I found this to be an interesting read and after reading, I'm even less interested in watching Top Shot than I was before, and I didn't think that was possible.
I can tell you without a doubt that having cameras in my face constantly would have me ready to knock someone the f*ck out.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">This week I am going to talk about my excursion into Hollywood and how I became a “cast member” on the reality show called “Top Shot.” Top Shot is just as I said: nothing more than a reality show put on a major network to fill one hour of your time every Tuesday night. As a shooter, I was under the impression, largely due to Hollywood magic unbeknownst to me at the time, that Top Shot was one of and if not the only television show showing an actual contest between 16 different shooters from different styles and backgrounds in the shooting arena. It is not. I will get into this in a later paragraph, so keep reading!
I originally heard about the casting of Top Shot from a friend of mine named Adam. He lives in the bayou somewhere in Louisiana and shoots USPSA competitions and was on the Army Marksmanship Unit (AMU). I am a rookie in the USPSA and currently have a D rating; yes you read that correctly, but that is another story. I met Adam at the Mississippi Classic where, little did I know, Athena Lee, also a contestant on Top Shot, was shooting as well. I remember seeing her stretching and doing walk-throughs with her group thinking, who are these people? They take this seriously. I had a Smith & Wesson M&P45, that after the chrono stage, I think had the largest power factor ever seen; even Dirty Harry would be ashamed. Adam is from the same area as Blake Miguez (Top Shot season 1 cast member), which was still airing at the time. Everyone was talking about this show. I do not have a television much less cable, so I had no clue what the show was. I looked it up on the Internet, watched the finale, and like anyone better than Ian Harrison from a couch, said “I can do that…that is easy…” They had a casting call for season two online, so I applied. A few days later I got a call back from somebody at Top Shot asking me to send in a video with some info about myself, so I did. They called back again a few days later and said to do another video and talk about certain topics, so I did. I got another call saying they wanted to fly me to L.A. as a finalist. Now it is serious! I decided to go; a week of leave is no big deal for $100,000 dollars, right? Maybe.
When I got to L.A., I was put up in a hotel along with 50 or so other people. Now from this point on in the story I have to leave some details out. Considering my line of work—who I work for and with—you will understand in future articles why I have to omit peoples names and my locations, so be patient. As a cast member I am sworn to secrecy about the selection process we went through. Suffice it to say, it involved a blacked out vehicle, several different ranges with several different weapons, strict time limits, no instructions, and no known score or standing between you and the others. However, if at the end of the week and you were still there, your score meant you were in the top 16 and you were going into the house. They sent me back home. A week later, after the scores were compiled, I got the call. I was a finalist to go into the house. Let the competition begin!
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I thought I understood the concept of Top Shot and its format from watching season one. I had no idea how crazy a Hollywood set can be, then add in 100 or so extra people to do camera and sound work, driving, food, bathrooms, weapons guys, ammo guys, security guys, 20 cameras in your face, a microphone on 24-hours a day and it gets out of control. I have been to some of the hardest schools the military has and this surreal experience was like nothing I could have imagined. Did I mention this was day one? Day one out of five weeks of non-stop filming assuming you make it to the end of competition? It does not help that I do not get along with L.A. types what so ever, but again, this does not apply to my story, so I’ll press on.
All 16 people there really did not know one another at all with a few exceptions. The competitive shooters knew or knew of each other in some way. Chris Tilley, Maggie Reese, Athena Lee, and John Guida all knew one another somehow. The other 12 people, including myself, were unknowns. Sometimes strange things happen in the world where stars align or certain people meet or come together and special things happen. Well this was the case with this cast of Top Shot. I come from a team atmosphere. It is all I know and understand. From day one, I noticed immediately that the entire house of people got along great. Even before we got there, I saw how well everyone was getting along. The biggest common trait was that it almost seemed that it was all of us versus the producers of this “show.” In fact, we all got along so great that the producers would actually get upset and try to promote some drama, or tell us false rumors, or try to get us to say or phrase certain responses during interviews to spark drama in order to promote ratings. The funny thing was that nobody was having any of it. The military people, Eric, George, Jamie, Daryl, Brian, Chris Reed, Jermaine, Joe and I all got along too well. The rest of the cast just followed suit. Unfortunately as a viewer, you saw only seconds of this throughout the entire season. Every night, everybody sat and ate together, said a prayer, said the pledge of allegiance, did dishes, played cards or games, or sat around and talked – together. For ratings in Hollywood, this is bad; very bad, in fact. Nobody wants to see a house full of grownups doing dishes and helping each other out, or being friendly, that is not what television is about. Did I forget to mention the company that produces Top Shot also produces Survivor? Hello Colby [Donaldson].
