MTV’s True Life Is as Far from the Truth as Most Television Is

Whether you admit it or not, pretty much everyone has thought about what it would be like to be on TV. And with the rise of reality TV, the possibility of that five minutes of fame has only grown. MTV was one of the first channels in America to popularize the concept of following around everyday people with The Real World, which, of course, was about as authentic as their interest in music. By purposely selecting roommates who would not get along and carefully orchestrating conflict behind the scenes, the show became irresistible to watch no matter how fabricated its “unscripted” content was; hours and hours of footage painstakingly edited down to just a few moments of juicy drama and out-of-context theatrics. This formula has been applied to almost all of MTV and VH1’s programming now, and reality TV continues to dominate ratings on almost every channel. But is this because Americans have an endless desire to see themselves on screen or because corporate tools want to mold our lives into the preconceived narrative they’ve laid out for us?

Let’s ask Travis. He’s a 23-year-old horror movie geek from Rochester, NY who ended up on an episode of MTV’s True Life about fanboys. While his segment of the show was only about 15 minutes long, the True Life crew invaded his life and the lives of his friends on and off for seven months, continually asking him to do re-shoots and forcing him into staged exchanges with his friends to get him to say what they wanted him to say. If he didn’t agree to their demands, they just threatened to pull the plug on his segment altogether, making the last several months a complete waste of time. As his friend Kristy put it in her blog…

MTV’s True Life Crew pushed Travis and our friends into conversation that we would’ve never just traversed to on our own. They specifically asked for Travis and our friend Chris, of Low Budget Pictures to have a conversation about Travis’ possible future as a filmmaker. The scene unfolds as the two of them sit in Chris’ movie room and Travis laments over his feelings of insecurity over the way his younger brother makes him feel…They asked the rest of us to stay put upstairs while Chris and Travis has this “heart to heart”. It made me wonder, after the fact, how many other “heart to hearts” or “moments of revelation” had been orchestrated by the crew or had been truly organic?…Travis was also sick of how they were trying to force him into situations he wouldn’t be in and to complete projects he hasn’t had any intention of starting.

But let’s get his perspective on this clusterfuck…

How did you first get involved with MTV?
My sister saw that they were accepting videos for their upcoming episode of True Life entitled “I’m A Fanboy” on a website for Comic-Con. My sister said I would be perfect, and being apprehensive at first, I then figured, “Well, I’ll never get picked.” So we all sent in videos. I made one making myself looking like the tard I am and MTV thought, “This is our man.”

What was their pitch? What did they say it would be like?
They just said that they would come around one weekend and start filming what I do, being me. It just so happened that they decided to come during the weekend I had planned to shoot a shitty movie. Besides that, they didn’t elaborate. They just said they’d come by, film me doing what I’d do that weekend and ask me some questions.

How was it different? When did you know things were starting to go wrong?
I started to suspect a little something come Friday the 13th weekend in February. This was the second crew, which had a new camera guy, and now they were asking a whole lot about my “movie” and it really felt like they wanted just a little bit more than just my fandom. They had me answer their questions hundreds of times over until it sounded more like what they wanted to hear. My friend Chris recognized it a little quicker than I did.

It was after that that they followed you to the Monster Mania Convention in New Jersey. How did having MTV follow you around affect your experience at the con?
It was awful! By the end of the first day most of my friends were fed up with them. People at the convention; dealers and fans, were treating me like royalty so they could get on camera. The very few times the cameras were gone, everyone ignored me. So during the last day, when the cameras were on and people are pretending to be my friend, I was pretty miserable. I was so distracted dealing with and accommodating MTV’s interviews, letting them know where I would be and when I’d be shopping, that I didn’t really get to enjoy the convention except for meeting Alice Cooper. It was my girlfriend’s first con and the whole experience for her was just ruined.

What was the MTV crew like? How did they treat you, your friends, and your girl?
My friends, for the most part, boycotted it from the beginning, so the weekend was essentially just between my girlfriend and I. My girlfriend has severe anxiety, so that didn’t help, and she didn’t really feel like she got to enjoy my company to the fullest because they were such a distraction. But to be perfectly honest there were a few people from the crews that I did really like! Some of them, not so much. There were sort of three different crews. The second time they came around, they had a different camera guy, the third time it was a different sound guy, the fourth time, another camera guy.

Why did they need to shoot more footage after the initial filming?
Well, I kept resisting. I kept putting them off because they kept trying to make plans for me. Then they said all they’d need is one last interview…then they needed more. I tried quitting about three times. I even asked them, “How much more could you want if I’m only going to be on for 10 to 15 minutes?” But I did keep giving in; I did get along with them on the surface, but a part of me was not only afraid to say no, but I didn’t want to really feel like my friends and family’s time was wasted going through their bullshit. So when they said they were going to drop all of my footage and not use any of it, I said this to my brother and that’s when we decided to make “Nightmare On Trav’s Street”. It’s both something I wanted to do and something to fuck with MTV.

