Catfish

Direct address to the camera

The movie Catfish is an American documentary that follows a man named Nev, who is filmed by his brother and friend, co-directors Ariel and Henry, as they document the development of a relationship Nev has with a woman he meets online. The film is almost exclusively shot from the lens of a handheld camera and claims to be genuinely authentic in its entirety. This foundation of the elements used in Catfish provide the movie with many pillars of aesthetic realism to be observed. Such as the normal everyday situations and conversations that are included in the movie claim to be real people, having real conversations, in real life situations all from the point of view of a handheld camera which are then edited and created into a movie, but the shots themselves are at least claimed by the directors to be real footage and nothing was staged by the actors.

Handheld Camera

Probably the most obvious aspect the documentary’s realistic appeal is that the movie is mostly shot from a person operating a handheld camera. In today’s society many people are very familiar with recording situations that happen in front of them with some sort of handheld camera like the one used in the film or perhaps a smartphone for example. As opposed to the films shot with standard cameras you typically expect to see when you watch a movie, this style of filming helps the audience relate more to the situation because it’s something similar to real life experiences for most people. Aspects such as a shaky camera, blurred quality of the picture, the movement and angles of the shots, and putting a person and voice behind the camera are all things normal people can and have done themselves.

Although this style of filming does raise some questions, considering that this is in fact reality just being filmed. Even though the characters in the film are used to operating cameras and being recorded, some of the situations within the movie become quite tense and the fact...