Reality film or
reality movie describes a genre of films that have resulted from
reality televisionReality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors...
, such as
The Real CancunThe Real Cancun is a 2003 American reality film released on April 25, 2003 in the U.S.Inspired by the reality television genre, this film followed the lives of 16 Americans from March 13, 2003 to March 23, as they celebrated spring break in Cancún, Mexico and experienced romantic relationships,...
,
MTVMTV is a cable television network based in New York City and launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs...
's film version of
The Real WorldThe Real World is a reality television program on MTV originally produced by Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray. First broadcast in 1992, the show is the longest-running program in MTV history. Following Bunim’s death from breast cancer in 2004, Bunim/Murray Productions continues to produce the...
, which was originally titled
Spring Break: The Reality Movie. In an article in
Time Magazine,
Joel SteinJoel Stein is an American journalist. He is a columnist for the Los Angeles Times and a regular contributor to TIME. He is married to Cassandra Barry and lives in Los Angeles.-Early life:...
wrote, "Like reality TV, a reality film is supercheap, and as
Jackass proved, there's an audience willing to pay $9 for what it gets free on television." Typically, a pre-determined situation is staged or created, often with the use of non-professional actors, and then the "reality" of what happens is filmed. In an article on reality movies,
Variety Magazine pointed out the low budget of reality films in an era of skyrocketing marketing and production costs for traditional films has made them an attractive option for studios, with the selling point being "Tits and ass. Teenage tits and ass, that is."
History of reality film
"The thinking behind these pics is not new," wrote Gabriel Snyder in
Variety about the techniques employed by recent reality movies. "In the 1950s, Samuel Arkoff tapped into teen auds with quickies like
Rock All NightRock All Night is a 1957 American International Pictures film produced and directed by Roger Corman based on Little Guy a 1955 television episode of The Jane Wyman Theatre.-Plot:...
and
Reform School Girl and beach films such as
Bikini BeachBikini Beach is a 1964 teen film directed by William Asher and starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. The film belongs to the beach party genre of movies, popular in the 1960s. This is the third in a series of seven films produced by American International Pictures .-Plot:School is out and...
("It's where every torso is more so, and bare-as-you-dare is the rule!"). London's
Evening StandardThe London Evening Standard is a free local daily newspaper, published in tabloid format in London, England. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the southeast of England, with coverage of national and international news and a strong emphasis on City of London finance...
called
Andy WarholAndrew Warhola , more commonly known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
's 1966 film
Chelsea GirlsChelsea Girls is a 1966 experimental underground film directed by Andy Warhol and Paul Morrissey. The film was Warhol's first major commercial success after a long line of avant-garde art films , and was shot at the Hotel Chelsea and various other locations in New York City...
a reality film and noted that the
Radio Times Guide to Film 2007 stated it was "to blame for reality television." The film consists of drugged-out conversations between
Warhol SuperstarsSuperstars is an all-around sports competition that pits elite athletes from different sports against one another in a series of athletic events resembling a decathlon...
NicoNico was a German singer-songwriter, fashion model, actress, and Warhol Superstar...
,
OndineRobert Olivo aka Ondine was an American actor. He is best known for appearing in a series of films in the mid-1960s by Andy Warhol, whom he claimed to have met in 1961 at an orgy....
,
Brigid BerlinBrigid Berlin is an artist and former Warhol superstar.-Early years/pre-pop:Brigid was born to socialite parents, Muriel Johnson "Honey" Berlin and Richard E. Berlin, into a world of Manhattan privilege. Her father was chairman of the Hearst media empire for 52 years...
,
Mary WoronovMary Woronov is an American actress, known for her roles in mostly independent and cult films. She has appeared in over 80 movies...
and
Gerard MalangaGerard Joseph Malanga is an American poet, photographer, filmmaker, curator and archivist.- Biography :Born in the Bronx, New York, he graduated from the School of Industrial Art in Manhattan and attended Wagner College on Staten Island...
