Reality TV and Documentary - AHC3304

Assessment 1: Project work

The formative element of this module is ongoing. Students’ understanding and practice is reviewed during practical classes and in supervised production settings. Students must pitch their ideas for their Assessment 1 project to the module tutor, for verbal feedback. Students must also consult with the tutor on the scope of the project, and gain approval to pursue either an individual or group programme.

Project work

Assessment 1: Project Work

Assessment 1 is a project in which students will create a factual documentary or reality TV output. This can be either an individual, or individual contribution to a group, project, depending on the scope of the planned programme.

Assessment 2: Written Assignment

Assessment 2 is a reflective essay, contextualising the completed Assessment 1 project in the context of genre history.

Written Assignment

This module explores the histories, conventions and practices of creating factual film and television, from traditional documentary formats to factual entertainment and reality TV. Located in the intersection of analytical, technical and creative skills, you will examine modes of representation employed in documentary and reality formats, constructing and narrating reality remaining television’s most fundamental and critically debated power. You will trace the interplay between film and TV outputs and the nature of factual screen entertainment as well as changing technologies of production. Then, you will work either individually or as part of a group, to create a factual programme of your own.

School of Arts and Humanities

Billinge, S. (2017). The practical guide to documentary editing: techniques for TV &amp; film (1st ed.). Routledge.
Brennan, Niall &amp; Gudelunas, David (eds). (2017). RuPaul's Drag Race and the Shifting Visibility of Drag Culture : The Boundaries of Reality TV,
Ouellette, Laurie. (2014). A Companion to Reality Television : Theory and Evidence, John Wiley &amp; Sons.
Smaill, B. (2010). The documentary : politics, emotion, culture. Palgrave Macmillan.
Stark, T. (2021). The insiders’ guide to factual filmmaking. Routledge, Taylor &amp; Francis Group.

Container 1

Media, Journalism and Film

AHC3304 - Reality TV and Documentary

Reality TV and Documentary

be able to demonstrate technical and creative competency in achieving high production values. 

be able to demonstrate in-depth understanding of the epistemological and ideological dimensions of documentary and reality TV.

be able to reflect on the interplay between the economic, political and aesthetic contexts of factual film and television.

be able to show critical knowledge of histories and contexts of factual film and television.

be able to communicate insights into culture, society and forms of individual agency through appropriate documentary film or reality TV formats. 

be able to apply methods and techniques of production and post-production in the creation of unscripted audio-visual work.