Les Stroud produced Survivorman before Man vs Wild aired

Written by

Jude Thaddeus L. Bautista

More and more people have gotten into outdoor activities such as climbing, trekking and mountain biking. Emergency situations where transport fails also require skills. That’s why survival shows that teach skills in the remotest parts of the world have exploded in popularity. Stories of man against nature have fascinated audiences throughout history. One of the pioneers of the concept of a survival show for TV is Les Stroud. His show ‘Survivorman’ will premiere on Discovery Channel on July 6^th, 2009. The show has already been an international hit.

Unlike ‘Survivor’ the reality show by Mark Burnett, ‘Survivorman’ is no game. What sets Les Stroud apart from other shows is that he is thrown into the wild by himself without a camera crew. He is left by himself not only to survive but also to film his ordeal as well. Locally, one of the more popular survival shows (also on Discovery) is ‘Man vs Wild’, hosted by Bear Grylls. ‘Man vs Wild’ will have a special episode on August with Will Ferrell as a celebrity guest. It is also a cross promotional effort for ‘Land of the Lost’ which stars Ferrell. ‘Man vs Wild’ while similar was produced several years after the success of ‘Survivorman’ in the U.S. Grylls also has the benefit of a camera crew. Les Stroud carries camera gear and sets up shots by himself while searching for shelter, food and warmth.

In a phone interview, Les was able to share a lot of his experiences from around the world. Lesexplained why his method of being alone is crucial to the concept of the show, “I think that the only way to truly show survival is to go out and actually survive. The only way to go out and actually survive is to be alone.  When you have a crew with you, you know you’re not really surviving, are you?  So, I think that in my case I have a situation where I’m left alone for seven full days, no one sees me, no one comes in.  If something goes wrong I have to deal with it myself.  I can’t just walk out of there with a crew. I’ve been on since the year 2001 and created this whole sort of genre.  As a result, what I’ve done is stay true to the cause of I’m out there to survive.”

Les Stroud is his own camerman, director and sound guy. He's completely alone in the wilderness trying to survive.

His documentary ‘Snowshoes and Solitude’ has won Best Film and Best documentary in two Film festivals. His show ‘Survivorman’ has also been nominated for 3 Gemini Awards. The Gemini is Canada’s television and broadcast industry award. Les was able to talk about how he achieved those awards, “I’m a very passionate filmmaker and I take three to five cameras with me.  So, I spend a lot of time setting up the cameras and putting them in trees and putting them on cliffs. And in fact I have been complimented sort of worldwide on my filmmaking within filmmaking associations.  I’ve been up for awards for best director as a result.  I’m not going to jump around from rock to rock because that’s not what you do in a survival situation.  I’m going to handle things a little more calmly, a little more slowly.  It’s a different approach.  It’s sort of the true reality of survival while I film it myself.”

While he has been chased by a jaguar and a wild moose, to him it was battling heat stroke in the Kalahari Desert as his most life threatening. And the one thing he always brings with him is his harmonica since he’s also an award winning musician. “I continue to perform and write music and record. I’ll be doing a musical tour that’s quite extensive, where it’s actually a theatrical film and music tour. I’ll have large screens and my images from around the world on those screens while I perform in front of them.”