Reality Rush's Races

Reality Rush, the adventure planning company that I co-founded with my friend Justin Walter, is gaining a lot of momentum! Reality Rush runs weekend team-building events based on reality shows like Survivor, The Amazing Race, The Mole and Big Brother. And in the past two weeks, we have produced two (Amazing) Races!

Both Races went incredibly well, and all the contestants had a great time. One of these races was for our first client, the staff of E! Live Events, and we are already scheduling upcoming events for groups including Teach For America and various colleges.

Our contestants have also given us rave reviews! Here are some quotes from post-Race surveys:

• "The closest you can get to being on the real show!" - Shaun Smith, 30
• "An unforgettable team-building experience that challenges every fiber of your being." - Jennifer Stewart, 25
• "Truly one of the best adventures I’ve undertaken in a long time!" - Gerry Johnston, 47

If you or your group would like to participate in one of our Reality TV inspired games, visit our website!

-Pete

Back (and busy) in LA!

I finally returned to Los Angeles last month after nine months of traveling! While I look for a new full-time job, I am doing various freelance web design and videography work, and have resumed development on my business Reality Rush.

I am heavily involved with Last Lantern Productions, a new L.A.-based production company launched by former Ithaca College professor Changhee Chun. I am one of the founding members, and we will be producing various video, web, multimedia and print productions for a variety of clients. If your business is in need of a production team, please visit our website.

I am also now freelancing for New Horizons Pictures, where I am a Web Producer. Our team is responsible for launching a new multimedia and e-commerce website to market legendary filmmaker Roger Corman's library of over 400 classic films. Other freelance web development projects I've taken on recently include the site for the documentary Craigslist Joe; student television station Rollins College TV; and dress wholesaler PolyUSA. I have also launched one more website of my own: Power Hour HQ, a directory of video drinking games for the college crowd!

-Pete

Stories told in just six words

Can you tell a story in just six words?

Ernest Hemingway was challenged to do just that in the 1920s, and it resulted in what he considered to be his best work: "For sale: Baby shoes. Never worn."

I was inspired by Hemingway's challenge, and thought that a website all about super short stories would be pretty cool - so I made one! Six Word Stories is a daily-updated collection of the best six word stories -- written by famous authors, amateurs from around the world, and submitted by fans of the site. It also has its own Twitter Feed.

This site launched just a week ago, and it's already a big success! Over 500 stories have been submitted, and it's had 50,000 unique visitors in the past two days. Check out Six Word Stories and let me know what you think.

-Pete

Happy New Year

Happy 2009, everybody!

I returned from my trip through Asia a few weeks ago, and it's great to be home in America! When I left at the beginning of July, I had just my backpack and a hunger for adventure. In all, I saw Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Olympics, China, Tibet, Nepal and India. The trip was absolutely incredible -- but it's hard to sum it all up here, so check out my travel blog for a more detailed account. One thing's for sure: I caught the travel bug, and I will be going on another long trip as soon as I have the chance.

I am now home in New York for the holidays, but I will be returning to Los Angeles in a few weeks. I hope to resume all the projects I left behind this summer, and try some new and exciting things as well.

I will also be seeking a new job when I return to LA; if you have any job opportunities, send me an email at pberg1@gmail.com!

-Pete

Bootstrappin' in Asia

Greetings from Nepal!

I am now in month four of my backpacking trip across Asia, and I'm having an absolutely amazing, life-changing time. I have climbed Mt. Fuji; slept on the beach in Okinawa; driven a moped up Taiwan's treacherous Taroko Gorge; marvelled at the Hong Kong skyline; watched America win gold at the Beijing Olympics; fed bamboo to giant pandas; herded yaks in Tibet; slept at the base of Mt. Everest; trekked through the Nepalese Himalayas; bungee jumped from the world's second highest freefall; made lots of friends; and learned so much. And that's just the beginning...

Along the way, I have been blogging occasionally at my travel blog, Bootstrappin', so I thought I would share it here.

I've posted hundreds of photos from my trip on this blog, and post whenever I find something interesting to talk about. I hope you enjoy reading about my discoveries and adventures!

-Pete

Traveling around the world!

I've always had a huge interest in travel, exploration and adventure, and I decided a long time ago that I wanted to see the world while I'm still young. Now, I am getting my chance!

