Page 198 - A Handbook Genre Studies in Mass Media

PRODUCTION ELEMENTS

dating shows like Temptation Island. The public is invited to watch as
tears are shed, emotions escalate, and nausea abounds. The appeal of the
real becomes the appeal of manipulation.
Eric Towler, postproduction supervisor on Discovery Health channel’s
The Residents, notes that he receives hundreds of hours of footage that
has to be edited into thirteen one-hour episodes: “The story department
had to figure out how to piece things together to make the story work.
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Obviously, not everything you see is a linear day.” However, Ghen
Maynard, alternative programming director of the Columbia Broadcast-
ing System (CBS), says that “we don’t piece together unrelated clips to
add drama.” According to Towler, editors keep collections of footage for
each character, which they can use out of sequence to highlight aspects
of the characters’ personal “stories.” CBS continually uses this technique
on episodes of Big Brother 5 to highlight the personality characteristics
of the houseguests.
Digital technology makes it easier to capture “real life” and also pro-
vides many ways to manipulate these images. Editors often use color
correction techniques to alter the appearance of footage and also apply
imaging effects to scenes to denote “memory sequences.” Editor Rick
Frazier, who works on Totally Outrageous Behavior, which falls into the
America’s Funniest Home Videos genre of reality TV, says that “reality
has to be tweaked and played with to make it work. [The editors] will
do slow-downs, speed-ups, push-ins and play with the music to make
the clips more interesting. If something plays out straight, it’s boring.”
Producers of Big Brother offer a twenty-four-hour live video feed that
can be accessed on the Internet that shows the unedited, live footage of
the contestants, allowing viewers to see how editors “frame content” and
“manipulate the portrayal of houseguests” on the polished prime-time
episodes. Thus, showing unedited footage educates the “naïve” viewer
who believes that everything he or she sees is true, when in actuality, any
program is “influenced by the values of producers, directors, network
executives” and editors.
With the addition of personal microphones that can be worn on the
clothing, audio editors can control who and what the audience hears.
This makes it possible to edit out profanity or add a “bleep” sound effect
to cover profanity. Audio mixer John Pooley says of profanity editing,
“Some bleep it. Others don’t want to be distracted by a bleep so I drop
it and fill it with ambiance. Others will bleep some of the profanity if it
accentuates the story or drives the anger or comedy of the scene.”

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