Don't get me wrong. It’s a Show
I have dealt with exactly three big TV show producers in my life. I just want to say hello to Brea, Jennifer, and Aron. You know what I am talking about; they are looking for stories and adventures in forums blogs YouTube etc. , and yes, believe it or not, they are under us here in this forum, always looking for something that may be useful for them to make something big out of it.
I rejected them for personal reasons I couldn't support. Just to give you an example, in 2002, a big TV production company came all the way from Europe to meet with me in Ecuador. They found an article about me mining in Ecuador and got in touch with me. At first, everything during the conversations with the producer was good. The financial offer was excellent for six months of running around with a film crew and an invisible army of helpers for their production. But I knew from our exploration that soon I would run out of good ground to mine. The gold price was too low back in those days to work that ground. I told the producer this, and folks you would not believe what he said straight into to my face. It’s good for the show that you run out of gold this is exactly what we need; we can’t show on television that you left your country to have a mining adventure and have been successful;
I asked him seriously what that meant, and he told me this: Can you imagine what happens if we show on television that you left your country and have success? The couch potato sheep would start to overthink their situation and maybe take the risk of doing the same thing I have done or something similar. Then the producer said so we could show you doing well, but then you fail. So the couch potato sheep can say what an idiot spent all the money for concessions, equipment etc. Leaving the home country for a failure its way better to stay safe at home, whether you're unemployed or not, and watch TV drink your beer without taking any risk in life. That was the point I told him not interested.
Another production crew contacted me after they found a news article with the name "The Lost Emeralds of the Inca." And yes, a part of this article is about me; they found it on the TreasureNet .They contacted the author and then got in touch with me. I told them yes, it’s dangerous, and at least a week of extreme hiking over the mountain ranges, crossing wild rivers in the jungle highlands, dealing with dangerous wildlife. So they came up with the scripted idea of taking a helicopter to bring us to the place where the lost mine was, so we would not walk to that jungle and mountain nightmare. for sure the helicopter ride you would not see later on TV What you would see are a few shots of the jungle with the mountains and a bunch of explores making their way in an easy going jungle section, pretending to live the tough life out in the jungle .10 km away from the nearest hotel. I never signed a contract not with them but I can guarantee you the confidentiality agreement also called a "nondisclosure agreement"or"NDA" makes it impossible for someone in those shows talking about the truth.