Since they also produce Survivor, the most popular reality show in the history of television, the producers know how to extract drama from anything—any one sound bite, any one word, any facial expression from any point in time, and apply it to later scenes. I learned from someone in the industry that scenes edited, or “stitched,” together from different times are called “Franken bits.” For example, if you are bored or care enough to go back and watch some of the episodes, ask yourself how is it possible that I can have three different hairstyles in one interview? Why? Because they are responses from several different interviews, one from week one, one from another week; they use my answers from different questions to fit what they need them to promote their dramatic play unfolding before your eyes. You are none the wiser unless you are a skilled viewer.
Before going into the house we all had to sign a one-million dollar non-disclosure agreement. At first, they told us it was to ensure we did not discuss results about who wins and who loses. What it’s really about, is making sure while the show is on, none of us can talk about how they edit the show or make certain people look a certain way even though in reality it could not have been further from the truth. Now that it is over, I am able to talk about whatever I want—such as the editing and things like what Hollywood will do to a person just for ratings. It works too.
The best example I can give you is this one; however I am warning you, this information is similar to finding out about the Easter bunny or Santa Claus, so if you don’t want to see it, don’t do it. During the episode where Jermaine and I were in the Defensive Fighting Position (DFP) together, he ran up the hill with the weapon and everything went crazy. I want you to focus on two things: the wind indicators also known as flags and focus on Maggie’s hair. There are many more examples like this that editors cannot get around such as Joe or me being left-handed but all of a sudden when we are shooting a close-up, a right-handed shooter appears. A group of us all laughing and joking around but then somebody gets mad at somebody that you think people would notice but they do not. Give it a try—don’t shoot the messenger—just remember this is a television show, not a real sanctioned three gun match or USPSA shoot. The one thing matters most: ratings. Not the peoples’ true character or personality, but the ratings!
So you still want to try out for Top Shot? Here is my advice. They require a video from you. In this video, they will ask you to talk about several things and show some shooting skills. Knowing what I know now, your video should be like a resume. If you hand in a resume that is the same as the other thousand resumes, you get over-looked. I thought that every video would have people at a range shooting all their guns in their safe and saying how good they are. Everybody on Top Shot is good; there are thousands of shooters that are awesome at what they do. So how do you set yourself apart? Character! Television wants characters. People that stick in your mind for whatever reason. If you love them, you remember them; if you hate them, you remember them. This makes you tune in every week to see the people you love do well and the people you hate lose and that is how they generate ratings. You have to promote yourself in a different light than “Hello, I am Ashley. I shoot guns, and I am Top Shot.” That is boring. My video, which I will try to post, only had about 10 to 20 rounds fired in a 15-second timeframe, the rest is about me. They will know if you can shoot from your scores at the tryouts, so I recommend showing the producers yourself and not just your shooting ability. What makes you different from the thousands of other shooters?
If you do get selected, which I hope you do because it is a once in a lifetime experience, you will need some tips to prepare for the house.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc">[*] Know that you will be on camera 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.[*] Every sound you make can be heard no matter where you are![*]Be polite and courteous to everyone, including the staff such as the camera and sound people. The easier you make their job, the happier they are. They run everything![*]Bond with everyone in the house. They are in the same boat with you. Yes, you are competing against them, but you are all going through the same thing, so that common trait will make you bond with them and they with you. Stick together and win together! In the end, only one person will win. And it probably will not be you. So just have fun with it. You will make friends for life in doing so, no matter how the editors portray it, only you and the people who went though it with you will know what really happened.[/list]
I am glad I did Top Shot because I made 15 awesome friends and gave me incredible opportunities like this one to write for Cheaper Than Dirt! None of this would have ever happened if I did not try. Always try. Send in your tape and put your name in the hat. What is the worse that could happen? They say yes? They say no? Either way, keep shooting. Because shooting on national television or shooting at your local range is fun no matter what and that is what matters most! </div></div>
Source - <span style="font-weight: bold">Cheaper Than Dirt</span>
I can tell you without a doubt that having cameras in my face constantly would have me ready to knock someone the f*ck out.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">This week I am going to talk about my excursion into Hollywood and how I became a “cast member” on the reality show called “Top Shot.” Top Shot is just as I said: nothing more than a reality show put on a major network to fill one hour of your time every Tuesday night. As a shooter, I was under the impression, largely due to Hollywood magic unbeknownst to me at the time, that Top Shot was one of and if not the only television show showing an actual contest between 16 different shooters from different styles and backgrounds in the shooting arena. It is not. I will get into this in a later paragraph, so keep reading!
