Making Meaning … Module C: Texts & Society Elective 1: The Global Village Prescribed Text: Nick Enright’s A Man with Five Children

DOCUMENTARY FILMS/ REALITYTV TEXTS of a GLOBAL VILLAGE Think. Pair. Share. Brainstorm some of the documentary films or Reality TV shows that you are familiar with. Choose ONE and write down, briefly, what you think is the purpose, audience and context of this show. Explain why you think so. Would you agree or disagree that the DOCUMENTARY FILM/ REALITY TV is a representation of our reality, of our GLOBAL SOCIETY, of our Worlds? Identify some of the techniques/ ways in which reality could be distorted in a Reality TV show? How does editing as a technique become useful in representing our GLOBAL VILLAGE? What are the short term & long term effects of these distortions?

What is a Documentary film? Documentary film is a broad category of visual expressions that is based on the attempt, in one fashion or another, to "document" reality. Although "documentary film" originally referred to movies shot on film stock, it has expanded to include video and digital productions that can be either direct-to-video or made for a television series. Documentary, as it applies here, works to identify a "filmmaking practice, a cinematic tradition, and mode of audience reception" that is continually evolving. [Source:

Popular Subject of Documentary Films Reality TV shows: Documenting human lives across time. The process of documenting the drama of human action across time involves: 1.Setting the Stage 2. Recording the action3. Editing the action 4. Finalizing effects 5. Broadcasting on Public TV Human Action

The final representation

Reality Representation From setting the stage for human action to take place to Recording the action using cameras, lighting, sound within the setting to Editing the recorded action to Constructing a story through selecting, sequencing and formatting the relevant parts of the footage of the recorded action to Finalizing the effects that highlight the dramatic moments to Broadcasting it as a REALITY TV show for all global audiences. Q. Predict the ‘g-a-p-s’ that could take place between the reality of the first human action and the final representation that is broadcasted across the globe?

Global Text: Reality TV show: Apted Seven Up Series You will be watching the youtube video ‘7-49 Up’, TWICE. After your second viewing: Outline some of the ways in which this video aroused your interest and curiosity. Would you like to participate in such an experiment? Why do you think this would be a powerful TEXT to broadcast across the Global Village? In what ways would the REALITY of the children’s lives be distorted during the processes of representing them in a documentary? How could this affect the children’s off-camera lives?

7 Up Series & A Man with five children Similarities Common Subject: Nick Enright’s TEXT is a response to the author’s fascination with documentary films, especially, the Apted 7 Up Series, ‘ which chronicles the lives, growth and development of a group of young people from early childhood’. The ‘7 Up Series’ documents the ‘startlingly different lives’ of 5 children every 7 year Enright’s A man with five children documents the different lives of 5 children ONCE every NEW YEAR for 21 years.

Global Village: Similar Subject yet different objectives DIFFERENCES Enright’s Medium of production: the Stage, not TV. Enright’s Purpose: (Playwright’s Note) To use the STAGE, and the film maker, to ‘explore, not the process of such (documentary) films, but their RATIONALE, and the dangers they present not only for their participants – and audiences but for their creator’. Enright’s Context: The Australian SOCIAL Context as part of the GLOBAL VILLAGE. Enright’s Audience: The Global/ English Speaking/ Australian audience. Questions & Task In what ways is the purpose of Enright’s representation different? What does Enright mean when he says he wants to ‘explore the dangers (such films) present not only for their participants –and audiences but for their creator’. Your TASK: Search the internet and find ONE youtube video which denies OR affirms Enright’s claim regarding the dangers of documentary films like 7 Up.

Final Review Questions Nick Enright: A Man with Five Children What does Enright’s representation of the 7 Up Series, which is in itself another representation, tell us about the TEXTS that are produced and reproduced in our Global Village? How valuable would Enright’s TEXT be in educating a GLOBAL AUDIENCE who lacks the critical media literacy skills and is unaware of the processes of REPRESENTATION that all multi-media texts incorporate?

Reference: Blue stick figure Accessed from: heights.ca.us/home/index.asp?page= heights.ca.us/home/index.asp?page=1407