Eight things we learnt making an epic adventure game show
Prized Apart Senior Casting Producer Kym Langer explains the great lengths the production team had to go through to create the tricky challenges for the show, including surviving being sieged by seagulls, Morrocan snow storms and travelling by convoy across the Sahara Desert...
Morocco is really big
We had our pick of stunning locations, from canyons to caves, and lakes to the desert. Each week our challenges looked dramatic and tested our adventurers in all different kinds of terrain. But, as Morocco is nearly 450,000 square kilometres, these locations were often far apart.
The longest journey we made was 13 hours over two days, when we travelled from Marrakech to the Sahara.
Survival Challenges aren’t as scary if you see someone else doing it first...
…So we didn’t give the adventurers a demonstration before the Survival Challenges took place. Of course, the adventurers were told exactly what they needed to do, but they didn’t get the opportunity to see it done. Our very experienced team who produced the Survival Challenges advised us that people were far more likely to do them if they saw someone else doing it first. So, as the Survival Challenge was the ultimate test of people overcoming their fears, we wanted them to accomplish this by themselves.
Snow is a mighty force to be reckoned with
You might not think that it could snow in Morocco (it's home to the Sahara Desert, after all) - but it does. En route to the leap of faith Survival Challenge, it started to snow. Our convoy transporting the production team, adventurers, safety team and camera crew were close to turning around and heading back. We put plans into action in case we couldn’t get the adventurers home for the studio. But in the end, Mother Nature looked kindly upon us and the snow stopped, so all went to plan.
A challenge that takes a minute to complete takes months to prepare
Take for example the canyon swing in Episode 1. We started researching this challenge six months before filming. We needed to find the right location - somewhere not too high, but not too low - and once we found it, we had to apply to the Moroccan authorities and the landowners for permission, not only to film there but to build. After of months of planning from the UK, we went to visit the site in Morocco and set the wheels in motion. Then, when we were finally in Morocco filming, it took three days to set the challenge with a team of riggers, health and safety advisors as well as the production team
Show a fish to a seagull and you’ve got trouble
In Episode 5 we had the adventurers weighing sardines for the last part of the Team Task. But, as soon as we got the 600 kilos of sardines, they were besieged by hundreds of seagulls - literally hundreds. We had to get five local volunteers to stand by each adventurer’s bucket and make sure the sardines didn’t get eaten by protecting them with hessian sacks!
It doesn’t take 20 minutes to build a flat-pack boat
In Episode 4 the adventurers had to build a boat to cross Lake Bin el Ouidane. The instructions said it would take 20 minutes, but when we tested it, it took the production team nearly two hours! (In fact, when we tested all our team tasks and challenges, it took the production team longer to complete them than the adventurers - go adventurers!)
The life of an adventurer is not glamorous
For our adventurers to embrace life in Morocco, we felt it was important for them to be without their creature comforts. So the girls only brought a few pieces of make-up and the boys had to adjust to life without their many hair products (which was harder for some adventurers than others). And then there was their adventure gear which they wore day in, day out. Whilst they were allowed to customise their uniforms – you'll probably notice Aaron’s leopard print and Katie’s diamantes – this was all they were allowed to bring in terms of everyday clothes. We did allow them to bring a pair of comfy shoes to change into after a hard day’s adventuring though!
Better to make a challenge at the top of a cave than the bottom
The leap of faith challenge in Episode 3 required our adventurers to jump from the top of the cave and grab hold of a trapeze, holding on for as long as possible. This meant bringing a huge amount of equipment down hundreds of narrow stairs in the dark. We had to bring down a weighted jib (a type of crane that you can attach a camera to), five cameras, a wooden beam, power tools, six rolls of camo netting and drapes, a gallery of six monitors and cabling, a lot of safety equipment - along with over 30 people. But was it worth it to capture the amazing footage of our adventurers as they dropped to the bottom? Absolutely!
