1-4-6

It was a lot of interesting things that I've learned while dealing with the topic of reality shows. I enjoyed every aspect of the study of reality shows. Before actually looking into reality shows I believe that I looked at some of my favorite reality shows different from what I do now. In a way I do admire the work that the producers go through when choosing people to do a reality show. They have to go through a lot because they have to of course produce a show that is worth watching.

I never sat down and paid much attention to reality shows. Once I started looking at reality shows I noticed that they all have something in common. That one thing would be the drama. Every reality show that is shown on television has drama involved. No television viewer wants to watch a television show without drama; it wouldn't be interesting at all.

When I look at the world of celebrities I have noticed that they are of a cult. Every celebrity has a reality show. If they don't they aren't much of a celebrity. Not all celebrity reality shows are on television. There are a lot of celebrities that have web shows, or they just do web chats with their fans. I think that reality shows are the way of the world.

Now I will view reality shows as a difficult process for the people that are actually behind the scenes. I won't think little of the poeple doing the work for the camera, but I will see them as overexaggerating everything. When something goes wrong in the reality show I will always question whether it just happened or was it planned. I think I will analyze every reality show that I see now just because I have been studying them since I started this class.

Formula. 1-4-5

My topic is reality shows. Reality shows are a part of a movement in this day and age. Everyone who is anybody, or who wants to be somebody has a reality show. A good formula has to be created in order to have a good reality show.

There are many reality shows that are just not good, and that’s mostly because they were missing a piece of the formula. I know there are some reality shows that I won’t watch because I can’t relate to them in any way. There are other reality shows that I do watch because I can easily relate. Some reality shows are missing drama. I also find the ones who have a little bit too much drama. There also has to be some comedy along with the drama followed by some type of action or adventure. No matter what type of reality show it is all of these ingredients make up the show. There are those that have romance in it. Most of the time when there is romance involved there is drama that follows closely behind.

            I think that there is a reality show that appeals to everyone just like food. You can watch just about any type of reality show on television. Not everyone watches the same type of reality show, and that is why there are so many different ones. Since not everyone watches the same type of reality shows there has to be different creations.

            I’m sure it takes a lot for producers to create a good formula that makes a satisfying reality show. There has to be just the right amount of ingredients or the show just might not be a good one.  I’ve realized that a formula would be involved when creating a good reality show. That’s probably why there are so many reality shows on television (good and bad). The bad ones just make the producers realize that next time that have to add another ingredient or leave one out.

Assignment 1-3-2

The name of the article that I chose was “Building Characters: The Work of Celebrity Impersonators”. I was drawn to the title, so I decided to read it over. After reading just the first page I was interested. I decided this would be my journal of choice.

            In this article Ferris goes into great detail to explain the process of the transformation from self to character. The first part of the study gives information on actors and how they go through a lot to become their character. They of course have to show a piece of themselves while still playing the role of the character. That is already a difficult task to take on for an actor, but just think about what an actual impersonator has to do.

            Ferris goes from regular actors and actresses and their work to the work of the impersonators portraying the actors and actresses. Their work is harder than the actors because they are doing someone else’s work. Of course it would be much harder for an impersonator to duplicate a performance of a character than the actor themselves.

            In a way she is putting out there that being an impersonator is much harder than it looks. People have high expectations of an impersonator. Usually an impersonator will perform in front of a live audience. This means there is not time for errors. A lot of pressure is put on them because the audience expects the impersonator to be as close to the real celebrity as possible.

            The article was made for the general audience. Anyone who is actually willing and interested in learning more about the work of celebrity impersonators should definitely read this journal article. It provided very informative and insightful things about the job of an impersonator. I think that the details that Ferris provided were very in depth and helpful in getting an understanding of the job of an impersonator. The job was described very well.

            By looking at the title of the article I can already tell that a lot of things are going to be covered within the article. The key word is “building”. To build something you have to start with stages. I knew that it would give the whole break down process before even reading the article.

            The article itself was put in a way where I can understand it. I really don’t like reading any article where there are huge words that I have to look to a dictionary for. There were some words that were big, but I knew what they meant. If an author wants the article to relate to everyone, or appeal to a general audience then the author would have to make it in an everyday language. This article was made for everyone to be able to read. The article was comprehendible and I did enjoy reading it. I think that if I didn’t have to read it for this class I would still read it because it seemed very catchy from the title of the article.

            Throughout the article I grabbed the main point. I seen that there was only one point that the article based its focus on. The main point that Ferris wanted to get across to everyone was that being an impersonator should be looked at as an occupation. By doing conducting great studies (with the fifteen open ended interviews she conducted) her research went really well. I think that she definitely made her point clear.

            Ferris definitely has me on her side with the article. I now believe that being an impersonator is an actual job. The whole break down of the process is really what won me over. I never knew it could be so hard to be someone else. I always thought of impersonation as just a simple mimic, but that’s not even the case. An impersonator is looked upon as a “tribute” to the celebrity that they are impersonating. I think that is a good way to put it. They aren’t making fun of the celebrity after all, but honoring them in a way by actually becoming them.

            Many may not, but I believe that this is an important article. It informs everyone that you don’t have to be like everyone else and work a nine- to- five job. With all of the explanation and data that she collected she proved her point that it should be looked at as an occupation and I couldn’t agree more. They get paid just like everyone else. It seems as if being an impersonator is an underrated job. I actually think they should probably make more than what they are making because they have to work twice as hard to prove themselves.

References

Ferris, K. (2011). Building characters: the work of celebrity impersonators. Journal of Popular Culture. 44(6),1191-1208. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5931.2011.00895.x