Monday 9th of June 2003.
I drove to LA Center Studios to meet the others from the MTV Reality show “Burnt.” MTV has multiple offices at this location and the “Burnt” show is one of them. We gathered in the lobby and left in white van shuttles a few minutes after 12 am heading for Q´s Billiards in downtown Pasadena.
At Q´s Billiards we sat around for a few hours while the crew installed their hidden cameras and microphones. I believe the reason why we came at the same time as the rest of the crew is that they could see how many extras they had so they could call in additional extras if needed, as I was called in Thursday for the rehearsal. Most of the extras were new, of the 20 extras there were probably 6 of us who had been there for the rehearsal. The rehearsal day there were many girls with bad attitudes. This time there were a lot of friendly people gathered.
The first “burn” was at 5.30pm and a girl I noticed from last time and I were placed at a pool table by the stairs out of camera and microphone reach. The guy who was to be “burned” would see us first when he came upstairs, and then continue further in to where the other pool tables were located.
The guy came with his sister and three friends, and all of them knew about the “burn” except the one guy.
The “seducers” talked to the guy and he did some dance moves and showed his tattoos to the girls. The billiard scene seemed like any normal club scene, and when the crew had enough material they told the “seducers” through their hidden ear piece to point up at a TV in one corner of the room which the crew would begin to show a scene from what they had just recorded. The guy would then be told that he had been “burnt.” The crew would come out with a camera while extras and his sister and friends would smile, having the guy suddenly discover that everything he had done for the last half hour had been filmed. The girls who were interested in him were just extras pretending to get him to do things to embarrass himself.
We did another “burn” very similar to the first. I was also this time the “point man” meaning I was the first person the guy who was to be “burnt” would see as he and his friends came up the stairs. Being the “point man” meant that I was down the hall from where the main “action” was and could not follow along in the corner of my eye of what was going on. O´well, it is probably a good thing that I was not visible on a reality show like this.
It was a late night, 10pm, before we finished and were ready to take the white van shuttles back to LA Center Studios to where all of us had parked.
Working on a set one comes into a close atmosphere with other people, and a strong group feeling comes forth. I enjoy the feeling of closeness to others, and the socialization that we do. It is sad when the day is over and we all go our own ways.