by boreholio » Nov 15, 2014 2:35 am
Periodically, these types of proposals are posted and I've commented on these types of shows before, i.e. "high energy individuals with lots of personality" which, to me, translates almost invariably to "contrived and embellished soap operish pseudodrama" for (I assume, correct me if I'm wrong) profit, not that there's anything wrong with that : ) per se, but the downside is it risks damaging the reputation of cavers, attracting willful or accidental vandalism, harming landowner relations, making caving look foolhardy, creating rescue situations for unprepared people who decide they want to cave and rush out after seeing the show, etc. The upside is.... uh,.... hmmmm.... they make money! (they hope)....and some people get their "15 minutes of fame".
I don't see much else, maybe some people would get interested and become good cavers that wouldn't otherwise, or the company will make a conservation donation, or some other positive effect of publicity, but IMO the likelihood of negative consequences is much greater. Having said that though, usually, actual documentaries of exploration are a different matter and there is probably plenty of real drama for any director and audience in many exploration stories.