David Rupel, author of the article, “How Reality TV Works”
begins by talking about his background in not only writing episodes of TV
shows, but also his experience in reality TV. He then goes on to talk about the
truth about how reality TV actually works. He states that there are 4 rules of
reality TV and they are: Planned story vs. followed story, less is definitely
more, the rules of storytelling don’t change, and writing is producing.
Planned story vs. followed story talks about how there are
two different categories that reality shows can fall into. The first is shows
that have very little structure, where everyday events turn into stories such
as shows like The Osbournes, The Real World, and Airplane. The second is shows
that are heavily formatted, where events are planned before shooting such as
shows like Survivor, The Bachelor, and The Amazing Race. The category for shows
that have little structure generally take a lot longer to film because one can’t
predict when something interesting will happen so shooting over a period of 6
days will cover a single 30 minute episode. When shows are heavily formatted
and are planned before shooting, like the second category, generally take a
shorter period of time, two to three days to be exact, to create an hour long
episode. The second rule, Less is definitely more, talks about how people
constantly complain about how edited the show is and that the real story wasn’t
being told. He states that the truth is that nobody is interesting all the
time, and that he knows this due to his background in reality TV where he
watched thousands of hours of raw footage. The third rule, the rules of
storytelling do not change, talks about how people tune into a reality TV show
expecting that there will be a beginning, middle, and end but this is only an
easy task in scripted TV. In reality TV, real people don’t live their lives in
scenes, so producers of reality TV must fill in the gaps of stories in people’s
lives. He then gives an ethics note stating that reality TV doesn’t make scenes
to trick people, not many shows film 24 hours a day so stuff is missed and must
be filled in to make it seem complete. The fourth and final rule is writing is
producing, and this is simply put that, just like scripted TV, writing and
producing go hand in hand.
The only difference about reality TV is that the
characters aren’t played by actors.
After reading the article and seeing all these rules I can
say I have a better understanding of how reality TV works and that it is not
just scripted and made to look real but be actually fake. Reality TV is
something I have always thought of as obviously fake but now I see that it’s
only like that to fill missing gaps that couldn’t be caught on camera. Reality
TV is a far more intricate process than I think most people know about and it’s
no wonder why reality TV is becoming the number one thing watched on
television.
I agree with you Kevin. After reading this article and your post, I now realize and have a better understanding of why reality television is the way it is. For less structured shows, such as The Real World or Keeping Up with the Kardashians, the scene can take a turn at any minute or it could go on and on for hours with nothing interesting to show. Because of this producers have to somewhat stretch the truth in order to keep the audience’s attention. In contrast, shows such as The Bachelor have events and scenes planned months in ahead therefore making it much easier to film. Like you said, there isn’t necessarily a “gap” to fill. Even though I still think reality television isn’t near actual reality at all, it makes sense for them to film the way they do. At the end of the end, all the producers and cast really care about is bringing in the money and ratings. They’ll do whatever they can to get that.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading both the article and the blog, I agree with you Kevin. I believe that reality TV and regular TV are very similar. As David Rupel, the author of the article, writes down the four rules of how reality TV shows work, readers start to make connections with shows they have already seen. His four different rules that make up reality TV are planned and formatted stories, less is more, writing is produing, and the rules of storytelling do not change. Rupel does a good job of giving the readers background information about himself so they are informed of his experience with the field.
ReplyDeleteI, never being a true fan of the reality telivision genre, didn't have a prime length of knowledge on the subject. After reading the blog post and the article, I can now better understand the purposing of both planned and followed reaity tv. The difference between scripted and reality tv is incredibly different in the sense of drawing attention and motivational queues in order to attract an audience. In the case of reality tv, the sheer relational attitude and idea that we are tracking the lives of people living within our own world, draws us in. In a scripted show, we are driven to watch more by the plot, characters, and fantasy involved in telling a certain story. Both can be similar in that sense, but a stronger identity for scripted telivision is anecdotal while reality tv is more relational or comparitive progression in which we account against our own lives or experiences. It all comes down to the way we watch it and how we view the genre as a whole.
