Reality film or reality movie describes a genre of films that have resulted from
reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...
, such as ''
The Real Cancun
''The Real Cancun'' is a 2003 American reality film directed by Rick de Oliveira and written by Brian Caldirola. Inspired by the reality television genre, this film followed the lives of sixteen Americans from March 13–23, 2003 as they celebrate ...
'',
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
's film version of ''
The Real World
Real World or The Real World may also refer to:
* Real life, a phrase to distinguish between the real world and fictional, virtual or idealized worlds
Television
* ''The Real World'' (TV series), 1992–2017
* "The Real World" (''Stargate Atla ...
'', which was originally titled ''Spring Break: The Reality Movie''. In an article in ''
Time Magazine
''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...
'',
Joel Stein
Joel Stein (born July 23, 1971) is an American journalist who wrote for the ''Los Angeles Times''. He wrote a column and occasional articles for ''Time'' for 19 years until 2017.
Early life
Stein grew up in Edison, New Jersey, the son of a sale ...
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."
[Cue the Tequila]
Joel Stein, Time Magazine, April 23, 2003. 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
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' 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."
[Will beach babes be boffo B.O.? Quickie pix hope to reap 'Jackass'-style action]
Gabriel Snyder, Variety Magazine, April 20, 2003.
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
Samuel Zachary Arkoff (June 12, 1918 – September 16, 2001) was an American producer of B movies.
Life and career
Arkoff was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, to Russian Jewish parents. He was the son of Helen (Lurie) and Louis Arkoff, who ran his ...
tapped into teen auds with quickies like ''Rock All Night
''Rock All Night'' is a 1957 crime drama film produced and directed by Roger Corman. Distributed by American International Pictures, it is based on a 25-minute television episode of '' The Jane Wyman Show'' from 1955 called "The Little Guy." It s ...
'' and ''Reform School Girl
''Reform School Girl'' is a 1957 film starring Gloria Castillo as a teenage girl who is sent to a reformatory. The film was directed by Edward Bernds and was produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff. ''Reform School Girl'' was one of many sexploitation f ...
'' and beach films such as ''Bikini Beach
''Bikini Beach'' is a 1964 American 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 the series of seven films ...
'' ("It's where every torso is more so, and bare-as-you-dare is the rule!").[ London's '']Evening Standard
The ''Evening Standard'', formerly ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), also known as the ''London Evening Standard'', is a local free daily newspaper in London, England, published Monday to Friday in tabloid format.
In October 2009, after be ...
'' called Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
's 1966 film ''Chelsea Girls
''Chelsea Girls'' is a 1966 American 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 (both feature-length and short). It w ...
'' 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 Superstars
Warhol superstars were a clique of New York City personalities promoted by the pop artist Andy Warhol during the 1960s and early 1970s. These personalities appeared in Warhol's artworks and accompanied him in his social life, epitomizing his fam ...
Nico
Naftiran Intertrade Company Société à responsabilité limitée#In Switzerland, limited (NICO) is a Switzerland, Swiss-based subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). NICO is a general contractor for the oil and gas industry. NIOC bu ...
, Ondine, Brigid Berlin
Brigid Emmett Berlin (September 6, 1939 – July 17, 2020) was an American artist and Warhol superstar.
Early years
Berlin was born on September 6, 1939 in Manhattan in New York City. She was the eldest of three daughters born to socialite parent ...
, Mary Woronov
Mary Woronov (born December 8, 1943) is an American actress, published author and figurative painter. She is primarily known as a " cult star" because of her work with Andy Warhol and her roles in Roger Corman's cult films. Woronov has appeared ...
, and Gerard Malanga
Gerard Joseph Malanga (born March 20, 1943) is an American poet, photographer, filmmaker, actor, curator and archivist.
Early life
Malanga was born in the Bronx in 1943, the only child of Italian immigrant parents. In 1959, at the beginning of h ...
.[Snapshot: Chelsea Girls]
Will Hodgkinson, The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
"I was the only one who memorised my lines," said Woronov, "and no one even noticed."[ In 1970, '']Candid Camera
''Candid Camera'' is a popular and long-running American hidden camera reality television series. Versions of the show appeared on television from 1948 until 2014. Originally created and produced by Allen Funt, it often featured practical jokes ...
'' creator Allen Funt
Allen Albert Funt (September 16, 1914 – September 5, 1999) was an American television producer, director, writer and television personality best known as the creator and host of '' Candid Camera'' from the 1940s to 1980s, as either a regula ...
made the film ''What Do You Say to a Naked Lady?
''What Do You Say to a Naked Lady?'' is a 1970 American hidden-camera style reality film directed by '' Candid Camera'' creator Allen Funt. In the film, Funt secretly records people's reactions to unexpected encounters with nudity or sexualit ...