Did you feel like they already had in mind a “story” for you that they were trying to mold your life into?
Not until they kept pushing for me to finish “Don’t Shit in the Woods”. I should’ve known from when they said they wanted me to showcase it at the convention. But I shortly realized that they wanted to make this dumb ass video I made for fun with friends more for them! I kept telling the one guy that kept in contact with me that I’m not a filmmaker, and I thought that this show was to be about my fandom. But he kept trying to make it sound like it was a documentary and I thought that was crap.

What was MTV like after the shooting was over? Did they let you know when your episode would air?
Well, first off, the last crew I worked with was great! They were really genuine and sweet and I could tell it wasn’t bullshit. These guys were totally nerdy and even told me that they should’ve gone about it differently, explaining to me that it would be a story. Their honesty and laid-back attitude were awesome and I had more in common with these guys than the “videographer”. They also bought us a lot of pizza. I guess that shows that some people are in the biz for different reasons. But after the shoot, I just got a message on my voicemail saying when it would air. And at the point, I really didn’t care, so everyone I guess sort found out at the last minute, when I remembered to tell them.

What was it like watching the final product? Was it as bad as you expected?
It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good either! I’m not disappointed, but I’m not satisfied. It was what it was. But for all the shit they filmed, that’s really all they used!? Not to mention “the story” they tried telling looks like a parody of itself! And, in turn, that’s kind of cool, but with the whole experience behind me, it really wasn’t worth it.

How would you compare your real life to how they portrayed your life?
Actually, it sort of hit the nail on the head; I was impressed with how they left in a few key honest moments of myself, like me admitting that I have no idea what I’m doing and that I want to make movies but don’t put forth enough effort. It sucks that they manipulated some footage of me talking about how awesome something else is and juxtaposed it with footage from my movie as if I’m thinking highly of my “craft” when, really, all I want to do is make crap.

What would you have liked to have seen in the final product?
None of it! No, (laughs) I don’t know really. I just wish all the footage was used to some degree just so I wouldn’t feel like it was a complete waste. There was no con, no me talking about my love for the Friday the 13th movies, no talk with my friend Will, no seeing Friday 4 dressed as Jason in Syracuse.

How do you view MTV now? Is it different than how you saw them before?
Well, technically, it wasn’t MTV who filmed me. MTV, I guess, will hire other production companies to work for them. I honestly never really cared much for MTV, but I am a fan of MTV shows from the 90s. But to answer your question, I really don’t know if I see them any differently; I just warn anyone with an honest heart who ends up in the same boat I did, which makes me think about the other guy I shared the show with. The Power Ranger fan…I want to know his story.

Travis’ experience is, without a doubt, another case of, “Be careful what you wish for,” or least what his sister wished for. But what you may be wondering is why the hell we chose to tell this story on Muckmakers, where we usually focus on politics or religion. Well, one thing we’ve also criticized heavily around here is the media, and this is a great example of media manipulation at its finest. If you don’t fit the social schematic that they’re looking to place you in, that’s fine – we’ll edit the shit out of you until you do. When we watch television that’s presented to us as “reality,” we often take it as such without questioning it, assuming that a camera is only capable of showing things the way they are. This leaves us free to judge everyone as we see them presented to us, and while what you may hear isn’t scripted, much of the editing makes it exactly that. This can used in a seemingly harmless (though still dishonest) way, like making a fanboy look like a wanna-be filmmaker, or, as the Daily Show pointed out last week, it can be used to manipulate facts and influence political opinions. And as news shows become less journalistic and more opinionated, you’re going to see more and more of these clever editing techniques used to persuade you towards their way of thinking.

Just as the “reality” in “reality TV” has become a farce, so have terms like “Fair and Balanced” in reference to reporting. TV is often called the “boob tube” and the “idiot box” for a reason – it’s not there to make you think; it’s there to make you absorb. You’re most vulnerable when you’ve let your guard down, and when is your guard more down than when you’re laying on the couch after a long day of work, just looking to relax and unwind? The same people that are constantly trying to convince you to purchase their products during commercial breaks are the same people consistently telling you to buy into their version of the truth when your favorite program returns. Next time you pick up that remote, think about who’s really controlling what you’re watching, and what is actually being said, and realize that whether you’re in front of the camera or basking in the glow of your screen, there’s always a third party behind the scenes telling the story that you’re going to remember in the end. It’s usually about as divorced from reality as the cartoons your kids are watching in the next room.