Big Brother was originally created at the end of the 1990s in Holland. Big Brother used the combined technology of the new digital production system, radio microphones, and cameras with high speed editing features. These production elements are now considered an industry standard.
Big Brother and the development of new technologies, such as broadband internet meant that images can be live streamed and are easily broadcasted over the internet. It is this quickly accessible broadcast market that gives producers an opportunity to meet market demands and create higher amounts of revenue.
The structure of Big Brother filming itself promotes confrontation between housemates. Camera and lights are positioned within the house for creating an ultimate recording location. Although being internationally traded, Big Brother Australia adapted to local culture and showed national stereotypes. It is the inclusion of these styles of characters that evokes the ‘scripted’ cynicism surrounding reality television. Big Brother in effect is a studio based production. Original marketing for the program surrounded the concept of a social experiment that aimed to explore the patterns of interaction and the development of interpersonal relationships between people from different social backgrounds.
The Big Brother house is in a sense a set, created for filming the program. With the placement of both surveillance cameras and microphones, every movement and conversation between housemates is captured. I think that the use of this technology is staging ‘reality’, so the question is then what is reality??
Bignell described Big Brother as a tailored experience has not only helped emerging technology but also relieved the economic pressure on broadcasters, offering a cheap alternative to programming.
Big Brother and the development of new technologies, such as broadband internet meant that images can be live streamed and are easily broadcasted over the internet. It is this quickly accessible broadcast market that gives producers an opportunity to meet market demands and create higher amounts of revenue.
The structure of Big Brother filming itself promotes confrontation between housemates. Camera and lights are positioned within the house for creating an ultimate recording location. Although being internationally traded, Big Brother Australia adapted to local culture and showed national stereotypes. It is the inclusion of these styles of characters that evokes the ‘scripted’ cynicism surrounding reality television. Big Brother in effect is a studio based production. Original marketing for the program surrounded the concept of a social experiment that aimed to explore the patterns of interaction and the development of interpersonal relationships between people from different social backgrounds.
The Big Brother house is in a sense a set, created for filming the program. With the placement of both surveillance cameras and microphones, every movement and conversation between housemates is captured. I think that the use of this technology is staging ‘reality’, so the question is then what is reality??
Bignell described Big Brother as a tailored experience has not only helped emerging technology but also relieved the economic pressure on broadcasters, offering a cheap alternative to programming.
• Bignell, Jonathan Big brother : reality TV in the twenty-first century, Basingstoke [UK] ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2005
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