. "I was the only one who memorised my lines," said Woronov, "and no one even noticed." In 1970,
Candid CameraCandid Camera was a hidden camera television series created and produced by Allen Funt, which initially began on radio as Candid Microphone June 28, 1947...
creator
Allen FuntAllen Funt was an American television producer, director and writer, best known as the creator and host of Candid Camera from the 1940s to 1980s, as either a regular show or a series of specials...
made the film
What Do You Say to a Naked Lady?What Do You Say to a Naked Lady? is a hidden-camera style reality film released in 1970, and directed by Candid Camera creator Allen Funt...
, where he secretly filmed people's reactions to unexpected encounters with nudity in unusual situations. However, it was with the advent of reality television, which presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and features ordinary people instead of professional actors, combined with the smash box-office success of
Jackass The Movie in 2002, that made reality film a genre studios began to consider seriously.
The Real Cancun billed itself as "the first reality feature film", causing Scott Foundas to remark in his review in
Variety that such a claim is "apparently ignoring last year's
Jackass The Movie". In 2003
Comedy CentralComedy Central is an American cable television and satellite television channel that carries predominantly comedy programming, both original and syndicated....
aired its feature length reality movie
Windy City HeatWindy City Heat is a made for TV reality film produced by Comedy Central. It first aired on October 12, 2003 and is shown in repeats. The DVD was released on September 26, 2006. -Background:...
, starring
Carson DalyCarson Jones Daly is an American television host. He is the host of NBC's Last Call with Carson Daly, a late-night talk show. Before his role as host of that program, Daly was a prominent VJ on MTV's Total Request Live, and a DJ for the Southern California based radio station KROQ...
and
Dane CookDane Jeffrey Cook is an American stand-up comedian and film actor. He has released five comedy albums: Harmful If Swallowed; Retaliation; Vicious Circle; Rough Around The Edges: Live From Madison Square Garden; and Isolated Incident. Retaliation became the highest charting comedy album in 28...
. In the movie, friends of Perry Caravello convince him he plays the lead
gumshoeGumshoe may refer to:* Gumshoe , a 1986 Nintendo shooter* Gumshoe , Stephen Frears's 1971 directorial debut* Gumshoe, the Hardboiled Detective in the 30s, a 1981 book-based game published by Sleuth Publications...
of a movie titled "Windy City Heat," directed by
Bobcat GoldthwaitRobert Francis "Bobcat" Goldthwait is an American comedian, actor, screenwriter, and film and television director. He is commonly known for his energetic, rabid stage personality, his dark, acerbic black comedy, and his gruff but high-pitched voice...
; everyone is in on the elaborate joke except Caravello.
Reality films as documentaries
Some reality films, such as those based upon the
Jackass television series, have been called documentaries. Jan Krawitz, director of
Stanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university located in Stanford, California, United States...
's prestigious master of arts program in documentary film and video, teaches not to make a reality film if you want your documentary to be real. In his article in
Time, Stein raises the point that "If the movie is shot like a documentary, we're willing to pretend it's a documentary no matter how staged it is.... And unlike documentarians, the [
Real Cancun] producers, who have to work with MTV in their day jobs, felt it prudent to edit out the more controversial scenes, such as the one in which the twins have an angry, cursing fight with rapper
Snoop DoggCordazar Calvin Broadus , better known by his stage name Snoop Dogg, is a Grammy Award-nominated American rapper, record producer, and actor. Snoop is best known as an MC in the West Coast hip hop scene, and for being one of producer Dr. Dre's most notable protégés...
in his post-concert trailer after, they say, he tried to get amorous with them." Correy Herrick raises a similar point about
Cancun in
Hybrid Magazine:
This is by no means a documentary. Everything that happens is real, but you are only seeing what the producers want you to see, in the order they want you to see it, with the music they want you to hear. And they go even further here by splicing in non-reality cuts from time to time to accentuate the plot a little further. They need to turn these normal people into characters in order to achieve an entertaining experience and they are very crafty in the ways they do this.
