everything reality TV borrowed, and what brands can borrow back

it started as a soap opera

The Real World launched on MTV in 1992. By one account, it was first pitched as a soap opera by soap producers. Too expensive. So they dropped the actors and the scripts, and kept everything else.

The reality soap was born out of a budget problem. Most good ideas are.

what it took, and from where

From documentary: the patience to watch. Real people, real places, a camera that waits.

From the soap: the cliffhanger. Every episode ends on a question you need answered.

From the game show: stakes. Something to win, something to lose, a clock running.

From drama: shape. Three acts, a turn, a payoff.

Media scholars have called it a hybrid genre for years. We think magpie sounds better.

then it wrote everything down

The real trick wasn’t the borrowing. It was the bible.

Every long-running format has one. It’s what keeps a show the same show across hundreds of episodes, dozens of editors and years on air. It’s why the hundredth episode feels like the first.

what brands can borrow back

Most brand films start from scratch every time. New agency, new editor, new music, new look. Then everyone wonders why nothing builds.

Borrow the patience. Let real people talk, and hold on the face a little longer.

Borrow the cliffhanger. Give people a reason to watch the next one.

Borrow the stakes. Show what’s actually on the line for the people in your business.

Borrow the bible. Write it down, so every film feels like it came from the same hand.

borrowed from television

We’ve spent 15+ years making unscripted television. Now we make it for brands.

[see the Film & Motion Brand Bible™]

References: Penzhorn, H. & Pitout, M. (2007), A critical-historical genre analysis of reality television, Communicatio 33. Biressi, A. & Nunn, H. (2005), Reality TV: Realism and Revelation, Columbia University Press. Adler, D. (2002), Reality Check, Filmmaker Magazine.

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