Organizing a reality show? It's all details

The secret of success for Dave Nicholas? He lets other folks take care of the big picture.

"Somebody needs to see the small picture," says Nicholas."Unless some sees that all the details are done, nothing productive is going to get accomplished."

He ability to keep focused on the small stuff is put to the test these days as he scurries to organize "Nevada Passage," a made-fortelevision adventure competition to be filmed May 19-24.

The event developed by TEAM Unlimited Nicholas is the company's race director will be developed into a one-hour feature show to be syndicated into about 80 markets.

Participants will compete in events ranging from whitewater rafting along the Truckee River to a four-wheel-drive rally in the Ely area.

But first Nicholas has to hammer out the details.

He knows the stops where teams of competitors will undertake Nevada challenges a loop that starts at Red Rock Canyon near Las Vegas and ends on the Truckee River near Reno.

But first he needs to nail down all those details: The permits from the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.

The best angles for camera crews.

The logistics of moving 20 athletes, and leapfrogging two production crews from one site to another.

His work,Nicholas said the other day, began with winnowing down an over-abundant list of potential sites for adventure competition.

"We could keep this thing running for two weeks and never do the same thing twice," he said.

TEAM Unlimited knew the Tahoe region well.

The Honolulu-based company, which has produced more than 150 events and 225 television shows in the past 14 years, produces the Nissan XTERRA USA Championship Race at Lake Tahoe each September.

Originally, in fact, Nicholas planned that Nevada Passage would start somewhere in the Lake Tahoe area and travel clockwise around the state.

A practical consideration he doesn't want teams and production crews to travel more than four or five hours between venues dictated instead that Nevada Passage start with rock climbing at Red Rock Canyon.

And not just anywhere at the national conservation area west of Las Vegas.

Participants in the event are ordinary people, a man and a woman on each team, linked by their professions such as doctor, lawyer or journalist.

That means Nicholas balances the need for a big challenge that's good television, after all with the skills of ordinary folks.

And he wants the audience to identify with the participants.

"We need to show stuff that a viewer could do," he says.

The organizers want to show, too, that there's more to Nevada than Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe.

A bike-and-foot trek at Lamoille Canyon near Elko will do some of that work.

So will sandboard sand trials at Sand Mountain east of Fallon.

Initially, Nicholas says, he thought about a motorized event at Sand Mountain.After more thought, he settled on environmentally friendly sandboards for an event that will be new to most viewers.

At each of those events, one of the two production crews will have a day to set up before participants arrive.

As soon as an event is complete, the crew will pack up and leapfrog ahead while the other crew shoots the next day's event.

Participants, meanwhile, will pack up after each day's competition and travel four or five hours to the site of the next event.

The Nevada Passage is co-sponsored by the Nevada Commission on Tourism, Paul Mitchell, Nissan North America Inc.

and XTERRA Gear.

It was developed by R&R Partners, the advertising agency for the commission on tourism, and TEAM Unlimited.

State tourism officials say they're particularly excited about the opportunity to showcase the state's diverse landscape and reaffirm their message that Nevada is great place for visitors to enjoy adventure travel.

But that's big picture stuff to Nicholas as he hammers out the details at remote locations around the state.

"Is this hard?" he asks."Is it hard for Barry Bonds to hit a home run? This is what I do for a living."