'', 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
''Jackass: The Movie (stylized as jackass the movie)'' is a 2002 American reality slapstick comedy film directed by Jeff Tremaine. It is a continuation of the MTV television series '' Jackass'', which had completed its run. It was produced by L ...
'' 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''".][The Real Cancun]
Scott Foundas, ''Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'', April 20, 2003. In 2003, Comedy Central
Comedy Central is an American basic cable channel owned by Paramount Global through its network division's MTV Entertainment Group unit, based in Manhattan. The channel is geared towards young adults aged 18–34 and carries comedy programming ...
aired its feature length reality movie ''Windy City Heat
''Windy City Heat'' is a made-for-TV reality film produced by Comedy Central. It first aired on October 12, 2003.
Background
Perry Caravello is an aspiring celebrity and struggling comedian and actor who was "discovered" in 1992 by comedian Don ...
'', starring Tony Barbieri
Anthony J. Barbieri (born August 26, 1963, in Framingham, Massachusetts) is an American comedic writer and performer. He is known for his appearances as the '' Jimmy Kimmel Live!'' character "Jake Byrd." Career
Barbieri was the writer of the mon ...
and Bobcat Goldthwaite
Robert Francis "Bobcat" Goldthwait (born May 26, 1962) is an American actor, comedian, director and screenwriter, known for his black comedy stand-up act, delivered through an energetic stage persona with an unusual raspy and high-pitched voice. ...
(who also directed). In the movie, friends of real life aspiring actor Perry Caravello
Perry Frank Caravello (born November 17, 1963) is an American actor, comedian, and internet personality who is best known as the star of the 2003 movie ''Windy City Heat'' and the host of the internet stream ''Perry Caravello Live''.
Early li ...
convince him he is playing the lead (as a "sports memorabilia private eye") of an action movie titled "Windy City Heat," itself faux-directed by Bobcat Goldthwait
Robert Francis "Bobcat" Goldthwait (born May 26, 1962) is an American actor, comedian, director and screenwriter, known for his black comedy stand-up act, delivered through an energetic stage persona with an unusual raspy and 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
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...
. Jan Krawitz, director of Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
'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 Dogg
Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr. (born October 20, 1971), known professionally as Snoop Dogg (previously Snoop Doggy Dogg and briefly Snoop Lion), is an American rapper. His fame dates back to 1992 when he featured on Dr. Dre's debut solo single, " ...
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,[James Ronald Whitney Filmography]
/ref> 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'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.[Interview with James Ronald Whitney]
on TheMovieChicks.com, May 13, 2004.
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 Wild'' video series that MGM
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded on April 17, 1924 a ...
bought the rights to was never put into production and the Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
effort ''Drunken Jackasses: The Quest'' was delayed after the flop of ''Cancun'' and went straight to video. In an interview with the ''Christian Science Monitor
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
'', Robert Thompson Robert or Bob Thompson may refer to:
Entertainment
* Bobby Thompson (comedian) (1911–1988), English comedian
* Bob Thompson (musician) (1924–2013), American orchestra leader, arranger, composer
* Robert E. Thompson (screenwriter) (1924–2004 ...
, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...
, acknowledged the potential "for an entirely new form of filmmaking."[Reality Reality TV's big-screen test]
Amanda Paulson, ''The Christian Science Monitor
''The Christian Science Monitor'' (''CSM''), commonly known as ''The Monitor'', is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper ...
'', April 25, 2003. However, noted Thompson, "people aren't watching '' Survivor'' 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 Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
''.[Why reality TV won't bite at the box office; LA Movie: Hollywood is finding it tough turning reality television into feature films]
Sean Macauly, ''The Times
''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...
'' of London, April 28, 2003. "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 Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
President Gail Berman
Gail Berman (born August 17, 1956) is an American producer and television executive. She is co-owner and founding partner of The Jackal Group, a production entity formed in partnership with Fox Networks Group. The Jackal Group develops and produc ...
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
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...
." It is often used as a phrase to describe traditional documentaries.
See also
* Cinema verite
*Actuality film
The actuality film is a non-fiction film genre that, like the documentary film, uses footage of real events, places, and things. Unlike the documentaries, actuality films are not structured into a larger argument, picture of the phenomenon or coh ...
*'' Dirty Sanchez''
*Realism (arts)
Realism in the arts is generally the attempt to represent subject matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding speculative and supernatural elements. The term is often used interchangeably with naturalism, although these terms are not ...
* Direct Cinema
Notes
{{Filmsbygenre
Film genres
Reality television
Films based on television series
Documentary film genres