The+Homecoming+-+Group+1D


 * “The Homecoming” (Roberts, 2009)**

The theory.. “There’s a huge future – just as there’s been a huge past – in British TV for so-called real people on TV ... Some of these are so-called reality shows are more factual, some are more formatted, like Pop Idol. A lot of them used to be called documentaries, but people are now just more inventive with them” - Peter Bazalgette, (Head of) Endemol UK

A brief summary.. We follow Rachel Roberts’ as she sets on the journey to discover her past. As a child, along with her sister, she was put in Doncaster’s children home. With only the aid of an old photograph she aims to track down the children in which she grew up with, in order to try and piece together the memories of her childhood.

The creative use of sound  Music is used deliberately in the scene when Rachel reads for the first time her case-files on why she was left in care, and how she has half brothers she has never met. The music, which is a soft piano melody, creates a touching and tense atmosphere. Therefore the director is using Grierson’s techniques.

Re- Creating events  We see Rachel writing a letter to Anne, who was an elderly woman that looked after many of the children during Rachel’s time in care. As Rachel is reading, we only hear her voice and the next shot is of Anne reading the letter, with Rachel’s voice over. This was obviously staged, but to good effect, as it creates a nice image for the viewers. It helps build up the suspense of Rachel meeting Anne, as we know she is anxious and excited to do so.

Modes of Documentary; Stella Bruzzi’s Fifth mode.. __ Perfomative __  Documentary maker (and crew) interact with subject  Documentary maker comments on the process of making of the documentary  The documentary is often shaped in to the narrative of an investigation or search  Addresses the audience in an emotional and direct way  Subject matter often to do with identity (gender, sexuality) rather than “factual” subjects”

Bill Nichols- four tools to communicate  The Degree of knowledge- how much do the characters on screen know? I think this is raised very well in the sequence where Rachel is about to go into a local pub, and the camera stays on the pub’s sign outside, as if to hint its significance. We then go to find out the landlord of the pub if Rachel’s half brother, and there is an emotional reunion.  Subjectivity is “the extent in which we share the inner thoughts and feelings of characters or share their perspective” (Nichols 1991 : 120). Not only do we see the feelings of Rachel, in intimate interviews with the camera, we also see the emotions and thoughts of the other care-home children, when Rachel interviews them on how their life has changed.  Self – consciousness- all the characters in the documentary are aware of what is going on, especially considering when Rachel interviews her past friends, the chats are very intimate with a friendly feel  The Final tool is final tool is Communicativeness, Nichols says it is “the extent to which the exposition reveals what it knows” Nichols (1991). This is used when Rachel is visiting one of the people she has gotten in contact with and she says “Where are different lives have taken us..” and then the shot is of a caravan, in a muddy rain washed field.

Classification.. The term “reality TV” is fairly new, replacing the old term “factual entertainment”. Factual entertainment was further divided into two sections; “general factual”, and “specialist factual”.

“Infotainment”

This term was used in the early 1980s in America to describe programs that blurred the line between fact and fiction. It was not until the early 1990s that this type of show took off, in the form of “Rescue 911”. The category then began to become more widely used. In the run up to the coining of the phrase reality TV, it was referred to in several other ways, these include;  “Victim TV” (The Guardian)  “Real people TV” (The Journal of the Royal Television Society)  “Edutainment” (Time Out)  “Reality programming”, “Psycho TV”, “deprivational vouyerism” (John de Mol, 2000)

Taken from the Powerpoint presentation by Nick Whitmore and Sarah Williams.