James Ronald Whitney, whose films have won multiple "Best Documentary" awards, distinguishes between documentary and reality film. In an interview about his reality film
Games People Play: New York, he said the difference was filming a staged scenario versus filming actual events that would have happened regardless of the camera's presence:
"A documentary is reality, but is its own animal. It's when you go back in time and you do a film about an election, an Olympics, a war, or something in the future that would organically happen anyway. Even Real Cancun, spring break was going to happen. Spellbound-Movies:* Spellbound , a film with Lois Meredith* Spellbound , a film directed by Alfred Hitchcock starring Ingrid Bergman and Gregory Peck* Spellbound , a 2002 documentary film about the National Spelling Bee...
's spelling bee was still going to happen. Those are not events that were created by a writer who then decided, "I'm going to make a movie about this event that I have created." That's how this is different to me than a documentary.
Issues facing reality film
The viability of reality films has been called into question.
The Real Cancun was considered a flop at the box office, taking in $5,345,083 worldwide on a budget of $7.5 million. A reality movie based upon the
Girls Gone WildThe Girls Gone Wild franchise, created by Joseph R. Francis, is a video series by the production company Mantra Films, Inc., which is headquartered in Santa Monica, California.-Content:...
video series that MGM bought the rights to was never put into production and the
Universal PicturesThis is a partial listing of films produced and/or distributed by Universal Pictures, the main motion picture production/distribution arm of Universal Studios, a subsidiary of NBC Universal.-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc...
effort
Drunken Jackasses: The Question was delayed after the flop of
Cancun and went straight to video. In an interview with the
Christian Science Monitor,
Robert ThompsonRobert J. Thompson is an American educator.Thompson is the Trustee Professor of Television and Popular Culture at the S.I...
, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at
Syracuse UniversitySyracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, U.S.A.. It was founded as a university in 1870, but its roots can be traced back to a seminary founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832 which eventually became Genesee College...
, acknowledged the potential for "for an entirely new form of filmmaking." However, noted Thompson, "people aren't watching
SurvivorSurvivor is a reality television game show format produced in many countries throughout the world. In the show, contestants are isolated in the wilderness and compete for cash and other prizes. The show uses a system of progressive elimination, allowing the contestants to vote off other tribe...
just to see people in bikinis," and added that standard reality television techniques such as serialized suspense, "voting off" segments, and general goofiness should not be included in the films. One of the criticisms was that reality television allows viewers to get to know new people over time. With a reality film such as
Cancun, "They transposed the format from television but none of the original characters," writes Sean Macauly in
The TimesThe Times is a daily national newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register....
. "With a film, viewers have 90 minutes to get up to speed with a cast of 16 partygoers. Rather than structuring their exploits like a soap opera and following them for a summer,
The Real Cancun follows them for eight days."
Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures Corporation is a Worldwide American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood, California. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is the world's oldest existing American film studio; it is also the last...
President
Gail BermanGail Berman is the former president of entertainment at Fox Broadcasting Company and the former president of Viacom's Paramount Pictures.She graduated from the University of Maryland in 1978...
stated that
Jackass is "a great centerpiece for reality going to film" when asked about reality movies, but stated the question going forward is, "How do you get the exhibition experience of a movie to feel immediate and interactive with the audience?"
Other uses of the phrase 'reality film'
The phrase "reality film" has been used in the titles of articles that discuss the popularity of documentaries after the advent of "reality TV." It is often used as a phrase to describe traditional documentaries.
See also
- Actuality film
The actuality film is a non-fiction film genre that like the documentary film uses footage of real events, places, and things, yet unlike the documentary is not structured into a larger argument, picture of the phenomenon or coherent whole. In practice, actuality films preceded the emergence of the...
- Dirty Sanchez
- Documentary film
Documentary film is a broad category of visual expressions that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to "document" reality. Although "documentary film" originally referred to movies shot on film stock, it has subsequently expanded to include video and digital productions that can...
- Realism (arts)
Realism in the visual arts and literature is the depiction of subjects as they appear in everyday life, without embellishment or interpretation...