Hired man in a bear suit because they couldn't find a tame bear for the shoot
From BearWiki
Confirmed: The crew, unable to find a tame bear to stage the scene, had a crew member crawl around in a bear suit.
Back when BearWiki was started, we had no idea the depth of what would be exposed, everything from staying in hotels to chilling on Oahu when pretending to be stranded on an island. But really, this takes the cake. [1]
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Latest TV fake scenes: 'Grizzly attack' on survival show was man in fancy-dress bear costume
By JAMES TAPPER - More by this author ยป Last updated at 15:18pm on 30th July 2007
To the viewers, it was the moment TV adventurer Bear Grylls narrowly escaped the attentions of a hungry wild bear.
Yet it seems he was not in quite as much danger as those watching might have thought.
Grylls was menaced by nothing more threatening than a colleague in a fancy-dress bear costume, according to a survival expert present at the filming.
Grylls, whose daredevil antics have entranced viewers of his Channel 4 series Born Survivor, had filmed a sequence for another show in which his makeshift camp seemed to be invaded by a grizzly bear in the middle of the night.
The Discovery Channel, which aired the show, insisted the pantomine bear outfit was hired 'as a prank'
Apparently in great danger, he bravely filmed a black shape rustling around the embers of his campfire, before telling viewers of the dangers of wild bears and fleeing the camp.
Yet survival expert Ron Hood has claimed the black shape seen in the show was not a man-eating grizzly but actually a colleague in a costume.
The Discovery Channel, which aired the show, insisted that the pantomime bear outfit was hired "as a prank" by the crew and no footage which included the bear costume was broadcast.
But the programme does include a shot of a dark black shape, rustling in the camp a few feet away - something Discovery was unable to explain.
The makers of the show originally tried to hire a tame bear but the plan fell through
Mr Hood, who was hired by producers Diverse TV as an adviser for the show, said the makers originally tried to hire a tame bear, but asked him to find a fancy-dress costume when the plan fell through.
And while viewers are led to believe the 'bear' incident is spontaneous, the scene was scripted long in advance. The Mail on Sunday has obtained a script in which the scene is headlined 'Grizzly Attacks Camp'.
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Read the article. It just gets better and better. The script for the scene, obtained by the paper, has the scene titled, "Scene 10: Grizzly Attacks Camp". Plenty more gems are also revealed (below).
[edit] Analysis
Support: "The bear suit was REALLY REALLY used. One of the crew dressed up in the suit and attacked the shelter with Eddiebear inside. The cameraman was in there with Eddiebear and the producer (the guy behind the guy in the suit) was giving direction on how he was to attack the shelter. The bear stuck his nose in the shelter and the crew shook the shelter to make it look like the bear was almost in. There is a piece of plywood in one of the non published photos. The plywood was to act as a "green screen" against which the editor could lay in stock footage of a bear prowling outside.
I must admit that we were all laughing. It was just so damned funny at the time. I believe they showed the bear in the pilot but that got recut later when the series was renamed to MVW and I think the definitive bear scenes were reduced to a dark shape prowling... it was still the guy in the suit though. At the time we shot it I was kinda thinking that they couldn't possibly expect an audience to believe the attack. Later that evening while we were eating our snacks in the lodge where we stayed (Salmon River Lodge) they reviewed the footage and at that point I knew they were going to try to use it....
Keep in mind that all of this is in that high fake melodrama and heavy music that makes Eddie exciting when he takes a shit. I think he was trying to emulate the Crocodile hunter delivery. If Steve had not been killed I think this show would have died off. I think a lot of his viewers switched over...
Ron" -- From Ron Hoods forum.[http://survival.com/IVB/index.php?showtopic=14528&st=0
Oppose: This whole article is founded on nothing but the word of a ex-employee that was fired after the first episode. Not exactly credible.
Support: No evidence or reference that Ron Hood was fired. Being an ex-employee does not reduce the credibility of a person.
Neutral: Generally 'secrets' from television shows tend to not come from people who are currently employed by said show, unless they want to lose their job, or worse, get sued for breaching any confidentiality contract they may have signed. If the ex-employee were lying, the television show could sue for libel/slander.
