Keeping it real in reality TV

You’re on candid camera!” “Sashay away.” “Welcome to my crib.” These phrases, all popularised by reality TV shows, are now part of the public vernacular. For decades, reality series have dominated pop culture, providing an escape from everyday life and a window into the experiences of others. From fly-on-the-wall series like Candid Camera and Jersey Shore to long-running game shows such as Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, competitions like American Idol and The X Factor to dating shows such as The Bachelor and Love is Blind, reality TV covers just about any person, place or thing you could imagine.

Otherwise known as ‘unscripted content’, reality TV programmes consistently rank among the most popular productions. According to Nielsen’s top ten report, Love Island USA was the most-streamed programme in America from 7-13 July 2025. On traditional TV, America’s Got Talent, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Celebrity Family Feud, Big Brother and America’s Funniest Home Videos all found a spot in the top ten between 28 July and 3 August.

Reality TV comes in all shapes and sizes, and each format requires a distinct filming technique. For some programmes, that’s a single handheld camera and a street team; for others, there are hundreds of devices set up, designed to surveil participants. We go behind the scenes on four distinct reality programmes – Mr Beast’s videos, The Great Pottery Throw Down, Chopper Cops and Bauer sucht Frau – to discover how they are made.

Beast mode

Inspired by Netflix’s scripted series Squid Game, Beast Games is a reality competition created and hosted by Mr Beast, otherwise known as Jimmy Donaldson. This Prime Video original series follows 1000 contestants who compete for a $5m cash prize – the largest lump sum in reality TV history.

But Beast Games didn’t appear out of thin air; Mr Beast has been posting elaborate YouTube videos on his channel since 2012, and has since grown his following to 421 million subscribers – the most of any YouTuber. He uses his channel for philanthropy as well as entertainment, raising money for both social and environmental causes.

Mr Beast’s competitions are a key component of his channel and brand. Produced in much the same manner as a televised reality series, his video Ages 1-100 Decide Who Wins $250,000 was one of his most complex stunts so far, bringing 100 participants together in a Squid Game-style dormitory and having them endure elimination challenges. Jason Elliott, a regular Mr Beast collaborator, served as DOP on the 40-minute video.

The scale of the project was ‘massive’, he begins. Each contestant cube came with three cameras and one tablet each – so 300 cameras and 100 tablets in total. Elliott used a mixture of GoPro Hero 12s and Marshall POV cameras, plus a few ceiling-mounted cameras, to capture interactive content. He recalls recording ‘several petabytes’ of data, with everything at 1080/30p.

Because the content is unscripted, cameras must be running 24 hours a day until the competition ends. “Nothing is planned,” Elliott says. “It’s all very in-the-moment, and we have to be ready to adjust our strategy at the drop of a hat. Being prepared to capture those unexpected events as they occur is crucial.”

The previous 1-100 challenge, Ages 1-100 Fight For $500,000, took almost eight days to film. “As you can imagine, it would create quite a lot of additional labour if we had to repeatedly go in and change all the batteries and memory cards,” says Elliott. “While that technically could have been done, it simply wasn’t a feasible option based on the ongoing disturbance it would cause the players. Our camera team has a policy of non-interference, so we made the decision to hard power everything and record it all remotely, using Atomos Shogun Studio 2s.” In addition, Elliott employed the Atomos Sumo 19 to record multiple feeds onto one large monitor.

When planning Mr Beast’s most recent 1-100 video, Elliott again opted for the Shogun Studio 2, calling it ‘a clear-cut choice’. With 46 units in operation, the Shogun Studio 2s delivered on modularity and flexibility, giving Elliott and his team a ‘super-efficient way to record and monitor vast quantities of cameras’ while also allowing them to ‘easily expand or reduce our racks’.

Elliott has high hopes for more 1-100 videos in the future. And while Beast Games has also been renewed for an additional two seasons, the possibilities for Mr Beast’s YouTube channel are endless. “We as a camera team, and as a channel, always aim to do our best and push the limits of what’s possible,” Elliott concludes.

All fired up

Much like The Great British Bake Off, The Great Pottery Throw Down sees ten contestants compete with one another to be crowned Top Potter. First released in 2015, the series first aired on BBC Two, before moving to More 4 and then Channel 4. Produced by Love Productions, the show films in Stoke-on-Trent, with a potter being eliminated in each episode.

Creating a series like The Great Pottery Throw Down is no easy task, with up to ten contestants, all standing at their own stations, plus the presenters to focus on. Because the potters are working under time pressure, the camera operators – and later, the editors – rely heavily on time stamps for sorting through footage and keeping the show’s events in chronological order.

To film Series 7, Love Productions used a combination of Sony FX9 and A7S III cameras, plus 12 GoPro Hero 11s – capturing the contestants from all angles. The team incorporated Atomos Ultra Sync One and Ultra Sync Blue timecode devices, connected wirelessly using Atomos Air Glu technology, to simplify the
post-production workflow.

In the video village, the team mounted Ultra Sync Ones to the FX9 and A7S III cameras, capturing synchronised audio and video content. With 25 hours of battery life, the Ultra Sync Ones could withstand an entire day on set and then some.

Meanwhile, the Ultra Sync Blues were paired with the Hero 11s, embedding timecodes within each file and transmitting this information to the Ultra Sync Blue iOS Slate app. This set-up synced 22 cameras and six multitrack audio recorders in total, making The Great Pottery Throw Down a breeze in the edit suite.

