Week Eleven - Filip

What signifiers of reality have emerged from the documentary genre?

How have they constructed our conceptualisation of reality (or at least what we recognize was being real at the visual level)?

Biressi & Nunn (2005) highlight the different narrative format used in reality TV.
‘Rather than construct a ‘temporal framework’ in the form of organized storytelling or rhythmic patterning through a shooting script, observational films chose to rely on editing to generate a sense of lived experience and time passing.’ (Biressi & Nunn, 2005, p. 118)
Editing techniques and cinematography tricks borrowed from the documentary genre have brought with them a sense of believability. There’s a familiarity with ‘cameras following people around’ that leaves audiences more ready to accept the factual entertainment (real life setting and characters alone) as ‘infotainment’ or ‘docu-soaps’. (Hills, 2005, pp 113 – 115)



How does Hill define reality TV?

Hill (2005) states ‘Reality TV’ has undergone changes over years and first explains it is a ‘genre in transition’. From legal and emergency report programs, Hill looks to analyse the threshold between factual and fictional TV. ‘perhaps the most traditional industry term for reality TV is factual entertainment. The term usefully merges factual programming with entertainment-based television, and highlights hybridization, a common generic feature of most reality programmes.’
Hill (2005, p. 108) clarifies; ‘Another traditional industry term is that of popular factual, a term that links popular audiences with a variety of factual television genres and formats.’
Hill uses the name of ‘popular factual’ as a basis for his analysis.

Public television audiences interviewed gave a loose consensus that ‘viewers equated reality TV with ‘cameras following people around.’’

Hill (2005, p. 114) concludes ‘There is no one definition of reality programming, but many, competing definitions of what has come to be called the reality genre.’




References:
Biressi, A. & Nunn, N. (2005). Real Lives, documentary approaches. In Reality TV: realism and revelation. (pp. 35-58) London: Wallflower.

Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television.
(pp. 14 – 40). Oxon: Routledge.