“What is Realism, really?”

Reading Summary

Is being spontaneous actually being real? Many filmmakers can construct a film in order to make it seem that way, when in reality, the basis of something looking realistic focuses more on framing and camera angles. Certain techniques encourage us to believe that the media is being truthful, which is not exactly the same as telling the truth. Individuals tend to put a small line between what is the truth and what is reality. We believe that all realities are the truth, when actually we only tend to believe the truths that seem sad or make us see the world in very harsh conditions. Our understanding of realism is that reality is not pretty. Any content can be captured in a realistic matter but generally people do not associate reality with nice occasions. Since documentary’s and realism have been used in the past to, in some ways, expose the world for living under very harsh conditions, it can be hard for people to connect the beauties of the world to actually being real.

There are certain tricks and techniques filmmakers use such as putting “based on a true story” at the beginning of a film or TV show in order to make the audience fully believe the writers and directors are telling the truth. In all truthfulness, that statement has a lot of leeway. Pretty much anything can be “based” on a true event, but filmmakers add lots of drama and conversations to increase the likability of the film instead of actually sticking to all true events. Even fiction films can have realistic aspects if the viewers trusts that the filmmaker knows a lot about the particular subject, or if we have significant knowledge on how the film was made, it may persuade the viewer to believe more of what they are seeing to be realistic. Even something that is not true can be considered realistic if it encourages us to believe it is true to life.

Outside Example

The reading really reminded me of a lot of aspects of photography. Many famous photographers, like Alexander Rodchenko, set up photographs to look as if they were taken spontaneously, when actually they took lots of planning and set up in order to get the perfect shot. Not to mention, the amount of editing that was done in post production. In particular, the photo below, by Rodchenko, was completely thought through and arranged in order for it to look as if he just walked outside and saw people in the streets, and snapped a photo, however everything was considerably planned and analyzed, from the stains on the concrete to the woman looking over her balcony

Reading Connection

Most filmmakers and photographers go through considerable planning stages in order to create something that looks spontaneous. Most to the point where you can’t tell what is actually real anymore and what is staged. Even though Rodchenko took such beautiful and what seem like spontaneous photos, the fact that most of his photos are staged can kind of take away from the beauty of it. Maybe this is why most people choose to believe that photos and documentaries are realistic and true to the real world, because knowing otherwise that everything is staged can make you question, what in life is actually real, and what is just staged in order to make us believe certain truths.