Titles such as The Real Cancun, MTV's film version of The Real World (which was originally titled Spring Break: The Reality Movie), are examples of the genre.[2][3] In an article in Time Magazine, Joel Stein 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."[4] 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 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."[5]
History of reality film
Mary Woronov, star of Chelsea Girls: "I was the only one who memorised my lines, and no one even noticed."
"The thinking behind these pics is not new," wrote Gabriel Snyder in Variety about the techniques employed by recent reality movies.[5] In the 1950s, Samuel Arkoff tapped into teen auds with quickies like Rock All Night and Reform School Girl and beach films such as Bikini Beach ("It's where every torso is more so, and bare-as-you-dare is the rule!").[5] London's Evening Standard called Andy Warhol's 1966 film Chelsea Girls a reality film and noted that the Radio Times Guide to Film 2007 stated it was "to blame for reality television."[6][7] The film consists of drugged-out conversations between Warhol SuperstarsNico, Ondine, Brigid Berlin, Mary Woronov, and Gerard Malanga.[8] "I was the only one who memorised my lines," said Woronov, "and no one even noticed."[8] In 1970, Candid Camera creator Allen Funt made the film What Do You Say to a Naked Lady?, 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.[5]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".[9] In 2003, Comedy Central aired its feature length reality movie Windy City Heat, starring Tony Barbieri and Bobcat Goldthwaite (who also directed).[10] In the movie, friends of real life aspiring actor Perry Caravello 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; everyone is in on the elaborate joke except Caravello.[11]
Reality films as documentaries
Some reality films, such as those based upon the Jackass television series, have been called documentaries.[12][13][14] Jan Krawitz, director of Stanford University'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.[15] 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 in his post-concert trailer after, they say, he tried to get amorous with them."[4] 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.[16]
James Ronald Whitney, whose films have won multiple "Best Documentary" awards,[17] 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.[18]
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.[19] A reality movie based upon the Girls Gone Wild video series that MGM bought the rights to was never put into production and the Universal Pictures effort Drunken Jackasses: The Quest was delayed after the flop of Cancun[20] and went straight to video.[21][22] In an interview with the Christian Science Monitor, Robert Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, acknowledged the potential "for an entirely new form of filmmaking."[23] 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.[23] 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.[24] "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."[24]Paramount Pictures President Gail Berman 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?"[25]
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."[26][27] It is often used as a phrase to describe traditional documentaries. A term coined by author Leigh Stimolo to describe her screenplay/novel Dream Divers in 2015. Her logline reads. "A 'reality film' novel where actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck play fictionalized versions of themselves as they dive into the dreams of an unknowing female writer and rogue deliberate creator, Leigh."
↑ "This is the first time anyone has tried to take a reality concept to the theaters," said casting director Damon Furberg. "Think of it as a reality version of a teen movie like American Pie."MTV's film hits Boston, Lindsay Hearne, The Daily Free Press, June 30, 2003, retrieved on August 22, 2007
↑ Village Voice, Armond White 1 Jan. 2003, "Best Documentary: Jackass, far and away. It makes the self-important, pseudo-political quests of this year's trust-fund and grant-hound filmmakers irrelevant. Fuck Bowling for Columbine. Ass Kicked by Girl, Roller Disco Truck, Paper Cuts, and other Jackass routines show what's really going on in the frustrated hearts and minds of America's misdirected white youth."
↑ Andrew Sullivan's blog, 30 June 2004: "F9/11 wasn't the biggest grossing documentary. Jackass was. It was non-fiction, and about as informative as Mr Moore. And a lot more to look at."
Michael Kenneth Mann is an American director, screenwriter, and producer, best known for his distinctive style of crime drama. His most acclaimed works include the films Thief (1981), Manhunter (1986), The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Heat (1995), The Insider (1999), Collateral (2004), and Public Enemies (2009). He is also known for his role as executive producer on the popular TV series Miami Vice (1984–89), which he adapted into a 2006 feature film.
Adam H. Spiegel, known professionally as Spike Jonze, is an American filmmaker, actor, musician, and photographer. His work includes commercials, film, music videos, skateboard videos and television.
The Real World is an American reality television series produced through MTV and Bunim/Murray Productions that most recently aired on Facebook Watch after airing on MTV from 1992 to 2017 and was originally produced by Mary-Ellis Bunim and Jonathan Murray. It is in development for future seasons on Paramount+. First broadcast in 1992, the show, which was inspired by the 1973 PBS documentary series An American Family, is the longest-running program in MTV history, one of the longest-running reality series in history, and is credited with launching the modern reality TV genre. Seven to eight young adults are picked to temporarily live in a new city together in one residence while being filmed non-stop.
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 famous dictum, "In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes". Warhol would simply film them, and declare them "superstars".
Brandon Cole "Bam" Margera is an American former professional skateboarder, stunt performer, television personality, and filmmaker. He rose to prominence in the early 2000s as one of the stars of the MTV reality stunt show Jackass and subsequent sequels. He also created the Jackass spin-off shows Viva La Bam, Bam's Unholy Union, Bam's World Domination, and Bam's Bad Ass Game Show, and co-wrote and directed the films Haggard and Minghags.
Parker Christian Posey is an American actress and musician. Posey is the recipient of a Golden Globe Award nomination, a Satellite Award nomination and two Independent Spirit Award nominations.
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Jackass is an American reality comedy television series created by Jeff Tremaine, Spike Jonze, and Johnny Knoxville. It originally aired for three short seasons on MTV between October 2000 and August 2001, with reruns extending into 2002. The show featured a cast of nine friends carrying out stunts and pranks on each other and the public. The cast included Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Chris Pontius, Dave England, Ryan Dunn, Steve-O, Jason "Wee Man" Acuña, Ehren McGhehey and Preston Lacy.
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 celebrated spring break in Cancún, Mexico and experienced romantic relationships, emotional strife, or just had a good time.
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Anthony J. Barbieri is an American comedic writer and performer. He is known for his appearances as the Jimmy Kimmel Live! character "Jake Byrd."
Mary Woronov 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 in over 80 movies and on stage at Lincoln Center and off-Broadway productions as well as numerous times in mainstream American TV series, such as Charlie's Angels and Knight Rider. She frequently co-starred with friend Paul Bartel; the pair appeared in 17 films together, often playing a married couple.
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