Can you lead an off-grid community?

[mikeo]

I have a neighbor who lives on top of the mountain from me who has lived off grid now for close to 30 years. He built all his own beautiful hand built log buildings from timber off his land and his place looks like a movie set from a 30's family movie complete with chickens and dogs roaming the yard. He with his wife raised two great boys who are now both in collage. I don't know if they would be interested or not, but their solar system is pretty antiquated by today's standards. He drives an old diesel Mercedes with veggie oil he gets from the local restaurants.

[PhilS]

I'd request that the moderators don't remove this thread. I haven't seen anything to indicate 'spam'. A production company wants to do reality TV about living off-grid? GREAT!!

Phil

[BB.]

I will leave it up for now.

In the, the end, while I personally love technological shows (remember "How its Made"?), I would assume that a successful show is going to revolve around the people/characters themselves and their "adventures".

Something like Alone in the Wilderness (retired man builds cabin in wilderness and lives a subsistence existence). Updated with solar/modern trappings.

-Bill

[peakbagger]

I dont hold out a lot of hope for it being a positive portrayal of an off gird community. Those shows are set up to generate drama solar is just a hook to get folks to watch it but what they really are looking for are a bunch of screw ups that they can dramatize.

Then again the "actors" seem to make out pretty well if they don't mind being portrayed as idiots. If you look at the trucks and equipment the gold rush guys have on the second season they are driving brand new high end rigs. There is some sort of profit participation on the actors part to do whatever they are told to get the ratings cranked up so its to their incentive to give it plenty of drama

[niel]

raw tv,
it is important that you keep this more open to all here rather than if you have specifics to email you. you are possibly limiting yourself by staying that private as others would be interested in what you'd have to say too. i need to add that i will keep it going as this thread will stand and if it fails it will be by rawtv's doing or naws's overuling me.

you said you won't pay for the property or the equipment, but i'm sure there are those out there who'd want to know what you might pay for.

also, will the cameras be on 24/7 and basically everywhere? the other shows weren't quite as invasive to privacy as what you are proposing here and many would want to know the boundaries.

i don't think leading a community is the right wording either as this makes it more cultish or communistic and most off gridders are not in this category. you have a stereotype image of this and many that are off grid.

remember that i opted to leave this open and on the forum in spite of my apprehensiveness towards this and i'm sure the members also have this, as well as the curiosity of how you plan to lay this out. i realize that you don't want to give too much away, but it has to be more than you are presently doing openly on the forum.

i said it and others did too that it isn't so much that we need to get away because we don't like people as it is the control, excessive taxes, dumb rules and laws greed, crime, etc that society imposes against us. i am in an urban area and by any standard i am poor. the biggest crime that goes on here with me is the constant high taxes that they are trying to double in my county after they've already raised those taxes this year. i can tell you that if things don't stop with this that i may need to leave, but i lack that real ability to move on for many reasons and not just financially. this is more info than i'd normally place here openly on the forum, but i know i'm not alone in this plight to whatever degree. it is a catch 22 for me.

[jeffkruse]

Please leave the thread, it seems valid.

At what point are you “off Grid”? Are we talking the electrical grid only or everything else? If it’s everything else then what constitutes a grid? If you interact with other people are you part of a social grid? How far do people go so they don’t participate in the economy and thus have no need for money?

[Photowhit]

I don't think I'm a candidate, and those I know or have known are pretty private individuals.

My friend who has been a logger most of his life, but can't make money doing that, would be someone who, I think, would be good as a documentary. He use to go out to Colo logging in the summer, and live out of his truck most of the week coming to town for groceries and church, once a week or once a month. In a camping comunity where I thought I was the only one doing off grid solar, he had his sneaky single 55 watt panel, flat on the roof of his camper, for lights, radio and fan (and a tiny bit of TV, which shocked me, until I found he checked the weather...)

When his mother died the kids all wanted to split up the family farm into a piece for each kid, he told them he didn't want to spoil the farm and to just leave him out, I suspect he was the primary caregiver the last couple years of her life. He fixed up the house and is trying to do a bed and breakfast for the ministry after having bad renters. Him, he had been living in and out of the barn and I think still is subsistance farming, hunting, scavaging he still collects animal tails for brush makers... My guess is he'd say sure to the show just leave him alone, and after a week they'd get bored and go home, he's just living...

I'll respond to the PM they sent, but I think the interaction will be interesting, they already impled that 'off grid' equates to sustanable living, I don't thing off grid solar is sustanable and if it is it is just a wash at best any energy 'savings' would be with a grid tied system...

[Raw TV]

Hi all,

Once again, thank you for your responses and for letting the thread stay. I'm sorry that you feel I haven't been open about the project. In all honesty, the series is early in development and so much depends on the people who are featured, that many specifics have not been decided yet. I'll try to answer your questions as best I can.

First, to Photowit - your friend does seem like he has had a very interesting and trying journey. If you think he'd be interested, we'd love to get his contact info and reach out to him.

As far as how "off-grid" the community has to be, there are really no set rules or restrictions. It can be off-grid electrically, it can have a barter system, or it can just be a more sustainable and free way of living. We are very open and are more focused on finding people who truly believe in this general way of life. It shouldn't be something you would try for a month or two, rather you want to make this your life. Whatever the motivation - sick of the control, tired of urban chaos, etc. - you want to move away and live the way you want. You can decide what type of community you want to start, where, and with whom. It really depends on your dreams. Although we will not be buying your land and supplies - we will try to be (invisible) partners to do what we can to facilitate your plans.

Niel, I apologize if you take offense to the word "community" - by no means do we mean cult or intend any hidden or negative connotation! I really just think that is the best word to describe what we are looking for, as in we aren't looking for a lone survival man, rather a family or group of friends or team of associates who want to make their dream way of living come true.

I know most "reality TV" shows are trashy or portray their subjects in a negative light, but I assure you Raw does approach everything with integrity. We do want this show to be a positive and informative portrayal of our subject's lives. We want our participants to be happy with how they are portrayed because it is no one's best interest for them to be unhappy. We hope this will be a successful, long-running series, not one season of manipulative, negative portrayals. For us to make this a long-running series, there will need to be trust and the participants will need to be happy with the show. As a production company, we have no motivation to portray you poorly, in fact just the complete opposite.

I hope this helps a bit. Let me know if you have more questions! Thanks!

[BB.]

We do appreciate you answering questions on th forum.

As you can guess, we get a lot of commercial posts where we never hear anything back.

Again, thank you very much for participating here.

Sincerely,
-Bill

[niel]

now that you touched on the community aspect that it does not mean having a commune like scene, then this could be somebody off grid in the city as well. i wish i had the $ to do it or i'd probably take you up on it. oops, the other half might give me an argument as she is very wasteful and does not like to sacrifice or conserve.