stables and equipped with the bare necessities, a “normal” house and a “rich” villa, where occupants get three-course meals and massages every day. Everyone will have to work for the show's farm, a car mechanic or a fashion label and fulfil duties according to their social status.
“It’s a societal microcosm complete with class struggle, envy and chances for climbing and falling down the social ladder,” said a spokesman for TV station RTL II.
Contestants, who will compete for prizes and money totalling €1 million per year, will also be required to take on personal challenges, such as learning a new language or getting occupational training.
Whether they’ll ever be able to put their new skills to use is questionable as RTL II officials would like to keep them locked up for good.
Katja Hofem-Best, the channel’s entertainment executive, said the show would be “endless” – “God and TV viewers willing.”
Contestants will, it is hoped, live there for years; falling in love, going to school, even getting married. The producers hope to lure in more businesses to employ them, teachers to teach them and doctors to care for the sick.
Big Brother producer Rainer Laux said: “We hope couples will get pregnant and family groups will interact with all the usual family frictions.”
Celebrity contestants will occasionally appear to raise the quota. But the main group of contestants will remain “for decades” according to Laux.
Producers of the new 24-hour show say the present format has had its day and outgrown the container. The plan now is for an entire community to be scrutinised around the clock.
The Carrey film saw Truman Burbank grow up in a city that is actually a vast studio . RTL II has ideas not quite so ambitious – but nearly. Their Big Brother village, built from scratch along the lines of a theme park, will afford fans of the show visits to the community to see the residents just as if they were visiting a zoo.
Media psychologist Jo Graibel voiced concerns that people who stayed in the fake community for any length of time would find it hard to adjust to the “real world”.
http://www.sundayherald.com/48038
By James Hamilton
Germany's version of the Big Brother TV show takes a giant leap on Tuesday with the opening of a small town mimicking The Truman Show.
In the Jim Carrey movie a man called Truman is unwittingly the subject of a 24-hour TV programme that monitors his every living moment for a worldwide audience.
In the new Big Brother village, the only difference will be that contestants willingly participate in this next-generation leap into voyeurism, and it will run indefinitely.
Fifteen people will move into the set of Big Brother – The Village complete with market square and stables.
The “village” includes three different types of housing: a “poor” home located right next to the stables and equipped with the bare necessities, a “normal” house and a “rich” villa, where occupants get three-course meals and massages every day. Everyone will have to work for the show's farm, a car mechanic or a fashion label and fulfil duties according to their social status.
“It’s a societal microcosm complete with class struggle, envy and chances for climbing and falling down the social ladder,” said a spokesman for TV station RTL II.
Contestants, who will compete for prizes and money totalling €1 million per year, will also be required to take on personal challenges, such as learning a new language or getting occupational training.
Whether they’ll ever be able to put their new skills to use is questionable as RTL II officials would like to keep them locked up for good.
Katja Hofem-Best, the channel’s entertainment executive, said the show would be “endless” – “God and TV viewers willing.”
Contestants will, it is hoped, live there for years; falling in love, going to school, even getting married. The producers hope to lure in more businesses to employ them, teachers to teach them and doctors to care for the sick.
Big Brother producer Rainer Laux said: “We hope couples will get pregnant and family groups will interact with all the usual family frictions.”
Celebrity contestants will occasionally appear to raise the quota. But the main group of contestants will remain “for decades” according to Laux.
Producers of the new 24-hour show say the present format has had its day and outgrown the container. The plan now is for an entire community to be scrutinised around the clock.
The Carrey film saw Truman Burbank grow up in a city that is actually a vast studio . RTL II has ideas not quite so ambitious – but nearly. Their Big Brother village, built from scratch along the lines of a theme park, will afford fans of the show visits to the community to see the residents just as if they were visiting a zoo.
Media psychologist Jo Graibel voiced concerns that people who stayed in the fake community for any length of time would find it hard to adjust to the “real world”.
posted by Matthew at 2:29 PM
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