Fantasy Camp

Our business is called "Fantasy Camp". It was basically a cross between "Make a Wish" and the old TV Show "Fantasy Island". People would come in and we would video tape them explaining their fantasies, give them a price that included a handsome profit and, once it was agreed upon, we would give them not only their fantasy, but a professionally edited video (or series of if necessary) of them living their fantasy with their voice over or picture in picture describing their fantasy as they are living it.

Typically our customer is a middle aged, overweight salesman who wants to live out some sports hero dream left over from High school, or a guy who wants to drive a particular car. We also get some rather ordinary ones, swimming with sharks or dolphins, ski-jumping, the luge etc because of our video work. Utube has done wonders for our business. It is a standard part of our contract that if U-Toob goes out of business or otherwise cannot make available the fantasy video, we hold the exclusive distribution rights to the video.

Sometimes the fantasies are sexual. Many of these customers are driven away when they realize that there will be a video made. We insist on this for all of our customers because not only is there a huge profit margin here, but our lawyers tell us that it protects us. We explain to the customers that "sex for money" is prostitution, a crime. But "sex for money, with a script and a camera" is a movie and thus legal.

What we don't tell our customers is that it also protects us from them suing us. We record them explaining our fantasy to us, and then we edited it. During the time that we are editing, we insist upon a medical exam. If someone ones to climb Mount Everest, we want to be damn sure they don't have a heart condition. If their fantasy involves sex, we get them tested for AIDS and every other STD. So the exams are suited to their fantasy. Sometimes we lose the customer because of something that comes up in the medical, but it's better than getting someone killed and getting our asses sued.

After the medical results come back, we show them their edited fantasy, back to them so they know what we understand their fantasy to be. We quote them a price. Once they approve the fantasy and the price we schedule a time to make it happen. Sometimes they narrow things down at this point, but usually if they've come this far, they want the whole thing. Our sales people are good here.

The other good thing about our process is that there is no chance of some drunken slob coming in, agreeing to something then regretting it in the morning. They have to come in, usually by appointment, though we do take walk-ins for this. Then they have to go to, and pay for a medical examination, and only after they come in again do our sales people do their work. For the typical customer, all we risk is a little hard drive space and at most a couple of hours of video editing time until we close the sales.

At the sales we take a non-refundable 25% deposit, 50% more when the fantasy begins and the remaining 25% done when the final editing is complete.