7/31/2019 1 Reality TV Lesson Handouts

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Reality TV Lesson 1

o you agree

th the

ncept of

he Truman

ow? What

oral and

hicaloblems do

u see with

aking a

ogramme

this

ture?

hatactical

oblems

ght there

e?

o you

ink it

ghtappen?

hy/why

ot?

7/31/2019 1 Reality TV Lesson Handouts

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The Documentary

Recent television documentary programmes have continued along tradition of attempting to show real life in documentaries.This generates debate about the responsibility of filmmakersand the representation of the subject.

Throughout the history of the moving image audiences have beenfascinated by the idea of film depicting the real lives of otherpeople at work or in the home. One of the earliestdocumentaries, Nanook of the North by Flaherty (1921),depicted Eskimo life with the help of local participants. Owing

to the constraints of the handheld camera, insensitive filmstock requiring artificial light, and appalling weatherconditions, Flaherty had to ask his subjects to do their normalactivities in special ways and at special times. Because theEskimos knew that Flaherty was helping them to place onrecord a vanishing way of life they provided and influencedthe contents. The events of this film were manipulated, andthe film was a huge success with audiences who were keento find out about the minutiae of other peoples lives.

7 Upe idea of Truman being an unwitting subject of the

evision rogramme has some parallels with the production

the television documentary made in 1963 called 7Up.

e programme took as its inspiration the Jesuit saying,

ive me a child until he is seven and Ill show you a man.

e programme-makers took fourteen children from a

oss-section of society and filmed them at seven-year

ervals with the objective of finding out the extent to which

childs future is determined by their social class.e most recent of these programmes was broadcast this

ar. 42Up intercut footage from previous programmes

ongside recent interviews with the participants. Several of

e original participants are nolonger involved in the

ogramme, with one member leaving in 1990 making the

lowing statement: I have had enough of being used for

mall screen entertainment...the images of myself and of

e other childrenhave been simplified to the point where

ey have become false. Please dont think the

ogrammes tell you anything about me. If you want theth turn off the television and come to Liverpool. In a

milar way to Truman Burbank, these participants who co-

erated with the programme-makers were only children in

e beginning and had no idea of the dramatic affect their

rticipation, at seven-year intervals, would have on their

es. As adults they are now concerned that

presentations of them shown by the programmes is not

curate.