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MTV film rolls at Sierra-at-Tahoe

Robert Stern

In-between takes for MTV’s spring break show “Search and Record,” veejay Brian McFayden and the contestants jumped up and down trying to stay warm at the top of Sierra-at-Tahoe’s Grand View Quad.

Multiple cameras taped the opening segments of the show to create that quick-cut edit for which MTV is known, and producers made suggestions to competitors about what they should say and do.

“We’re trying to capture what is going on in Tahoe in the age group that is part of our audience,” said Jenn Palchinsky, the show’s executive producer. “These kids fit right into our demographic and some things are wild and crazy and some are fun and silly.”



The hope is the show will become a regular series, Palchinsky said.

The show takes a cue from the popularity of reality-based programming that MTV invented in the early 1990s with the “Real World,” and which has proliferated with various spinoffs such as CBS’s “Survivor.”



“We just want to make it look casual and comfortable,” McFayden said. “We want it to be like hanging out with friends, and I’m going to make them go find things.”

Teams for “Search and Record” were chosen from casting calls held at Nero’s, the Tudor Pub, the Island and the Stateline Hard Rock Cafe.

Two teams of three compete against each other in a scavenger hunt. The winners get a trip to Cancun, Mexico, the primary location of MTV’s spring break programming.

The Conquerors from San Diego (Andria Webb, Corey Loomis, Ian Boshoff) and Money Train from San Francisco (Travis Omlid, Lidia Hernandez, Perry Gordon) spent Martin Luther King weekend taping what will be a half-hour episode for “Snowed In,” the winter segment of MTV’s spring break. Most of the six hours of “Snowed In” will take place at Big Bear Mountain in Southern California.

The two teams start at the top of Sierra-at-Tahoe and are on a mission to digitally record 10 items, which were chosen by Tahoe residents. Each item is worth between 25 and 200 points and include shaving ” ‘n sync” on a snowboarder’s head, getting a ride down the mountain with a skier or snowboarder, and getting a girl to drink a shot from a male contestant’s belly button.

Bonus points are earned by getting random people to show their naked rear end for the camera.

“They will actually see us how we really are,” said Corey Loomis from the Conquerors. “This is exactly how we are at home.”

When asked if he was concerned about how he will be perceived by the audience he said: “I don’t care … If they don’t like whoI am then too bad.”

Perry Gordon from Money Train has a similar point of view.

“I don’t care at this point,” he said. “It’s all in fun. I’m just going to have a good time.”


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