During the last two decades, reality television has become a popular television genre. Competition is often an important element in reality television shows such as Survivor, American Idol, and Project Runway. [1] We will focus on Project Runway because fashion designers compete with each other on the show in order to win the resources necessary to jumpstart their careers. A contestant is usually eliminated in each episode if the judges feel like he or she did not live up to that week's challenge. Contestants are especially eager to make it to the final three as they will then get the opportunity to show a collection during New York Fashion Week. What started out end of 2004 as an American show for a relatively niche audience has gone on to win a Peabody Award for "using the 'television reality contest' genre to engage, inform, enlighten and entertain."[2] The show has inspired the spin-offs Project Runway: All Stars, Under the Gunn, Project Runway: Junior; and the short-lived Project Accessory and Project Runway: Threads. In addition, Project Runway can be considered a worldwide success as 24 countries all over the world have created their own versions of the show that in essence are the same.
Jean K. Chalaby writes that a format can be defined as "a show that can generate a distinctive narrative and is licensed outside its country of origin in order to be adapted to local audiences."[3] In addition, the popular format of the skill competition is "a set of rules built around a premise [...] that is then produced locally,"[4] which is less expensive than creating an entirely new show[5] and this is what has happened with Project Runway. This blog post will analyze which elements have made Project Runway a successful television format.
In order to create a "distinctive narrative dimension" a format has to have an "engine" in order to "create dramatic arcs and produce storylines" and in the case of talent shows, such as Project Runway, "the narrative arc is based on the journey of the contestant."[6] The engine is by some defined as "essentially the rules [of the show]"[7] but this may be a bit too simple. In reality television, the producers and editors of the show are very influential in how the narrative progresses, or at least appears to progress for the viewer.[8] One episode of Project Runway generally has two full days of taping edited down to about an hour long so there are choices being made in what the viewer gets to see. Even though the contestants' mentor Tim Gunn has said that the show wants to portray everyone in the best light possible,[9] this might be hard to believe. This fits with the idea that nowadays "talent shows are reality-skewed" as they "place more emphasis on emotions and the contestants' journeys."[10] Project Runway combines two types of journeys, namely that of self-discovery and their journey into professional fashion design.[11] The designers competing on the show are encouraged to find and develop their personal design aesthetic, which is self-discovery, and in addition, the show gives them the opportunity to start a new career as not all contestants, such as Kelly from the deli from season 14,[12] are already working as designers and have a regular job to pay the bills.
Of course, the influence of producers and editors does not mean that the show's rules are not instrumental in creating a distinctive narrative dimension. The fact that at the end of each episode a contestant is eliminated by the judges alone is enough to create drama as it can be considered a "trigger moment"[13] and even the episode's climax.[14] This progresses the narrative as the audience - as well as the contestants themselves - gets a new perspective on the competition and is one step closer in finding out who wins the show. In addition to this, the show's rules, such as time constraints also create stress and discomfort that influence the narrative.[15]
Each episode is structured in the same manner, with the
aforementioned trigger moment near the end. At the start, the designers get to hear their challenge, they get 30 minutes to sketch, they go somewhere to acquire the necessary materials, and back in the work room they have until 11pm and on set times their mentor comes in for feedback and the models come in for a fitting. The following day they can finish up, send the models to hair and makeup, and then it is time to get judged. Furthermore, the mentor and judges of the show have some standard sayings that they repeat often and have even become memes such as Tim Gunn's "make it work" and Heidi Klum's "one day you're in, the next day you're out" and "auf wiedersehen" to the eliminated contestant. The structure of the show provides the skeleton of the show that cannot be touched by international adaptations[16] and each version actually "performs the same set of action-events in tight, regulated recurrence." [17] However, there is room for local elements as the weekly challenges can be adapted to fit the national culture, such as designing an updated typically British raincoat in the British version and having the designers take inspiration from their own cultures as in this episode of the Vietnamese version where the contestants visited a traditional Vietnamese performance after which they had to design a new look.
Project Runway has become a successful television format because it has a very clear structure that makes it easy - as well as relatively inexpensive- to adapt the show to international audiences while still leaving room to incorporate elements of the local culture. In addition to this, the show's rules create enough drama and narrative to keep the viewer interested. Tweet: Reality television shows, even when they are about skills and talents, are mainly watched because people enjoy the drama and fights.
KH, EH, LD, DL, NS
[1] Jean K. Chalaby (2011), ‘The making of an entertainment revolution: How the TV format trade became a global industry’, in: European Journal of Communication 26 (4), 2011, p. 299.
[3] Chalaby, p. 295
[4] Tasha Oren (2013), 'On the Line: Format, Cooking and Competition as Television Values’, in: Critical Studies in Television 8 (2), p. 27.
[5] Chalaby, p. 295
[6] Chalaby, p. 295
[7] Chalaby, p. 294
[8] Leigh H. Edwards (2013), ‘The Triumph of Reality TV: The Revolution in American Television,’ p. 30.
[9] http://www.mylifetime.com/shows/project-runway/video/season-14/episode-15/season-14-reunion-special
[10 Chalaby, p. 301
[11] Chalaby, p. 294
[13] Chalaby, p.295
[14] Oren, p.30
[15] Oren, p.30
[16] Chalaby, p.295
[17] Oren, p.28
I'm personally a big fan of ramedin2 blog. Thanks for sharing this post.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenclipping path
clipping path service