Tomorrow, I am taking a one-way flight to Tokyo, and for the next six months, I will be backpacking around Asia -- starting in Japan, and heading west (and anywhere else the winds will take me). I've planned nothing in advance, so it should be very exciting trip. If all goes well, and my money lasts, I'm going to continue heading all the way around the world.

For the time being, I will be putting all of my television and Los Angeles-based projects on hold, and I have just wrapped my job at Actual Reality Pictures. I'm still going to update all of my websites while I travel, as best as I can, though I'm sure they'll also slow down a bit while I'm busy sightseeing and exploring.

I'm really excited for this trip, and I'll be sure to share my adventures with all of you as I go!

-Pete

Presenting: Reality Rush Adventures

Recently, a friend and I have been working to start an event-planning company called Reality Rush Adventures. Reality Rush runs weekend events based on Reality TV shows like Survivor, The Mole and The Amazing Race for parties, corporate retreats and team-building exercises.

In April, we ran our first game -- a three day Survivor event for 16 people in Leo Carrillo State Park outside of Malibu. You can watch a short trailer of it here:

Unlike conventional event planning companies, our events are much more elaborate and intense than the typical trust falls and ropes courses. We create an authentic Reality TV game, with all of the tribal councils, pitstops, twists and intricacies of the competitive reality shows on television. The only difference is that there's no cameras, and they take place over a weekend rather than a month.

We will be launching the official Reality Rush Adventures website soon at www.realityrush.com, and next month, we will be running two events: Sabotage: Los Feliz (based on The Mole), and The Race: City of Angels (based on The Amazing Race). Stay tuned to Reality Rush Adventures for the latest news on our company!

-Pete

Career Update

A quick update on what I've been doing career-wise.

In March, I took a job as a swing Associate Producer at Actual Reality Pictures, where I worked on Flip That House season 4 for TLC, and Greenovate for the Discovery Home network.

I am currently a Segment Producer for a new show on TLC called Should I Stay or Should I Go?, also produced by Actual Reality. It's a home renovation show about the American mortgage crisis, where we help families in danger of losing their homes to foreclosure fix up their house, thus allowing them to refinance. I spend most of my days out in the field, shooting, conducting interviews and field-producing. It's a fun job where I get a lot of creative input, and I'm having a great time working on this show.

I have also recently become a member of a Reality TV think tank called The G Group. The G Group is a company headed by executive producer Brian Gadinsky (American Idol, America's Most Wanted, American Gladiators), and its primary function is to come up with new Reality TV concepts -- and then sell them to networks. As a member of the think tank, I attend weekly meetings where we come up with original reality show ideas, and then develop them. If we manage to sell an idea, everyone in the group gets a cut, as well as a job on the show (if we want it). I'm very excited about this opportunity!

-Pete

The Race featured on Fox Reality Channel's Reality Remix and in IC View

It's been nearly a year since I graduated from Ithaca College, and The Race is still getting national press! A few days ago, I was interviewed by the Fox Reality Channel for their show Reality Remix. The Race will be featured on a special upcoming episode, due to air in June. (I will try to post a clip from the show here once it airs.)

The Race was also featured in the latest issue of IC View, Ithaca College's alumni magazine. The article gives a great look at how The Race came about, and how we were able to pull everything off. You can read the article online, or download the scanned version!

-Pete

My new video blog: Pie Heaven

Yesterday, I launched a new video blog called Pie Heaven!

One of my favorite hobbies is watching online viral videos, and I've always wished there were a site I could go to that would take the very best of the day's viral videos and put them in one place for me to watch.

That's the idea behind Pie Heaven -- it's a daily-updated website where my friends and I post the best and funniest viral videos that we find online. Granted, there are already several other websites already doing the same thing, but our goal is to post new and undiscovered videos, rather than re-posting ultra-popular videos that everyone has already seen. Hopefully Pie Heaven will grow and become a popular diversion for people all over the Internet.

You can visit the site at: www.pieheaven.net

-Pete

The Race 2 wins two PEGASYS Awards

Last week, The Race 2 was awarded two PEGASYS Awards for excellence in public access television. The show won in the category for "Best Documentary," and was also the highest-rated overall program in the competition, thus receiving the award of "Best Educational Access." As one of the four top-rated programs, PEGASYS will be sending The Race 2 to represent Tompkins County in a national access television competition, the Hometown Awards, to be held in July by the Alliance for Community Media.

