1)How have the documentary genres ‘Direct Cinema’ or
‘cinéma vérité influenced reality TV and the presentation of the ‘real’?
Discuss in the context of a contemporary reality TV show.
2)How does Hill define reality TV? Describe his definitions in the context of a contemporary Reality TV show.
3)What has the early docudrama (e.g. Cathy Come Home) contributed to the development of Reality TV? Discuss in the context of a contemporary reality TV show.
2)How does Hill define reality TV? Describe his definitions in the context of a contemporary Reality TV show.
3)What has the early docudrama (e.g. Cathy Come Home) contributed to the development of Reality TV? Discuss in the context of a contemporary reality TV show.
Question Two: How does Hill define reality TV? Describe his definitions in the context of a contemporary Reality TV show.
ReplyDeleteHill (2005) defines reality as a range of popular factual programming which also has a wide variety of genres within itself. Genres such as documentaries, game shows, celebrity profiles, biographies, leisure, relationships and popular crimes.
Hill (2005) recognises multiple ways that reality TV constructs reality. Real people are used instead of hired actors as are used for fictional TV shows. This means that the people who are part of the reality show are not acting and viewers are seeing how these different personalities and backgrounds react and deal with certain situations. An example of a show in which this is used is ‘Amazing Race’. Amazing race is a popular game type reality show which showcases individuals or pairs face challenges and triumphs as they are all in a race to come first, for an ultimate reward at the end. It’s not planned or rehearsed.
Another way reality is constructed through dialogue – The dialogue isn’t scripted which creates a reality around the interaction of the people. It ties in all the emotions and feelings as you would have in a real life conversation. This in comparison to movies (which are scripted) can sometimes seem more forced and timed or unreal as if the conversation and emotions are sometimes meaningless. When you watch Amazing Race as such, you know that the tears and arguments are real and full of frustration.
An important way reality TV is filmed is in ‘documentary style’ which includes hand held camera shots and fly on the wall style filming technique (Hill, 2005). This way the audience feels like they are watching the action from a distance, but are still there almost in the ‘same room’ to witness it.
Hill, (2005) states that reality TV is more about what people are interested and their own reality which is why a lot of people enjoy reality shows. It is another way of engaging with how people interact with people when they are faced with challenges and sometimes positive situations.
Hill (2005) also describes reality TV as being used to bridge the large gap that is there between non-fictional TV such as the news and Fictional TV. It gives us something in-between both non-fiction and fiction.
References:
Hill, A. (2005) The reality genre. In A. Hill, Reality TV: Audiences and Popular Factual Television. (pp. 14 – 40). Oxon: Routledge.