PrizeWhores

The PrizeWhore Story by Jenn Garrison
I've worked in radio since 1989. I started working at college radio stations performing many duties from disc jockey (DJ) to station manager. In 1995, I began working at two commercial radio stations in Austin, Texas. Radio was a career I fell into and an industry that allowed me to further my education and my affection for music. You might think the most exciting thing about being a radio DJ is meeting the bands, the free shows, the fame, or the money. But for me, I found something else exciting and new in radio (well, the free shows were nice). I became a high-profile, pseudo-celebrity co-host of a morning radio program. I hit the proverbial "Big-Time." With this exciting job came appearances at location remotes where the radio station made an event out of an on-site visit to a client's business. That's where I met them; the "prizewhores." Now you ask yourself, "what is a prizewhore and where can I get one?" Well, you're going to meet them all - - Chris, George, Randy, and Steve. Initially, I felt confusion in regards to the prizewhores. Prizewhores are individuals who attend the various remotes conducted by radio stations. In general, a remote is an on-site appearance made by a radio station at one of its clients' businesses. Most of my radio co-horts conveyed and demonstrated, how shall I say it, not the most pleasant attitudes towards the prizewhores. Now I don't assume to be the first person with this documentary idea. I was going to make a movie. But how? I'm not a filmmaker! This notion of making a documentary about the prizewhores came to me during the summer of 1999. That fall, I entered the master's program at the highly acclaimed Radio-TV-Film Department at The University of Texas as a media studies student! Not to make this sound all hot and heady or anything, but basically I would look at the media's relationship to and with/in society. Since my undergraduate degree was in sociology and since I already worked in radio, this media studies business seemed like a demented sociological wet dream! Ah, but I had to digest and regurgitate plenty of theoretical jargon that challenged, frustrated, and, well, bored me at times. I soon realized I did not want to function strictly as a "theoretical" academic. I wanted to practice and produce within the theoretical framework I had studied during my adventure as a graduate student. Moreover, I did not want to write a thesis simply to allow me to graduate with my master's degree or just propel me towards a doctorate degree. I discovered an option in the graduate school system. There it was in small print: "In lieu-of-thesis, student may choose a project or production." A production? A documentary is a production, isn't it? That meant PrizeWhores the movie could become my master's project. All I really needed was a crash course in movie making and perhaps a team of individuals with some knowledge of production or documentary work to help me with my dream of seeing PrizeWhores on the big screen. This is where Chris Clayton, Deb Hovis, and Amy Gill, my partners in crime, aspiring documentary filmmakers - - ok, my saviors - - came into the picture. I met Chris and Deb in 1998 as we all rode in the Texas AIDS Ride (an AIDS fund-raiser where we rode our bikes from Austin to Houston to Dallas). Chris and Deb were riding and filming a documentary about the event as it happened. We became friends, and over the following year I dangled the PrizeWhores idea under their noses. They were in! I was lucky and on my way to making the dream a reality. I met Amy Gill a bit later. We worked on a short video project during my first semester in graduate school. Amy was actually in the undergraduate Radio-TV-Film production track at UT and was focusing on documentary work and editing. Ah hah!! She was actually being trained to do what I was interested in. We became close friends and I told her of my PrizeWhores idea. She too wanted to help and led me through the pre-production phase. "Holy s--t!" I thought. This could actually happen. I had people interested, open access to the subjects of the film along with the radio station, and a university full of production resources. So here I was, ready to turn this movie into reality while receiving my master's degree to boot!

The PrizeWhore Story
by Jenn Garrison

I've worked in radio since 1989. I started working at college radio stations performing many duties from disc jockey (DJ) to station manager. In 1995, I began working at two commercial radio stations in Austin, Texas. Radio was a career I fell into and an industry that allowed me to further my education and my affection for music. You might think the most exciting thing about being a radio DJ is meeting the bands, the free shows, the fame, or the money. But for me, I found something else exciting and new in radio (well, the free shows were nice). I became a high-profile, pseudo-celebrity co-host of a morning radio program. I hit the proverbial "Big-Time." With this exciting job came appearances at location remotes where the radio station made an event out of an on-site visit to a client's business. That's where I met them; the "prizewhores." Now you ask yourself, "what is a prizewhore and where can I get one?" Well, you're going to meet them all - - Chris, George, Randy, and Steve.

Initially, I felt confusion in regards to the prizewhores. Prizewhores are individuals who attend the various remotes conducted by radio stations. In general, a remote is an on-site appearance made by a radio station at one of its clients' businesses. Most of my radio co-horts conveyed and demonstrated, how shall I say it, not the most pleasant attitudes towards the prizewhores. Now I don't assume to be the first person with this documentary idea. I was going to make a movie. But how? I'm not a filmmaker! This notion of making a documentary about the prizewhores came to me during the summer of 1999. That fall, I entered the master's program at the highly acclaimed Radio-TV-Film Department at The University of Texas as a media studies student! Not to make this sound all hot and heady or anything, but basically I would look at the media's relationship to and with/in society. Since my undergraduate degree was in sociology and since I already worked in radio, this media studies business seemed like a demented sociological wet dream! Ah, but I had to digest and regurgitate plenty of theoretical jargon that challenged, frustrated, and, well, bored me at times. I soon realized I did not want to function strictly as a "theoretical" academic. I wanted to practice and produce within the theoretical framework I had studied during my adventure as a graduate student. Moreover, I did not want to write a thesis simply to allow me to graduate with my master's degree or just propel me towards a doctorate degree. I discovered an option in the graduate school system. There it was in small print: "In lieu-of-thesis, student may choose a project or production." A production? A documentary is a production, isn't it? That meant PrizeWhores the movie could become my master's project.

All I really needed was a crash course in movie making and perhaps a team of individuals with some knowledge of production or documentary work to help me with my dream of seeing PrizeWhores on the big screen. This is where Chris Clayton, Deb Hovis, and Amy Gill, my partners in crime, aspiring documentary filmmakers - - ok, my saviors - - came into the picture. I met Chris and Deb in 1998 as we all rode in the Texas AIDS Ride (an AIDS fund-raiser where we rode our bikes from Austin to Houston to Dallas). Chris and Deb were riding and filming a documentary about the event as it happened. We became friends, and over the following year I dangled the PrizeWhores idea under their noses. They were in! I was lucky and on my way to making the dream a reality. I met Amy Gill a bit later. We worked on a short video project during my first semester in graduate school. Amy was actually in the undergraduate Radio-TV-Film production track at UT and was focusing on documentary work and editing. Ah hah!! She was actually being trained to do what I was interested in. We became close friends and I told her of my PrizeWhores idea. She too wanted to help and led me through the pre-production phase. "Holy s--t!" I thought. This could actually happen. I had people interested, open access to the subjects of the film along with the radio station, and a university full of production resources. So here I was, ready to turn this movie into reality while receiving my master's degree to boot!