Kenny Loggins would likely approve of Airdrie filmmaker Bryan Flannigan's latest project.
Fresh off the release of his recent Big Brother-inspired reality game show last fall, the 19-year-old SAIT film student recently wrapped on his most recent show: an original reality show idea titled The Danger Zone.
Flannigan, who graduated from St. Martin de Porres High School in 2021 and is finishing SAIT's film school this month, said the project is based on a similar concept as his previous Big Brother show, which was of course inspired by the popular reality TV series of the same name.
“I’ve always loved those elimination-style reality TV shows, like Survivor and Big Brother,” he said. “I wanted to make one that was more my own and original.”
Flannigan said he and his colleagues Max August and Carson Pound recently brainstormed a few ideas for a new game show, and came up with a similar idea called The Danger Zone, which combined key elements of Big Brother with a traditional murder mystery whodunit.
According to the budding filmmaker, how the game works is that a 'Puppet Master' is secretly chosen by the host among the contestants, and the Puppet Master then has the ability to place two of the other competitors into the 'Danger Zone.' This means these two contestants are at risk of elimination, and have to compete for their survival against each other and the rest of the competitors in the 'Whistleblower' challenge.
The winner of the Whistleblower challenge, Flannigan said, then gets to guess who is the Puppet Master is. If they guess correctly, the Puppet Master is added to the Danger Zone.
If the winner of the challenge was one of the two players originally selected for the Danger Zone, they are no longer at risk of elimination. However, the last-place competitor in the challenge is also added to the Danger Zone.
“By the end, sometimes there are four people in the Danger Zone,” Flannigan said.
From there, the Danger Zone contestants subsequently vie against each other in another competition, and the last-place finisher of that challenge is officially eliminated from the game.
“You’ve got two chances: a chance to win the Whistleblower competition, and the chance to win the [Danger Zone] competition,” Flannigan explained. “It kind of keeps people more on their feet.”
The game's rules are admittedly reminiscent of Big Brother, although the main difference in Flannigan's show is that no one is voted out by their peers. Instead, he said a player's ability to stay in the game comes down to their skill in the challenges, or their ability to sus out who the Puppet Master may be.
He said some of these rule changes were designed to ensure the participants chatted with each other more, noting that in his previous Big Brother game, most of the contestants were vying for face time with the Head of Household, but not necessarily each other.
“With how the game is built, you really have to trust people right off the bat, so it creates these really close relationships,” he said. “You have to build something to keep yourself in the game.”
Flannigan said filming took place over the course of eight hours at his father's auto body shop. (His father Peter Flannigan runs Maaco Autobody Shop and Painting in Airdrie).
Since filming wrapped two weeks ago, Flannigan said he's been busy editing the hours of footage into eight or nine 15-minute episodes, which he intends to release on Sundays.
The episodes will be posted to all of Flannigan’s social media channels, including his Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok accounts. His handles include @b.flannigan and b_flanny_, and his YouTube channel is B.J.F. Films.
The first episode is already available for viewing. At 31 minutes, it’s about twice as long as the rest of the episodes will be, mostly due to a lengthy introduction of the contestants, an explanation of the show's rules, and a group meet-and-greet at the start of the episode.
Flannigan said the contestants were mostly from Airdrie, but a few joined in from Calgary.
Similarly to his Big Brother project, the local filmmaker said he wants to thank his colleagues who helped turn The Danger Zone into a reality, including his girlfriend Ashlea Orsted, as well as his friends Max August and Carson Pound.
While Flannigan filmed, directed, and edited, August also helped with filming. Pound was the show's host, and Orsted assisted with set design and creation, as well as creating the challenges the contestants took part in.
