Colloquial
Representing familiar things in a way that is accurate or true to life.
“Looks realistic” - Video games/CGI - Uncanny valley and near impossible dialogue
“Characters act like real people” - A Quintin Tarantino film has specific, purposeful dialogue, whereas people in real life stutter, miscommunicate and repeat themselves
“realism as a story” - Life does not fit into a neat 3 act structure
“Historical and geographical accuracy” - Often boring and would need to be sensationalized.
”Like real people” Often characters are under extreme stress, in unrealistic situations that do not reflect the average person.
Should we try to make things realistic: there is an issue with universalization of a ‘reality,’ due to qualia, thus attempts at such a universally true art is nearly impossible. Often attempts at realism have baked in prejudices.
Disconnect with Media representation and ‘realistic’ - CSI Effect, legitimizes racism, sexism etc. Alloy outrage on Twitter. Black ariel. Black people in historical media.
Grittiness in media feels reel because “The universe in which we live is somehow a universe of dead conventions and artificiality so the only authentic real experience must be some extremely violent, shattering experience.” Slavoj Žižek = a response to safe media (often child media), 9/11, War, Housing Crisis - Built on a specific view of masculinity; sanitizes the military (superhero movies, Top Gun, cop shows, clean justified war) This is the American monomyth
Academic
Plausibility
Could it happen Mirroring the experience of living in the world as we as individuals experience it. Verisimilitude
Typicality
Could it happen to me Mirroring the experience of living in the world as we as individuals experience it.
Factuality
Did it happen Mirroring the visual, scientific, and historical realities of the world
Involvement
How emotionally connected is the audience
Narrative consistency
The narratives their own rules This allows for sci-fi media to be realistic Narrative shield Audience story contract
Perceptual pervasiveness
Good graphics Mirroring the visual, scientific, and historical realities of the world
Experimentation
Immersion I don’t play to feel like I’m playing a racing game, I am playing to feel like im driving Dress-up games
The goal is to be emotionally evocative = an idealized version of reality
= mirroring experience, mirroring reality, emotionally evocative, idealized version of reality, audience story contract, dress-up.
Emotionally accurate
The fear of sincerity - Marvel