THIRTEEN CAMERAMEN

Thirteen cameramen all shooting everything all of the time. Nonstop. Cinema réalité as the French might say. Reality programming in only the barest of meaning. Thirteen videographers--as they prefer to be called-- all living in a house together with no direction beyond don’t stop shooting. All men, unfortunately, as is the only way to come up with programming so unfocused and foolish (if that’s even the right word). Ratings demand an aimless structure. No woman would stand for such chaos, but that’s the point. Much of the footage is unusable. Just footage of other footage, nothing being captured but the capturing. Cameras shooting cameras. A cyclical reversion, ouroboros except everyone is eating each other’s effort. Weeks and months they’ll never get back. Brian shooting Carl shooting Tim. Jim shooting all three of them and the guy with the goatee whose name everyone seems to forget shooting him shooting them. Every once in a while something magical slips through: a wide angle of twelve men circling each other with cameras in a lush grass park setting, the blur of heads turning to catch an action that isn’t in a building hubbub of a room far too small, night vision of the cameramen asleep all lined up in their beds snoring in harmony. It runs for thirteen seasons. I have every episode on dvd.

by KKUURRTT

KKUURRTT is glad you read his thing. He can be found on twitter @wwwkurtcom.