Editing Techniques In Reality TV

The first ever Big Brother was a massive discovery for reality TV. People were fascinated by the whole idea of putting people in a house and filming their every move. The thing that people didn’t realise when watching is that what was happening in the scene they was watching might not all be from the same event during that time of day. The editors had the power to manipulate what they had already filmed into their own storyline and only show that audience what they are allowed to see. This either withheld or revealed what happened to the audience. The diary room would have also been used to manipulate the storyline that was already in tact and would make everything seem more believable. The editors managed to build up drama from every day conversations and interactions. This use of editing made the audience generate an image and a perspective on each person in the house and turn them into characters in a drama. The audience will develop an opinion on each person whether they thought they was genuine or ‘‘playing the game’’.

In Big Brother, They manage to put 24 hours of film and condense it so it shows all the highlights of the day into just 1hour. This is how it is so easy for the editors to just manipulate the time and space in the house. The hour slot is enough to show the audience what they are allowed to see as well as some things that might not even turn out how they started or ended. By using conventions like close up shots, voice over and narrator the editors are able to generate opinions about other people in the house against one another.  The close up shots construct an image so that the audience are manipulated into thinking that the individual is doing something that they shouldn’t be or overreacting to another’s comment. The fact that it is real people being filmed doing day to day things people find it authentic and buy into the idea that they are just watching people complete tasks and talk about each other to Big Brother.

None of this would have been prior to digital editing systems which allow people to work with a vast amount of footage very quickly. However, now everything is done digitally on computer systems and are easily put together by the click of a button.