This is the second year in a row that The Race was honored at the PEGASYS awards (the first season won the same two categories in February 2007). Not only that -- this was the fourth year in a row that one of my productions received an award. Unicorn Boy won "Best Comedy" and "Best Educational Access" in 2006, and The Solarium with Professor Smedley Drake won "Best Educational Access" in 2005.

-Pete

Demo Reel updated

I have done a bit of an update to my reel -- most notably increasing the quality of the video significantly, by pulling clips from the original master tapes rather than already compressed clips. Take a look:

I have made DVDs of this as well. If you'd like a copy, please email me at pberg1@gmail.com!

-Pete

New Blog Launched: Bandergrove.com

On Sunday, I launched a new blog: Bandergrove.com, which I plan to update on a regular basis. I'll be writing general interest articles about topics I find interesting, and things that I've done.

My first post has already generated thousands of hits, and was featured on LAist.com, the front page of Current.com, and at G4TV.com. My latest article was about Hiking to the Hollywood Sign.

Be sure to check it out!

Also, I recently released another issue of my QuickBasic / Freebasic programming magazine, QB Express, which has a following of several thousand people. Since 2004, I have released twenty-six issues (and counting) of this magazine, and have published hundreds of articles and programming tutorials in QB Express.

-Pete

The Race 2 hits it big on the Internet

The Race 2 has generated quite a bit of a stir online, and is currently being viewed by several thousand fans every week at ICTV.org. Not only that, but the show is actively being discussed on dozens of message forums, people are writing play-by-play recaps of episodes to keep the Internet fans up-to-date, and we were even mentioned on MSNBC.com:

[The Race] doesn't circle the globe, but its challenges, drama, cast and editing are reminiscent of the series that inspired it — so much so that you'll quickly forget you're watching something that doesn't have a multi-million dollar budget.

You can find recaps of Race 2 episodes at DingoRue.com and at The Reality Fan Forum. Also, an article on Online Media Cultist predicts that there will be a big online reality tv hit in the next 6 - 9 months, and cites The Race as an example of a stellar web-based show. As the author says, "we're set for a paradigm shift in how 'television' is thought of, funded, covered, and viewed." I couldn't agree more. I am currently planning to shoot a brand new, low-budget, web based reality show in the next few months in Los Angeles -- so maybe that big reality hit will be my next project.

Today, I will be uploading the final Race 2 episode to ICTV.org, so be sure to check it out!

-Pete

The Race Featured on Reality Blurred

The Race was featured today on Reality Blurred, the web's most popular reality tv weblog, which is edited by television reporter Andy Dehnart. He gave us a rave review, calling the show "equally amazing" compared to the real Amazing Race, and encouraged his readers to watch it as a substitute to the CBS version, which will not be airing this fall.

This is a big complement, because if anyone is an expert on reality tv, it is Andy Dehnart. I have been a long-time fan of Reality Blurred, and was very honored to have my show featured. Check out the article here!

-Pete

Fuse Magazine's article on The Race!

Fuse Magazine recently ran a fantastic article on The Race, the reality show that I produced for Ithaca College Television during my last two semesters. The article is entitled "The Fantasy of Reality TV Comes to Life" and was written by Brian Roth.

Since the airing of season one, The Race has quickly become ICTV’s most popular show, drawing the most viewers of any on-air production.

Click here to read the article in its web-version, or download a scanned version of the print publication.

The Race has won several awards and was featured in many newspapers and local newscasts. Hopefully it will help convince some incoming freshman to go to Ithaca College as well!

-Pete

Check out my "Featured Projects"

I added a sidebar to this main page to feature some of my best work in several categories:

• The Race (documentary / video editing)
• QB Express (online magazine / writing)
• Unicorn Boy (animation)
• ICTV.org (multimedia website)
• Thunderbird Atlatl (business website)

I also hope to compile two Demo Reels of my best video and my best animation work in the coming weeks, so be sure to check back.

-Pete

Welcome

Hello, and welcome to my new portfolio website!

My name is Pete Berg, and I am a 2007 graduate of Ithaca College with a degree in Television and Radio. I will soon be relocating to Los Angeles, and seeking employment in the television, film or multimedia industry. I decided to create this website to show off some of my best work (and also to practice my web programming skills).

I have a very strong background in non-fiction and documentary, as well as animation, web design and writing. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to email me at pberg1@gmail.com. And be sure to keep checking back -- I plan to add new content here on a regular basis, and I'm always busy with one project or another!

-Pete

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