WEEK 11-ASHLEIGH

WHAT SIGNIFIERS OF REALITY HAVE EMERGED FROM THE DOCUMENTARY GENRE?

The ‘documentary’ industry has played a significant role on the influence of reality television. It has lent various techniques of the early documentaries like edgy, shaky camera work, fly-on-the-wall techniques and recognition of subjectivity to signify to the audience that the reality TV they are watching is ‘real’. The free cinema documentary valued subject matter of “popular culture, youth culture and the working class.” Also favouring hand-held cameras, real locations and a sometimes raw style” Biressi and Nunn (2005). These are all subject matter and styles that remain present in the hybrid genre of reality television. It is from free cinema as well as cinema verite and direct cinema documentary styling that we see reality television to have grown from and borrowed from. Audiences of reality television remain skeptical to the actuality of the genre and so they are more likely to trust the portrayal of reality by seeing these techniques. This is perhaps because audiences can recognise the signifiers of an accurate portrayal of people that has already been established as a notion of the ‘real’ by the documentary genre.

When comparing two reality television programmes ‘The hills’ and ‘Jersey Shore’ and the production techniques involved to signify the ‘real’ factor of the show I noticed major differences.

Programmes like Jersey shore I could easily call ‘real’, accurate constructs of reality. The show uses fly on the wall camera techniques borrowed from direct cinema to signify that the cameras are ‘peeking’ into these peoples’ everyday life. The show takes use of hand-held cameras producing the shaky camera work of free cinema. It shows the characters ‘raw’, or un-edited, furthermore contributing to signify the reality of capturing events as they unfold. There is recognition of subjectivity, much like cinema verite. In cinema verite it was believed that “by entering the frame the filmmaker avoided the pretence of objectivity, thus creating a more equal or truthful relationship with the subject.” Audiences tend to dislike ‘perfect’ camera work in reality TV as it takes away from the capturing of real moments. Therefore by occasionally seeing the camera man’s reflection in the shop window or the bodyguards steeping into the frame once a fight breaks out, Jersey Shore speaks to the audience by saying that it is not perfect but it is real.

I believe that the attractiveness of a show like Jersey is that it is reminiscent of British mid 50’s ‘Free Cinema’. It is a programme about eight everyday people living out a believable everyday situation. Perhaps one of these characters you can identify with or may remind you of someone you know.

It is possible to contrast this against another programme ‘The Hills’ which interestingly enough is produced by the same network MTV. The Hills is a show about a bunch of privileged 20-somethings. It is often critisised for being unbelievable maybe because they use people whose normal everyday life is so glamorous. Biressi and Nunn (2005) explain this idea when they describe:

“Realism becomes measured through the subject matter being reconstructed and that realism depends on notions of suffering, raw experience and personal struggle emblems of the real” p.36

It is then incomprehensible for the Joe-average to believe that these ‘ordinary’ people are living such extravagant lifestyles and there tends to be a bit of jealousy from viewers towards the subjects as well. It almost feels like these people come from such perfect worlds so how is it possible for anything to be wrong in their little bubbles? Other techniques used by this show include still camera shots, movie-quality lighting and movie-quality drama. This further portrays this idea that they live in such perfect worlds, they can not be suffering and showing raw emotions, therfore the petty drama that goes on is all an act. Going back to the signifiers of reality stemming from the documentary genre, The Hills does not follow the constructs of the genre. This all equally adds to viewer’s suspicions that the show is not real, as well as each character seeming fake and scripted.

REFERENCES:

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