What is realism, really?

Reading Summary

While we perceive most aspects of media such as film and television to reflect the real world in great depth, there are actually many parts of it that fail to capture the realism of life. Smith brings to light two forms of realism originally introduced by John Caughie as the “dramatic look” and the “documentary look”. The dramatic look aims to place the invisible viewer within the show or movie while also being able to meticulously edit every detail, while the documentary look cannot be reshot and is aimed to make the viewer feel as if they are actually on site. Spontaneity is a key aspect of recreating realism. In a documentary look, everything appears to be more real because nothing is planned and anything that can happen, may happen. In some cases, verbal spontaneity allows for a slightly more realistic feel in the dramatic look, but the director would still want to keep everything planned. Depending on the scenario or look that the director is aiming to achieve, a film or movie can have as much or as little realism as they choose and still entertain viewers.

Personal Example

My first thought came to National Geographic’s Planet Earth. This 2 hour long documentary showcases wildlife from all around the globe, giving viewers a different look into parts of nature they didn’t know existed. National Geographic achieves a realistic effect by including sounds of nature, close up shots, and an absence of any camera crew or equipment. Viewers enjoy this type of content due to its slower pace, relaxing tone, and the added benefit of learning something new.

Reading Connection

One may think that the director relies only on the documentary look, but many aspects of the film are not entirely realistic. Some of these aspects are close up shots of animals in their natural environment as well, time-lapses, and stop motion shots. While the actions of the animals featured are natural, the pace of the film as well as the closeness to the wildlife would be very difficult to obtain in real life. In addition to this, the sounds of nature that accompany the video are primarily made in a sound recording building, where artists use everyday objects to recreate the sounds that would happen in nature.