Catfish Documentary Techniques

The line between documentary and reality TV is often blurred and it is difficult to truly define what some television series are. One reality TV show that depicts the blurred line accurately is the MTV show “Catfish.” The main narrator Nev establishes his credibility in the first five minutes of the show and explains his purpose. He became well known by creating a documentary about his catfish experience. The series then revolves around him with a crew trying to help others explore their online relationships in which they have never met in person. He uses technology and then eventually ventures to the person’s house to validate who the person behind the social media profile is. The scene that depicts that this is part documentary part something different is the confrontation between Sunny and her catfish.

The camera work makes this scene seem like a documentary. The film constantly switches between the hand held camera in Max’s hand and official rarely seen cameramen view. This gives it the documentary feel because in many of the documentaries we view, clips were taken from a hand held or previously recorded section interspersed with steady views. The setting also appears to be natural and the interviews conducted between Nev, Sunny, and Max also give this a documentary feel. In a related article, the author Murray describes that the borrowing of documentary techniques or looks blur the lines between reality TV and documentaries (41). The confrontation scene in Catfish depicts the documentary style because of the interviews occurring, natural setting, and the filming techniques used. Murray also stated that documentaries are “rather high-minded, and if not fully educational, then at least informative” (43). This show does inform the viewer that not everyone is who he or she claims to be on the