I recently caught up with Rikkie Proost, director of the first two seasons of Big Brother South Africa and also the musical reality show Project Fame.
Something I didn't know before hooking up with him is that he also directed the episode of The Amazing Race II in which contestants came to Cape Town, South Africa. Rikkie's dad played the Jan van Riebeeck character at the end.
Here's what he had to say about directing BB:
Tashi: What was the most challenging thing about directing the very first Big Brother?
Rikkie: The most challenging thing was that it was the first locally produced reality TV show - and of that magnitude ..... it took everyone by surprise - particularly those working on it. We had facilitators from Endemol come out and train us but none of us could have expected what it did to this country and what it did to us as a team. It was the first time we were dealing with really personal stories and telling them to the entire nation in a reality TV format.
At one stage I felt we were almost like the people who set up the gladiators that send the slaves in to fight the lions and the crowds would go crazy. I took quite an emotional knock with that show.
The whole Lara thing, when she walked out and everyone was so nasty to her ..... I kept questioning: what are my ethics, my values, my morals?.... and then you have to bring yourself back to actually being a television producer and these guys entered of their own free will, even though they didn't know what the show was gonna do to the country and themselves for the rest of their lives.
The psychologist who was seeing the contestants was also available for all the crew working on that show. We were constantly questioning what we were doing and how we were doing it.
I said that to the crew on the next Big Brother and I said it to the crew on Project Fame: "These reality TV shows are all consuming ..... you're gonna eat, you're gonna breathe, you're gonna *bleep!* this show ....." You get sucked into these people's lives and you're seeing it all the time - you live their lives with them and you know their little habits. You notice all the little ups and downs and the subtleties and there's only so much of that we can put into a show.
Tashi: Did you have opinions on them?
Rikkie: Absolutely. There was a team of nine directors who worked on Project Fame and we met once a week to discuss themes, relationships, characters, stories for episodes for the week and of course everyone has an emotional attachment ..... these are human beings ..... but you take a step back and say: "What is the fairest way." Look, everyone will say there's hardly any manipulation in reality TV. Crap. There's manipulation in any television - you are taking a picture, cutting it to another with another image, putting the two together.....
Tashi: It would be boring if you didn't do this.
Rikkie: Ja ..... but I try as often as possible to take an objective journalistic standpoint on it. When I interview people for these positions I don't necessarily look for people with television experience. I look for strong story tellers and wherever possible people with a journalistic background - and for Project Fame people with a musical background.
So it's a combination of the right heads in the team that together can give as shared and unbiased opinions all added into the mix. They're all working different shifts the whole time so you're getting different perspectives thrown into the pot. As unbiased as possible storytelling.
Tashi: Have you ever had a personal relationship with any of the people who do the ..... are in the .....?
Rikkie: Personal relationship ..... I was the voice of Big Brother as well .....
Tashi: Oh really?
Rikkie: Ja. And Leigh Bennie fell in love with me.
Tashi: With your voice?
Rikkie: Ja. Not as Rikkie, but as Big Brother - certainly I had personal relationships.
Tashi: Did you feel the same way about her?
Rikkie: No, no ..... I always see them all as my children - I take quite a paternal stance from this. In Big Brother you have to be a fair parent.
Tashi: So, did she meet up with you afterwards and really speak to you and .....?
Rikkie: Oh ja, every time I speak to her on the phone ..... the first time she saw me she couldn't look me in the face, she was so embarrassed.
Tashi: I remember her being in love with Big Brother with her hat on.
Rikkie: And flirting outrageously. We had a conversation a year later where we went on a cruise ship with the Big Brother 2 candidates and Leigh was there and she said the biggest thing that she missed - almost a year after coming out of the house - was not having Big Brother there.
Tashi: Having conversations .....
Rikkie: Someone who would just listen.
Tashi: Do you think she used Big Brother the best out of everybody who was there?
Rikkie: I think Brad used Big Brother very well as well.
Tashi: Was the team afraid of him?
Rikkie: No, we were concerned ..... I don't think afraid because you can't ever let that come into the equation because then they have the upper hand and the production loses its power, and if that ever happens you end up with a situation that happened in Big Brother Norway 1, where they actually mutinied.
Tashi: Mutiny?
Rikkie: Ja. They all climbed up on the roof and sat on the roof until the producers came and gave them what they wanted, and it resulted in the whole show falling to pieces.
Tashi: What did they want?
Rikkie: They wanted to see their family and friends.
Tashi: But it's Big Brother .....
Rikkie: Ja .....
Tashi: It's interesting, because when people become involved in a reality TV show I've often thought they have an exaggerated sense of their importance.
Rikkie: More especially when they come out ..... afterwards ..... and this is what I said to all Project Fame contestants - I said to them: "Feet on the ground", and no matter how often we've said it (and we've said it to all the groups), they come out and they turn into different creatures.
Tashi: It must have something to do with being on TV for such a huge amount of time and not being prepared for all the attention - particularly just for being you.
Rikkie: Also I think wherever you go people know who you are. You're instantly recognisable. If you look at these big Hollywood stars they've built it up through years and years. Happening so suddenly - it can't not affect you.
To come out from being no-one and suddenly walking out and everyone knows your name and everyone has an opinion about you and your life and the way you wake up in the morning. That's totally exposing your entire life to everyone.
How do people react? For a lot of people it's like: "Hang on a second - you guys have shared in my life, I don't know you from a bar of soap, I'm not in the show anymore and I need some privacy.
Tashi: Could you have done Big Brother?
Rikkie: Ja. I wanted to - but my wife said I couldn't ..... I was a huge fan of Big Brother before it even hit South Africa, and got the tapes from Holland. I loved the format and really wanted to enter and when my wife said no I phoned up Endemol and said: "I've got to work on this show."
I love reality storytelling. I love the nuance of real story telling.
Ends