Cavechat.org

Attention Cavern Spelunkers!

Are you a caver/spelunker? Do you live in a cave? Have you mapped the deepest, darkest caverns? Do you know of any unique people who explore the caves that you think would be great for a reality TV show?
A major reality television production company seeks to document and explore the Cave World for an exciting new unscripted television show. If you and or anyone you know live in a cave or explores some of the scariest caverns in the world, we want to hear from you!
Submit the following information to: researchcave1@gmail.com

1. Name
2. Contact Info (Phone and Preferred Email)
3. Current Location
4. Current Photo of Yourself
5. A brief paragraph explaining what you do you and why it would be interesting.
6. A short video of yourself describing the above (Optional, but HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for PRIORITY CONSIDERATION). You can include a YouTube or Vimeo
link in your email directing us to the video.

***Once you submit your information, a producer will contact you and go over the details (production company, submission process, etc). If this doesn’t apply to you, please pass this information to a friend or family member that might want to submit!***

Can you please identify yourself and provide some proof of this project?

Hello!
My name is Antoinetta Hairston and I work in development at a television production company called FremantleMedia. We produce shows such as American Idol, America’s Got Talent, X Factor, Price is Right, Family Feud, Total Blackout, amongst many others.

I’m writing you because we are currently working on a new project about the world of Cavern Spelunkers/ Cavers. We feel that there is a story to be told about the people who explore and/or live in caves.

Ultimately we are looking for the people who explore the deepest, darkest, most dangerous caverns or modern day cave dwellers

I came across your forum through my research and thought you would be a good channel to reach out to in terms of getting the word out and I’d really appreciate your help in finding some people that may be interested in finding out more about the project.

If you know of anybody that may be interested, please feel free to forward our information to him or her. Once they contact us, a producer will call them and step them through the process of developing a show, tell them more about our company and the way things work here, and hopefully move forward from there.

I’d love to discuss the details with you over the phone if you’d be inclined to speak with me about the project (or if you have specific people/places in mind for me to contact). If you agree, then please submit your information via email to the address given in the posting above.

Thanks in advance,

Antoinetta Hairston

Well, folks, seems to be a valid inquiry which is what I thought when I first approved it. Heck, I think there are cavers out there that could rise to this request. Antoinetta seems completely sincere.

Antoinetta, thanks for verifying. Good luck, cavers.

CAUTION, CAUTION, CAUTION! These reality TV shows have no idea about protecting caves, all they want is danger drama risk taking and inter group conflict. Before you jump into this ask some of the people who have been involved in similar projects before. They float these ideas to get money to produce the show and have no concept of the logistics of filming underground or the fragile nature of most caves or the permissions required. They would schedule an afternoon to shoot a scene in the chandileer ballroom of Lechigilla. Then wonder why everyone got upset when they moved one of the crystals to get a better picture. Cavern spelunkers beware!
Several times over the years such companies have wanted to film such in Ellisons, each time I have recomended the permit be refused. None have ever filmed there, all want to.
Safe cavin,
Allen Padgett

"most dangerous caverns"

Sorry Antoinetta, but I agree wholeheartedly with Allen. There IS such a thing as bad publicity. We have way too many closed caves as it is.

I was once contacted about helping with a supposed documentary on the rescue in Paradox Cave. I declined and fortunately it never came to pass (so far).

Joel Buckner

researchcave1 wrote:Hello!
Ultimately we are looking for the people who explore the deepest, darkest, most dangerous caverns or modern day cave dwellers

All the caves I go to are equally dark.

Allen and others,

Another way to look at this situation is that they are going to make a caving show whether we like it or not. So, our choice is to help them do it, or to watch them do it without our input. Which path do you think would lead to a show that had more conservation and safety problems? She has already come here looking for help. Now it's up to us if we want to help, or ignore the project and watch it become another disaster like The Cave, The Descent, Sanctum, Deadliest Descent, etc.

I'm thinking about applying. If you didn't have to send in the video, I might apply right now.

I agree with Andy that it is an opportunity for the NSS. Andy, it says the video is optional, too. Hey, start a dialogue with her at least.

As Andy said, it never hurts to TRY and talk to them. Not all producers are the same and sometimes they are willing to listen. I was one of the cavers on the pre-pilot for Deadly Descent which was filmed in a Tennessee cave and trust me, we had months of these conversations. Here are a few points which kept coming up...

They are going to do it anyways so why dont we try
They can only use what we say, so watch your mouth, though things will always be taken out of context
Their film crew would not be going into the "deepest, darkest, most dangerous caves" because they arent cavers and have no SRT experience
( hence most of the in-cave footage from DD was done on Flip cameras by the cavers themselves)
And the one thing that was most important to remember is its an Entertainment Show. Its not a documentary, its not made for cavers, its made
for the general public who want a gripping adventure show.

But as we all know, caving isnt always about adrenaline pushing adventure. Its hard to think how they would make a reality show out of it that
would continue to work. There arent a bunch of cave crabs to be catching or logs to be felling or gold to be mining. The real story is not the caves
but the CAVERS themselves that would make a good story. Unfortunately the last attempt bombed, but not because cavers didn't try.

gindling wrote: But as we all know, caving isnt always about adrenaline pushing adventure. Its hard to think how they would make a reality show out of it that
would continue to work.

True to us but for your average viewer just crawling through a small hole could give them the heebie-jeebies. So for us a normal, safe, no drama cave trip could be viewed as a harrowing life risking adventure into the dark.

Look at all the stuff we have to do to visit the cave. Each part of it could be sensationalized with little effort to make it look death defying. And half of it doesn’t even have to happen in the cave!

Episode 1:
A short mile hike into the woods goes bad when someone is unsure which trail to take or goes off trail for a minute. Now everyone is in a panic looking for the missing hiker or looking for the trail.
We find the cave and see a wild animal come out! Maybe it’s a wet cave and there are clouds in the sky.
A bowman knot is tied but someone doesn’t like how or where it’s tied and the Mike Rowe comes on to say that if the knot/anchor fails that the cavers would die.
One caver helps another with their harness and Mike Rowe says if that carbineer were to open…
Maybe the rope has a little wear on it and is rubbing against a rock.
Then you get all the action shots of rappelling into the cave. Someone yells ROCK!
Now you have to walk through a foot of guano and wall to wall cucarachas. You might have half of your audience turn away from the tv screen in that shot.
Soon you come to a small duck-under that the camera makes it look a mile long and a 100’ deep.
This could go on and on…

But at the same time conservation and save caving practices could be stressed.

Just need to go pick out some beautiful caves everyone would want to see but are so miserable and nasty that no hammer wielding vandals would go through the trouble of getting to.

Sure there are many bad examples of TV making bad caving shows, but there are some good ones too. The BBC's Ultimate Caving is one of my favorites and does an excellent job. Antoinetta if you have not seen this video its a must see. They do an excellent job of making caving look extreme and at the same time, promoting good caving techniques. Basically anyone watching it will either be very attracted to the idea of caving, or scared away from it heh.

I'd love to see this show broadcasted here in the US, I think it'd be a big hit.

Another good video is National Geographics Expedition to the Extreme, which details the account of a cave trip gone bad and the resulting rescue. All done very tastefully.

Now, if they want to get some horror and drama of mapping a terrible, nasty, muddy, wet Missouri crawl, then they should give me a call.