ReplyDeleteWow, television is terrible. I noticed the author of said article mentioned,"reality TV doesn’t make scenes to trick people." This is a bold statement since it is followed by an explanation of why producers fill in missing time gaps to make the show seem complete. I do not think that this is a negative thing though. I find this to be impressive; the whole process of filming a reality show, as bareback as it may seem is not as primitive as I had assumed ten minutes ago. The people creating these shows and putting the raw footage together to create a story with a plot and set characters are talented beyond what I have given them credit for. Creating this blog comment is hard enough for me, let alone turning a regular day in a family's life like The Osbournes, and completely captivating the audience enough to receive funds for multiple seasons takes a lot of hard work and apparently we only see the top of the iceberg.
ReplyDeleteOriginally I was under the impression that scenes in reality shows were completely faked in order to attract viewers. However, just as you, Chris, I now understand that they are merely putting together footage, and adding in content in order to make it more understandable for an outside viewer who does not fully understand all of the intricacies of the situations that the subjects of the show are put in. I also agree with your comment about how impressive the process of creating a reality TV show is, Chris. These people put in a lot of effort and thought in order to create programs that attract audiences. They fact that they can go through all the boring parts of a person or group of people's lives, find the most interesting parts, and put it all together into a captivating TV show that millions watch shows just how talented the producers can be.
DeleteI never fully understood how a reality television was made until Kevin explained it. It it understandable that one cannot be filmed for 100% for an entire day, so some film footage does need to be made up. What is not understandable is holding a contestant hostage in order to to get a reaction out of them. In Hell's Kitchen, a woman was held in her room without and sort of entertainment in order to keep her from contacting anyone outside the show. Another example is the bachelor had bottomless wine and shots so that the contestants would get drunk in order to act crazy and to be filled with emotions. When you said the only difference is that reality tv does not have actors, but only characters is a true statement, as everything else is basically made up.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/business/media/02reality.html?ref=realitytelevision
Being someone who has never been interested in reality TV shows such as the bachelor, this article did not surprise me at all. People would not watch a TV episode with no plot, no action, no drama. And people do not have constantly action packed dramatic lives so they need to stitch moments together to complete the story. And to complete the episode's story, the producers must script the bits and pieces to string them along in a sequence, which overall just makes the production process complicated. this also cuts costs of cameras and film crew salary. It seems to be less work to plan out the entire storyline and film the planned pieces rather than following the characters like documentary producers following around animals waiting for one moment to make the whole episode worth watching. I think that reality TV is overrated and feel that its expected of them to distort "reality".
ReplyDeleteIt makes sense that reality TV shows are separated into two different categories. There are the game show reality shows like the bachelor and then the other category would be the real world or jersey shore. I do think that some actors are placed on these shows to create drama with the “genuine” cast members. For the most part though I do not think that reality tv shows should be credible because a lot of them have proven to be falsified. It does not surprise me that a lot of planning and thought goes on behind the scenes because for the crew members the success of the show is going to give them money. I guess this article does explain the actual planning a little more and I learned more about the process of creating the television shows, but ultimately the producers are concerned about their ratings so people continue to watch.
ReplyDeleteOk so the articles defines the difference between the two types of reality T.V as planned story vs. followed stories – hence the title. It compares shows like jersey shore to shows like Repo Men and how one puts scenes together like a puzzle piece to make the episode while the other simply follows the character(s) for a set period of time and arranges the story in the order it was filmed. Which is better? That’s personal opinion, but it’s easy to identify the “more real” of the two. Followed stories seem to be closer to the definition of reality even though they’re way more scripted than story but still it actually happened in that order at least. Either way I think they're both way overrated and us as viewers are to blame for their popularity.
ReplyDeleteIt's never really thought about reality TV being separated into two categories but I guess it makes sense now. Reality TV is kind of stupid in general but I understand why it is made and why people watch it. Although it is mentioned that reality TV is mostly real and only has a few gaps of fake put in to give the viewer back story, I honestly think most of it is fake. One reason I think it is mostly fake is the amount of ridiculous drama associated with every single reality TV show. Even parts that are real, are modified and made to be overly dramatic to increase ratings. All in all, I would consider it all to be fake.
ReplyDeleteThis article definitely shines a little bit more light onto how reality television is filmed. I was under the impression that they were low effort money grabs, which to an extent I still do, but more work does go into them than I initially thought. The concept of it being the way it is isn't very surprising though, people love to see drama and controversy in places other than their own lives, and as such, the notion of reality shows focusing on these aspects does add to its appeal. The people who edit these shows are most certainly very patient and creative in their endeavor. I agree with Kevin, reality television is a much more complicated process that we may have previously imagined.
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