Tuesday, May 21, 2013

By Sam Decker
Published: May 14, 2009

Three video cameras rolled as a group of conspicuously attractive young men and women wearing Black Dog employee tee-shirts walked down the Coastwise Wharf Company dock in Vineyard Haven.

The young people were part of a cast chosen from among hundreds who responded to ads seeking "year-round locals of the Vineyard, returning summer revelers, and first-time visitors between the ages of 19 and 28," for the proposed reality television series, "The Vineyard," a working title.

The crew of a planned reality show, "The Vineyard," while filming for a short pilot at Coastwise Wharf Company dock in Vineyard Haven last Friday. Photo by Steve Myrick

The Los Angeles based production company 25/7 Productions, which also created NBC's "The Biggest Loser," and TLC's "A Model Life," filmed at various Island locations last weekend. The company will use the footage to create a short pilot to present to CW Television Network.

If executives approve the episode, the cast and crew will return in late July to shoot eight one-hour episodes over a five- to six-week period, according to David Broome, executive producer of "The Vineyard."

A casting website describes the show as a "groundbreaking docu-soap" that will combine elements of reality TV and narrative drama in a style similar to MTV's "The Hills."

"For us, it's about trying to play Martha's Vineyard for real," Mr. Broome told a reporter as he stood in front of the Black Dog Tavern Friday.

"You're 20 something years old," Mr. Broome explained, summarizing the series, "about to get out of college, and you're coming to Martha's Vineyard. You're trying to figure out what you want to do with the rest of your life and you come here to have fun and make some money. That's what this series is about. Who hooks up with who, and who becomes friends with who and who doesn't."

A news report on February 19, that Hollywood was returning to Martha's Vineyard - at the mvtimes.com archives, link to "Martha's Vineyard docu-soap planned" - generated considerable online comment in The Martha's Vineyard Times. Many readers were concerned that the show would inaccurately portray the Vineyard.

Oak Bluffs town officials also reacted with a mix of curiosity and dismay when they received a letter in April from Hugh Camargo Jr., executive in charge of productions for 25/7 Productions. Mr. Camargo outlined the company's tentative plans for filming the series on-location during the summer.

"The Vineyard," Mr. Camargo wrote, "is an Island where the rich and poor collide, where princesses find paupers, where jealousies emerge, and where old summer rivalries invariably flare up. It's is a world of glitz, glamour, sailing, and crab cakes, where the only guarantee is the meshing of all different sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds looking to let loose and have a little fun - which is usually a great recipe for drama."

Oak Bluffs selectmen discussed the letter at their meeting on April 28. In a telephone conversation Tuesday, Oak Bluffs selectman Kerry Scott described the tone of the letter as "sleazy, cheesy." A critic of the show, she added, "I was sorry there was no opportunity to vote no, even if it was symbolic."

"We're here because the Vineyard is unassuming and unpretentious," Ms. Scott said. "It's breathtaking in its natural beauty, and they're talking about all this contrived social stuff."

Of the current 13-member cast, two grew up on the Vineyard: Sean O'Brien, 27, a construction worker who lives in Vineyard Haven, and 23-year-old Emma Lovewell, who grew up in Edgartown and currently lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.

The producers have instructed the cast members not to speak to the press. Reached on his cell phone, Mr. O'Brien said as much to a Times reporter.

The cast stayed in a house the company rented on Dunham Road in Edgartown. The house and property on Edgartown Harbor was the setting for a party and beach bonfire Saturday that will be featured in the short pilot.

Mr. Broome explained that the first episode "is about our cast coming over to Martha's Vineyard and moving in together, as they would with a bunch of kids renting a house."

According to Mr. Broome, other cast members may work at bakeries or boutiques, adding that one cast member "is going to valet park boats." He said the cast will actually be employed at these businesses, "enough for us to be able to film them."

Mr. Broome attempted to allay fears that the show would misrepresent Martha's Vineyard, saying, "We have to come here to learn what really takes place and make adjustments in our series."

The decision to cast Mr. O'Brien was made to show that the Vineyard "is not a blue blood, elite place that only the wealthy come to," Mr. Broome said. "We're trying to show that you have some wealthy people, but you also have some regular folk, if you want to call it that, and that everybody gets along and they mix together, and that brings out some great dynamics."