Editing Fly on the wall

{{Short description|Style of documentary-making}}
{{other uses}}
[[File:Highscreen Black Box Connect as CCTV.jpg|thumb|A camera up on a wall recording what is happening in the room]]
'''Fly on the wall''' is a style of [[documentary]]-making used in [[filmmaking|film]] and [[television production]]. The name derived from the idea that events are seen [[Candid photography|candidly]], as a [[fly]] on a wall might see them. In the purest form of fly-on-the-wall documentary-making, the camera crew works as unobtrusively as possible; however, it is also common for participants to be interviewed, often by an off-camera voice.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/698785/|title=BFI Screenonline: 'Fly on the Wall' TV}}</ref>

Decades before [[Reality television|structured reality]] shows became popular, the [[BBC News (British TV channel)|BBC]] had broadcast fly-on-the-wall film ''[[Royal Family (film)|Royal Family]]'' (a 1969 documentary produced in association with ITV),<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/royal-family-documentary-history-queen-elizabeth-ii/|title='Royal Family': the fly-on-the-wall documentary the Palace doesn't want you to see|website=HistoryExtra}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/300217438/royal-family-documentary-banned-by-the-queen-resurfaces-online-50-years-later|title=Royal family documentary 'banned' by the Queen resurfaces online 50 years later|date=January 29, 2021|website=Stuff}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cheshire-live.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/banned-royal-family-documentary-1969-19724259|title=Banned Royal family documentary from 1969 resurfaces on Youtube|first=Neil|last=Shaw|date=January 29, 2021}}</ref> while 1974's ''[[The Family (1974 TV series)|The Family]]'', is said to be the earliest example of a [[reality TV]] docusoap on the [[BBC News (British TV channel)|BBC]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0168rq5|title=BBC - History of the BBC, April 1974 - The Family - the first 'fly-on-the-wall' documentary|website=BBC}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://bbc.com/historyofthebbc/anniversaries/april/the-family/|title=The Family first episode|website=bbc.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.getreading.co.uk/news/local-news/the-family-says-goodbye-4249487|title=The family says goodbye|first=Laura|last=Miller|date=August 18, 2008}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/wilkinses-reading-where-are-they-now-1082290.html|title=The Wilkinses of Reading: Where Are They Now?|date=October 23, 2011|website=The Independent}}</ref> In 1978 the BBC aired [[Living_in_the_Past_(TV_series)|Living in the Past]] recreating a [[British Iron Age]] settlement.  In the late 1990s, [[Chris Terrill|Chris Terrill's]] docusoap series ''[[The Cruise (1998 TV series)|The Cruise]]''<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m000x8m5/the-cruise|title=The Cruise|via=www.bbc.co.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000x8m4|title=BBC One - The Cruise, Let the Dream Begin|website=BBC}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000x8m5|title=BBC One - The Cruise|website=BBC}}</ref> made a star of singer<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jane-mcdonald-mn0000641575/biography|title=Jane McDonald &#124; Biography & History|website=AllMusic}}</ref> and TV personality [[Jane McDonald]],<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/4871/jane-mcdonald/|title=Jane McDonald &#124; full Official Chart History &#124; Official Charts Company|website=www.officialcharts.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.joingocruiseandtravel.co.uk/cruise-news/new-series-of-cruising-with-jane-mcdonald-to-start-this-friday|title=New series of Cruising with Jane McDonald to start this Friday &#124; GoCruise & Travel Franchise|website=www.joingocruiseandtravel.co.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://jane-mcdonald.com/biography|title=Biography}}</ref> while Welsh cleaner Maureen Rees<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/tv/search-mo-driving-school-welsh-15587132|title=In search of Mo from Driving School|first=David|last=Owens|date=December 23, 2018|website=WalesOnline}}</ref> became popular after her appearances on BBC One's<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://bbc.com/historyofthebbc/anniversaries/june/driving-school/|title=Driving School|website=bbc.com}}</ref> ''[[Driving School]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/4031/maureen-rees/|title=MAUREEN REES &#124; full Official Chart History &#124; Official Charts Company|website=[[Official Charts Company|Official Charts]] }}</ref>

Other British examples include ''[[Airline (1998 TV series)|Airline]]'', ''[[Dynamo: Magician Impossible]] and Channel 4's '' ''[[Educating...]]'' series, while in the United States popular examples include ''[[American Factory]], [[Cops (TV series)|Cops]]'', ''[[Deadliest Catch]]'', ''[[Big Brother (TV series)|Big Brother]]'' and ''[[Weiner (film)|Weiner]]'', a film about a political sex scandal which developed during a mayoral election in New York.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jun/30/anthony-weiner-sexting-scandal-new-york-documentary|title=Weiner – how a film about a political sex scandal suddenly got more intimate &#124; Weiner &#124; The Guardian|newspaper=The Guardian |date=30 June 2016 |last1=Barnes |first1=Henry }}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Cinéma vérité]]
* [[Direct cinema]]
* [[Reality television]]
* [[Television documentary]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fly On The Wall}}
[[Category:Documentary film styles]]


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