I originally heard about the casting of Top Shot from a friend of mine named Adam. He lives in the bayou somewhere in Louisiana and shoots USPSA competitions and was on the Army Marksmanship Unit (AMU). I am a rookie in the USPSA and currently have a D rating; yes you read that correctly, but that is another story. I met Adam at the Mississippi Classic where, little did I know, Athena Lee, also a contestant on Top Shot, was shooting as well. I remember seeing her stretching and doing walk-throughs with her group thinking, who are these people? They take this seriously. I had a Smith & Wesson M&P45, that after the chrono stage, I think had the largest power factor ever seen; even Dirty Harry would be ashamed. Adam is from the same area as Blake Miguez (Top Shot season 1 cast member), which was still airing at the time. Everyone was talking about this show. I do not have a television much less cable, so I had no clue what the show was. I looked it up on the Internet, watched the finale, and like anyone better than Ian Harrison from a couch, said “I can do that…that is easy…” They had a casting call for season two online, so I applied. A few days later I got a call back from somebody at Top Shot asking me to send in a video with some info about myself, so I did. They called back again a few days later and said to do another video and talk about certain topics, so I did. I got another call saying they wanted to fly me to L.A. as a finalist. Now it is serious! I decided to go; a week of leave is no big deal for $100,000 dollars, right? Maybe.
When I got to L.A., I was put up in a hotel along with 50 or so other people. Now from this point on in the story I have to leave some details out. Considering my line of work—who I work for and with—you will understand in future articles why I have to omit peoples names and my locations, so be patient. As a cast member I am sworn to secrecy about the selection process we went through. Suffice it to say, it involved a blacked out vehicle, several different ranges with several different weapons, strict time limits, no instructions, and no known score or standing between you and the others. However, if at the end of the week and you were still there, your score meant you were in the top 16 and you were going into the house. They sent me back home. A week later, after the scores were compiled, I got the call. I was a finalist to go into the house. Let the competition begin!
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I thought I understood the concept of Top Shot and its format from watching season one. I had no idea how crazy a Hollywood set can be, then add in 100 or so extra people to do camera and sound work, driving, food, bathrooms, weapons guys, ammo guys, security guys, 20 cameras in your face, a microphone on 24-hours a day and it gets out of control. I have been to some of the hardest schools the military has and this surreal experience was like nothing I could have imagined. Did I mention this was day one? Day one out of five weeks of non-stop filming assuming you make it to the end of competition? It does not help that I do not get along with L.A. types what so ever, but again, this does not apply to my story, so I’ll press on.
All 16 people there really did not know one another at all with a few exceptions. The competitive shooters knew or knew of each other in some way. Chris Tilley, Maggie Reese, Athena Lee, and John Guida all knew one another somehow. The other 12 people, including myself, were unknowns. Sometimes strange things happen in the world where stars align or certain people meet or come together and special things happen. Well this was the case with this cast of Top Shot. I come from a team atmosphere. It is all I know and understand. From day one, I noticed immediately that the entire house of people got along great. Even before we got there, I saw how well everyone was getting along. The biggest common trait was that it almost seemed that it was all of us versus the producers of this “show.” In fact, we all got along so great that the producers would actually get upset and try to promote some drama, or tell us false rumors, or try to get us to say or phrase certain responses during interviews to spark drama in order to promote ratings. The funny thing was that nobody was having any of it. The military people, Eric, George, Jamie, Daryl, Brian, Chris Reed, Jermaine, Joe and I all got along too well. The rest of the cast just followed suit. Unfortunately as a viewer, you saw only seconds of this throughout the entire season. Every night, everybody sat and ate together, said a prayer, said the pledge of allegiance, did dishes, played cards or games, or sat around and talked – together. For ratings in Hollywood, this is bad; very bad, in fact. Nobody wants to see a house full of grownups doing dishes and helping each other out, or being friendly, that is not what television is about. Did I forget to mention the company that produces Top Shot also produces Survivor? Hello Colby [Donaldson].
