# Survival shows-what happens to the camera crew?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-shows-what-happens-to-the-camera-crew/385749
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 27, 2006, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-shows-what-happens-to-the-camera-crew/385749 "2006-12-27T15:53:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2006, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-shows-what-happens-to-the-camera-crew/385749/1 "2006-12-27T15:53:33Z")
To what extent do the crews participate in these types of shows? The other day, I watched an episode of a show (don’t remember the name) where the guy made a snow cave to sleep in, and uses his body heat to melt snow for drinking water. Does the camera crew pitch a tent, and drink bottled water, or do they live similarly to the host? What about in situations where the host is doing something dangerous like scaling a cliff?
---
### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2006, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-shows-what-happens-to-the-camera-crew/385749/2 "2006-12-27T16:05:11Z")
The crews get actual showers, actual housing, etc.
Not necessarily the most comfortable accomodations (hey if you’re in the Amazon, there’s gonna be mosquitos) but definitely not what the contestants go through.
Quoting one of the Spanish presenters: “me, a contestant? No way man, I like having tampax!”
---
### Author:  [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2006, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-shows-what-happens-to-the-camera-crew/385749/3 "2006-12-27T16:50:41Z")
I’ve thought about this muhself. I’d think they get some sort of creature comforts and they pass a very small amount of those creature comforts on to the intrepid explorer. I mean, if Mr. Nature gets bit by a rattlesnake, they’re not going to carry on as if he’s completely alone when he isn’t. They’ll jump in and intervene.
---
### Author:  [@MovingTarget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovingTarget)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2006, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-shows-what-happens-to-the-camera-crew/385749/4 "2006-12-27T17:03:56Z")
You were watching an episode of Survivor man. And most/all of his stuff is shot with cameras he has to take along with him. There a a few episodes where he gripes because he has to go back and get the camera after he shoots a long shot of him walking away into the sunset. He did an episode of being stranded at sea where the people on another boat to watch him, actually lost all contact with him. Pretty scary. But most of his stuff is shot with only cameras he takes along with him. Nobody else there but him.
Some of the other survivor shows actually have people right there with them. But on survivor man, he is alone. I’m sure he has a emergency “man down” button he can push for immediate help though.
---
### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2006, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-shows-what-happens-to-the-camera-crew/385749/5 "2006-12-27T17:10:30Z")
One show I watched (Survivorman on the Science Channel, perhaps?) the guy carried his own camera. I remember this because he kept complaining about having to carry and set up the camera.
If I remember correctly-- and there is every chance I don’t-- he had to walk from some far Alaskan outpost to another even further Alaskan outpost. He started out with some jerky, enough supplies to start 5 fires and a few tabs of water purifier.
Then, if he didn’t make it to the futher outpost in a certain number of days, there was a rescue team that would go out and find him. In this show, he made a pretty crappy igloo.
---
### Author:  [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2006, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-shows-what-happens-to-the-camera-crew/385749/6 "2006-12-27T17:24:25Z")
We have a saying in our house “Survivorman is nuts!”
Its apparently 35 lbs of camera gear he is hauling around.
---
### Author:  [@Omega\_Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omega_Glory)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2006, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-shows-what-happens-to-the-camera-crew/385749/7 "2006-12-27T17:42:36Z")
Hmm, if Survivor man is only on the Science Channel, then that wasn’t the show, since I don’t have that channel. Didn’t know there \*was \* a Science Channel before now. Interesting to hear that some hosts do it alone. On the episode I saw, the guy purposely leapt into a frozen lake to show viewers how to make it out alive (then stripped naked and did pushups…I know you’ve got to get out of wet clothes quickly but geez). If he was really alone when he did that, that’s incredibly insane.
> [@](#):
>
> Some of the other survivor shows actually have people right there with them. But on survivor man, he is alone. I’m sure he has a emergency “man down” button he can push for immediate help though
Yes, I can’t imagine someone continually putting himself into worse case scenario type situations without putting some kind of safety net in place.
---
### Author:  [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2006, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-shows-what-happens-to-the-camera-crew/385749/8 "2006-12-27T17:46:07Z")
“SurvivorMan” does his own filming…he’s really out there all by himself. However, I suspect you watched the latest clone of this show…“Man Vs. Wild”. This show definately has a camera crew following the nutjob around as he climbs down waterfalls and eats maggots. Of course, we never see the camera crew on camera. So we have very little idea what conditions they’re in. But it can be assumed that they have plenty of food, warm clothes, and tents.
---
### Author:  [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2006, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-shows-what-happens-to-the-camera-crew/385749/9 "2006-12-27T18:06:46Z")
[QUOTE=Omega Glory]
Hmm, if Survivor man is only on the Science Channel, then that wasn’t the show, since I don’t have that channel.
[/QUOTE]
You were watching [Man Vs. Wild](http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/manvswild/episode/episode.html) on the Discovery Channel. The new episodes air on Friday nights, right before _I Shouldn’t Be Alive_. The episodes are replayed throughout the week. On preview I see that **Lemur866** answered as well.
---
### Author:  [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2006, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-shows-what-happens-to-the-camera-crew/385749/10 "2006-12-27T18:33:13Z")
Survivorman is also shown on the Discovery Channel, and that’s where I’ve seen the show. The man must have balls the size of my head to do some of the stuff he does. He stayed in the Arctic in winter on his own - something that most Inuit people experienced with the land won’t even do. Frickin’ nutjob.
He’s also quite a talented musician. Les Stroud is his name, and he’s from Canada.
---
### Author:  [@Pine\_Fresh\_Scent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pine_Fresh_Scent)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2006, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-shows-what-happens-to-the-camera-crew/385749/11 "2006-12-27T19:36:37Z")
The Costs Rica episode of Survivorman shows him with a small videocamera on the end of 3-foot pole with the other end resting on his hip so he can film himself while walking around. I read somewhere he has a satellite phone to call in the rescue team. Everytime I see him in long shots I wonder how much trouble it must be to set up the shot, walk past the camera and then return to pick it up.
I’m also curious how much of his camera equipment is just batteries? Not many wall sockets in the jungle.
Survivorman is a cool show (pretty goofy name though).
I ordered the Everest IMAX DVD yesterday. I want to see what went into getting a 40 lb camera to the summit, where every ounce is accounted for due to the effort involved in just staying alive with such little oxygen, let alone climbing and descending. That is one amazing camera crew.
---
### Author:  [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2006, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-shows-what-happens-to-the-camera-crew/385749/12 "2006-12-27T20:00:04Z")
On Dirty Jobs the cameramen get covered in the icky stuff every so often.
I think they deserve combat pay.
---
### Author:  [@Burrido](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Burrido)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2006, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/survival-shows-what-happens-to-the-camera-crew/385749/13 "2006-12-27T20:14:42Z")
[QUOTE=Snipe1978]
I’m sure he has a emergency “man down” button he can push for immediate help though.
[/QUOTE]
He carried a SAT phone in a couple of episodes and showed it on at least one episode (the Lost at Sea). In the Boreal Forest episode his friends were camped a bit aways and flew in a helicopter to check on him daily. In the Arctic episode, he had a couple people peeking in on him periodically.