I watched the new Folding Ideas video about Mr Beast and the Beast games, and there's a detail that is driving me absolutely insane. At one moment, during an interview Mr Beast boasts of having broken the record of most BTS (Behind the Scenes) cameras with 16 working on set. And if I don't write about it it's gonna ruin my whole fucking night.
First, you need to understand that a camera person, ironically, is practically blind, since their whole focus is on the shot. While carrying around heavy, cubersome, and extremely expensive equipment around. In such a volatile, crowded and chaotic place as a reality game show, they need a handler to guide them around the set and be their eyes. That's 16 more people.
But they aren't (or at least I hope not) just wandering about the set, taping random stuff. Often there's someone checking the live feed (more people), plus people watching the whole set directing the cameras to points of interest ("player 45 is crying, go check that out" that kind of stuff.) Also making sure the 16 cameras don't overlap, getting redundant shoots of the same stuff at too similar angles.
And all of this for... Behind the scenes. The stuff that often ends up in the cutting room. Because is behind the scenes. It is the extra stuff. Why. Why. Maybe 40+ crew for what.
Let's be generous. Let's say the interview is taking advantage of the Kulechov effect and just showing the main cameras as background footage, only implying they are BTS. Let's say that in reality the BTS are using lightweight set-ups, like mounted smartphones. Lets say (and I fucking hope so) there were deemed not important enough to have another team coordinating the BTS. That's still 16 more people running around a live set, getting in the way of the actual shoot. I think adding 16 extra cameras to a live stadium concert might get you some weird looks. This is a tv show on real fucking time.
It's such a stupidly large and ineffective number only a kid would think of it. I've barely worked on live recordings and the idea of it makes me dizzy. This can only be some poor PA's karmic punishment. A ring in Dante's Inferno where "fix it in post" producers are sent. The whole thing is like boasting living in a house with 16 full toilets and trying to convince people that you actually live there.
Rant over, I can rest now.