Since they also produce Survivor, the most popular reality show in the history of television, the producers know how to extract drama from anything—any one sound bite, any one word, any facial expression from any point in time, and apply it to later scenes. I learned from someone in the industry that scenes edited, or “stitched,” together from different times are called “Franken bits.” For example, if you are bored or care enough to go back and watch some of the episodes, ask yourself how is it possible that I can have three different hairstyles in one interview? Why? Because they are responses from several different interviews, one from week one, one from another week; they use my answers from different questions to fit what they need them to promote their dramatic play unfolding before your eyes. You are none the wiser unless you are a skilled viewer.
Before going into the house we all had to sign a one-million dollar non-disclosure agreement. At first, they told us it was to ensure we did not discuss results about who wins and who loses. What it’s really about, is making sure while the show is on, none of us can talk about how they edit the show or make certain people look a certain way even though in reality it could not have been further from the truth. Now that it is over, I am able to talk about whatever I want—such as the editing and things like what Hollywood will do to a person just for ratings. It works too.
The best example I can give you is this one; however I am warning you, this information is similar to finding out about the Easter bunny or Santa Claus, so if you don’t want to see it, don’t do it. During the episode where Jermaine and I were in the Defensive Fighting Position (DFP) together, he ran up the hill with the weapon and everything went crazy. I want you to focus on two things: the wind indicators also known as flags and focus on Maggie’s hair. There are many more examples like this that editors cannot get around such as Joe or me being left-handed but all of a sudden when we are shooting a close-up, a right-handed shooter appears. A group of us all laughing and joking around but then somebody gets mad at somebody that you think people would notice but they do not. Give it a try—don’t shoot the messenger—just remember this is a television show, not a real sanctioned three gun match or USPSA shoot. The one thing matters most: ratings. Not the peoples’ true character or personality, but the ratings!
So you still want to try out for Top Shot? Here is my advice. They require a video from you. In this video, they will ask you to talk about several things and show some shooting skills. Knowing what I know now, your video should be like a resume. If you hand in a resume that is the same as the other thousand resumes, you get over-looked. I thought that every video would have people at a range shooting all their guns in their safe and saying how good they are. Everybody on Top Shot is good; there are thousands of shooters that are awesome at what they do. So how do you set yourself apart? Character! Television wants characters. People that stick in your mind for whatever reason. If you love them, you remember them; if you hate them, you remember them. This makes you tune in every week to see the people you love do well and the people you hate lose and that is how they generate ratings. You have to promote yourself in a different light than “Hello, I am Ashley. I shoot guns, and I am Top Shot.” That is boring. My video, which I will try to post, only had about 10 to 20 rounds fired in a 15-second timeframe, the rest is about me. They will know if you can shoot from your scores at the tryouts, so I recommend showing the producers yourself and not just your shooting ability. What makes you different from the thousands of other shooters?
If you do get selected, which I hope you do because it is a once in a lifetime experience, you will need some tips to prepare for the house.
<ul style="list-style-type: disc">[*] Know that you will be on camera 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.[*] Every sound you make can be heard no matter where you are![*]Be polite and courteous to everyone, including the staff such as the camera and sound people. The easier you make their job, the happier they are. They run everything![*]Bond with everyone in the house. They are in the same boat with you. Yes, you are competing against them, but you are all going through the same thing, so that common trait will make you bond with them and they with you. Stick together and win together! In the end, only one person will win. And it probably will not be you. So just have fun with it. You will make friends for life in doing so, no matter how the editors portray it, only you and the people who went though it with you will know what really happened.[/list]
I am glad I did Top Shot because I made 15 awesome friends and gave me incredible opportunities like this one to write for Cheaper Than Dirt! None of this would have ever happened if I did not try. Always try. Send in your tape and put your name in the hat. What is the worse that could happen? They say yes? They say no? Either way, keep shooting. Because shooting on national television or shooting at your local range is fun no matter what and that is what matters most! </div></div>
Source - <span style="font-weight: bold">Cheaper Than Dirt</span>