From up above

Police shows never seem to go out of style (originally airing in 1989, Cops, now in its 37th season, is one of the longest-running shows in US TV history). CBS/Paramount+’s Chopper Cops takes to the sky, centring on the Marion County Sheriff’s Department and its elite Air One police pilots in ten half-hour episodes. Produced by V1 Productions and See It Now Studios, Chopper Cops offers a new perspective on the police force, following pilots as they support ground units from above.

To capture the show’s high-stakes aerial operations, the crew used a slew of Marshall devices, including eight CV506 Miniature Full-HD, two CV568 Miniature Global with Genlock and two CV504-WP All-Weather Micro cameras.

Police operations are intense, and cop cars – or cop choppers – don’t typically come with additional space for a camera crew. Chopper Cops’ crew chose Marshall cameras so they could remain unobtrusive and achieve unique angles while capturing footage. It was crucial not to interfere with the police work.

The crew mounted a CV506 camera inside the deputies’ cars and helicopter, recording the cops from their dashboards or, in some instances, over their shoulders. Meanwhile, the CV568 camera – the most capable in Marshall’s miniature line-up – captured additional interior, high-definition footage.

For exterior shots of the cars and copter in motion, the Marshall CV504-WP proved the best choice. This weatherproof camera captured POV shots and footage of the helicopter’s infrared camera, delivering 10-bit 4:2:2 video even in low light. Thanks to Marshall, Chopper Cops could deliver on the show’s immersive action without jeopardising the aircraft’s mission.

Somebody to love

European reality series Bauer sucht Frau sees farmers looking for love in the Austrian countryside, blending rural charm with modern romance. Produced in part by ProSiebenSat.1 Puls 4, Bauer sucht Frau has been airing on ATV since 2005. Now in its 22nd season, the show has led to several engagements, weddings and babies so far, head of creation Martin Härtlein shares. It streams on JOYN – “as we call it, the super streamer”, he says – for German, Austrian and Swiss audiences on demand.

Although there’s an alternative German version, the Austrian series features a separate cast and is more ‘connected to the countryside’, says Härtlein. “From the start, we try to display the beauty and uniqueness of country life. Escapism is written in capital letters; it’s the most important thing we do. We want to be really honest, really human and close to the people, not make fun of them or show them as hillbillies who can’t get a woman. We take this seriously.”

To blend traditional Austria with modern sensibilities, Bauer sucht Frau’s characters aim to represent 21st-century life. “We include gay and lesbian farmers,” clarifies Tim Conrad, ProSiebenSat.1 Puls 4’s creative concepter. At the same time, “it gives you these warm-hearted feelings of family values and Austrian customs,” he says. As one of ATV’s leading programmes, Bauer sucht Frau sees high viewership on JOYN, making it successful as both a live broadcast and VOD.

ATV’s marketing and creation team manage Bauer sucht Frau’s advertising campaigns. Besides the opening sequence, they also create promo videos with each farmer, not just to advertise the series, but also to scout out ordinary Austrians who might like to participate. 

To do this well, the team need high-end production values with rapid turnaround times.

Filmed annually in mid-April, Bauer sucht Frau sees 15 farmers seeking love over a ten-day schedule. “After ten days, you have tons of material,” explains Härtlein. “The time between when we’re shooting and when the campaign starts is pretty tight, so we don’t have much time for post. To start this process right away, we decided to use camera to cloud,” he says of the 2024 season.

“Atomos was a game changer. We had both the Ninja Ultra and Shogun on the tour. They were connected to the internet via a mobile router with 5G, enabling the camera-to-cloud workflow,” he continues. “We then used Adobe’s Frame.io software, but camera proxies came from the Atomos device directly into the ProSiebenSat.1 Puls 4 HQ in Vienna.”

Bauer sucht Frau is shot largely in remote locations around the Alps. On prior seasons, Conrad sent dailies via physical hard drives. “It took a lot of time, and the editors in the station didn’t know what to expect, so couldn’t give feedback,” he describes. “Now, they get files immediately when our camera operator pushes record. They’re much more involved in the process, can give feedback straight away, then I can alter things while still on the farm,” he continues. “It also makes post-production much faster; they can start editing from day one.”

More practically, camera-to-cloud technology affords Conrad extra time. If the weather is bad, he can’t delay production. “I have to shoot what and when I can,” he says. “‘The sun always shines on TV’ is our motto.”

Art of illusion

Whether it’s a potter or policeman, reality TV allows audiences to live in someone else’s shoes. To build an escapist fantasy that is also believably real, “the goal is to get as many people as possible off the set, because they’re just a distraction from the story the viewers want to see”, suggests Paul Richards, chief revenue officer at PTZ Optics.

“The magic of reality TV is that the viewer assumes everything they’re watching is happening organically, just as it would for those participants on a normal day,” he continues. But for camera operators and other crew members, ‘we know that’s not entirely true’.

As with Mr Beast’s 1-100 videos and Chopper Cops, remotely controlled POV and PTZ cameras “can help remove that extra crew presence”, says Richards, “allowing for a much more natural interaction between members of the cast.” Meanwhile, shows like The Great Pottery Throw Down and Bauer sucht Frau – which stick to a tight schedule – benefit from tools like timecodes and camera to cloud that expedite post-production.

Whatever your cup of reality TV tea, there is so much more to it than first meets the eye. Thanks to top-of-the-line production technology, unscripted shows are only continuing to get bigger and better.

This feature was first published in the Autumn 2025 issue of FEED.