Cayman Islands-based fans of US reality series ‘Survivor’ have been starring in their very own version of the hit TV show, with the first episode set to debut online later this month.
‘Survivor Cayman Islands’ is the passion project of Australian lawyer Joseph Bates, 31, who loved watching shows such as ‘Survivor’ and ‘Big Brother’ when he was growing up.
“Those shows were in their heyday then and ‘Survivor’ was one of those formats which, while not inventing reality TV, really put it on the map in terms of what it could do,” he says.
Undeterred by applying unsuccessfully for the Australian ‘Survivor’, Bates took part in a 24 hour “live reality game” version of the show, in a TV equivalent of fan fiction, and was instantly hooked.
“It was a lot of fun,” he says. “I made some really great friends through it. There’s nothing like the shared trauma of voting each other out as a way to bond!”
A six-day ‘Survivor’ game in Canada followed, so when Bates relocated to the Cayman Islands nearly two years ago, it was only a matter of time before he decided that he had to create his own.
“I was on the beach one day, looking around at the sand and the coconuts and the water and the heat,” he recalls, “and it felt like I was actually on the set of ‘Survivor’. And I thought, why don’t I do my own show here? I just decided to go for it.”
Finding the castaways
Bates put together a pitch document and reached out to people across island, making connections and meeting as many people as possible.
“What I love about the community here is that people are very open to new ideas and lots of people were willing to help,” he says.
He partnered with a camera crew who were looking for reality TV experience and then set out to find his castaways.
“I deliberately wanted to cast people who weren’t familiar with the show,” he says. “I wanted people to be authentic and to not really know what to expect.”
Bates ended up with six men and six women aged between 21 to 55, from a diverse range of nationalities already living in the Cayman Islands, from Caymanian to Canadian, British, Belgian, Filipino, American and South African.
The show itself was filmed over two days last April in East End’s Barefoot Beach and Colliers Beach. Even though the timespan of the programme is short compared to ‘Survivor’ itself, which is filmed over many weeks, Bates says that there was still all the drama associated with reality TV.
Drama and chaos
“Everyone had a very different journey,” he says, while being careful to avoid giving away any spoilers. “There were the underdogs, and there were people on top, who got blindsided. There was a lot of drama, a lot of chaos, some strategy, and I think that people are really going to enjoy watching it unfold.”
Bates, who funded the project entirely himself, is unfazed about the possibility of ‘Survivor’ lawyers getting in touch.
“I guess there’s a bit of a grey area with these kinds of fan-made shows,” he says. “As a lawyer, I did my own due diligence on this, about broadcast rights, about copyright, trademark and all that kind of stuff, and they don’t really care too much about these fan-made games. It’s not something I’m particularly worried about.”
Predicting a winner
As a first-time director and presenter, Bates says he’s really happy with the end result.
“Even if we hadn’t filmed it and I just did it with my friends for the weekend,” he said, “I would have been happy with the way that it turned out.”
Thousands of people have already seen the series trailer on YouTube and on social media, with the posts receiving many positive comments, which bodes well for the success of the show. But even Bates didn’t predict the ultimate winner. “That’s the game I guess!” he says. “Some people really surprised me.”
“I would love to do a season two,” he adds. “It’s on the cards. I’m already getting inundated with people wanting to apply for the next series.”
Once he has a finished series under his belt, it might be easier to get serious outside backing next time, and maybe even make some money on the project, although that wasn’t the goal the first time around.
“My goal at the start was just to give people the ‘Survivor’ experience that I’ve experienced,” says Bates. “Playing the game myself was quite a life changing experience, because it really stripped me back and made me reflect on the things that I really value in life.
“A lot of the contestants said they pushed themselves further than they ever have before, so it can be a good character-building experience. Mainly, I just wanted other people to find out what it was like, because I don’t think you can get anything negative out of this experience.”
‘Survivor Cayman Islands’ premieres on YouTube on March 23.
Related Videos
